THE Government is continuing to consider “all options” for a planned fast rail link across the North, a transport minister has said amid reports the project could be ditched.

Reassurances have been sought at Westminster over the future of the £43 billion Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme, also known as HS3, aimed at connecting cities in the region on an east-west route.

It formed a key part of Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda aimed at spreading prosperity in the North and shoring up support in the party’s “Red Wall” streets.

However, there are concerns the plans could be under threat with funds being taken up by the controversial HS2 project, which has seen costs spiral.

The original NPR proposal was for a new link from Manchester to Leeds, via Bradford, which would eventually extend to Newcastle and Hull.

But this is now reported to be in doubt with instead a series of rail upgrades worth around £10 billion, including the electrification of the transpennine line between Manchester and Leeds.

Downing Street has said it is committed to building a new rail link between both cities.

Raising the issue with the Government during a question in Parliament, Tory peer Lord Moylan, who served as an adviser to Boris Johnson when he was London mayor, said: “Will the minister take this opportunity to rebut the current rumours that Northern Powerhouse Rail is going to be scrapped?”

Responding, Tory frontbencher Baroness Vere of Norbiton said he “should not read too much into media reports” and added: “The Government continue to consider all options for Northern Powerhouse Rail as part of the integrated rail plan.

“Once that plan is published, we will work with Transport for the North to finalise a business case for Northern Powerhouse Rail.”

Labour peer Lord Berkeley asked: “Can the minister explain why there are plans to remove funding from Northern Powerhouse Rail and give it to the bottomless pit of HS2?”

But Lady Vere insisted that “there are no such plans”.

Meanwhile, Conservative former minister Lord Herbert of South Downs moved to defend the high-speed rail link, which has been blamed for contributing towards the last week’s shock by-election defeat for the Tories in Chesham and Amersham.

Arguing it was “time to slay the urban myth that HS2 will not significantly cut travel times”, the Tory peer said: “The London to Birmingham travel time will be reduced by a third, or 30 minutes; the London to Manchester time will be halved to only around an hour.

“In Japan, growth is much more evenly distributed between the cities because of the Shinkansens (bullet trains).

“They are not content with existing speeds, but are building new lines. Is that not the global standard to which we need to aspire?”

Lady Vere said: “He is quite right but HS2 is not just about speed, as I so often need to say.

“It is about bringing our regions closer together and delivering the capacity that our transport network absolutely needs.

“HS2 will give us a step change in capacity, while almost halving the time it takes to travel between our largest cities. If we were to do that by refreshing our existing railways, it would cause decades of inconvenience and disruption to passengers.”