Hi-speed rail link plans announced today
12:01pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in News
PLANS for a high-speed rail network have been announced in the House of Lords today.
Transport secretary Lord Adonis plans a London to Birmingham route with a V-shaped network that will run through Manchester to Glasgow on the west side of the UK, and Leeds and Edinburgh on the east side.
The network will be capable of carrying trains travelling at 250mph and it could triple capacity.
Journey times from London to the west Midlands would be reduced to between 30 and 50 minutes depending on the stations used.
Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield would be brought within 75 minutes of London, down from around two hours now.
Adonis said construction would not begin until after Crossrail was completed in 2017.
It is estimated the scheme would cost between £15.8bn and £17.4bn for first 120 miles of network from London to West Midlands.
Total cost for the whole network would be £30bn. Adonis says there would be £2 of benefit for every £1 spent.
He says it would "sustainable" because there is less carbon per passenger compared to air travel."
Source: The Guardian
