High-speed national rail network to reach Scotland - eventually

Published on Thursday 11 March 2010 13:01

A £30 BILLION high-speed rail that would enable journeys from Scotland to London in under four hours was announced by Lord Adonis today.

• A concept image of how a new high-speed rail line might look

The Transport Secretary told peers work on the first stage of a national network would not begin until 2017, linking London and Birmingham with a line capable of carrying trains reaching 250mph.

Future plans would create a y-shaped, 335-mile network stretching north from Birmingham to population centres either side of the Pennines and in Scotland.

The strategy would create an "initial core high-speed network" linking London to Birmingham, Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds with high speed trains running from the outset to Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

"The journey time from London to the West Midlands would be reduced to between 30 and 50 minutes, depending on the stations used, with Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield all brought to within 75 minutes of London – down from almost two hours 10 minutes now – and through services from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London down to just three and a half hours," he said.

In a statement to the House of Lords, the Transport Secretary said: "High speed rail is a policy of huge strategic significance for the country.

"The time has come to create a credible plan, and for this to be a national cause."

Detailing the route proposed by the High Speed Two (HS2) firm set up to examine the case for a new network, Lord Adonis said the London terminus would be Euston.

From there the line would travel in a tunnel across London to the Crossrail Interchange west of Paddington.

"It would leave London via the Ruislip area, making use of an existing rail corridor.

"It would then pass by Amersham in tunnel towards Aylesbury before following the route of the A413 past Wendover."

The line would continue north, with an interchange near Birmingham Airport before reaching Birmingham's Curzon Street station.

Lord Adonis said the project would create 10,000 jobs and yield 2 in benefits for every 1 spent.

The first 120 miles between London and the West Midlands would cost between 15.8 and 17.4 billion.

"The cost per mile beyond Birmingham is then estimated to halve, taking the overall cost of the 335 mile Y-shaped network to about 30 billion.

"This cost would be phased over more than a decade after the start of construction, which would not be until after the completion of Crossrail in 2017," he said.

He said the plans were needed to boost capacity on the rail network and as a more environmentally-friendly way of improving transport links.

But Lord Adonis acknowledged the problems faced by such a massive project, accepting the need for "extensive and detailed consultation" taking "significant time".

However, he insisted the plan was vital for Britain's future economic prospects.

"Now, as we emerge from recession, is the right time to be planning.

"The Government's view is that high speed rail could play a crucial role not only in meeting reasonable future transport capacity requirements but also in transforming the connectivity between our major cities, regions and economic centres."

The line could boost the regional economies and "overcome the historic north-south divide".

Tory spokeswoman Baroness Hanham said her party had long been convinced of the need for a high-speed network.