Geographically York sits at the heart of the body that is the UK, connected by a vast infrastructure that allows access to local, national and international markets.

London can be reached by road in around 3.5 hours, by rail in 1.5 hours, and by air from the region’s airport just a 45 minute drive away.

On the tracks York is midway between London and Edinburgh, sitting on the East Coast Mainline with a busy station welcoming more than 600 million passengers every year.

York is synonymous with railway heritage, is home to the National Railway Museum, and is famed through pioneers such as George Hudson, whose work resulted in the first train travelling from York to London in 1840.

Now York is set to be part of the next major rail development, HS2.

A spur of the proposed high speed route will run from Leeds, past Barkston Ash and Church Fenton, to connect up with the existing East Coast main line at Ulleskelf.

The link will reduce the York to London journey time to as little as one hour, 23 minutes, for trains using the high-speed line, while the York to Birmingham journey will be reduced from 130 minutes to 63 minutes.

It will also release capacity on the East Coast Main Line, which itself will be upgraded with £240 million to be spent by Network Rail on addressing key bottlenecks on the East Coast Main Line to improve both capacity and journey times.

British Rail Engineering, one of the city’s five major manufacturing employers, closed its carriage works in the mid-1990s, and further jobs have been lost to automated processes.

The scale of rail employment previously seen in York - at its height in the 1880s, the sector employed about 5,500 people – has been and gone.

But its legacy and the city’s reputation in the field and prime location continue to make it a key base for the rail industry.

It is home to operators Grand Central and East Coast, which under current Government plans is scheduled to go into private ownership, as well as a number of engineering companies that plan to increase recruitment as investment works get going.

Transport links within the city are set for improvement after a £50 million bid for funding was made by councils across North Yorkshire which could lead to sections of the A64 being widened or dualled.

North Yorkshire County Council and district authorities in Ryedale and Scarborough worked as a consortium with City of York Council and the Highways Agency to apply to the Government’s Local Growth Fund for the money, which would be paid over six years.

If it succeeds, it would be used to pay for improvements to the A64, such as widening or dualling some stretches of the road, and cut congestion. Hopgrove roundabout and other junctions on the east of York could also be in line for upgrades and better safety measures.

All schemes which receive funding will have to be completed by 2021, with the consortium saying further improvements - such as village bypasses between Malton and Scarborough - could be included in later bids.

The A64 funding application has been included in the draft Strategic Economic Plan for York, North and East Yorkshire. The councils expect to find out whether they have succeeded in July, but are competing against rival bids from across the country.

Work is also continuing this year on the new 600-vehicle Park&Ride site at Poppleton Bar, which is part of the council’s £22 million Access York project, designed to reduce congestion in and around the city.

A larger Park&Ride facility is also being built at Askham Bar alongside other road improvements and bus lanes.

York is within easy reach of Yorkshire’s gateway airport, Leeds Bradford International Airport, which is 45 minutes away by car.

Last year the airport reached a milestone by breaking through the three-million passenger mark.

Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority showed Leeds Bradford Airport reached that level in the 12 months up to June, and also cemented its status as one of the fastest-growing regional airports in the country.

The statistics showed passenger traffic rose 19.6 per cent in May and 12.9 per cent in June compared to the same months in 2012, on the back of Jet2.com – the largest airline based at the airport – widening its destinations to 48, with further expansion to Budapest, Fuerteventura and Reus in Spain and Kos in Greece planned.

Monarch has also launched its sixth UK base at Leeds Bradford, and last April saw the introduction of British Airways services to Heathrow.