The Tories were urged to “get on” with HS2 today as Labour promised the railway would be built in full under Keir Starmer.
Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh launched a furious attack on repeated claims the project will be further scaled back or delayed.
She said flip-flopping over the £106billion project - originally due to run from London to Manchester and Leeds via Birmingham - was unleashing fresh uncertainty across the North.
“Every week a new story is briefed about ministers getting cold feet and plans to slash it further still,” she told the Transport for the North conference in Newcastle.
“As anyone who has delivered major projects will tell you, short-sighted decisions and delays only add cost in the long-run, limit the business case and curtail the ambition of the North.
“I say to government ministers, ‘Get on with it, stop wasting taxpayers’ money and deliver what the North has been promised - and if you can’t or won’t, Labour will’.”
Ms Haigh confirmed Labour would build the 225mph line in full, including the eastern leg to Leeds.
The Conservatives initially pledged to spur would go ahead. But it was ditched as Rishi Sunak desperately tried to cut costs.
She also renewed a pledge to give the go ahead to the Northern Powerhouse Rail high speed scheme - also called HS3 - linking Newcastle, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool and Manchester Airport.
“For Labour, investment in transport is fundamental to tackling the twin challenges the next government will seek to address - delivering the highest sustained growth in the G7, driven by good jobs and stronger productivity in every part of the country and accelerating towards net-zero.”
She added: “We know the North has huge ambition waiting to be unleashed.”
Backing renationalisation of the railways, the Labour frontbencher hit out at the “shocking state” of Britain’s public transport system and the “daily fiasco” of commuting on some routes.
“We know the current situation is unacceptable for too many people across the North, limiting our ambition and making us less than the sum of our parts,” said the Sheffield Heeley MP.
“We know that our second-rate infrastructure is costing us dear in lost jobs and economic growth.”
North Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll told the conference: “It’s a sad fact that our region had more rail routes in 1857 than we have today.
“Our trains are unreliable, our buses fragmented, our cities choked with traffic, our transport system in chaos - and it’s costing us a fortune.”
Transport for the North’s chief executive Martin Tugwell told guests to “be in no doubt that the gap between the North and the South remains”.
He warned: “We have £100billion extra in GVA (gross value added) if we can unlock the potential of the North, its residents and its businesses - and that means investment.”
