newcastlecentric

Today’s Journal reports the Government will be asked to support a new high-speed rail link connecting Newcastle with London and Europe.

The £30 billion plan would initially follow the M1 from London and also serve Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow

It would also mean North East passengers could venture direct through the Channel Tunnel to European destinations such as Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt within a matter of hours.

According to the BBC, in the last decade passenger numbers on trains have risen by about 40% with numbers expected to increase by a further 30% in the next decade.

Network Rail recently commissioned a study into how best to handle these growing numbers of customers in the future. The review will also look at the need for high speed trains similar to the TGV, France’s high-speed rail service which travels at speeds of up to 200 mph.

In France the introduction of TGV has largely replaced air travel between major cities, due to shorter travel times, no check-in deadlines or security and the advantage of stations within the city centres rather than a transfer away.

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