Commuters will be able to reach London from Birmingham in 46 minutes under plans for a high speed rail link announced today.

Proposals for a £34 billion high-speed London to Scotland line were outlined by Network Rail.

With trains travelling at 200mph, journey times to Scotland would be cut to a little over two hours.

Rotes would run from central London via Birmingham, Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool and Preston to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Network Rail said such a scheme would generate almost £55 billion of value, thus paying for itself 1.8 times over.

Plans for a direct link with Heathrow airport have been scrapped because a rise in costs would outweigh the benefits and revenue.

Network Rail did not give precise routes for the new service but said the line could offer up to 16 trains a hour to and from London and provide 9,100 seats per hour into the capital.

The line is expected to go to a terminal to be built close to Birmingham’s revamped £600 million New Street station, where work starts in September.

There would be eight new stations with 400 metre-long platforms, more than 1,500 miles of track, 34 miles of tunnels and 32 bridges over motorways.