Minister ‘resolute’ over high speed
rail link

Mr McLoughlin told The Independent that he intends to fast-track the line, which will initially connect London and Birmingham and is later planned to be extended to Manchester and Leeds.

He said he hoped to work with Labour to get cross-party consensus on legislation to be included in the next Queen’s Speech and taken through Parliament before the 2015 general election. He said he would “love to” complete the project within five years, although he accepted it will probably take longer.

The new Transport Secretary told the Conservative conference in Birmingham earlier this week that he would like the HS2 line eventually to stretch as far as Scotland.

Mr McLoughlin told The Independent: “The easiest thing for any government to do on a project the size of HS2 is to say we are not doing it.

“All we get is grief. All we get is hassle. But one of the things that government have got to try and do is look to the long term future.

“Whichever route we are going to put it on we are going to upset people.”

Mr McLoughlin said he was assured, when he was appointed to the transport brief in last month’s reshuffle, that HS2 had the support of Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, despite the opposition of some Conservative backbenchers.

“The Chancellor is committed to it, the Chancellor is determined it goes to the North,” he said.

The news comes after Mr McLoughlin earlier in the week promised that rail journeys from London to Scotland could be cut to under three hours.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The Scottish Government welcomes the comments of the Secretary of State, which reinforce and restate the agreement made with his predecessors to work together in the pursuit of high speed rail to Scotland, and that work continues.

“The case to bring High Speed 2 all the way to Scotland is overwhelming - our local authorities, regional transport partnerships, CBI Scotland, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, our Trades Unions, the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, and Network Rail all agree we must 
involve Scotland at this early stage.

“Scottish Ministers will also host a UK-wide High Speed Rail Summit in Glasgow in the coming weeks as momentum builds around the Scottish Government-led campaign for full connectivity. Mr McLoughlin has been invited and we look forward to his response.”

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