A MAJOR rail terminus could be built in central Scotland to deal with new high-speed train services to London over the next two decades.

The idea of a new station between Glasgow and Edinburgh has been floated by Infrastructure Secretary Alex Neil, who told MSPs it could act as a "hub" to access other areas in the central belt and beyond.

Industry experts have identified a need for new stations to be built in both cities, if the high-speed rail network being developed in England is extended to Scotland following completion of a first phase between London and Birmingham in 2026.

However, Mr Neil yesterday told the Scottish Parliament's Infrastructure Committee that Government officials were looking at options to locate a new station between the cities.

In response to an apparently light-hearted question by Jamie Hepburn, MSP, on building a new station near his Cumbernauld and Kilsyth constituency, Mr Neil said: "What some transport experts are suggesting is that it would be beneficial to have some kind of central Scotland terminus, as it were, because from there you could go north, you could go west, you could go east, you could go to places south of Scotland. So these are the kind of discussions we are going to be taking forward as part of our own investment plan."

Industry studies have suggested that, by 2026, both Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley will have no further capacity to expand to accommodate additional high-speed rail services.

Glasgow City Council has allocated land in the east end of the city for a new rail terminus and it is thought Haymarket would be the most likely site for an expanded station in Edinburgh – preventing the need for extra tunnelling to access Waverley.

The idea of a central Scotland terminus received a mixed response from transport experts, who emphasised the importance of a rail journey that penetrated into the heart of the country's two biggest cities.

Jim Steer, founder of the influential Greengauge 21 lobby group for high-speed rail, said: "I think it would be more appealing for people living in Scotland than people visiting. If you're living in a residential area of the central belt, it would be just as handy as going into Waverley.

"If, on the other hand, you think of people visiting Edinburgh or Glasgow it sort of puts it back in the 'why not fly' category because you still have got to get a connecting train at the end of your journey."

Professor Iain Docherty, a former non-executive director of Transport Scotland, said it would be possible to build a central terminus if constructing a Y or T-shaped network that would serve both Glasgow and Edinburgh along separate branch lines.

"The whole point of high-speed rail is point-to-point journeys. A lot of the economic case is based on business travel and there are lots of high-value jobs in the city centre. That's where you want to access," he said.

The idea was given short shrift by officials in Network Rail, the privatised company responsible for running the UK railways. A source at the company said: "There's no point having a high-speed train that brings people essentially to the middle of nowhere, then punting them on to conventional rail to complete their journeys."

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: "We are considering a range of possibilities including the hub station option. The most viable options will then be considered for further analysis and this work will feed into our discussions with the Department for Transport."