HS2: east can meet west

Christian Wolmar’s opinion piece on HS2 (RAIL 968) set me thinking: why not combine both east and west legs?

While the eastern leg has been curtailed for now, options are being looked at to extend HS2 to Leeds. HS2 services to Liverpool could be routed via Sheffield and Manchester, terminating at a new high-speed station upon the former Exchange site.

Sheffield and Manchester desperately need a new line. A line on its own has already been ruled out in the Integrated Rail Plan, but a new line as part of a wider network could be justified. This would remove the need to have separate direct services to London.

While increasing frequency of services to both Liverpool and Sheffield from London, it would also increase capacity across the North, as all services would have to be the same length.

This new line could also be used for Northern Powerhouse Rail services between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and

Hull. If services terminated in Liverpool, then a much cheaper underground station could be built in Manchester, as it wouldn’t be necessary to terminate services in Manchester (which makes underground stations far more expensive).

A connection with the West Coast Main Line could also provide direct connections to Scotland significantly improving connectivity from Manchester, but also the Sheffield City Region.

To mitigate impact upon services (in particular, Manchester) being affected by a longer route via Sheffield, it would be necessary for the eastern leg to be further east, so that all services don’t have to head through Birmingham.

A new eastern leg could run through Leicester. Rather than as an alternative, it could be connected into one of the alternative options as proposed by Mott MacDonald within their 2021 report.

Michael Bradley, Halifax