By bizn_fun 
The government has not announced a firm budget or committed specific funds beyond 2029, apart from the £1.1bn to develop the plans.
Instead, a cap of £45bn has been set on central funding. The government said this could be topped up by contributions from local government.
“For too long, the North has been held back by underinvestment and years of dither and delay,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.
“This new era of investment will not just speed up journeys, it will mean new jobs and homes for people, making a real difference to millions of lives.”
The DfT said lessons had been learned from attempts over the last decade to build the HS2 network, which is severely over budget, behind schedule and has been scaled back dramatically from its original concept.
It was originally supposed to be a Y-shaped line from London and splitting at Birmingham towards Manchester and Leeds.
It will now terminate at Birmingham, and is expected to cost at least £80bn, external.
The government also said that following NPR’s completion it intended to build a new rail link between Birmingham and Manchester, but it is unclear whether it would be a high-speed line.
The government is aiming to avoid a repeat of the HS2 cost over-runs by producing a detailed plan over a three-year period. That also allows it to delay allocating further funding while the public finances are under pressure.
The Conservatives accused the government of “watering down” Northern Powerhouse Rail, saying ministers had “put back any plans to actually deliver it and rewritten timetables on the fly”.
Shadow rail minister Jerome Mayhew said: “Labour lurch from review to review, deadline to deadline, with no grip on costs, no clarity on scope and no courage to make decisions.
“Northern Powerhouse Rail could have been transformational, empowering regional growth and regeneration. Under Labour it risks becoming a permanent mirage that is endlessly redesigned, downgraded and never delivered.”