UK transport authority reaffirms commitment to high-speed railway plan

British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has set out the urgent need for a new high speed, high capacity railway line to give his country the infrastructure it needs.

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway in Britain linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester. It would be the second high-speed rail line in Britain.

According to a government statement published on Wednesday, Grayling has announced a 70-million-pound (about 86 million U.S. dollars) funding to support communities and road safety along the route between London and the West Midlands.

The transport secretary has confirmed that the government is committed to pressing ahead with HS2 to tackle the looming capacity crisis the rail network faces and to help boost jobs and regeneration along the line of the route and across the country.

Construction is due to begin on the scheme in the first half of next year.

"We need HS2 now more than ever," said Grayling. "In the last 20 years alone, the number of people traveling on our railways has more than doubled and our rail network is the most intensively used of any in Europe."

He said that Britain needs HS2 for the capacity it will bring on the routes between London, the West Midlands, Crewe, Leeds and Manchester as well as the space it'll create elsewhere on the transport network.

"We need it for the boost it will give to our regional and national economies," he added.

Work on the first phase of HS2 is scheduled to begin in 2017, reaching Birmingham by 2026 and fully completed by 2033. Endit