PLANS for a high-speed rail line linking London with Scotland are to be resurrected this week by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA).

The £6bn North-South rail link is expected to be in the SRA's development plan on Thursday - although a route has yet to be decided.

A report by engineering consultants WS Atkins has concluded that the line, which would be capable of carrying trains with speeds of up to 200mph, will be needed by 2016. But work should start several years earlier.

According to the report, a new North-South link would be better value for money for the cash-strapped SRA than billion pound upgrades of the existing routes.

The high-speed rail link was mooted about three years ago with the idea of following the existing East Coast Main Line and building new track around bottleneck areas or slower parts of the line. It included realignment around Grantham, Lincolnshire, between Doncaster and York, and north of Newcastle.

But a spokeswoman for the SRA said the Atkins feasibility study had not looked at potential routes.

Peter Davies, chairman of the Yorkshire branch of pressure group Railfuture, said: "It was a mixed bag of proposals last time it was being discussed. It is going to be very interesting to see what comes up and, indeed, where the money is going to come from."

A GNER spokesman said: "The principle of improving transport links between the North-East and London is obviously a good idea. We will be interested to see what might be introduced."