Minister silent on when high-speed rail line will reach Scotland

UK TRANSPORT minister Norman Baker yesterday refused to say when the planned new high-speed rail line would reach Scotland, despite setting dates for two stages in England.

Business groups and councils who lobbied him at a consultation meeting in Glasgow feared Scotland will be disadvantaged when the 225-250mph line links London with the West Midlands in 2026 and Manchester and Leeds in 2032-33. They said the 32 billion project would cut journey times between those cities far more than to Scotland. Mr Baker called on the SNP Scottish Government to "identify in more detail where it wants to go with the line".

However, Transport Scotland insisted new cross-Border railways were the responsibility of the UK government and it was "deeply disappointed" that Scotland had been excluded from the first stage of the plans.