Future of rail travel or just SUPER LOOPY?

Plan would connect northern cities, with Scotland, Wales AND Ireland

- BY FRANCES MILLAR

Mock-ups show gleaming stations and trains, and rail tracks set on stone viaducts

A TOP architect has proposed a 300mph raised railway connecting cities across northern Britain and even linking to Wales and Ireland.

Chris Williamson, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, says his £130bil-lion idea, The Loop, would link Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bangor, Irish capital Dublin and Northern Irish capital Belfast.

His vision is a train running every five minutes that puts all nine cities within 90 minutes of each other. All except Bangor have international airports.

Futuristic mock-ups depict a gleaming white station and a elevated rail line, reminiscent of Japan’s bullet trains.