JAW-DROPPING plans have been unveiled for a country-spanning train line branded “The Loop” which would span 740 miles to connect nine cities across the UK and Ireland.
At an estimated cost of £130 billion the ambitious project would cross some 100 miles of the Irish Sea and link , , and together.
The Loop would cover 740 milesCredit: Cover Images
Nine major UK cities would be brought together by the proposalCredit: Cover Images
The Loop would connect , , , , , , , and the Welsh city of Bangor.
Derbyshire-born former architect Chris Williamson, now president of the Royal Institute for British Architects, told The Sun his wild plan is exactly what the UK needs.
He said the UK is lacking the vision it used to have in the Industrial Age – and needs megaprojects like his plan for “The Loop” to compete with China and the Middle East.
Williamson said he was inspired by 170km-long Line project which is being built in the desert nation’s Neom region.
He has worked on the middle-eastern project himself and told The Sun that mega-projects are designed to inspire.
The architects Williamson looks up to were known for proposing grand projects that make people ponder the possibilities of the future.
Williamson said: “The architects I admire Sir Peter Cook, Cedric Price, Jan Kaplicky etc often proposed radical projects which inspired generations even if they didn’t get built.
“I was 12 when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and that amazing achievement has always inspired me in the art of the possible.”
The mammoth northern train line he proposed would see 50m long trains run every five minutes at speeds of up to 300mph.
Carriages would thunder along a raised viaduct which plans say would minimise disruption at ground level.
Williamson said the project was aimed at showing the nation what we could achieve.
He said: “So, it basically unites 12 million people within 90 minutes of each other. It takes less time than travelling across Los Angeles.
“In the 19th century we built 13,000 miles of Railway within 30 years and this is only about one twentieth of that, so it’s not that ambitious.
“What is ambitious is having a vision for the future. There’s all this talk about going for growth, but nobody is really coming up with a vision for the country of what that’s going to be.
Trains reaching speeds of 300mph would run along the trackCredit: Cover Images
It would bring the nine cities within 90 minutes of each otherCredit: Cover Images
It would take less time to travel between cities on the mega-rail line than it does to cross Los AngelesCredit: Cover Images
“We used to have that sort of vision, we don’t seem to have that anymore.
“This project is sort of born out of frustration that all those big ideas are now being done in China and in the Middle East.
“You can argue that they’re overly ambitious, but sometimes it’s good to just chivvy people along and say look we can do this.
“Even if it gets scaled back and it only went from Liverpool to Edinburgh, it would be an amazing thing.”
Connecting the nine cities, the RIBA president says, would create a northern powerhouse “comparable with other major global cities.”
With the trains reaching breakneck speeds of 300mph, each of the nine cities would be within a mere 90 minutes of each other.
According to plans the rail line would allow people who live in Newcastle to commute to work in Glasgow and vice versa.
If built, the ambitious project would become the third high-speed rail line in the UK.
It would cross the Irish Sea twice, once from Bangor, , to Dublin, Ireland and then again from Belfast, , to Glasgow, Scotland.
The first of the nation’s high-speed rail lines was opened in 2003 and connected London with the Channel Tunnel.
The second is currently being built and has attracted some controversy after it hit several snags.
, as it has been dubbed, connects London and , though it originally planned to extend to Manchester and Leeds.
Speaking about HS2, which Williamson has done some work on, the architect said: “It’s pretty sad that that has to stop at Birmingham because it’s, it’s been so poorly managed.
“We’ve actually built the most expensive and the most irrelevant part of it.
The Loop would cross the Irish Sea twice if builtCredit: Cover Images
The viaduct that the rail line sits on would be constructed from stoneCredit: Cover Images
“High speed rail is only worth doing if it connects large distances.”
Williamson’s proposal for a third high-speed line comes off the back of the government’s recent commitment to a long promised £45 billion Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
The NPR sits at the centre of a programme of investment in , skills and housing.
It is expected to be delivered in phases – beginning with improved links between and Leeds, Leeds and York, and Leeds and Bradford.
Later phases would include a new Liverpool-to-Manchester route via Manchester Airport as well as upgraded routes across the Pennines.
Meanwhile 21 years ago there was a proposal similar to The Loop lodged under the last Labour government which received the backing of then deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
Despite receiving some backing in parliament this proposal never got off the ground.
Williamson told The Sun that a “political will” was required to make these projects move along.
Speaking more about his own proposed project, Williamson said: “You’ve got to establish the concept and then test it out.
“Something like this can be costed in detail and because it’s on a viaduct, you don’t have to get embroiled in all the ground conditions and the things that it’s not at surface level, so it makes it easier to cost.
“It would be a stunning view too, it’s not designed as a tourist attraction but there would be millions of people that would want to travel on it just to see the view from the train as it goes through, you know, the UK.”
He added: “This is something that can be done and is feasible and would be beneficial, it’s just having the political will to get it done and the the optimism in the future that this is actually what we want to do, to make the northern economy into a powerhouse.
“I mean I’m convinced, but my job is to try and keep plugging away to see that other people can be convinced about it.”
If built The Loop would become the UK’s third high-speed rail projectCredit: Cover Images
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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