A huge new station in the heart of London will be proposed in north-south, high-speed rail line plans which will be submitted this week to the Government.
The station would be capable of handling 14, and eventually 18, trains an hour, with 20,000 passengers travelling in and out every 60 minutes.
The 400-metre long trains, which could travel at 250mph, will be able to carry 1,100 passengers, with the first stage of the new line - from London to the West Midlands - possibly opening in 2025.
The report going to ministers is from the High Speed 2 (HS2) company which was set up by the Government to identify a buildable route, with station options, for a high-speed train service from London to the West Midlands.
HS2 will present options for possible connections to Heathrow Airport and to the Channel Tunnel rail link, now known as High Speed 1 (HS1).
The report will also consider broad route options from the West Midlands to Scotland.
The HS2 team looked at 35 possible sites in London for the high-speed terminus and have settled for a site right in the centre of the capital.
Ministers will be presented with a minutely detailed route - accurate to within 18 inches - for the line as far north as the West Midlands.
This will be a new line which will hug the contours of the land, with noise and visual impact being reduced as much as possible.
HS2, which sees the high-speed trains as "aeroplanes on wheels", will also present a range of costs for the line, of which construction could start in 2017, with the line opening towards the end of 2025.
