Revolutionised Rail Travel  

Gisela Stuart welcomes today’s announcement by Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis on the proposals to revolutionise Britain’s rail network by delivering a high speed rail network linking London to Birmingham, Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, with trains running at up to 250 miles per hour. The development of a 335 mile ‘Y’-shaped network would bring the West Midlands within about half an hour of London, and deliver journey times of 75 minutes or less from Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester to the capital. Connections onto existing tracks would be included, allowing direct high speed train services to be operated to cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool as soon as the line opens. This would bring Scotland within 3 ½ hours of London. Further consideration will also be given to extending the network subsequently to these and other...