He says the link to Scotland "will happen" and has the potential to be up and running before the London-Birmingham link.

Network Rail have already published their figures showing their estimate of journey times from London to Glasgow reduced to a little over two hours with a new high-speed link, less than half the current time.

Earlier this month phase one of the £33 billion high-speed rail network connecting London and Birmingham was given the go-ahead by the Government and should be running by 2026. (see our story “£33bn High Speed Rail line approved” 11 January 2012)

UK Transport Secretary Justine Greening called the line "the most significant transport infrastructure project since the building of the motorways" and said a second phase would reach Manchester and Leeds by about 2033. A consultation on the second phase will be launched in 2014.

The first phase will take 30 minutes off the four hour 30 minutes journey from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh with the second phase saving another 30 minutes.

The Scottish Government said at the time that it was "disappointed" that Greening's announcement did not include a commitment to bring high-speed rail to Scotland, and Keith Brown said that they would continue to push for a verbal commitment from the Coalition Government.

Mr Brown said that since then Westminster has sanctioned HS2 to examine how high-speed rail could be brought north, but sill remained critical of how Westminister has handled the issue.

He said: "The company involved in developing the routes so far is now going to be talking about coming to Scotland and that's good news.

"What we would like to have happened, when Ms Greening made her announcement, was [a statement] that we are going to have a high-speed link to Scotland. She could have said they would have discussions with the Scottish Government as to how we deliver and fund it. They could have said we are looking in the future to come to Scotland, but didn't.

"They [Westminster] have been talking about a high-speed rail network for Britain, but this is not for Britain, it's not even for the whole of England."

The developments came after discussions between Keith Brown and Westminster Transport Minister, Mike Penning.

Mr Brown said: "What I said to Penning was that the high-speed rail company that has been established has now to start engaging with the Scottish Government, not after 2026. And he agreed.

"The exact route of [the line in Scotland] is something that has to be worked on and that early engagement is the one welcome part of the announcement."

The Scottish Government hopes to further drive home its case for the benefits of a UK-wide high speed train service at the High Speed Rail Conference in London on Thursday 26 January which will be attended by Justine Greening.

Mr Brown feels the environmental case for high-speed rail is strengthened if it extends to Scotland, as it would reduce the number of people who currently fly between Scotland and England.

He added: "England will benefit as well by having this connection. First of all it alleviates congestion at Heathrow and the south-eastern airports. It helps the environment there and here, it helps business, here and in England."

Keith Brown said: "It is a big investment, I don't deny that, but other countries have done it and benefited from it and I think we can do likewise. Scotland wants it."