Chris Williamson proposes Neom-informed Loop to connect northern British and Irish cities
Tom Ravenscroft | 6 February 2026

RIBA president Chris Williamson has proposed linking nine northern cities in Britain and Ireland with The Loop – a raised high-speed railway informed by Neom's megacity The Line.

Described by Williamson as a manifesto to "inspire" and "provoke", The Loop would connect the English cities of Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, with Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, Bangor in Wales, Dublin in Ireland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.

The Loop would connect nine cities

According to Williamson, who is the co-founder of UK studio WW+P, connecting the nine cities would create a northern powerhouse with a population of around 10 million that is "comparable with other major global cities".

Williamson was inspired by the ambition of The Line, a 170-kilometre-long megacity planned in Saudi Arabia, in his design for the scheme, which he estimates will cost £130 billion to construct.

The high-speed railway would be raised on stone viaducts

"Maybe I have been too influenced by the scale, the vision and the ambition of Neom The Line in Saudi Arabia, having worked on the high-speed stations running alongside the one hundred and seventy kilometre long city for the last few years," Williamson said.

"But we in the British Isles should be equally ambitious about our future," he continued. "At present, the government seems to expect each city to compete for the same investment funding, when we need to encourage connectivity and collaboration."

The Loop is estimated to cost £130 billion

The concept for The Loop was developed in collaboration with UK engineering studio Elliott Wood and would see high-speed tracks raised on an elevated stone viaduct.

According to the proposal, the viaduct arches would be made from pre-tensioned stone beams to create "a vernacular that sits comfortably within the landscape".

Trains would travel on the viaduct at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour, meaning that all the cities would be within 90 minutes of each other.

"Travel from Edinburgh to Manchester would take less time than crossing Los Angeles," said the proposal. "It would allow people to live in Newcastle and work in Glasgow."
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The visuals are courtesy of Chris Williamson.