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Transport secretary Heidi Alexander says HS2 should be the match of Japan’s Shinkansen network, which started to be developed in the 1960s.

At the time, Japanese railways were mainly built to a narrower gauge of 1067mm rather than the 1435mm of standard gauge, but the new high speed lines used standard gauge.

The transport secretary has been visiting Japan, where she met her ministerial counterpart Yasushi Kaneko and toured Hitachi’s Tokyo headquarters.

She discussed developments on railways in Japan, including how stations have helped economic growth, by supporting thousands of businesses and new homes.

Heidi Alexander said: ‘It’s easy to see why Japan’s iconic bullet trains are so loved and I want Britain to match them. Running at bullet train speeds is just the start – our reset of HS2 is ending years of waste and mismanagement, taking control of costs and delivery, and making sure the railway delivers real benefits for passengers, communities, and the economy.

‘By aligning the UK’s own dedicated high-speed line with the Shinkansen, we could save up to £2.5 billion and cut at least a year from the delivery timeline, meaning passengers and communities benefit sooner.’

Readers’ comments

I do hope that everybody concerned will look seriously at each of the main intercity routes , particularly the matching of speed potential with the length of routes. It may well be necessary to have a line with 300km/hr maximum between London  and Edinburgh/Glasgow so that end to end time is competitive with aviation, but on the line from Euston to Birmingham, the existing 200 km/hr is probably quite sufficient. Manchester to Euston with existing timings, again are not in desperate need, with well over 50 per cent of this market already patronising trains to/from London. In other words, put rail investment into those things that bring the best return on capital (on a cost/benefit basis). It may have been a mistake to have conflated capacity relief and very high speed on the London to West Midlands route.

David C. Smith, Bletchley