星空传媒

UK Ultraspeed, the proposed 拢30bn bullet train style project, received a boost today when the Conservative party got on board. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne announced his support for the scheme on the BBC鈥檚 Today Programme this morning. Faithful+Gould is providing cost planning and cost management on the scheme, which would install a network of super-fast trains shrinking distances between major cities. At speeds of up to 500kmh, passengers could go from London to Birmingham in half an hour, or from London to Scotland in two hours. The train would be energy efficient, relying on magnetic levitation.

The man behind the project, Alan James, argued that the 鈥渕aglev鈥� scheme would be less complex than many believe. He said costing it was 鈥渁 particularly simple job鈥� because much of the project would be prefabricated. 鈥淲e already know exactly what materials we need: We need 280 substations between London and Glasgow and 841.16km on infrastructure between London and Glasgow.鈥�

He said the project was basically a 鈥渓ong concrete viaduct鈥� whose height would vary from 80cm to 20m above ground as it crossed the country. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an extremely straight forward project to build. We are trying to create a 鈥楤runel billiard table鈥� where the length of the legs underneath are altered to ensure the table is the same height everywhere.鈥�