Branson believes he can cut journey times to 60 minutes between London and Birmingham, with an underground extension to Birmingham International station near the airport and the journey times between London and Glasgow could be under 4 hours. Branson also proposes to link the West Coast Main Line at its southern end with both Heathrow Airport and High Speed line to Europe.

For the scheme to work, Sir Richard said, the government would need to award it a franchise lasting 20 to 30 years – against the seven to 10 current norms – to provide time for extra investments to earn a return. The government would also need to engage and encourage private sector investments and ensure Network Rail, which owns the rail infrastructure, was better regulated.

"We are running 21st century high-speed trains through 19th century stations. For example, Crewe, Preston and Carlisle are basically great Victorian buildings crumbling away. We need to have 21st century stations. We would like the new franchises to be given control of stations so that the train operators can be incentivised to modernise them, " said Branson.

Turning to trains and track, Sir Richard continued: "With a £1bn investment we could, within 3 to 5 years, see our trains running at 140mph. What we are asking is that the Government re-thinks the franchise situation to give train operators the opportunity to invest, grow the rail business and lessen the burden on taxpayers."

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