The Scottish government has said it is pressing ahead to create a rail link which could see the journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh reduced to under 30 minutes.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced Holyrood’s plans to bring high speed rail to Scotland by 2024.

If the proposals can be confirmed, it will be a major boost to the SNP’s independence campaign, as the target date would be at least 10 years ahead of when Westminster might bring the HS2 project north of the border.

The plans were announced as the government attempts to assemble a delegation of politicians and rail industry experts to convince the UK government involve the whole country in HS2 from the outset.

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Ms Sturgeon’s announcement claims Scotland could have 140mph trains even before the completion of the London-Birmingham HS2 line, due for 2026.

"Last year we launched the Fast Track Scotland (FTS) document which showed a huge level of support for high speed rail in Scotland and the massive benefits that would bring," she said.

"So Transport Scotland, on behalf of the FTS group, explored how quickly it would be possible to see this dream become a reality.

"We now know that within just 12 years, we could build a line which will see journey times between our two major cities cut to less than half an hour. That will benefit our businesses, our jobs market and also our tourism industry. And it will put us up there with the world’s greatest transport networks.

"We will not wait for Westminster to bring high speed rail to us. We have already made moves towards seeing a high speed line in Scotland and the evidence is now in place that this is feasible long before the HS2 proposals."

(IT)