Proposals for a £200m rail upgrade linking Merseyside with North Wales through a new super-hub at Chester are set to be outlined next week.
The investment would include £80m to connect Liverpool to Wrexham including £20m for a new station at Shotton in Flintshire, £60m to modernise and upgrade Chester Station and another £60m to speed up the North Wales main line to Holyhead.
The proposals will be presented at Regional Recovery 2021, an online conference due to be held on Wednesday February 24.
Leading the bid will be Cllr Louise Gittins, leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council and chair of Growth Track 360, the campaign group launched by a cross-border alliance of business and political leaders.
Taking part will be UK Government ministers Paul Scully MP from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, David Davies MP from the Wales Office and Welsh Government economics minister Ken Skates.
Cllr Gittins said: "Growth Track 360 is pursuing a two-track strategy, firstly by seeking investment in the region of the Mersey-Dee cross-border area and North Wales and secondly seeking to influence major strategic UK rail investments like HS2.
"We want a transformation of the Wrexham line to Bidston on the Wirral into a Liverpool to Wrexham service that runs services similar to the MerseyRail network and forms the basis of a cross border metro system based on rail
hubs with connecting bus services and travel corridors.
"These local investments will enable better, economy-boosting connectivity from Liverpool to North Wales and Cheshire and to the big UK rail investments in HS2 at Crewe to London and the Midlands, Northern Powerhouse
Rail at Warrington to Manchester, Leeds and the Northern Cities and access to Manchester and its international airport."
The proposals are seeking an initial £20m to get the ball rolling with a 20-year plan aimed at securing £1bn of rail improvements, which could the North West, North Wales and Cheshire economy and deliver 70,000 new jobs
Cllr Mark Pritchard, chair of the MDA and Wrexham Council leader, added: "Investment in the Mersey Dee Alliance geography is critical to enable a post-Covid economic recovery and meet the challenge of Brexit for the regional economy.
"We are looking for a substantial sum to counter the impact of Covid on employers like Airbus and its supply chain.
"Our area needs to develop new markets as 80% of exports made in the MDA area go to the EU.
"The economy has to adapt to climate change and eradicate carbon emissions from day to day operations including transport.
"This is a big agenda and we are starting with a transport infrastructure that has been held back by cross-border complexity where too many governmental cooks have spoilt the broth."
