Rail passengers could travel from London to Scotland in just over two hours on a £34 billion high-speed line proposed by Network Rail yesterday.

Trains travelling at 200mph could move thousands of people between London, the Midlands and the North West of England, as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh, with the journey to Birmingham reduced to 46 minutes.

Passengers could reach Manchester from the capital in 1 hour and 6 minutes, Liverpool in 1 hour and 23 minutes and Edinburgh in 2 hours and 9 minutes. The proposed timetable includes up to 16 trains an hour to and from London, providing 9,100 seats an hour into the capital.

Network Rail said that the existing network, which carries 1.3 billion passengers a year, faced a “capacity crisis” with the main line between London, Birmingham and the North West expected to be “full” by 2020.

Times Archive, 1938: LNER's Mallard breaks speed record

While the record was being made tea was being served and the motion was so smooth none was spilled

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The proposed high-speed link, it claimed, could generate almost £55 billion in revenue and benefits as well as dramatically reducing domestic air and road travel.

Iain Coucher, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “Demand for rail travel is growing and our main lines from the North to London are nearly full. By 2020 we will be turning away passengers — that’s not what we want.

“We need to start the planning now to meet future demand and the solution is a new high-speed railway to the Midlands, North West England and Scotland. The line has a sound business case that will pay for itself.”

He added that he hoped today’s report would “help inform the high-speed debate”.

However, it remains unclear whether the necessary billions in public funding for such an ambitious project can be found, particularly in the current economic climate.

Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, told The Times in June that “it is inconceivable that we could build a North-South high-speed line without a substantial public contribution”, and last month he admitted that reduced income from rail franchises might force the Government to revise its plans for rail expansion.

Of the 200mph line, he said: “We are not going to spend any money on the high-speed line for a few years yet. A lot will depend on the position some five years from now."

Network Rail had already started its study of new-line requirements before the Government set up High Speed Two, a company that is looking into a London-to-Birmingham line that could extend to Scotland and the North of England.

Lord Adonis said: “This report makes a powerful case for high-speed rail in Britain. The potential benefits are considerable in terms of extra rail capacity, faster journey times, carbon reduction and environmental improvements.

“This is why virtually every other developed country in the world is now building high-speed rail lines. High Speed 2 will take full account of this work.

"They will submit a detailed route proposal to the Government by the end of this year for a line from London to the West Midlands, with options to extend the line to Scotland and the North of England."

Britain’s only existing high-speed route is the track that takes Eurostar trains from London to the Channel Tunnel.

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