The results are in and the verdict is unequivocal: government should scrap HS2. That is the view of the 52 per cent of respondents to The Engineer’s end of year poll, which asked how the new conservative administration should deal with the project.
A total of 3,555 respondents took part in the poll, with just over a quarter (26 per cent) believing the project should go ahead, followed by 21 per cent who believe HS2 should be concentrated on connections in the north. One per cent of the poll opted for ‘none of the above’.
Of those wanting to see HS2 go ahead, Gandy said: “It’s a good job the Victorians didn’t worry about it how it would cost years ago. If they did, we would not have any railway. So, let’s just get on with it.”
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“If the PM and his new government are serious about delivering prosperity to the Midlands and the North, while at the same time achieving a real reduction in carbon emissions, there is only one credible course of action – press ahead with HS2 Phase 1 and bring forward Phase 2a and 2b. It’s a no-brainer,” added Carl Shillito.
“With Boris Johnson getting a private briefing last summer from the Oxford University Business School that HS2 would cost £110bn and the Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt saying that it’s going to cost £43bn to connect HS2 to local transport networks it’s getting far too expensive,” said Steve Leary, adding a thought around the cost conundrum that was brought into focus yesterday (January 6, 2020) by Lord Berkeley, the former deputy chair of the Oakervee Review commissioned by the government to evaluate the future of HS2.
In his dissenting report, Lord Berkeley stated that parliament has been ‘misled’ over the cost of HS2, which is now estimated to be around £107bn.
“You can guarantee the actual cost will be closer to £250bn,” said The Engineer reader Mark via the poll’s comments section.
What do you think? Should the budget for HS2 be directed toward improving existing services (as many readers believe), or will the end result justify the disruption that big ticket projects inevitably cause? Let us know in the comments section below, but please take a look at our guidelines for the content of comments before submitting.
Cancel it ! The stated benefits aren’t worth the investment (£60B-£100B ??), would be a lot more beneficial and cost effective in putting the money into upgrading the existing infrastructure and rolling stock – across the whole country.
I suggest the current Government (same as the old) are not going to make any sensible decisions on this front. Just as BoJo didn’t lie down in front the bulldozers to prevent Heathrow expansion he is unlikely to make any decisions that impact the investments and profits of his rich buddies.
From the Public’s viewpoint, I believe, all that’s wanted is a frequent, reliable, quality, affordable service – provide that and it may lead to less cars on the road. It’s not rocket science !
Absolutely HS2 should go ahead with the existing plan. This is a vital project that will allow high speed services to be taken off existing Victorian infrastructure and free that up for local and freight services.
Build it north-to-south 😉
The HS2 should be abandoned and the money put into east/west links in the North of England thus linking cities like Newcastle with Carlisle, Hull to Liverpool etc. Linking these cities would then give links to the main lines to London, Birmingham, Leeds etc. Just look at the railway maps of the Victorian/pre-Beeching era, that was a reasonably good plan.
Very difficult to predict but with the current ‘love’ for the north by Boris, its going to be a harder call for him to cancel the project.
Although to be honest its a total and utter waste of money when investment is really required in other areas of transport and I don’t just mean the North, the south west is also very poorly served by transport links both road and rail
Cramming more and more people in to our already overflowing capital city and surrounding areas seems ridiculous. Especially with the latest technology to support remote working and collaboration I think we would be far better off investing the money to support growth and diversification elsewhere on our tiny island.
The spend hopefully would be with UK companies. The danger is it will be discussed for ever and the cost will rise. There is plenty of innovation that could bring costs down. How did they ever get the M1 built in 18 months?
Engineering contractors and consultants should hang their heads in shame before pulling their snouts out of the trough of virtual pocket lining funding and pointless project embellishment they have contributed to.
They need to re-establish a credible relationship between project and its cost.
A certain political group has been trashed recently by its own constituency for its projected fecklessness.
Great British engineering possible for significant impact, not deskbound consultancy mirage generation that undermines the possibility of any engineering at all.
This needs cancelling now, the amount of wildlife and habitats it is destroying is abysmal, they can never be replaced.
Hopefully the new government will be able to step back and look at the cost/benefit implications. HS2 would seem to advantage a small percentage of the population given the projected cost (which we know will be nothing like the eventual cost – just look at Crossrail) Better to spend the money on parts of the rail system that requires a thorough overhaul, the N West in particular. I would also suggest that the money could be well spent increasing the loading gauge of existing lines to allow lorries to be carried on trains (as through the Channel tunnel) Reducing the number of trucks on the roads this way will have many benefits, increasing capacity for cars and reducing wear & tear on the road surface to name but a couple. I’m sure you can think of more.
HS2 will have no impact on me, other than to spend my taxes.
How many people will actually benefit from this project if it’s ever finished?
HS2 remains a vanity project. It has used capacity, connectivity and the prospect of economic growth as spurious justifications. The money assigned to this (£55 billion? £80 billion?) would be better spent on a national plan to modernize and upgrade the national rail network (Passenger and freight) involving electrification and the re-commissioning of closed lines. Cancelled electrification schemes under the previous administration need to be re-activated and extended to create a complete national network of electrified lines. This would simultaneously boost capacity , deliver more reliable and cost efficient services and delete the reliance on liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
The botched GWR scheme should be an object lesson in how not to electrify lines. (See the NAO report and weep) The DfT and Network Rail were roundly condemned for making a complete mess of this in terms of cost and delayed delivery. Given the Chinese have delivered a completely new high speed railway network in a decade the lamentable pace of progress in modernizing the network in Britain is something that needs to be addressed by the new administration.
I voted to cancel. Improvements to existing lines, electrification of all routes and existing computer and communications technology should allow the doubling (at least) of existing capacity.
CANCEL HS2
It is an exorbitant project that will destroy irreplaceable countryside just to benefit a tiny minority of people who should have left home 20 minutes earlier. If we believe in climate change and the need to cut CO2 emissions it is nonsense to build something that even its defenders say won’t be carbon-neutral for 120 years – in other words IT’S NOT. It will be a major CO2 producer. Planting saplings most of which die is doing nothing
Anyone in any doubt as to the benefit of this project should read Lord Berkeley’s response letter to the proposed findings of the similarly farcical Oakervee review
HS2 is building through our source protection zones for clean drinking water in Hillingdon London. The route runs next to landfill sites and areas where the Water is unfit for human consumption. HS2 plan to pile drive across the Mid Colne Valley with hundreds of piles 70 meters into the chalk for the Colne Valley viaduct. This jeopardises the future of the aquifer which today supplies 3.2 million people with daily drinking water. We urgently need a public enquiry.
Waste of money and destroy our forests
I am not in favour of HS2. The destruction to yet more of our natural landscape and precious Ancient Woodland is unacceptable, particularly at the time of a climate emergency . The beyond enormous monetary cost and high cost to the end user make no financial sense. Better solutions exist, re-instating The Central Line, and much needed improvements to the existing rail structure. HS2 is yet another badly planned vanity project that has been poorly thought out and executed. It is a Gravy Train that will devastate us all.
Decarbonise transport dont be afaid of the petrol heads
From London to Kettering we used to have four lines continuous but it was cut it down to two. “Not enough need”, was the comment Now they want to dig up half the country for only a few minutes gained it would appear to line somebody’s pocket . Why not look at what we already have? a confused Dave
Cancel and use what’s left of the budget to improve the existing network. Tripling and quadrupling track at bottlenecks for the needed increase in capacity. It would be good if there was enough left to increase clearances on the East / West coast main lines to run Eurostars through London, potentially to Scotland.
The HS2 Program should be going ahead to ensure Wales and Scotland are not encouraged to leave the UK to join Northern Ireland back into the EU.
If Boris Johnson wants to keep the UK Whole and not diminish the UK’s standing!!!!!
Then do not even think of cancelling or change the “Over All” original Plan for getting High Speed Rail into the Whole Country, especially the Northern Regions. As it will show how serious the Government are at expanding the UK’s transport, Industrial growth and maintaining the UK as a Whole…. stop dilly-dallying around after all this time [10 years is way too long – China has built out its system in this time], get folks in, who know how to make this happen at a reasonable cost [too many Engineering/Construction companies (often) underbid knowing they will get change Orders as the project proceeds…. “Oh the design needs changing because we did not think about this Change that we are putting in – they all know this is the “modus operandi” on all major projects and the budget office is too stupid not to see this. Make them go fixed price with a “need to prove a Change Order or a real price increase for RM’s”]
Make it happen and keep the UK Whole or the UK will be One country, England with Two internal borders!
The rest of the EU and China/Japan/Korea have HS trains running extremely well and are profitable.
HS2project in its present form is ecocide. It’s too expensive & does not give taxpayers sufficient return on their investment & will take too long to build. Look at less costly alternatives that don’t rip up the countryside. After all the Government state that we need more capacity on the rail infrastructure- so why does it have to be a high speed straight line route now?
The ancient woodlands it would destroy are irreplaceable
To me HS2 damages communitues who clearly do not want it. The national interest and benefit is too low It destroys countryside and ancient woodland and costs way too much.
When HS2 was first proposed I was in favour of it, but now the “usual suspects” have lost control of the budget, while giving juicy contracts & non jobs to their mates, I think HS2 should be scrapped.
If HS2 goes ahead, this new government will have little money for any other transport project, so no new “Northern Rail” or dualling single carriageway A roads to connect left behind communities. The latest Italian Pendolinos can do 155 mph. Get them running on upgraded East & West Coast mainlines, instead of HS2.
The current proposal is not fit for purpose and the whole scheme should be rethought. Stansted should be included in the route north, hence an East route. It should also connect to HS1, some of the existing Great Central line route would save a lot of money particularly in Midlands and North.
with climate change looming dangerously nearer, energy consuming projects such as HS2, must be forgotten…..what is all this obsession with cutting a few minutes here and there, all at vast prices?
What a mad project – ecocide!
Better to invest in upgrading electrifying the existing network and reopen lines closed in th Beeching area. E.g
– Great Central line to Rugby
– Midland main line to Manchester and Leeds
– Trans-Pennine line York to Mancheste
Cancel it and spend the money on something more worthwhile, like rolling out a nation wide network of fast chargers for EVs, and hydrogen processing plants. It’ll do far more good than cramming yet more people into London.
I dread to think if it does go ahead, how much more devastation they will do.
So far they are only doing prep work so they say.
In the name of humanity, this has to stop now!
HS2 and HS3 should be cancelled and replaced with highspeedUK the superior national high speed network. Work should commence at key pinch points on the network, rather than commencing in London
HS2 was already too late: anachronistic when first proposed. Technology allows desk bound workers to toil from home or wherever is convenient. This could seriously reduce the need to commute 5 days a week. Climate concerns should encourage more folk to both reduce their commuting and shop locally. A consequence of this may be that those whose jobs cannot be achieved from home will find more space on the train bus or road. Consequently, journeys may become more economic than at present.
Damage to wildlife ( lost of Habitat woods hedgerows wildlife corridors etc)
The damage with the lost of good agricultural land we cannot afford in the future
And not forgetting the cost??????
Go ahead urgently.
61 Ancient forests/58 Hectares will be gone forever at a time when we shouldn’t even be losing a single tree! We can’t inflict this sort of environmental damage on future generations. And I understand it’s going to take 100 years to become carbon neutral
Cancel it and save cutting the countryside up into more pieces. Any fraction of HS2 money will be much better spent on upgrading existing lines/greener motive power/rolling stock and re-opening of key pre-Beeching branch lines.
Go ahead urgently
It will take courage to admit HS2 was I’ll conceived from the start, needing four times as much tunnel as a sensible route following M1 and with a sporting chance of reaching Scotland. Less destruction, less cost and seven times as many connections when integrated into the network as it should be. Start again chaps. There are lots of worthy projects to get on with meanwhile.
Save our country side!
It’s a good job the Victoria’s didn’t worry about it how it would cost year’s ago. If they did we would not have any railway. So let’s just get on with it.
Please cancel the whole scheme.Certainly where I live in the North we are well served by Crewe -London one hour 30-45 minutes.This will cause traffic chaos,noise,vibration, cause outstanding schools to relocate(Wimboldsley) ,disrupt the main roads to our hospital which is 15 miles away and bring normal people no benefit at all quite apart from taking our greenspaces,two long distance walking routes, canal conservation area,ancient woodland hedrows and wildlife.homes being demolished beautiful rural countryside with 70 foot viaducts across it…if they don’t subside…cancel It.Taxpayers paying for it and it is so unpopular i believe that HS2 have their own police protection unit or the like.Mad when the cou.try needs money for brexit.Reopen the old dissused crosscountry lines which connect local places, will be useful.
If the PM and his new government are serious about delivering prosperity to the Midlands and the North, while at the same time achieving a real reduction in carbon emissions, there is only one credible course of action – press ahead with HS2 Phase 1 and bring forward Phase 2a and 2b. It’s a no-brainer.
They should concentrate on the Northern part and meanwhile redesign the London to Manchester part from scratch. The route is wrong and the design based on high speed is wrong.
It could be viewed that HS2 is only an asset upgrade – whereas the need for proper consideration of infrastructure might be more on a cost effective and more beneficial view to the economy of the country as a whole. For example much has been made about “capacity” but only on a limited basis and on particular routes; increased access to the network and greater redundancy would give a more flexible and resilient network – and, most likely, at a significantly lower cost. Such an alternative view of the railway as infrastructure would be more relevant to the needs of those (in the North and other regions of the UK) that are currently poorly served – and most likely correspond well to many of the areas that have returned so many MPs for the government.
I think the New government should concentrate on better existing services and put the north high on the agenda
The money would be better spent reopening the Northern part of the central line and improving local links.
I voted concentrate on the Northern connections, but the one thing they shouldn’t do is cancel it. Get it done now because the longer it’s left the more it will cost. The projected Picc-Vic line in Manchester between Piccadilly and Victoria stations was cancelled due to cost fears, but it would have cost a small fraction of what’s going to be built now and would have made North-South (and many East-West) connections so much easier for the last forty-odd years.
With Boris Johnson getting a private briefing last summer from the Oxford University Business School that HS2 would cost £110bn and the Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt saying that its going to cost £43bn to connect HS2 to local transport networks it getting far to expensive. See
“Boris Johnson secretly briefed on £100bn HS2 cost” New Civil Engineer, 11/10 12 @ https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/boris-johnson-secretly-briefed-on-100bn-hs2-cost-11-12-2019/
“HS2 requires £43bn of funding for people to make the most it, government’s infrastructure tsar says” Independent, 5/8/18 @
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hs2-government-funding-benefits-43-billion-benefit-tsar-infrastructure-commission-sir-john-armitt-a8478586.html ,
The key routes are the Northern ones, particularly the East / West lines. These must be done. I do not care about paybacks, this is a long-term strategic need. If we cancel projects on the basis of meeting an artificial payback period we might as well say Beeching was right but didn’t go far enough.
When will people realise that the good of the country is in the facility and ability to move around freely at a reasonable cost and without excessive carbon use. Ecocide – bah humbug. It is precisely because of woke words like this that the country is paralysed rather than progressing. China did not build a network in 10 years by doing environmental impact studies and holding public enquiries every 10 minutes. It recognised a national need and set about doing it with a sensible approach to the local populace impacted.
This should not be a political debate. The anti-Boris views even post-election are not worthy of a technical forum. Accountants and Eco-eccentrics can not be allowed to dictate the public good.
As the estimated cost continue to creep up from £33bn to £104bn, any sane individual can not justify the astronomical costs to save 15 minutes on a 2hr journey.
You can guarantee the actual cost will be closer to £250bn.
It should be cancelled and improvements made to the existing system including reopening “Beechinged” lines closed in the 60’s and 70’s. Increasing the loading gauge to allow lorry trailers to be moved by rail would also cut carbon and reduce traffic on the roads. Both of which could give a better return on investment than HS2.
GET IT BUILT NOW NOT JUST TO BIRMINGHAM BUT TO ALL MAJOR CITIES.
We need to stop using ICE vehicles, battery vehicles are an environmental joke…good for our cities but real bad for the whole planet with the pollution battery manufacture causes let alone using rare raw elements! Additional rail capacity is needed – most seem to agree on that. To upgrade the current network? REALLY does no one remember the outrage when stations were closed for Easter and Christmas to allow works to take place? The work needed to properly upgrade the current structure would take months or even years with massive disruption. We need the additional rail capacity; the time saving argument is a red herring…….I would expect a new network to be faster than the old for goodness sake, being built to current standard not on a centuries old base.
Think of the overall network improvement 60-billion could bring, executing a properly thought out transport upgrade, as mentioned above the south west is appallingly serviced yet there are many companies in the region who are expanding and injecting some real money in to the economy., who could really benefit from improved road and rail links. This project was ill conceived and the proposed benefits simply don not add up, look at the cross-rail overrun/spend and you can only imagine where this will end up not too mention the habitat loss.
Don’t use the train myself, but i dont think the idea of getting cars off the road is compatible with cancelling HS2. As for the video conferencing idea, the annual number of miles driven by motorists is close to an all time high, the technology for remote working has been around years but it doesn’t seem to have made a dent.
As for cost, whatever happens, you wont be getting your money back if they cancel it
No more jam tomorrow. Cancel HS2, it will not be carbon neutral for 100 years and not built for another 20 + years. Smaller integrated journeys from villages and towns need connection to cities and then city to city improvement. HS2 was all about speed, then capacity which has no argument now. Then the North / South divide, but this doesn’t stack up. Then about getting Sunderland fans to Wembley! Allen Cook. Now about re-generation!!! There are many coastal towns, Northern Towns and Cities that need re-generation, not just Birmingham and London.
John Thorley
By the time it is finished we will all be working differently. Trains will be obsolete.
Cancel it and buy some decent rolling stock for the North.
As Macbeth said we’re all “stepped in so far that should [we] wade no more. Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
Cancel it. I want my life back and I want to be able to move on from the constant worry of the inability to sell my property, it is making people ill and affecting their mental health over anguish and anxiety of ‘will it’ or ‘wont it’ be built. Just like Brexit ………. people have been enraged that they voted to leave or remain and just wanted to get on with it one way or the other, they have got their answer through an election, how about people on the route of HS2 having the same peice of mind. THIS is affecting lives of humans, animals and will affect our food source when land is no longer available to grow food. Maybe a trade deal with the EU will be on the table to bring in even more supplies at even higher costs!!!!!
The UK is one of the more backward of industrialised nations in terms of high speed rail transport. Spain, Germany, France and Italy are the most advanced within Europe. Since putting in high speed rail links there have been some dramatic results in changes to transport behaviour. The proportions of different vehicles making journeys have changed considerably (source Guardian 2016), for example:
Madrid / Seville – Before: train 33%/car 67% -After: train 84%/car 16%,
Paris / Brussels – Before: train 24%/car 61%/plane 7%/other 8% – After: train 50%/car 43%/plane 2%/other 5%.
Italy has also seen dramatic reductions in North/South air travel since the Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) high speed link was completed from Turin to Salermo via Milan/Rome travelling at 300km/h. Passenger numbers on high speed trains rose from 25m/annum in 2011 to 64m/annum in 2015. (Source Italia Rail and Impossible Railways on Yesterday channel). Italy has two lines connecting most of its major cities. In 2018 Italy also started the first in the world High Speed rail freight service which is being extended. The new Italian government has also given the go-ahead for the Turin to Lyon high speed link. The previous nationalist coalition was going to cancel it. It will involve extensive tunnelling through the Alps and the EU have agreed to fund 55% of the cost. When complete it will be possible to travel from London to Italy in 6 hours (city centre to city centre) – not much difference to air travel city centre to city centre.
High Speed rail has the opportunity to provide the same benefits in the UK, reducing the number of journeys by air travel, car and, if a freight service, lorries. This would have a large impact on CO2 emissions: electrically powered high speed trains vs. ICEs. Upgrading existing lines has limited opportunity because of the disruption caused to travellers, new lines are the way forward.
The km by country for high speed rail new and upgraded, open and under construction)(source Wikipedia): Spain (5,525), Germany (4,693), France (3,802), Italy (2,357), Sweden (2,055), UK (1,757 – incl HS2 ph1), Finland (1,174), Russia (845 – 4,595 to be under construction by 2024), Greece (700), Portugal (624).
The spending of taxpayers’ money in a way which benefits so few people is scandalous and in addition the environmental impact is completely at odds with current thinking. This project is very badly designed and should never have been allowed to progress beyond a headline-grabbing idea which was a component of Labour’s 2010 manifesto. It seems it’s being supported and kept alive by desperate vested interests determined to have a share of this publicly-funded bonanza which will line the pockets of big business for a couple of decades. If Boris really wants to appeal to the electorate he will do the decent thing and kill this off before any more of our cash is squandered.
While Barry J is correct in that the use of the train has increased in the above the reason for this is not clear cut. The cost of a train ticket Madrid to Saville id approx. 66 Euros (as cheap as 22 Euros if bought in advance or season ticket) at the same time the quickest route by car (530Km approx.) will take 5 1/2 hours will cost anywhere between 20 and 50 Euros for fuel and a about 40 Euros in tolls. Not Using the tolls is an option but then the Journey takes 10 hours, the train takes 3.
A similar trip in the UK London to Edinburgh on the train can be as little as £12.50 more commonly £60 so on a par with Spain but most people in the UK would drive this, why?
Well it’s not price and it isn’t time as the train is quicker, maybe we prefer our own little box, whether this should change is another debate.
HS2 will not change how we use the train, it will simply cause division within society. It should be scrapped before any more money is wasted on it.
This is a wholly LondonSelfish project which has so far been appallingly managed. I challenged 5rivers to give me any scientific evidence that Ancient Woodland ‘translocation ‘ worked. None given. So desperate that I was then asked if I knew anyone who could do it! They’re clueless vandals who create over priced newt ponds but destroy all other wildlife. Shame on them!
HMG are to pass phase 2a, Birmingham to Crew, giving London to Crewe so far. If this was about “capacity”, London to Crewe would be four track, not two. It is senseless building this section as two track. May as well not bother.
This project is one of many costing the EARTH literally. If you want to see your children live past 40 years of age you should be cancelling any project which damages eco-systems. We all need to learn to look after these as they are our children’s life-support systems for their future and beyond. Let’s All stop thinking selfishly and DO THE RIGHT THING: CANCEL HS2.
HS2 was flawed from the start. Stations should have been planned for the outskirts of cities, where land is much cheaper, and everything planned with cost effectiveness in mind.
However, it would be foolish to scrap it now, at this late stage, seeing as so much money has been sunk in, and we won’t get any of that back (except for workers who at least got paid for this elephant). Sorry for the opponents, but I think it should proceed. One overpriced and flawed rail connection is still much better than spending all that money for nothing.
3 or 4 new or ressurected East/West lines installed north of London at intervals up to the Scottish border would probably be mouch more effective and much less costly. Also being individual projects, they can be scheduled further apart in time and each can come “online” when completed rather than waiting for the whole thing like HS2.
Parliament was misled about the cost, ballooning from £33m to £100m+. The cost of tickets will be exorbitant thereby restricting those wishing to use it and contributing to underused trains. To make it work, the proposed speed must be reduced: High Speed, my foot. Just a politician’s coruscating bauble.
The government misled on the cost of an infrastructure project? Well thats never happened before has it……………………………oh no, wait a minute, what I mean is that ALWAYS happens. I wonder who the lobbyists who convincrd them it was a good idea were working for? SCRAP IT, it will just be another Humber Bridge, that was supposed to cost 80 to 100 mill, ended up costing 800mill, but at least it revived the industyry in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire………………………..oh no, wait a minute, it didn’t make any difference!
As Phil comments the Department of Transport have a proud history of underestimating costs/timescales and overestimating benefits.
I think many people would be happier with cheaper travel and more destinations/lines (and that would help reduce number of freight vehicles and congestion on the roads – especially if railway is a non-existent option).
The idea that we have spent so much that we have to go on is poor financial management; we need to look at the true cost still to be paid (£100bn and rising) and regard the £5bn to the lobbyists etc.. as already wasted/lost.
As regards HS2 increasing capacity; this seems likely to not be significant. Places , such as Leicester or Derby, will most likely consider using the older cheaper lines (if they are allowed) as the time gains are unlikely to be attractive. And, where I live, most of the freight trains seems to pass the bottom of my garden at night – which gives me a feeling that freight traffic is not competing with people commuting to London — perhaps HS2 “people” will be able to demonstrate that freight trains compete with (London) commuting trains on the currently used tracks (many of which will still be required for commutes from towns not near enough an HS2 station to reap benefits).
I would be more impressed if the government started looking at linking up cities and towns in the Midlands and North – surely a more cost effective option for improving local economies and use of £100bn infrastructure for improving transport and business.
How will HS2 release capacity for freight? Many of the intermediate stops along existing routes will not be serviced by HS2. These constitute far more of the ticketed journeys than those traveling the full distance service by HS2. These intermediate stops will still need to be serviced, consequently the amount of freed capacity for freight will be minimal. Reports from around Europe, where HS rail has been deployed, suggest that short commuter routes have been dispensed with, leading to more use of the road alternatives. Think about the implications of this on the road traffic once HS2 is fully operational !! Also, by the time it is built, the system will be completely out of date.
If we are to do projects like this, make them state of the art, and designed in such a way that they can be implemented quickly, with little disruption to the environment; oh and use UK companies. We have the talent – lets use it.
The project has failed totally to follow the railway’s GRIP stage-gate process & blundered through vital stages of evaluation, route review etc – even now there is uncertainty over so many parts of Phase 1
North of Preston and Leeds the ‘compatible’ trains will be slower and the claimed times are compared with inflated (ie not the best delivered by the current timetables) – for both East and West Coast routes we’ve seen sub 4 hour runs, and these are with some very serious PSR’s – (20 mph CAR/NCL, & 35mph PRE/YRK) Essentially with around 3 critical PSR’s on each route eliminated – and the level crossings North of Preston/ECML – including over 70 KGX-DON forever being set back on the work schedule, there is easily scope for close to 3.5 hours over the 395/408 miles, especially with tilting to ease the passenger discomfort delivered on sections of ECML through lack of this on current trains.
What is clearly missing on the current route, is resilience. When a blockade, or incident closes the line say Watford-Euston, there is no seamless and without time penalty, option to divert passengers. One detail which TfL scandalously blocked, with design work, costings and funding allocated, is the Croxley link. With this, a problem South of Watford, would simply mean taking a train to Euston Square, and the services to Amersham should be switched from 60 mph S Stock with no toilets, to 100 mph Chiltern trains, which will ultimately run through to Bletchley/MKC and enable long blockades (to build crossings at Ledburn/Bourne End) & emergency re-routing of passengers. With wires to Bedford, and from Wigston to Nuneaton, you then gain the ‘space’ to work on Hanslope.
At Watford the re-use of a line between How Wood (a London commuter station with NO car park & NO public road access) and MML can deliver a faster 30 min frequency service SAC-WFJ, eliminate 2 contentious level crossings (with 10mph PSR) enable the delivery of a long sought new station at London Colney, on A414, which also delivers a P&R for St Albans, and a more efficient turn back facility for SAC-STP services. – and eliminates an overbridge with a severe weight limit, plus relocates Park Gate station closer to the main road, and 2 bus routes.
Closer in, a well planned set of connections, enables access via Old Oak Common, Willesden, and Cricklewood, to 3 London termini (and HS1 – via 2-3 routes – MML and NLL/Goblin), with the potential for 12 x 125mph tracks between London and Midlands (plus GWML as a backstop).
At Euston, the DC and local services should be sent underground (using the existing grade separated junction at Chalk Farm, and delivering new 4-track through platforms connecting to Euston Square, and Warren Street, and Euston aiding the dispersal of commuter traffic that currently tangles with long distance traffic on the Euston concourse. That tunnel should them extend to follow (and possibly reclaim) the tunnels never completed in 1939 for the extension of the tube from Euston with a connecting station at Tottenham Court Road (a resilience measure for Farringdon) and thence to emerge via Charing Cross, releasing the train shed as a prime space (per Gare d’Orsay), and feed Overground links to Waterloo/London Bridge where they can provide inner local stopping trains to Clapham Junction or Deptford Loop or via Eurostar viaduct back to East London Line. Dual voltage LNW suburban services via Waterloo/London Bridge to Gatwick/Reading &c – Thameslink 2.