HS2: focus on the east

Several letters in RAIL 965 pointed to flawed planning of routes for HS2, especially the whole idea of Leeds to London via Birmingham.

This seems a consequence of seeing HS2 as a higher-speed replacement for West Coast Main Line inter-city services.

Manchester and Liverpool are approximately 200 miles from Euston, with journey times of a little over two hours, giving a product that is already competitive with air, and the ability for day return journeys. Consequently, the train has the lion’s share (around 80%) of this market. Any speed-up could not improve this much.

Newcastle is 270 miles from the

capital, with around 55% of this market by rail. Improving times from 2hrs 45mins to just under two hours with TGV-type speed could improve the above to 80+%. Similarly, with the Tyneside/ Sunderland/Teesside region generally.

The topography and patterns of settlement would indicate that costs of an East Coast HS2 would have been significantly cheaper than a West Coast one.

Although not critical (see reason as per Manchester and Liverpool), Leeds/Bradford/etc could also utilise any TGV-type route southward, with virtually no additional costs.

The Scottish Central Belt would benefit greatly either way. On the WCML, cab signalling could bring Pendolino speeds up to 140mph, allowing Euston to Manchester in under two hours.

The main WCML investment needs are likely to lie in the rail freight domain, rather than TGV speeds.

David Cooper-Smith, Bletchley