A PRESSURE group to campaign for the building of high-speed rail lines was launched in Glasgow this week.

FastTrack North is the brainchild of John McCormick, chairman of the Scottish Association for Public Transport, and the venture already has the support of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce.

"We basically want Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport to commission a study into the economics of high-speed rail," said McCormick.

McCormick believes the time is now right to re-examine the case for high-speed rail (HSR) routes between Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, which are estimated to cost £31 billion, and hopes to forge a coalition of business interests, transport groups and environmentalists to push the issue to the top of the political agenda.

"The issue of a north-south high-speed line is gaining more urgency. Aviation faces rising oil prices and environmental concerns," he said, spurred by a recent report from engineering consultant Atkins, which claimed that the economic benefit of such lines would be £63 billion.

Graham Bell, spokesman for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said HSR would "create the capacity for us to get more people on to public transport".

A spokesman for the UK Department for Transport, which decided against funding HSR several years ago, said it welcomed input from interested groups into the future of the rail network, and made clear that it was open to considering the possibilities.