Britain's biggest rail project given royal assent by Queen Elizabeth

The multi-billion dollar project to build a high-speed rail linking London with northern England was given royal assent Thursday by Queen Elizabeth.

It was the final hurdle needed to enable the first phase of Britain's ever rail project to get underway. The first leg of the rail link will be built between London and Britain's second biggest city Birmingham.

Future phases will see the High Speed 2 (HS2) project extended to Manchester in the north west of England, and Leeds in the north east. When phase one opens, it will see journey times dramatically reduced between Birmingham and London.

Britain's long distance inter-city trains use mainly tracks that were built in the middle to late 1800s when Queen Victoria ruled Britain.

The parliamentary bill paving the way for the building of HS2 has taken three years on its journey from Westminster to Buckingham Palace.

It means construction of HS2 will now begin on schedule this spring.

HS2 will create around 25,000 jobs during construction as well as 2,000 apprenticeships. It will also support growth in the wider economy, worth an additional 100,000 jobs, according to the government.

A second parliamentary bill will be needed to build the second phase of HS2 to the north.

Source: Xinhua