THE Government is set to confirm a station will be built at Toton Sidings as part of new 250mph high-speed rail network – and the new route will also go under East Midlands Airport.
Passengers will be able to hop on one of three trains an hour to London and step out on to the platform at St Pancras just 51 minutes later.
The northbound service from Toton to Leeds would take 29 minutes – and Birmingham would be only 26 minutes away.
The short journey times are expected to transform the way Nottingham does business with other cities and bring up to £3.8 billion of economic benefit to the region.
Prime Minister David Cameron was due to meet leaders of the Core Cities – the nation's eight largest cities, including Nottingham – in Leeds on Monday to discuss details of the £30 billion plans. But details of the scheme were inadvertently leaked yesterday.
The first phase of the "Y-shaped" network – known as High Speed 2 – will be built between London and Birmingham. The second phase will split at Birmingham, with one line heading to Manchester and the other to Leeds, via Toton.
The Department for Transport is expected to announce substantial investment linking Toton station to Nottingham.
The railway line will be the first major line to be built north of London since 1899.
Currently, Toton Sidings is used only by freight trains.
The new high-speed trains will be faster than the French TGV trains, which run at 220mph.
It is understood the Government had considered an alternative proposal to Toton, with a station being built in Derby instead.
But it was eventually decided to locate it nearer to Nottingham, considered by the Government to be one of the country's most important economical centres.
No more details have yet been revealed about how the new route will go under East Midlands Airport.
For reaction to this story see Monday's Post.
