The High Speed Rail Group (HSRG) will submit to a review led by sir Peter Hendy, who is expected to publish an interim report within weeks.

 

The two towns are 31 miles apart and the link would require a new rail connection between Carlisle, England and Stranraer and a change of gauge in Larne or further, if the train were to travel on to other stations.

 

UK prime minister Boris Johnson already had voiced support for a road bridge or road tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland, but engineers raised concerns about the practicality of constructing a bridge across the water, which is more than 1,000ft deep in places, saying it would require dozens of support towers at heights “never achieved anywhere in the world”.