Iain Coucher is proposing three new lines operating at up to 200mph: from London to Glasgow via Birmingham and Manchester; London to Edinburgh via Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne; and London to Cardiff via Bristol (link below.)
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3247811.eceHe will commission a detailed study soon into possible routes for a network that is likely to cost more than ^50 billion to complete. Network Rail has decided to take a lead after becoming frustrated by the Department for Transport^s lack of progress on the issue of high-speed rail.
In an interview with The Times, he said that High Speed 1, the 186mph (300km/h) line that opened in November between London St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel, should be viewed as the first part of a new network carrying faster intercity express trains.
He added:
^Not just High Speed 2, but High Speed 3, maybe even High Speed 4 ^ that^s where we need to be by 2020. There is demand building up today. We^ll now sit down, working with the train-operating companies, to come up with ideas about where we think it should go and what it should look like.
^We will need something up the West Coast by 2015, 2020 time. That^s why we think it^s better to think about how we^re doing it now, so that we have time to build it properly and we^re not trying to rush it out under impossible timescales.
^We need to find a way of delivering this cost effectively to minimise the draw on the public purse.^
Mr Coucher said that the new network, which would have stops about 100 miles apart, would release capacity on existing lines for more frequent local services and freight trains.
Quote from Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of Passenger Focus :
^If they can^t finish works at Rugby on time over Christmas, what chance have they of building a high-speed line?
^Talking about a network of new lines in today^s conditions takes a vision and level of assumption about the planning system which could only be described as heroic.^
