Network Rail Head Calls For High-Speed Lines

Iain Coucher, the chief executive of Network Rail, is proposing three new lines operating at up to 200mph: from London to Glasgow, via Birmingham and Manchester; London to Edinburgh, via Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne; and London to Cardiff, via Bristol.

It's reassuring that someone has vision in the rail industry.

Network Rail has decided to take a lead after becoming frustrated by the Department for Transport’s lack of progress on the issue of high-speed rail ... [Coucher] said that High Speed 1, the 186mph (300km/h) line that opened in November between London St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel, should be viewed as the first part of a new network carrying faster intercity express trains.

He added: "Not just High Speed 2, but High Speed 3, maybe even High Speed 4 — that’s where we need to be by 2020. There is demand building up today. We’ll now sit down, working with the train-operating companies, to come up with ideas about where we think it should go and what it should look like."