It's funny - "high speed" rail is almost unquestionably A Good Thing on here (even though presumably the same arguments against HS2 also apply here - peak passenger numbers, we'll all be working from home, it's wrong to focus all investment on just the biggest places yada yada)...
...but (like Brexit), once you start getting into the specifics, it becomes impossible to keep everyone happy - if you want "high speed" between Manchester and Leeds then you probably don't want more than one intermediate stop, but you'll get complaints from the places it doesn't stop - Bradford has a good case on paper but would be some way from a straight line in between the two big cities and has some "problematic" geographical issues to negotiate (how do you deal with the Beck, do you take the expensive option of tunnelling directly to Leeds or take the longer and slower dog-leg via Shipley?).
Huddersfield is more "half way" in between Manchester and Leeds and in more of a straight line - but it already has a fast service. Wakefield seems a bit of a diversion but if you're considering running via Bradford then why not at least consider Wakefield?
The "Calder Valley" seems a no-no (in the oft-quoted definition of the Calder Valley - i.e. Halifax and the lines - obviously Wakefield is on the Calder).
Whilst you can argue that Liverpool/ Manchester Airport/ Hull/ York/ Newcastle all benefit from a fast Manchester - Leeds line (since any cross-pennine travel between those places would save *some* time), Sheffield is the loser - we've already lost a fast service from London to the Sheffield City Region (due to Meadowhall being taken off the map) and now face losing our HS2 service to/from central Sheffield (if the reports are true of HS2...), and now it looks like our competitiveness in northern England will be even worse (if everyone else benefits but us). Still, we're getting a two coach 195 from Sheffield to Leeds getting introduced soon, so yay for us...)
We're at that good stage though, where it sounds like a positive promise, until you start letting people down by finding out that they aren't at the top table like Manchester and Leeds are)
I'm tempted to say this is a sweetener to prepare us for bad news about HS2. I think Phase 2b will be abandoned and HS3 will be its replacement. That would a disaster for Yorkshire and the North East
I agree (Sadly)