AMBITIOUS plans for 250mph trains to link Liverpool to London face an 18-month delay, as the new coalition government rethinks the project from scratch.

New Transport Secretary Phil Hammond is expected to rip up Labour’s plans for an autumn consultation on proposals for a £30bn high-speed rail network and explore his own options for routes.

If a fresh study is set up – the Conservative policy before the election – it might take 18 months to complete and consult on.

However, the Tories committed themselves to building a North-South high-speed line before Labour adopted the policy. The party’s manifesto pledged to “begin work immediately”.

Furthermore, a fresh consultation need not mean a delay to the start of construction work, given the first tracks were not due to be laid until 2019 under Labour.

In March, then-Transport Secretary Lord Adonis sprang a surprise when he pledged a £30bn “Y-shape” “core network”, with twin routes north of Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

He concluded a shorter London-Birmingham line would not persuade enough air passengers to switch to rail, promising instead a single “hybrid Bill” to create the Y-shape by around 2030.

Although trains would slow to conventional speed after turning off the high-speed track just south of Manchester, they would still cut London-Liverpool journey times from 2hrs 10mins to 1hr 36mins.

Another intriguing issue is the future of Lib-Dem plans to slap a tax on short domestic flights.