A transformation of attitudes to our precious railways has taken place over the last two decades.

Margaret Thatcher allegedly believed rail travel was inherently “socialist,” collective and provided by the state and that the true freedom lover always travelled by car which was individual and private.

If that wasn’t enough, there was even a suggestion that some of Thatcher’s Tories had toyed with closing the Midland Mainline and bulldozing St Pancras station.

These potty right-wing ideas are now almost forgotten in the new railway age, and it has at last been recognised that railways are the major transport mode of the future.

It is fortunate that in spite of Beeching’s vandalism and the irrational nonsense of privatisation we still have the wonderful legacy of the Victorian railway network.

The question now is what investment we need to make to provide the best possible railways for the future. There is much that needs to be done.

A priority has to be freight, which for too long has been a poor relation on our railways. For strong economic and environmental reasons Britain needs a new rail freight network.

To achieve a substantial shift of freight from road to rail it is vital to provide for the transport of lorry trailers on trains, which is not possible with the restricted loading gauge on the existing rail network.

Eighty per cent of freight both within Britain and cross-channel goes by lorry and much of that traffic could and should go by rail.

The solution is the GB Freight Route scheme, a proposed freight priority railway line from the Channel Tunnel to Glasgow, linking all the major conurbations both to each other and to the Continent through the Channel Tunnel.

The concept has already been demonstrated by running trains carrying lorry trailers between the Continent (Antwerp and beyond) through the Channel Tunnel and to a terminal at Barking.

Beyond Barking, the network’s existing loading gauge cannot accommodate lorries on trains and re-gauging the existing network — which is in any case dominated by and needed for passenger services — would be prohibitively expensive.

The separate GB Freight Route line would be built on old track bed, including a section of the old Great Central Line to the south of Leicester, as well as underutilised existing lines suitably upgraded.

There would be only 14 miles of new route, nine miles of which would be in tunnels.

The carefully calculated cost would be just under £6 billion for the entire scheme.

The route has been carefully and precisely designated by experienced British Rail trained engineers and would cause no environmental difficulties and no degradation of the countryside.

Most significantly, it would be financially viable, with income more than covering construction and operating costs.

Terminals would be located near motorways for ease of access and close to the major conurbations.

Travelling northwards from Barking there would be further terminals to the north-west of London, in the south Midlands, East Midlands, West Midlands, north Midlands, South Yorkshire, south Lancashire, Cumbria, north-east England and Glasgow, and with a final terminal in the south-west.

Support for the scheme has been significant. The big supermarkets have expressed their support as have major hauliers.

On the political front John Prescott is among those who have expressed support for the GB Freight Route.

The GB Freight Route would take up to five million lorry journeys off Britain’s roads each year and virtually all north-south rail freight would be transferred from the West Coast, Midland and East Coast Mainlines, freeing up those lines for more passenger services.

The GB Freight Route would also link directly to the growing rail freight network being built on the Continent. In a very few years it would for example be possible for hauliers to drive their trailers to a terminal in Glasgow and have them delivered to Rome or to the Ruhr, to Sweden or Spain and in future even to China, for final local delivery by road.

The GB Freight Route would link the north British economy directly to Europe and Asia and breathe new life into the British regions.

It is surely a scheme whose time has come. It would make an immense contribution to Britain’s transport system and would be a major component of a renationalised and integrated railway network.

Kelvin Hopkins MP is chairman of the Aslef Group of MPs and a member of the GB Freight Route team. He has no pecuniary interest in the GB Freight Route.