Prime minister Gordon Brown (pictured) said the government would invest more in high speed rail at the launch of a £5.8bn high speed rail link this morning.

Brown made the commitment at the launch this morning of the high speed rail link between St Pancras International station in London and Kent. The event was held at St Pancras. He said investment in high-speed rail networks would continue and that by the end of March the government would publish plans for a high speed network to connect the north and the south.

Brown said that investing in infrastructure was essential despite the state of the public sector finances. The public sector annual deficit in 2009/10 is projected to be £178bn.

“I know some people who think this is not the time to be investing in infrastructure but I believe it is essential to do so and we will be investing £20 billion in our rail infrastructure in the next few years,” he said.

The government committed to continuing investing in large infrastructure projects including cross-London rail links Crossrail and Thameslink in last Wednesday’s pre-Budget report.

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