Critics of the HS2 rail project have put forward an alternative route using a train line which was closed in the 1960s.
 
The rival scheme would see the reopening of the former Great Central line, which ran from London to Nottingham, with links to Leeds and Manchester.
 
Supporters of the proposal claim it would cost around £6 billion, instead of the £ 42.6 billion which the HS2 project is set to cost.
 
Kelvin Hopkins, the Labour MP for Luton North, has joined leading supermarket groups and hauliers to draw up plans to reopen the disused line.
 
Mr. Hopkins said reopening the Great Central Railway would avoid many of the environmental concerns associated with HS2.
 
"It could be built for £6 billion, a fraction of what HS2 would cost, and it avoids all the environmental problems," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
 
We have a very precise route, we have been working on it for a very long time, and we are carefully trying to get political support.
 
"Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Marks & Spencer are desperate to get more of their goods on rail and they have written letters backing this scheme. HS2 is clearly a white elephant, but the problem is that when governments announce something they find it difficult to back down."
 

Dr. Richard Beeching - Date? Photographer?

Axed by Dr. Richard Beeching, the southern section of the Great Central Railway has been closed since 1966.
 
Its express trains ran from London to Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Leeds, with a branch to Manchester.
 
Supporters of the plan say that since much of the infrastructure still exists, the disruption to local residents caused by rebuilding the line would be substantially less than a new railway.
 
"So much of the railway still exists, and it would be billions of pounds cheaper to build than HS2," said Brian Holyland, a member of the Great Central Railway Society who worked on the line before it was closed.
 
Arthur Martin.