Building work on the northern section of the £50bn high-speed HS2 rail project should be accelerated, HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins has said.
In his new report for the government, called HS2 Plus, he says the second phase of the project, intended to take the line to northern England by 2033, should instead be completed by 2027.
He adds it should run to a new hub at Crewe, in a 43-mile extension.
Sir David said the Crewe hub was "the right strategic answer".
"The section north of Birmingham to Crewe is relatively straightforward to build, and relatively lower-cost than other parts of the northern network," he told the BBC.
But at the same time, he also called for "a more comprehensive development" of Euston station, which is HS2's London hub.
"Let's do Euston properly. Let's think about it now. It's not going to be easy, I have to say, to redevelop that station. It is a mess," he told the BBC.
Sir David questioned plans to link HS2 to the HS1 Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link at St Pancras.
He said: "The current proposed HS1-HS2 link is, I believe, sub-optimal and should be reconsidered."
The first phase of HS2 is scheduled to link Birmingham and London by 2026.
Under the existing plans for phase two, tracks to cities including Leeds and Manchester would be built by 2032 or 2033.
The projected cost of the project is about £43bn - including a contingency of more than £14bn - but this estimate does not include the trains, which will cost about £7bn.
Sir David said HS2 was "vital for the future of the country" and said it could be "a catalyst for fundamental change".
If his plans to speed up phase two were adopted, he said, "it would deliver the benefits of HS2 - in terms of better services to the north - much sooner".
He said the speed that HS2 was passing through the legislative process was "a risk", and urged legislators not to delay the project unduly.
"Infrastructure is critical to this nation. We can't have a log-jam of approvals process," he said.
Sir David was responsible for ensuring London's Olympic Park was built on time and on budget as chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority. He has been HS2 chairman since January.
His appointment was viewed as a sign the government was sticking to its plans for the controversial project despite opposition, including from some of its own MPs.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said in an interview with the Observer on Sunday that there was a "compelling case" to speed up the extension of the HS2 rail link northwards.
He said it would "ensure the economic benefits can be shared sooner by everyone around the country".
'Value for money'However, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said a Labour government would sign "no blank cheques" for the controversial high-speed rail link.
Mr Balls said HS2 needed to represent "value for money" to retain Labour's support.
Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin admitted that legislation needed to build the high-speed rail project would not become law before the next general election in 2015.
A Department for Transport spokesman said Sir David's report "confirms that HS2 is the right project at the right price" but added that the report challenges the government to deliver the project more quickly and more effectively.
The Transport Secretary is due to respond to the report in Parliament later.
Shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh said: "David Higgins has made it clear that there are significant savings to be made if David Cameron gets a grip of this project and stops all these delays.
"The government must now act so this scheme can be delivered under budget."
'Waste of money'Opponents of the scheme question how easy it will be to speed up the construction of HS2.
Richard Houghton, spokesman for HS2 Action Alliance said: "Bringing forward work will not be as simple as it sounds.
"Unless there are plans to circumnavigate the statute book, then a separate Hybrid Bill will have to be introduced."
HS2 Action Alliance, which represents a coalition of groups opposed to the new rail link, says the project will be a "huge waste of money" and claims it will cause severe environmental damage, with the first phase alone having an impact on 130 protected wildlife sites.
Robbie Owen of Pinsent Masons solicitors, whose clients broadly support HS2, told the BBC that Sir David's report was "incisive and powerful".
"I think, in all, this [report] will hopefully help forge a much stronger cross-party consensus for the project," said Mr Owen, the head of infrastructure planning and government affairs at the law firm.
"It's crucially important to transform the economic shape of the UK and to try to rebalance the country away from all the emphasis on the South East," he said. "We just can't carry on as a country eking things out in terms of our infrastructure."
Do you live in an area along the planned HS2 route? What are your views on the HS2 rail project? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with the subject heading 'HS2'.
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