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The announcement was made today as they launched their HSR\\UK lobby.
Leaders from Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, believe that not only will such a network link centres of economic development in the UK, but that it will also connect to the high-speed network already in existence in Europe.
Manchester City Council Leader and Campaign Chair, Richard Leese, said: "A high speed rail link in the UK would mean shorter journey times, improved reliability, accessibility and greater capacity and all this, most importantly, would have a dramatic effect on the nation’s economic output."
There are 3,480 miles of high speed railway lines in mainland Europe with a further 2,160 miles under construction and 5,280 miles planned for the future. In Britain, despite inventing the world’s first passenger railway we only have 68 miles in operation.
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Leese added: "Britain's railways have not kept pace with the development of our cities. One third of the UK’s population live in cities; many millions more commute into them every day; London and the cities behind HSR\\UK generate 55 per of the nation’s wealth between them. We cannot continue to grow the UK’s economy and compete on a global stage without a high speed rail network in the UK."
Leader of Glasgow City Council, Steven Purcell, said: "Glasgow is fully supportive of the creation of a high speed rail network.
"We need a much improved and sustainable rail network that provides first class connectivity and a reduction in intercity journey times to be able to compete effectively with the rest of Europe."
Members of the public and business leaders are being called on to show their support for the campaign by signing an online pledge. Supporters sign up to the online campaign at www.highspeedrailuk.com
The increased speed could also lead to a potentially huge shift from air to rail for domestic journeys for both business and leisure travellers.
Other countries have shown that where rail journeys can be reduced to under three hours, significant numbers of air passengers will make the move to rail.
The Eddington transport study in 2006 estimated that the potential carbon savings from transferring London-Scotland air passengers to High Speed Rail could be 0.5 million tonnes per year.
Over 60 years this would amount to 30 million tonnes – valued at £3.2 billion. Conventional rail cannot achieve this, and new advances in technology mean that journeys on High Speed trains can be as energy efficient as on conventional trains – and in some cases, better.
(GK/KMcA)
