BEHIND THE HEADLINES: THE IMPACT OF HS2

At the time of going to press, a new high-speed rail link connecting London, Birmingham and cities in the north of England still has the green light. Supporters say that faster rail will boost the economy outside the capital, but opponents are deeply conc

This ambitious high-speed rail project has been contentious since its inception. We look at the arguments on both sides.

WHAT IS HS2?

The project involves building 345 miles of new track, with trains travelling at up to 225mph (360km/h), which is 100mph more than the current top speed on the East and West Coast main lines. The route is forecast to carry 100 million passengers a year when it is completed. Work was due to start this spring on Phase One, carrying passengers on a new line from London Euston via Old Oak Common in west London via Birmingham Interchange (near Solihull and Birmingham airport) to Curzon Street station in central Birmingham. The cost has been put at £106bn – up from an original budget of £32.7bn.

WHAT ABOUT THE NORTH OF ENGLAND?

Phase 2B (previously referred to as HS3) will run from Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to Leeds. The Government intends to combine Phase 2B with major upgrades of other rail services across the north of England, under the umbrella label of High Speed North. The Government also says the route will go ahead in its entirety, eliminating uncertainty, but there would be a review of the project north of Birmingham, as it was “right that we interrogate the methods and the costs as we go forward”.

WHEN WILL TRAINS RUN?

The current expectation is for an initial service of three trains an hour between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street to start towards the end of the 2020s, between the years 2029 and 2033, with 10 trains an hour from Euston beginning between 2031 and 2036. The complete HS2 network, including links to the north of England, is unlikely to be ready until somewhere between 2037 and 2040.