Plans for a £34 billion high-speed London to Scotland rail line running through Birmingham were outlined today by Network Rail.

With trains travelling at 200mph, the line would run from central London, via Birmingham, Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool and Preston to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Birmingham could be reached from London in just 46 minutes, with London-Manchester times coming down to one hour six minutes and London-Warrington being reduced to one hour six minutes.

The London-Preston time would be one hour 13 minutes and the line would then head further northwards, splitting to go to Glasgow (two hours 16 minutes) and Edinburgh (two hours nine minutes).

NR said such a scheme would generate almost £55 billion of value, thus paying for itself 1.8 times over. The NR plan does not include a direct link to Heathrow airport in west London, with the company believing that such an increase in costs would outweigh the benefits and revenue.
However the company said a spur to Heathrow could be possible but the company ruled out a connection to Leeds through Manchester.

NR did not give a precise route for the new line but said the line could offer up to 16 trains a hour to and from London and provide 9,100 seats per hour into the capital.

There would be eight new stations with 400 metre-long platforms, more than 1,500 miles of track, 34 miles of tunnels and 32 bridges over motorways.

New city centre terminal stations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh would be located close to existing city centre stations.

NR said today that it would not build the line but that it could possibly be built by the sort of consortium that came together to build the London to Folkestone High Speed One (formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link).

NR envisages that it would take up to five years to sort out the exact alignment of the route and all the planning stages and that construction would take a further five years or more.

Today's announcement from NR does not necessarily mean a high-speed line will be built, but merely outlines NR's preferred option.

NR had already started its study of new-line requirements before the Government set up High Speed Two (HS2) - a company that is looking into a London to Scotland high-speed line via Birmingham and which will make a report to the Department for Transport by the end of this year.

NR said that it was making all its work available to HS2 "to help it move quickly forward with its own very specific brief".

NR chief executive Iain Coucher said: "High-speed rail can transform Britain. It can promote economic growth, regeneration and social inclusion. It is a low carbon option - cutting domestic flights and taking cars and lorries off the road. It will release capacity on the existing rail network and revolutionise passenger journeys.

"Demand for rail travel is growing and our main lines from the north to London are nearly full. By 2020 we will be turning away passengers - that's not what we want.

"We need to start the planning now to meet future demand and the solution is a new high-speed railway to the Midlands, north west England and Scotland. The line has a sound business case that will pay for itself."

NR said its plans today would "help inform the high-speed debate" and that further work would be needed to take the outline proposals and business case to the next stage.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: "As the party that has championed high-speed rail, we welcome NR's report and the research it contains on the massive potential benefits that high-speed rail could deliver.

"Today's announcement provides further evidence that we need to take high-speed rail to the north. Unlike Labour, our high-speed rail ambitions go north of Birmingham and we call on the Government to match our commitment.

"This report also highlights the major potential for air to rail switch that high- speed rail would generate and the importance of linking up Heathrow to the new network, if we are to encourage people to make greener transport choices."

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said: "This report makes a powerful case for high-speed rail in Britain. The potential benefits are considerable in terms of extra rail capacity, faster journey times, carbon reduction and environmental improvements.

"This is why virtually every other developed country in the world is now building high-speed rail lines.

"High Speed 2 will take full account of this work. They will submit a detailed route proposal to the Government by the end of this year for a line from London to the West Midlands, with options to extend the line to Scotland and the north of England."

Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "Predictions are that services from London to the Midlands, north west England and up to Scotland are going to become more crowded in the next 10 years, so getting started on a new line is important.

"Passengers will therefore want the industry and the Government to progress these plans now.

"Passengers will welcome this study as a further step on the long march to actually getting this new line built. Promises of quicker journeys between Britain's city centres will hopefully attract new passengers. This may also free up other lines allowing for additional services."

He went on: "It is crucial that new funding for the high-speed line is found. Passengers won't want to see money taken from other areas of the railway to pay for this ambitious development.

"In the short and medium-term overcrowding continues to be a problem for many passengers squeezed into peak-hour services and we urge the industry and the Government to deliver promised new trains as soon as possible." 

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: "Despite the squeeze on the public finances, Government must continue to rebuild Britain's business infrastructure. This means sustained, long-term investment in rail, air and road projects that cut the costs of congestion, improve productivity, and promote growth.

"Chambers of commerce around the country support high-speed rail (HSR), which would help connect Britain's regional cities with new national and international markets, and boost capacity. But any future HSR network cannot be built at the expense of upgraded road junctions, commuter services, and improved connections to our ports and airports.

"The BCC has long called for a medium-term plan to pare back public spending - once the recession has been contained. As part of that plan, Government should protect essential infrastructure investment, and also make it clear when we can afford both long-overdue transport upgrades and HSR."