The UK's railways support 1.25bn passenger journeys per year and
growing levels of rail freight. Railways connect people to jobs
and businesses to markets in a way that's good for the
environment and reduces road congestion. But capacity is almost
full and the challenge we face is to provide additional capacity
to meet demand. The Government is proposing to provide the
capacity desperately needed across the UK through a new High
Speed Rail Network. The new route will link London to
Birmingham, then on to Manchester and Leeds forming what is
known as the Y-Network. Eventually HSR trains will run to
Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Government is proposing to
build the Y-Network in phases, with the first phase from London
to the West Midlands. The proposed scheme, known as High Speed
Two (HS2) will include: