Liverpool Chamber’s CEO, Jack Stopforth, puts forward his vision for a revolutionary rail link between the North West and London in the Daily Post’s Business Week today.

Jack believes that Merseyside needs to make a serious effort to secure a Maglev train route or risk being left behind the rest of the UK economically.

Maglev trains levitate on electomagnetic force fields. This allows them to travel at much greater speeds than wheeled vehicles, potentially up to 300mph. This would allow Liverpool to Manchester trips in 10 minutes, or Liverpool to London in less than an hour.

The proposed route would be from London to Glasgow, via the Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh. This would cost in the region of £16bn. Both Jack and UK Ultraspeed, the company behind British Maglev, believe private sector or public-private partnership could meet the costs, without an unnecessary burden placed on public funds.

Jack is urging the city of Liverpool to get behind the project and make sure that the Liverpool-Manchester link is the first to be built.

“I have been involved with the project for more than four years and find it very exciting.

“Putting aside the very real issues of land acquisition and planning, applying that technology to the UK will radically overhaul the economy. The North could be transformed into a real economic powerhouse.

“Its economic potential in terms of re-balancing the UK economy is to everybody’s benefit.

“It is unhealthy to have everything centralised in London. I have ridden on the German test track a number of times, and I know it works.

“I would love the first link to be Liverpool to Manchester. It was the first commercial railroad in the world, and it would be fantastic if it was the first Maglev in the country.”

 Read more on this story on the Daily Post website.

Learn more about Maglev trains on Wikipedia.