Definition: In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
Input: New rail routes and improved lines using 140mph trains to slash key journey times by up to 40 minutes are unveiled today as part of the Chancellor’s multi-billion pound plan to ‘revolutionise travel in the North’. Journey times between Leeds and Newcastle could be cut to 50 minutes - compared to a best time now nearly an hour and half ( 87 minutes currently) for cost of between £8.5bn and £14.0bn, says a new report to be published in Liverpool by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. The 140mph trains could reduce the Liverpool to Manchester journey times to around 20 minutes – but cost as much as £13billion.New rail routes are announced in plan to ‘revolutionise travel in the North’Journey times between Leeds and Newcastle could be cut to 50 minutes140mph trains could reduce Liverpool to Manchester times to 20 minutesThe multi-billion pound plan also includes major upgrades on current lines 
 Question:But sceptical rail unions dismissed the Government’ ideas to boost transport in the _ as: ‘yet more pie-in-the-sky nonsense’.

North