BILLIONS of pounds earmarked for the HS2 high-speed rail project will be better spent on faster routes across the North, peers suggest today.

The flagship scheme - to link London and Yorkshire - may not be needed to ease overcrowding and will fail to narrow the North-South divide, their highly-critical report has concluded.

The Bill to build the £50bn line should be halted unless ministers can make “a convincing case” for HS2, the Lords economic affairs select committee said.

And it urged the Government to explore diverting the money to transforming notoriously slow trans-Pennine routes, which has not been “thoroughly investigated”.

Lord Hollick, the committee’s chairman, said: “The evidence we have received suggest that is likely to have a much greater beneficial impact on growth in the North.”

And Lord Lawson, the former Tory Chancellor, told The Northern Echo: “Both this Government and the last have been captivated by prestigious schemes - by Grands Projets as they are called in France - and not enough detailed work was done.”

The scathing conclusions come despite all three major parties backing the legislation to build and operate the first phase of the line, between London and Birmingham, by 2026.

A ‘Y-shaped’ network will deliver extra lines to Leeds and Manchester, but not until 2033, after calls to start work from the North - as well as from London – were rebuffed.

Through trains will then cut the Darlington to London journey time to 1hr 51mins, say HS2 supporters – 32 minutes quicker than at present.

Durham City will be “less than two hours from Birmingham” and the Tees Valley could enjoy new direct rail links to London, by freeing up space on existing lines.

Last week’s Transport for the North report proposed a rail “revolution”, including 140mph trains on some trans-Pennine lines, but would cost tens of billions.

A faster Newcastle to Leeds route - taking just 50 minutes, instead of the current 87 minutes – would cost between £8.5bn and £14bn, for example.

Today’s report warns that:

* Capacity problems may have been exaggerated – with existing long-distance trains overcrowded only on some routes on Friday evenings and at weekends.

* A cost-benefit analysis - the ratio of money spent to benefit gained - relied on “out-of-date and unconvincing” evidence, some dating back to 1994.

* London, rather than Northern towns and cities, will gain the biggest economic boost from 225mph trains.

Lord Hollick argued the Bill could still be halted next year, saying: “There is time aplenty to look again at this and to look at alternatives.”

But a DfT spokesman said: “The case for HS2 is crystal clear. It will have a transformational effect, supporting growth in the North by improving connectivity.”