High speed rail lines linking Kent with Essex and providing new connections between London and East Anglia have been put forward this week by a transport think tank.

 

Transport thinktank, Greengauge 21 sets out a series of new and upgraded routes in a railway vision for the middle of the century that looks to help boost national productivity across the country.

 

Other ambitions include creating a new connection in the West Midlands to allow high speed trains to operate between Birmingham, Bristol and South Wales, turning High Speed 2 from a ‘Y’ to an ‘X’ shaped railway.

 

The report also proposes a re-orientation of Britain’s major railway network, moving from a ‘hub and spoke’ model based on central London to one that links a series of upgraded city centre stations.

 

A new line from Kent to Essex would, the think tank says, help the two regional economies work closer together and provide an opportunity for freight to be carried around London by rail rather than on the M25.

 

Improved connections to East Anglia would see a high speed line built from London to Stansted, Cambridge and Colchester. Journey times from the capital to Essex airport would come down to 15 minutes.

 

New high speed lines in Scotland would also, it is said, reduce journey times down to London to three hours and 15 minutes. The East Coast mainline would also receive an upgrade.

 

“Britain lacks a long term national railway strategy beyond High Speed 2,” said report co author Jim Steer. ”It is vital for the future of the country that no region is left behind, and the national railway strategy needs to reach all parts of the country.

 

“To transform productivity across the whole of Britain, we need to transform the connectivity of dozens of cities the length and breadth of the country.”

 

A Department for Transport spokesman said that while it may not agree with all of the recommendations in the report, "it is an important contribution to the debate and underlines the need for High Speed 2, delivering the rail network this country needs for the future".

 

Transport technology company Resonate’s director Adam Perry commented that, while speed of service is crucial, a data driven approach to managing the capacity and punctuality of train services is also needed.

 

“This means offering rail users better connected journeys, capturing and analysing data to spot overcrowding, identifying congestion on the network and taking action to prevent problems before they happen,” he said.