Respite for rail commuters - but not for years!

The Manchester to Leeds rail line at Castleton

Details of a £9bn investment in the railways in England and Wales will be announced later by senior ministers and is expected to include electrification of the Manchester to Leeds line that passes through Rochdale and a series of projects around Manchester - The Northern Hub - to improve northern rail capacity and get more and faster trains across the north of England.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is due to meet business leaders with David Cameron, said the plans would help "close the north south divide".

He and the prime minister are expected to brief on the rail plans at their meeting in the Midlands.

Their joint appearance comes after a weekend where Mr Cameron urged the coalition not to descend into "division" and "navel-gazing" following a Tory revolt in the Commons against Lib Dem plans for House of Lords reform.

Ahead of the announcement on railways investment, Mr Clegg said: "It's great for the economy because it creates jobs and it helps close the north south divide.

"It's good for the environment because it produces a cleaner way of getting about and it'll help millions of rail passengers in the future who'll be able to rely on clean, timely and reliable trains."

Any building work on the rail projects would not start until at least 2014, as the announcement covers the period 2014 to 2019.

Fares are already due to go up by 3% more than inflation in January and the same the following year.