Network Rail (NR) has announced its preferred route for a London to Scotland high-speed rail (HSR) line which would cost £34 billion.
Opting for a westerly route for the line, NR's ambitious plan envisages 200mph trains cutting the London-Scotland journey times to a little over two hours.
There would also be significant journey time reductions to other destinations on the line which would run from central London, via Birmingham, Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool and Preston to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
However, planning the line and building it will take at least 10 years, NR will not be involved in building it and the whole scheme will need approval from the Government which has already set up its own HSR study.
Also, NR said that creating a new HSR station in central London would be a major challenge and that passengers using the line might have to pay a 30% fare premium.
NR chief executive Iain Coucher said HSR could "transform Britain" and it was vital to start planning for it now.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said the Government's HSR study group - High Speed 2 - would take full account of the NR report and submit its own proposals for a high-speed line to the Government by the end of this year.
Train companies, passenger groups and politicians north and south of the border all welcomed the NR plans and called for the money be found for HSR. NR's report outlined plans for 54 ten-carriage and 20 five-carriage trains running north from London.
Birmingham could be reached from London in just 46 minutes, with London-Manchester times coming down to one hour six minutes and London-Warrington also 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.
