RAIL journeys between Manchester and Leeds could be slashed to 25 minutes under plans for a `Crossrail of the North'.

High-speed tracks through the Pennines would cut the journey by more than half as the first step of a national network.

Senior Transport Department figures are understood to support the plan - if they get Treasury backing.

The new track would be able to carry trains travelling at up to 200mph and could be ready in just over a decade.

The proposal comes as northern MPs are increasingly frustrated at regional inequalities in transport spending - the £6bn Crossrail scheme to link west and east London has caused particular friction.

The region's MPs are understood to have met Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to lobby for more cash and the plan is likely to be raised in Parliament by Manchester Blackley MP Graham Stringer on Monday night. 

He said: "An increasing amount of money is going into the rail system in the south east. Now is the time for a new age in our railways.

"Rather than just put a sticking plaster on the system, we can transform the economies of the regions by investing in high-speed rail.

Potential

"The sensible place to start is to have a Crossrail of the North between Manchester and Leeds.

"It would have a huge economic impact on the whole of the north, which in turn would allow the entire country to reach its economic potential."

Pressure is growing on the government to announce some landmark schemes, with barely more than a year before a general election.

The Conservatives have already said they would scrap the third runway at Heathrow in favour of a new high-speed rail network - and the Liberal Democrats have also signalled their backing.

Backbench Labour MPs have told ministers that those pledges have proved popular in northern constituencies.

The Northern Way, the coalition of major northern cities, calculated in 2007 that high-speed rail could be worth £10bn a year to the economy.

Transport spokesman Professor David Begg claimed a new trans-Pennine link would `create a new economic geography' by linking the two economic powerhouses of the north.