An eight-minute, 300mph rail journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh is being considered by Tory transport planners.
Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said yesterday he wants a business plan drawn up for the next generation of rail travel, which could make magnetic levitation, or maglev, a feature of busy inter-city routes.
Few such projects exist beyond experimental prototypes, with the only commercial route in Shanghai in China.
So far the technology, using powerful magnets to lift the train off the track and propel it forward, is seen as suitable only for short journeys of less than 50 miles. As the entire shadow cabinet met in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Grayling arrived at Waverley Station and announced the routes seen as suitable are between Edinburgh and Glasgow and Manchester and Leeds.
This is being considered as an option alongside a major investment in more conventional high-speed rail, with support from Scottish Tories as an idea to be included in their manifesto for the Holyrood election in May.
Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tory deputy leader, explained: "Whilst this would be a significant capital outlay, it would reduce the usage of and the congestion on the M8."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article