[4] The aim is to transform rail services between the major towns and cities, requiring the region's single biggest transport investment since the Industrial Revolution.

[5][6][7][8] The original scheme would have seen a new high-speed rail line from Liverpool to Warrington continuing to join the HS2 tunnel which it would share into Manchester Piccadilly station.

In July 2022, the House of Commons Transport Committee expressed concern that the evidence base for the IRP was insufficient and made a number of specific comments.

NPR forms part of High Speed North, the overarching proposal that includes improvements to both roads and rail.

Present-day rail connections between cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are slow compared to commuter journeys across Greater London.

The first high-speed railway line to be built in Britain was High Speed 1 (HS1), the route connecting London to the Channel Tunnel, which opened 2003–2007.

[27] The southern phase of a second high-speed line named High Speed 2 (HS2) is currently being constructed and is scheduled to come into service in the late 2020s.

Historically, the use of the term High Speed 3 has been loose—the House of Lords' Economic Affairs Committee (March 2015) stated that there was no firm definition of the route implied by HS3: Improvements to east-west links in the north of England have often been referred to as "HS3".

[39][40] On 20 March 2015, the Department of Transport published plans for transport infrastructure improvements in the north of England, including proposals by the TfN working group;[41][42] the TransNorth report proposed a number of options for improved rail links between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Hull with line speeds up to 140 miles per hour (230 km/h).

[45][46] The NIC's report, High Speed North stated that "It takes longer to get from Liverpool to Hull by train than to travel twice the distance from London to Paris".

[47] The Report suggested the development of a HS3 link after the completion of Network Rail's £2bn trans-Pennine electrification upgrade (scheduled to take place between 2015 and 2022, leading to 40-minute journey times).

[49] A preliminary study by Network Rail did not rule out that the aspirational Leeds–Manchester journey time of 30 minutes could be achieved on the Calder Valley route.

[50] TfN's aspirational Manchester–Manchester Airport and Leeds–Sheffield journey times were identified as being achievable by the HS2 scheme, with modifications to through running to Sheffield city centre.

[51] At the 2016 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, endorsed the general proposals by the National Infrastructure Commission for a high speed line between only Manchester and Leeds, with an aim of reducing journey times to 30 minutes between the two destinations.

[55] In August 2017, the former chancellor, George Osborne called for the Government to commit to NPR following backing of Crossrail 2 and scrapping of electrification schemes in July 2017.

[61][62][63] It included NPR with proposals for The outcome of the consultation on the draft Strategic Transport Plan should be an Outline Business Case, that was to have been submitted by the end of 2018.

[70] In March 2019, it was announced a new commission had been established to plan a new £6bn city centre station in Liverpool to accommodate HS2 and NPR services.

As a result of the classification, Wales would not receive a Barnett consequential of funding, estimated to be £1 billion, unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Plaid Cymru described the decision as a push of "blatant lies", that the project "harms the Welsh economy" and that rail infrastructure should be devolved to Wales.

It contained the proviso that: In line with the Government's existing approach to rail enhancements, commitments will be made only to progress individual schemes up to the next stage of development, subject to a review of their readiness.

[81] The benefits of this plan compared to the previous proposals are stated as being that it would: This announcement met with anger and disappointment from the Board of Transport for the North.