by Peter Barker
LONDON, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- The British government has received plans for a high-speed railway linking London with Britain's second largest city Birmingham in the West Midlands which, if built, would be the fastest in Europe.
High Speed Two (HS2) -- the company set up to advise the government on the development of high-speed rail services between London and Scotland -- delivered the report to the Department of Transport.
HS2 was asked by the government to first look at where existing capacity is under most pressure, between London and the West Midlands.
The report presents a detailed route, accurate to within five meters, for the first stage of the north-south high-speed line, dubbed HS2, from London to the West Midlands, as well as options for extending high-speed services to the North West, the East Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East and across the border into Scotland.
If the government decided to pursue proposals for high-speed rail, it would publish a white paper by the end of March 2010, said the Department of Transport in a statement.
The white paper will set out detailed plans for new high-speed rail lines and services, including route proposals, timescales and associated financial, economic, and environmental assessments. This would be followed by a public consultation, starting in autumn 2010, before the proposals are finalized.
There is a general election due before May 2010, and the scheme could yet fall foul of cost-cutting from whichever party wins. If the line goes ahead, construction could start in 2017 with trains running by 2025.
The railway will be designed to carry 18 trains, each 400 meters long and carrying 1,100 people, every hour. The existing terminals of Euston and St Pancras in north central London are thought to be the likely candidates for the capital's station.
The Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Andrew Adonis, said in a statement: "This is an important report which will shape the future of high-speed rail in this country."
"High-speed rail has real potential to regenerate and reinvigorate. Our high-speed network lags behind that of many of our European neighbors and doesn't connect any of our major cities,but this report could change that."
"I am excited about the possibilities that high-speed rail has to transform transport in this country for the better, providing environmental benefits, encouraging investment and boosting business and jobs."
"Scrutiny of the report will begin immediately and we will announce how we plan to take high-speed rail forward by the end of March - making 2010 the year of high speed rail in the UK."
HS2 said in a statement that HS2 would be a high-capacity railway, designed to standard European high-speed specifications, and make use of technology successfully developed in countries such as France and Germany. These specifications are different to those currently used on almost all railways in Great Britain. The EU specifications aim to ensure that new systems are compatible and use common standards.
HS2 is designed to take advantage of increased rail speeds in the past 40 years and of likely increases in the future.
High-speed trains were capable of 270 km per hour in 1985 and are now able to run up to 350 km/h. HS2 will be designed to run at speeds up to 400 km/h.
HS2 said on its website: "While 400 km/h passenger trains do not currently exist, HS2 is designing a track that will be capable of carrying trains up to this speed in the future."
"It is highly unlikely that a high-speed train would be required to exceed this speed in the UK, even if the technology existed. This is mainly due to the fact that the overall time saved at speeds beyond 400 km/h would be so small that it would not justify the additional energy used and environmental impacts of going faster."
There is currently only one high-speed line in Great Britain - HS1, which links London and the Channel Tunnel and is 114 km long.
According to Lord Adonis, there are 5,794 km of high-speed lines in Europe with 3,218 km under construction.
Britain was the country which invented steam-driven passenger rail travel, with the first service being between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830, and steam trains were removed from service in 1968.
Research into gas turbine driven high-speed trains capable of running on the current rail infrastructure began about that time and produced a successful prototype.
However, the rising cost of oil in the 1970s made gas turbine engines uneconomic and British Railways opted for electric traction. It also chose to use existing infrastructure, which meant that tilting trains were necessary to use the tight curves on some lines.
By the early 1980s, tilting high-speed trains were in service, but they were quickly withdrawn for technical problems and criticism from passengers.
For these reasons, and for safety reasons, the top speed for trains in Great Britain, outside HS1, is currently about 200 km/h and can only be boosted through new infrastructure.
