They keep telling us we have to have HS2 because the main lines from London are full.
This is rubbish.
Many trains out of Euston are not maximum length. London Midland run 4 and 8 car trains, when the maximum is 12. And Virgin still have some 9 car pendolinos. And the Pendolinos could be reconfigured to get more seats in. BR did it with HST’s in the 90’s – it can be done.
They could build some 6 car units for London Midland, thus saving the length of 2 cabs in a 12 car train.
But the real issue is there are a few pinch points on the network that need addressing.
Between Euston and Roade (Between Milton Keynes and Northampton there is a 4 track railway and the lines are paired by use. (Up lines are towards London, down away from London) From west to east there is down fast, up fast, down slow, up slow. At Roade the railway divides and the slow lines split off to go to Northampton. But a train on the down fast going to Northampton needs to cross the up fast. This happens at Hanslope junction. So no trains can come south while the Northampton train is signalled across the layout. So rather than build a whole new line from London, we could get more trains on the west coast line by building a bridge to take trains from the down fast over the up fast to join the down Northampton.
Rugby has such an arrangement to allow trains from Birmingham to cross the Down fast to join the up fast.
But go to Colwich near Rugely, and the Manchester trains diverge, and again no bridge so eating up capacity. And this site shows it is dangerous to have high speed layouts like this because there was a high speed crash there on Friday 19 September 1986 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colwich_rail_crash
Further north at Norton Bridge they are going to build a bridge to separate the flows. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/11026.aspx
There are quite a few busy junctions over the network that need bridges. Note another advantage of bridges is that delays in one direction don’t get multiplied into the other direction.
Hitchin on the East Coast line. This is where the Cambridge line leaves the East Coast line. They are building a bridge here. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/6397.aspx
Newark. There is a flat crossing here where the Nottingham Lincoln line crosses the East coast line. This will use capacity in both diections.
Doncaster. Trains from Sheffield to Hull need to cross the main line on the flat. Difficult site in the middle of the town, however.
The big problem on the East coast is the 2 track section over Welwyn viaduct, through Welwyn North station and through the Welwyn tunnels. Fixing that would be expensive but a 2 track section there surely needs sorting.
Slade Lane, between Stockport and Manchester. Between Stockport and Slade Lane the lines are paired by direction, down slow, down fast, up fast up slow. At Slade Lane the line from Manchester Airport joins and the 4 tracks become paired by use, slow lines on the west and fast on the east. Has been crying out for a bridge for years.
Newbridge junction. This is where the line from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Bathgate leaves the line to Falkirk and on to Glasgow or Stirling.
But that leaves the real pinch point between Coventry and Birmingham New St. This is a 2 track railway with local stations, and a 5 track station at Birmingham international. Most of it is urban so no room to expand. But it could be 4 tracked between Tile Hill and Hampton in Arden when it is in the country. And at Adderley park there was a goods line on the line towards Birmingham, and that could be relaid and stopper could call at the station while expresses past.
And at Stetchford, stopping trains going towards Coventry could use the back of the platform on the freight only like from Aston if a connection were put in (Perhaps east of the Albert Road bridge).
Simple measures could get more capacity from the existing rail network, would benefit a lot more passengers that HS2 and be a site cheaper.
You seem to know alot about it, Alexsandr. Have you communicated any of it to the opponents of the project? There’s a judicial review under way, it may have been useful.
I don’t think you can many more seats in a Pendolino without it being very uncomfortable. I’m sick and tired of trains crammed with seats. I don’t believe it is very good politically to create a culture where people are rammed tightly into trains. I wouldn’t treat a dog like that, and I want railway bosses to put consumer comfort first.
My response would be to build double decker trains and spend some money improving lines so that these trains can fit under old bridges. Most countries in the world now have double decker commuter trains, even in the USA and Oz where trains are despised. Britain should get double deckers too.
I agree totally about the need to improve junctions, and think that building a high speed line between London and Birmingham is stupid, given that that line is already a high speed line.
Double deck trains would be very expensive to operate in the UK. Must of the infrastructure is not big enough. Lots of enlarging tunnels and rebuilding bridges would be needed. They have dome some work to fit 9’6″ freight containers but double deck trains are even bigger.
I should have said that people dont travel to and rom Birmingham. They travel from stetchford, cradley heath, longbrodge, walsall etc. Runnng HS2 form a station a 20 minute walk form New street will not help them, they will say sod it and jump on the trains that will still run from new st.
and who will get a tram from Nottingham out to Toton to get a HS2 train? No they will get a train form the city centre.
Baron@May 14th, 2013 – 17:46
Views like mine have been expressed in Modern Railways magazine over the last few months. They are well known in industry circles. But I thought they needed an airing in a general forum.
usual rubbish here
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/05/high-speed-2-is-needed-to-bring-britains-infrastructure-in-the-21st-century/
I think if you want to operate double-deck trains, it is cheaper to build a completely new line. Less disruptive, too!
You also need to consider the environmental impact of building a completely new line, compared with upgrading the East Coast and West Coast mainlines to carry double-deck trains. The economic cost of the upgrade would not be £50bn. Many of the bridges are Victorian anyway and it would be an advantage to replace them with modern constructions.