High speed rail must come to Glasgow says MP

The current plans are for a line from London to Birmingham, with the second phase taking the line north to Manchester and Leeds.

There no current firm plans to bring the route to Either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Stewart McDonald Glasgow South SNP MP asked for an urgent statement from the Transport Minister in the House of Commons over the leaked reports there was no business case for High Speed Rail coming to Glasgow.

He told Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling his party would be prepared to counter claims there was no business case for Scotland to be included in high Speed Rail.

He said: "The Leader of the House will be aware of a leak in the press at the weekend that HS2 Ltd says there is no business case to take the project up to Scotland.

"Scottish National party Members would welcome the opportunity to make that case to the Government. So can he acting in the spirit of his party's much-vaunted one nation approach to politics ensure that we have an urgent statement on this issue?"

Mr Grayling said the issue should be raised at either Scottish or Transport questions.

He said: "First, we regard High Speed 2 as a crucial part of the future infrastructure of the United Kingdom. I am not aware of any plan that has been brought before this House to change the plans that we set out in the last Parliament, but the hon. Gentleman will have two opportunities next week to raise this issue, once in Scotland questions and once in Transport questions, and I hope that he will take them."

Mr McDonald said after the exchange that target journey times of under 3 hours to London can only be achieved by High Speed Rail.

He added: "The information leaked by HS2 Ltd, stating that there is no business case for HS2 to come to Scotland, is deeply worrying as there is an undeniable case for Scotland to be included in this major national infrastructure project, and to benefit from the jobs and growth that it will bring."