Upcoming Events :
Housing Seminar: Partnerships with the Public Sector – Avoiding the pitfalls
Thu 31 May 2012
Minerva House, 5 Montague Close, London, SE1 9BB
Government commits to high-speed rail network
Thu 27 May 2010
The new government has expressed its backing for plans to create a high-speed rail network in Britain.
Proposals to upgrade the UK's rail network had been unveiled by the previous Labour administration in March 2010 and won the backing of groups such as the Association of Train Operating Companies.
This week, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition said it will see the idea through in the Queen's Speech.
The government stated that a high-speed rail network could reduce journey times between London and Birmingham by approximately 30 minutes.
In addition, it said rolling out such a system across the UK could lead to "significant" reductions in journey times being achieved elsewhere.
The coalition suggested that journey times between London and Manchester could potentially be cut to about 80 minutes if the infrastructure upgrades are implemented.
Meanwhile, the government believes the proposed high-speed rail network would also help the UK's efforts to become a low-carbon economy.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats added that the network could provide sustainable additional capacity to meet growing demand for travel between major towns and cities.
