Passengers and freight could be transported between Manchester and Leeds in just nine minutes by 2024, under proposals discussed yesterday at the National Infrastructure Forum event in London.

 

Rail innovator Direct City Networks claims its planned underground ‘Maglev’ connection between the two northern cities would allow levitating trains to travel beneath the Pennines at speeds of over 300MPH.

 

“We believe that bringing the world’s fastest trains to the UK could be a key enabler for the Northern Powerhouse,” said the company's managing director Daragh Coleman.

 

The project, he said, would bring huge economic benefits to the region and has already piqued the interest of politicians.

 

“The technology to do this exists today and has been running in China at 270MPH since 2007,” he said, adding that Japan has since developed its own Maglev high speed rail system which runs at 350MPH.

 

When asked why the technology has not spread further since its introduction in Shanghai a decade ago (pictured) he responded that the costs had previously been seen as prohibitive. But he explained that – at an estimated cost per mile of £29M – an underground Maglev system can be built more cheaply than surface transport alternatives.

 

“In developing this proposal we concluded it would be cheaper to tunnel than build on the surface,” said Daragh Coleman. “The reason for that is on the surface you have to buy up land, deal with public protests and traverse all the existing infrastructure. But underground we can build in more or less a straight line.”

 

The company is about to start a consultation process for the Manchester to Leeds proposal, which it claims could be operational by 2024 and would be paid for mainly by private investment. Potential further phases could see expansion west to Liverpool and east to Hull, and even as far as Dublin and Rotterdam.

 

But one delegate to the event remarked that the scheme may prove controversial and, if built, could be highly disruptive to existing transport networks.

 

(Photo: Alex Needham)