A HIGH-SPEED rail train service to Newcastle will not reduce journey times past what can be achieved already on the East Coast Main Line, it has been claimed.

Transport minister Theresa Villiers was in Newcastle yesterday to promote the new line and was asked why the North East is not seeing capacity problems solved ahead of any future investment in a high-speed line.

Documents presented to the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority yesterday showed the £33bn route will have a journey time of two hours 37 minutes.

This, they say, is the same as what can already be achieved on the East Coast Main Line, but not many trains are timetabled at this journey time due to problems with capacity.

Network Rail says there is too much traffic on the East Coast Main Line to make the time regularly achievable. But for around £7bn, the East Coast could be improved to remove the pinch points which prevent faster journey times.

Ms Villiers said she was aware of the potential journey time on the existing line, but insisted that as far as capacity issues were concerned, there was only so much that could be solved on the East Coast without a new line.

She said: “High speed rail will significantly shorten journey time and that will yield significant benefits. And in a future phase we think there is a really strong case for extending the line through the North East to Scotland.

“But there is a limit to the improvements that can be made to the existing line. Those improvements that can be made will help, but they just can’t deal with the growth that is expected in out cities in the future.

“We will need new lines, the extent to which we can upgrade is limited.”