Metro Chairman Cllr James Lewis has described the conclusions of a Parliamentary report on high-speed rail as good news for the North.

After a four-month inquiry, to which Metro submitted evidence, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for High Speed Rail has conclude that only High Speed Two (HS2) can create the long-term capacity that Britain's rail network needs.

"This news will be welcomed by the 96% of delegates questioned about HS2 at a recent Leeds City Region business conference who said they believed High-Speed Rail will benefit business in Yorkshire," said Cllr Lewis, responding to the report's findings.

"The report confirms our own findings which are that simply increasing capacity on traditional rail routes is not a long-term viable solution and that despite huge investment, the lines would very quickly be up to capacity as has happened with the West Coast Main Line upgrade.

"In the light of today's report, the Department for Transport and Treasury need to show their commitment to this scheme which as well as generating an estimated £2.3 billion of local business benefits and jobs in Yorkshire, will provide a significant boost to the overall UK economy."

The MPs, representing all three of the main political parties say that only High Speed Two (HS2) can create the long-term capacity that Britain's rail network needs and that alternatives, such as incremental upgrades to the existing network, will not solve the capacity problem.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry received submissions from 60 leading stakeholders both within and outside of the rail industry and there were two inquiry sessions where a panel of MPs took evidence from eleven witnesses.

They report's key conclusions are that:

• the rail network is close to being full. At the current time, we are hitting passenger projections that were predicted in a decades' time;
• growth has continued despite the recession. The railways are seeing substantial growth at over 5% even in the midst of a recession;
• alternatives to HS2 will not meet demand. These alternatives, known as Rail Package 2 or 51m's "Optimised Alternative", are unable to meet peak demand, and would do little to help local services or freight;
• risk of under-providing is greater than over-providing. The risks to under-providing capacity are severe, and are far more serious than the risks of overprovision.

"In the last few weeks there have been increased moves to muddy the waters around HS2. These are crude attempts to detract from the real benefits that HS2 will bring. The findings of our inquiry serve to reiterate that a major injection of capacity, so desperately needed on Britain's railways, is the driving force behind building the project," said Pudsey MP and Co-Chair of the APPG, Stuart Andrew.

"Politicians from all parties, including my own, must rally behind HS2 or face the deterioration of the railway network that built modern Britain, further alienating the prosperous South East from the rest of the country in the process."