Gordon Brown has announced, at the Confederation of British Industry annual conference, that a new company will be formed to create high speed links between the north and south.

Under these latest plans he said that journey times between Scotland and London could be reduced from the current time of over 4 hours to “potentially under 3 hours.” Mr Brown went on to say a north to south high speed route would be part of an “European network of train services that takes us quickly, not just to Paris and Brussels but to Cologne and Amsterdam and one that starts not just in London, but in the north of the country. Faster rail travel ,not only within Britain but to and from the mainland of Europe, is within our grasp.”

He later told delegates that “We will see a major announcement on these things”