The government may need to deliberately put people off travelling between Birmingham and Manchester by rail because scrapping HS2’s northern leg is likely to mean trains can take fewer passengers.

New HS2 trains will travel to Manchester on existing tracks but they will have less space than current services, according to a report by the public spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office said the government could need to manage demand by “incentivising people to travel at different times or to not travel by rail”.

The NAO’s report also stated that the previous Conservative government had spent £592m buying up land and property along now-cancelled parts of the route.