Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has announced plans for a new high-speed rail network, featuring 250mph trains to run between London and Birmingham then on to the North passing close to Tamworth & Lichfield.
Whether this will mean a station near to Tamworth has yet to be decided.
The public will be consulted on the proposed route, with work unlikely to start until 2017 at the earliest. Lord Adonis said the project would create 10,000 jobs and yield £2 in benefits for every £1 spent. He said the first 120 miles between London and the West Midlands would cost between £15.8bn and £17.4bn.
The cost per mile beyond Birmingham is then estimated to halve, taking the overall cost of the 335 mile Y-shaped network to about £30bn.
Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said that it would "take cars and lorries off the road, cut domestic flights and release capacity on the existing rail network, transforming services even for those communities not served directly by a high-speed line.
"It is the low-carbon, sustainable transport of the future."
The new line could cut the journey time between Birmingham and London to just 46 minutes.
For Detailed map see http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/highspeedrail/hs2ltd/route/map28.pdf
