A HIGH-SPEED North-South rail line should miss out the North-East and Yorkshire, it was said last night.

Network Rail's deputy chief executive, Iain Coucher, said it was difficult to see how a business case could be created for the anticipated £14bn link to include the likes of Newcastle and Leeds.

Instead, he predicted that the biggest demand would be for a route "that swings up past Birmingham, Manchester and onwards to Edinburgh and Glasgow".

Last night, the North-East Chamber of Commerce branded the comments made by Mr Coucher in a speech to the Institute of Civil Engineers as naive and said it would continue to lobby for the region's involvement.

Mr Coucher said: "Can we resist the political pressure to include more stops along the journey... or the pressure to include other major cities - Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle - where there appears to be no real economic business case for them?"

It is expected that at speeds of up to 170mph, London to Scotland journey train times would be cut to two hours, 35 minutes.

But journey times could be cut further by getting speeds up to a maximum of 186mph.

Mr Coucher said Network Rail would not be keen to use innovative magnetic levitation trains already in use in China, which "float" above the tracks.

The Department for Transport has already said a high-speed North-South link could have significant benefits for the North-East.

But it said no decision had been made and that whatever the route, a new high-speed line would be expensive.

A rail White Paper is due out next year that will set out the Government's views.

Business groups in the North-East are campaigning heavily for a link because of the huge economic benefits it could bring.

Rachel Spence, of the North-East Chamber of Commerce, said: "It is very naive of Network Rail or one individual to come out and say at this early stage that a business case cannot be made or to effectively rule out a particular route.

"We, of course, would like to see a high-speed link pass through and stop in the region because of the benefits it will bring.

"We will have to wait and see what the Government White Paper says but, as a chamber, we will be lobbying very hard for this."