A high-speed railway line could connect Scotland's two largest cities within 12 years as part of a plan to encourage a UK-wide link.
The Scottish Government wants to press ahead between Glasgow and Edinburgh before the UK Government has committed to bring its High Speed 2 (HS2) project north of the border.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish proposal would almost halve journey times between the two cities to less than 30 minutes by 2024.
The plan is at its earliest stage, with no costs attached or route map drawn.
It is also not known whether the link would be to existing or new stations, a spokeswoman said.
Launching the proposal in Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon said: "We now know that, within just 12 years, we could build a line which will see journey times between our two major cities cut to less than half an hour.
"That will benefit our businesses, our jobs market and also our tourism industry, and it will put us up there with the world's greatest transport networks.
"We will not wait for Westminster to bring high-speed rail to us. We have already made moves towards seeing a high-speed line in Scotland and the evidence is now in place that this is feasible long before the HS2 proposals.
"The Scottish Government will now enter into talks with our partners in both cities and the rail industry to see how we can work together to see this vision realised: a Glasgow-Edinburgh high-speed line which can connect to the network from England."
