Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Lanarkshire to London in three hours
High-speed rail plans are unveiled
A multi- million pound highspeed rail link could soon be speeding through the heart of Lanarkshire.
Council chiefs have been told the bigmoney investment “could potentially bring significant benefits” to the county.
Transport Scotland are going to carry out a feasibility study on taking highspeed trains from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh – and they view Eurocentral as the ideal spot for an interchange station.
And it could mean commuters would be able to travel by rail from here to London in under three hours.
North Lanarkshire Council’s Enterprise and Housing Committee were presented with a report on the project last Thursday, February 15.
The paper put before councillors says: “High-speed rail could potentially bring significant benefits to North Lanarkshire, the City region and indeed the whole of central Scotland.
“Critically, high-speed rail provides fast, efficient and cost effective transport, connecting major cities and centres of employment, and in this case, could enable journeys to London to be subthree hours and travel to other towns, cities and economic centres such as Manchester to be within reasonable commuting times.”
Councillors will be told that a highspeed rail link would be a boost for both passenger travel and freight movement, stimulating economic development at both the local and regional level.
And they will also be told that it could reduce domestic flights between Glasgow, Edinburgh and London leading to significant environmental benefits.
The report adds: “For North Lanarkshire, the proposal of a station at Eurocentral could bring a significant range of economic benefits in terms of supporting existing businesses, business growth and inward investment. This strengthening of the economy and increased access to markets would provide real economic benefits to our local businesses and communities.”
A feasibility study is due to begin this month, and the planning/design works would commence in 2019. It is envisaged in the report that construction would take three years, from 2026-2029.
The High Speed 2 (HS2) project was developed to meet an increased demand for railway lines between London and the north of England. Transport Scotland then identified that HS2 could also connect Scotland with England’s major cities.
Councillors were told: “Transport Scotland have been investigating the potential of routing the High Speed Rail network to Scotland along with the best route for doing this to enable connectivity to Glasgow, Edinburgh and the rest of the Scottish Rail network.
“Eurocentral is considered to be ideally located for an interchange station.”
The paper concludes: “The proposal is only at feasibility stage.
“Therefore, the immediate measure of success would be achieving Scottish Government approval to progress to the next stage.”
In November 2017, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I am determined for us to take the necessary steps to secure Scotland’s future and improve our connectivity with England. This work will provide us with the knowledge to make informed investments in the next ten years and move us towards our goal of a three-hour journey time to London and substantially reduced journey times to the cities in between.”
Eurocentral is considered to be ideally located for a station