Next stop for high-speed rail HQ

PLANS FOR the UK’s first dedicated hub for high-speed rail technologies to be built in Leeds have moved a step closer.

The University of Leeds’s say its planned Institute for High Speed Railways and System Integration could help “unlock the full potential of high-speed rail, nationally and globally”.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s investment committee has now given conditional approval to an application for it to fund half the £23m cost of the first phase of the project, with the university funding the other half.

If built, the “world-class” development would include a 400-kilometre-per-hour highspeed testing facility able to test railway track structures and rolling stock.