project to the next stage
extended to serve the new station. The decision not to serve Sheffield city centre has been a controversial one, although the DfT says Meadowhall will be “as little as five minutes” minutes by train from the city’s main station. The DfT suggests a new cross-city shuttle service could be introduced to link Dore & Totley in the south of Sheffield with the city centre and Meadowhall. The line will then continue east of Barnsley and Wakefield to reach a junction southeast of Leeds, with one branch heading into the city centre to serve a new station at New Lane, a short walk from the existing mainline station, and the other curving east to provide a connection with the East Coast Main Line south of York. The total length of the eastern branch will be 186km.
Journey times between Leeds and London will be cut from 2h 12min to 1h 12min, while Manchester - London will be almost halved from 2h 8min to 1h 8min. The line will also have a major impact on journey times between cities in northern and central England. For example, the 110km journey between Leeds and Nottingham currently takes up to 1h 45min, but this will be cut to 46 minutes by HS2. Stations at Leeds, Sheffield, East Midlands and Birmingham will each be separated from the next by journey times of under 20 minutes. According to the DfT, journey times between Manchester and Birmingham will fall from 1h 8min to 41 minutes, while Leeds - Birmingham will be cut from 1h 58min to 57 minutes. Cities further north, such as Newcastle and Durham, will also benefit from a 30 minute reduction in journey times to London, while the fastest services from Edinburgh and Glasgow will be reduced to around 3h 40min. The Scottish government is developing its own plans for an Edinburgh - Glasgow high-speed line and is eager to see a commitment from London to extend HS2 further north (see p26). In addition to speeding up journeys
and releasing capacity on the conventional network, HS2 is expected to encourage significant modal shift to rail. The line is forecast to carry up to 5.4 million passengers a year who might otherwise fly, and take 9.8 million journeys off the road network. Public consultation on Phase 2 was
IRJ April 2013
High Speed 2 Phase 2 to Glasgow
Preston
Leeds City
Wakefield Wigan
Liverpool Warrington
N Manchester Piccadilly
Manchester Airport
Doncaster
Sheffield Meadowhall Midland
to Edinburgh
New Lane
York
ECML East Coast Main Line MML
Midland Main Line WCML West Coast Main Line
Existing main lines HS2 Phase 1 HS2 Phase 2
Crewe Stoke-on-Trent Derby East Midlands Hub Stafford Lichfield Wolverhampton New St IRJ Curzon St Birmingham International to
London Euston
due to begin next year, but the process has been brought forward to start this year and secretary of state for transport Mr Patrick McLoughlin asked the DfT to look at options to speed up implementation of the project. The final route will be selected by the end of next year and both branches are due to open by 2032.
The total capital cost of building the complete Y network is expected to be around £33.4 billion at 2011 prices, although this figure includes the 40% optimism bias imposed on major projects by the Treasury. At present values, it will generate benefits of up to £47 billion and fare revenues of up to £34 billion over a 60-year period. According to HS2 Ltd, the public company responsible for developing the new railway, the cost of Phase 2 is estimated to be around £17.1bn. This cost estimate does not include
the proposed branch to London’s Heathrow Airport. Last year the government said Heathrow should be linked directly to HS2, but the plans were subsequently put on hold pending the conclusions of a report by the
Nuneaton
to London St Pancras
to London King’ s Cross
Airports Commission on connections to major international airports, which is due to be completed in 2015. The DfT says the Heathrow link will not be included in the forthcoming Phase 2 consultation, although if required it could still be included in the legislation authorising Phase 2 without any impact on the construction schedule. According to the DfT the planned high-speed station at Old Oak Common in west London will be just 11 minutes by train from Heathrow, which will be served by frequent Crossrail services from 2018. HS2 has the potential to transform the operation of Britain’s overcrowded network, segregating long-distance services from regional and freight traffic and easing the pressure on many of the worst bottlenecks in the system. The key to the success of the project will be how the new infrastructure is integrated with the existing network, and how capacity freed up on conventional lines will be used. At this early stage in the process such details are understandably sketchy, but they will be crucial to realising the full benefits of this potentially transformational project. IRJ
33 Tamworth Leicester Peterborough
Nottingham Newark
WCML
WCML
WCML
MML
MML
ECML
ECML
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