The fastest, most frequent train service in the world could run between London and the North within 12 years, according to the chairman of the government-owned company planning the high-speed link. Double-deck trains travelling at 225mph (360km/h) and carrying up to 800 passengers would depart every four minutes, cutting the journey time from London to Birmingham to 30 minutes and from London to Manchester to just over an hour. Passengers may, however, have to travel to the suburbs of London to catch the trains because the terminus could be built up to five miles from the centre to reduce the cost of the line.

Sir David Rowlands, the chairman of High Speed Two, which is preparing detailed plans for a new North-South line, said that the preferred option was for four tracks to double the capacity of the route. No high-speed line anywhere in the world has more than two tracks but Sir David said that Britain needed to plan ahead for continuing rail growth over several decades. In his first interview since being appointed in January, Sir David said: “We are looking at four tracks because two tracks could quickly be filled. It is much cheaper to safeguard the land at the start rather than having to go back in another 20 years and build another two tracks.”

He said that the initial high-speed trunk line from London to the West Midlands would open soon after 2020 and later be extended with branches to the North East and North West, eventually running to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Britain would copy the French strategy of building a high-speed network gradually. A site near Wormwood Scrubs in West London is being considered as a giant rail hub where passengers would switch from the high-speed line to Crossrail, the mainline railway being built under Central London to link tracks to the East and West. The hub, at Old Oak Common rail depot, would also connect with the Heathrow Express and the Great Western Main Line.

Read the full article in The Times.


Geoff Hoon referred to this project when he announced the go-ahead for Heathrow expansion in the Commons in January.  He said, "Our proposals on the hub are much closer to west London, on land already owned by Network Rail, at the junction of the existing Great Western line and the proposed Crossrail line. A Heathrow hub would not necessarily have to be placed close to Heathrow."

All very well, but both he and Sir David Rowlands continue to say that such a facility would not remove the need for airport expansion.

We beg to differ. It would confirm that airport expansion, and Heathrow in particular, is unnecessary.