Rail industry hails ‘historic’ Tory commitment to high speed rail

Theresa Villiers and Keith Ludeman at a Tory fringe meeting last week

Theresa Villiers and Keith Ludeman at a Tory fringe meeting last week

The rail industry has hailed the “historic” commitment made by the Conservative shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers that a Tory government would build a new high speed railway line linking London and the north of England.

In her speech to the Tory party conference in Birmingham last week, Villiers announced that a Conservative government would not sanction the construction of a third runway at Heathrow.

“Instead we would give the go ahead for the next phase of high...