THE Government's North-South divide on transport spending has been branded a "national scandal", after the future of a key trans-Pennine rail upgrade was plunged into doubt.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has said electrifying the whole of the Transpennine route from Leeds to Manchester via Huddersfield, as planned, could be too difficult.

He said instead they could electrify only parts of the route, and use ‘bi-modal’ trains which run on both electric and standard tracks.

His comments came just days after he scrapped three other electrification projects in the North-West, Midlands and Wales, in favour of these bi-modal trains.

But he did give his renewed backing to the multi-billion-pound Crossrail 2 project for London.

Luke Raikes, of think-tank IPPR North, said the capital was the Government's default option for more funding.

He said that if the North had received the same investment as London over the past decade, it would have got an extra £59 billion.

"This is a national scandal," he said.

Councillor Keith Wakefield, chairman of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s transport committee, said Mr Grayling’s comments were “very disappointing”.

He said: “If the Secretary of State is warming us up for bad news, this makes a mockery of the Government’s ambitions to rebalance the economy of the country and once again Government seem to be going short-sighted in the North.

“We urge the Government not to go back on its promises to electrify this route and to improve rail services for business, workers and residents from the Leeds City Region.”

There are also new fears that Mr Grayling’s scrapping of electrification programmes will not bode well for any prospects of electrifying the Calder Valley route through Bradford and Halifax, which had already been paused in 2015.

James Vasey, of the Bradford Rail Users’ Group, said: “I’m getting more and more worried about it.”

He said there was no guarantee Bradford would be on the planned high-speed Northern Powerhouse Rail line - which would be electric.

He said if the electrification of the Calder Valley line was scrapped too, it would leave Bradford “a diesel backwater”.

Mr Vasey said the real problem stemmed from Network Rail’s hugely over-budget electrification of the Great Western line from London to Bristol, after a key piece of machinery used on the upgrades was found not to work as quickly as expected.

Earlier this year, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found £330m had been wasted on the project.

Mr Vasey said: “It’s not a Government cut, it’s the Government saying, ‘We’re not throwing good money after bad’.”

But he said bi-modal trains were a poor option as they still had many of the drawbacks of diesel trains.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, who leads on transport at Bradford Council, said the electrification of the Calder Valley line would provide huge economic benefits.

He said: “ It concerns us that, with this decision, the Government is starting to row back on the commitment to the Northern Powerhouse where transport plays such an important role.”

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said they were committed to improving trans-Pennine rail services.

He said: “Building transport infrastructure has the potential to drive economic growth, create jobs and spread wealth across the country. That’s why we’re spending £55.7bn on HS2, which will better connect West Yorkshire to the Midlands and London. It’s also why we’re committed to improving trans-Pennine services, and are working with Transport for the North to cut journey times and increase capacity between the major cities of the north.

“We are currently investing over £1 billion to improve rail infrastructure across the North of England, and major upgrades to the line connecting West Yorkshire to Manchester and York are being designed and developed.”