Staff set up in Carlisle City Centre to promote a widescale railway development.

Promoting High Speed 2 (HS2), they were there to tell everyone that they think HS2 is a great idea.

It is of Europe's biggest engineering projects what a great idea Europe's biggest engineering project is and how it will benefit.

HS2 is a new high speed railway linking up London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland serving over 25 stations, including eight of Britain’s 10 largest cities and connecting around 30 million people.

The construction of the new railway is split into three phases – Phase One linking London and the West Midlands; Phase 2a linking the West Midlands and the North via Crewe; and Phase 2b completing the railway to Manchester and Leeds.

Phase One also links to the existing railway to provide direct onward services to northern England, including C and Scotland and will open between 2029 and 2033.

HS2 say it will work by building a new railway line, HS2 takes fast trains off the existing railway and places them on to their own dedicated tracks, better connecting our major towns and cities.

This then allows slower, local trains to bunch up on the existing lines, freeing up space across the country for many more commuter services and freight trains.