Exclusive:Completed £11.5bn TransPennine Route Upgrade 'will give North a rail network to rival Elizabeth line'

In the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the funding for the TRU, the biggest engineering project outside of HS2.

Unlike the controversial high-speed line between London and Birmingham, reportedly costing £66bn, this is both on time and on budget, due to be completed in 2033.

It will increase capacity - allowing eight more trains to run each hour – improve reliability, and also cut journey times.

People will be able to travel between York and Manchester in 41 minutes and from Leeds to Manchester in 33 minutes.

Currently journey times are extended and some sections of the line require rail replacement buses, but TransPennine Express managing director Chris Jackson said: “I believe the short-term pain will be worth it for the long-term gain.

“We will have a railway system in the North, I’m convinced of it, that will rival or better that which you see in Crossrail, and that’s pretty exciting.”

Crossrail was the project to build the £18bn Elizabeth line connecting West and East London, and is longer than the distance from Manchester to Leeds.

Writing in The Yorkshire Post today, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said it will be “transformational” for the cities of York and Leeds, as well as people across Yorkshire.

Ms Alexander explained: Despite being geographically close, poor connectivity has seemingly pushed Northern towns and cities further apart.

“It’s left a region unable to pool its vast resources and talent; a region that’s needlessly less productive than the rest of the UK; a region with bags of potential waiting to be unleashed.

“The TRU shows we can chart a new course. That as well as delivering better everyday journeys, we can break down economic barriers that have stifled growth and progress.”

Ms Brabin believes that the project’s skills base - with 8,000 expert engineers now located in the North, can spur on more much-needed infrastructure.

“We have all these engineers in our region, we have all this momentum - let’s use this to continue the programme of works,” she said.

“Some of them may be small - new platforms at Leeds - some of them may be bigger - a new through station at Bradford.

“But let’s keep the engineers in our region, so the programme of work rolls on.”