A GOVERNMENT scheme to boost northern rail connections risks repeating the same mistakes as the HS2 project, MPs warned today.

The Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said there is a “clear risk” the northern rail plans cannot be delivered within their £45 billion budget cap.

Committee members compared the development of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) to the “lack of robust governance” seen in the early stages of HS2.

The PAC said it was not confident the Department for Transport (DfT) “learned all the lessons from past failures” and noted that NPR “remains at an early stage despite more than 12 years of planning.”

First proposed in 2014, the plans originally consisted of a new line between Liverpool and Hull.

The government announced in January that the project would be delivered in three stages and would see its funding capped at £45bn, allowing for additional contributions from local authorities.

Its first phase sets out to improve connections on existing lines between Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds and York, and between Leeds and Bradford.

In a report, MPs noted “considerable uncertainty over the scope” of the programme, and how it fits with other “local and national transport plans and needs.”

They pointed to a lack of clarity surrounding the management and delivery of the rail improvements “in practice.”

MPs also said they were concerned the project would fail to “avoid expensive measures” seen in HS2, such as the “costly” £100 million bat protection tunnel in Buckinghamshire.

The Department for Transport said NPR “will not repeat the mistakes of HS2” and that it was taking a “disciplined, phased approach, completing detailed technical work with all stakeholders before fixing precise choices for major infrastructure.”