TODAY we launch a campaign to bring the Government’s planned new High Speed Rail College to York.

As we reported last week, the college will be responsible for ensuring British workers have the engineering savvy and construction know-how needed to deliver the £50 billion high-speed rail route linking London to the north.

It will be a training centre of excellence for the rail industry. The Government is looking for the best place in which to base it. And we believe that place is right here.

City leaders have announced that an official York bid will be made, as part of a wider application by the Leeds City Region.

Our On Track for York campaign, backed by business leaders and organisations across the city, aims to ensure everything possible is done to help that bid succeed.

York seems the obvious choice.

The city has a proud railway history. And despite the loss of thousands of rail manufacturing jobs, our railway connections remain enormously strong.

York is home to East Coast; to the Yorkshire Rail Academy; and to the National Railway Museum. On top of that, we have two first-rate universities and, in York Central, an ideal site.

In short, York would be the perfect location for the college, says York outer MP Julian Sturdy.

Now all we have to do is convince Whitehall of that.