UK Ultraspeed notes the report in today’s Mail on Sunday, reporting the views of the Shadow Transport Secretary, Theresa Villiers MP, pictured above, on high speed transport, with particular reference to maglev.  The text of the article appears reads:

 

Tories plan fast rail link

The Conservatives are talking to City institutions about raising money to build part of a high-speed East Coast rail link between London and Scotland.  A new railway would cost at least £27bn, but private money would initially be spent on a pilot project to link two unnamed cities along the route about 40 miles apart at a cost of around £2bn.

Theresa Villiers, Shadow Transport Secretary, declined to name the banks being consulted, but said "It is too early to go into that sort of detail, but we are convinced that high speed trains are the way forward.”

The Tories are not just looking at traditional high speed trains like the TGV, which runs on the Continent at speeds of more than 200mph.  They have not ruled out building a Maglev system, where trains hover on a frictionless magnetic field and are capable of travelling at 312mph.

A trip by Maglev between London and Glasgow would cut the present journey time of 4.5 hours to just 2.5 hours.

UK Ultraspeed welcomes broad consensus of support which is now forming across the political spectrum for a radical, cost-effective and comprehensive solution to Britain’s strategic transport needs.  

The economic benefits of a high-speed link from Edinburgh to Glasgow  would surely be even greater. Maglev technology would effectively twin  the cities into a single economic powerhouse – a sensible and exciting aspiration for Scotland.