The government has unveiled the next phase of the controversial 32bn pound HS2 high-speed rail network.

The preferred route of phase two, which would run northwards from Birmingham, will have five stops at Manchester, Manchester Airport, Toton, Sheffield, and Leeds.

Chancellor George Osborne called HS2 "the engine for growth in the north and the midlands of this country".

However, critics have said his argument is economically unsound and the rail line would be a blight on the countryside.

The Chancellor responded, saying "as a country you have got to make those long-term choices".

"If our predecessors hadn't decided to build the railways in the Victorian times, or the motorways in the middle part of the 20th Century, then we wouldn't have those things today," he said.

"You have got to commit to these projects even though they take many years."

The Department for Transport said that HS2 phase two would almost halve journey times between Birmingham and Manchester, cutting them to 41 minutes.

Travel between London and Manchester would drop from two hours and eight minutes to one hour and eight minutes, it added.

The trains, which can reach 250mph, would cut a trip from Birmingham to Leeds from two hours to 57 minutes, while phase one would cut London-to-Birmingham travel to 49 minutes, from the current one hour and 24 minutes.

Penny Gaines, chairwoman of Stop HS2, said the whole HS2 project was "fundamentally flawed".

"It should be cancelled as soon as possible so that we can concentrate on developing the transport infrastructure that will bring more benefits to more people than a fast train for fat cats," she said.

Business lobby group, the CBI, supported the plans, which it said would boost the economic potential of some of the UK's biggest cities, driving growth and creating jobs across the country.

"This is the same bold, long-term thinking that helped the Victorians build our original network," said the group's Director General John Cridland.

But he added that HS2 could not be built in isolation and the UK needed sustained, additional capital investment in existing road and rail networks to meet increased demand.

"Ministers must work hard to secure real consensus on the route, to avoid the project being hit by years of delays," he said.

Construction on HS2 is scheduled to begin in four years, with the government saying phase one would open to passengers in 2026, and phase two would open by 2032.

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