Yes Vote For High Speed Rail Link To Manchester

Ministers have voted in favour of a new High speed rail line that will cut travelling times between London and Manchester to 80 minutes calling it "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way we travel in Britain".

The first phase of the 32 billion pound project will see trains travelling at 225mph cut the journey time between London and Birmingham journey to 49 minutes and should be completed by 2026.

A second phase would see HS2 proceeding on a Y-shaped route to take in Leeds and Manchester with this sector being finished by 2032/33.

It's thought there will be stops in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire and links to the existing West Coast and East Coast main lines so there could be through-services to Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The whole HS2 project will generate economic benefits of almost 44 billion pounds over a 60-year period and create the first phase alone should create around 400,000 jobs.

The trains will be up to 400 metres long and have as many as 1,100 seats.