Westminster blog

The long-awaited government white paper into high speed rail is coming out on Thursday, I’m told. Expect great fanfare over Britain’s plans for super-fast trains linking London to the north.*

Apparently Lord Adonis had examined plans to bring over a French train to break the UK rail speed record on the day; it would have certainly added a bit of spice to the announcement. Alstom, the French engineering company, had approached the DfT with the idea. In practice, however, this turned out to be impractical: it won’t happen.

So what new juice may emerge on Thursday, given that high-speed rail has been endlessly talked about since Adonis became a transport minister?

One interesting fact is that Euston has been identified as the starting point (or end-point, if you are northern) for the new train line. That is already creating a stir within Camden’s council, who don’t want “urban blight” on their doorstep (although, curiously, the council’s leadership aren’t returning my calls).

Otherwise we may get a bit more detail on the route, in particular, how will it connect with Heathrow.

* It may sound like fantasy given the deficit but you never know; at least the main expenditure doesn’t start until 2015. And the plans have broad cross-party support, despite the Tories’ refusal so far to look at the High Speed 2 report upon which the paper is based.