A high-speed rail link between London and the north is expected to emerge as great news for York, even if the new line does not come directly through the city, a view posed by former Conservative Transport Minister Steven Norris, who is now chairman of York-based Jarvis Rail.

However, even if the line did not reach directly to York, there could well be a "parkway" station easily accessible from the city, Mr Norris added.

The link would emerge as a possibility of a direct service from near York to Heathrow.

"It would free up capacity on the existing East Coast Main Line, which would make it possible to have a faster and more reliable service from York to Kings Cross," he explained.

The first London-Birmingham phase of the new £30 billion high- speed network announced on Thursday by the Government is slated to conclude by 2026, if everything goes well according to the plan.

It is hoped that by the 2030s two channels of the network will run northwards - one up the west of the country to Glasgow, the other up the east to Sheffield, Leeds and finally touching north to Newcastle and Edinburgh.