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Train journeys between London, Edinburgh to become three hours

Xinhua, March 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Work aimed at cutting rail journeys down to three hours between London and Scotland's two major cities will get underway next year, Britain's transport minister said Monday.

The plan is to cut as much as 90 minutes off the current journey time.

The British authorities and the regional government of Scotland have agreed to further work to bring train trips between London and the central belt of Scotland down to three hours or less.

It will also ease severe congestion, create jobs, investment opportunities and bring economic and environmental benefits for Scotland, the transport ministry said in a statement.

Currently, the quickest rail journeys between Edinburgh and London take over four hours and 20 minutes, while journeys from Glasgow take from four and a half hours to more than five and a half hours.

The hope is that quicker rail times between London and the two big Scottish centers will divert people from air travel to rail, reducing carbon emissions.

Speeding up the rail time comes alongside the publication of a report by HS2 Ltd, the company delivering a north-south high speed rail network.

The report outlining options for upgraded high speed railways to northern England and Scotland, was welcomed Monday by the Scottish regional government's infrastructure secretary Keith Brown and Robert Goodwill, the British government minister responsible for high speed rail.

The report looks at various options including upgrades or new routes to deliver the three-hour journey time.

"This report is a major milestone in the campaign to deliver high speed rail to Scotland. I now have a firm commitment that development work will begin during the current period towards getting journey times between Scotland and London down to three hours or less," Brown said.

"High speed rail will bring billions of pounds worth of benefit to Scotland's economy and an infrastructure project of this magnitude -- possibly the biggest Scotland's ever seen -- means jobs, investment, benefits for the economy, and benefits for the environment," the official said. Endit