Get us on the fast track to rail change

Jun 12 2005 By The Sunday Sun

Reaching the capital by train from the North in an hour and a half - or being able to travel from Tyneside to Teesside in a few minutes - would change the way we live our lives.

A night out in London would be possible, or commuting from Darlington to work in Glasgow. In fact, you could live just about anywhere and work wherever you fancied.

These are some of the astonishing prospects held out by the 300mph maglev trains that have set pulses racing in Whitehall and across our region too.

They would turn our country upside down and open the door to the North as never before. In a stroke, tourists and job-creating industrialists would view the region differently.

The powerhouse economy of Shanghai is the only place in the world where maglev trains are running, but let's hope the Chinese example sparks the imagination of the Government and makes it determined to get in on the act.

Everyone knows that the overcrowded South East is already squeezed to capacity but we lack the means today to take the pressure off.

A high-speed train that makes it easier to reach the North from London by public transport than it is to travel from one side of the capital to the other would spread wealth and development.

It would bring jobs to where there's a skilled workforce and change the prospects of the whole country in the process.

Bold leaders ought to favour bold decisions. And there can be few things bolder than making an investment that is guaranteed to result in nothing in our country ever being the same again.

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Bling-tastic

The North may have been passed over for Capital of Culture last year, but we're not going to let that stand in our way.

This week York will get a feather in its cap when it hosts Royal Ascot, proving that we can do posh just as well as our southern cousins.

And we're also poised to host our very own star-studded film premiere. The Sage Gateshead, rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the UK's most inspirational buildings, will be the venue for the first screening of Goal!

The glitzy event, expected to attract a host of celebrity guests - including David Beckham, who has a cameo role - will bring a little touch of Hollywood to Tyneside.

And no one deserves that more than we do.