HS2 High Speed Rail

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Will it ever happen? The proposed high speed rail-link from London to Birmingham and then on to Manchester and Leeds. Every week it seems that some politician comes out with something negative about the project.

Personally, I wish it had been done years ago but the proposed costs really make me wonder if it is worth it now.

Obviously I have a north west bias to my opinion but I think we would see greater gain here with more investment in local transport infrastructure.

One must do project that will never happen is extending the M65 eastwards towards Yorkshire and Leeds. It seems absolutely mad that the only route connecting the whole north west of England to the M1 is the M62. An M65 extension would reduce congestion on the M62 between Bradford and Leeds and the entire northern section of the M60 around Manchester. It would reduce travelling times from anywhere north of Preston to Leeds by about 45 mins and produce greater economic gains for the isolated east Lancashire towns of Blackburn and Burnley than HS2 ever could at a fraction of the cost. The reduction of congestion along the M60/62 junction would also help Manchester and Liverpool.

Improvements should also be made to cross-pennine rail routes as well as the Metro-link in Manchester.

Thoughts?

[Malbec]

Why waste money linking up places in the North when we can and should have better transport links in London? We need a new circular line serving the suburbs so that people can bypass the overcrowded central hub stations, thats far more important IMO.

[Mark]

You can argue either way. IMO London already gets far too much of the investment

Whereas spending a fraction of the money for HS2 would transform the North and yet the money is only available for pet projects.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Why waste money linking up places in the North when we can and should have better transport links in London? We need a new circular line serving the suburbs so that people can bypass the overcrowded central hub stations, thats far more important IMO.

Couldn't we do that and extend the M65 with the money they want to spend on HS2?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

You can argue either way. IMO London already gets far too much of the investment

Whereas spending a fraction of the money for HS2 would transform the North and yet the money is only available for pet projects.

Improving transport links locally in the north west would benefit a population of around 6-7 million. Why are the 6 million Londoners only worthy of transport infrastructure?

[GridGirl]

I'm going to a client meeting in London tomorrow. The 7.00am train from Leeds gets in at 8.59 and I can be at my client by 9.30am. OK so quicker would be better but the sheer cost of HS2 doesn't justify the relatively small reduction in commute, which isn't too bad if services are running on time and are not delayed. What I would prefer is a reduction in train fairs and uninterrupted services. I fix tickets where I can but an open return between Leeds and Kings Cross is in the region on £250 which is far too much.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I'm going to a client meeting in London tomorrow. The 7.00am train from Leeds gets in at 8.59 and I can be at my client by 9.30am. OK so quicker would be better but the sheer cost of HS2 doesn't justify the relatively small reduction in commute, which isn't too bad if services are running on time and are not delayed. What I would prefer is a reduction in train fairs and uninterrupted services. I fix tickets where I can but an open return between Leeds and Kings Cross is in the region on £250 which is far too much.

The train from Preston to Euston takes about 2 hours which is fairly quick to be fair (avg speed of around 110mph) so £50bn to get to London 30 minutes faster seem ridiculous when it already takes longer to get from Preston to Leeds on a train.

[BDunnell]

I used to be hugely in favour of HS2. Now, the way in which it's been planned, and the arguments used for justifying it, have put me off it completely. The out-of-town stations, such as that in Sheffield, render the whole thing absurd. The time-saving argument is a complete non-starter. I love high-speed rail travel in mainland Europe, but we've gone about it in totally the wrong way — not least because privatisation has seen virtual abandonment of notions of a national rail network, and the HS2 services would surely be viewed as premium offerings rather than as part of the regular network. (French and German high-speed services do command slightly higher fees, but, in each case, as part of a wider nationwide structure.)

As for what the money saved by cancelling HS2 should be spent on, I can, as someone who uses trains right across the UK, think of many priorities higher than London services.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I used to be hugely in favour of HS2. Now, the way in which it's been planned, and the arguments used for justifying it, have put me off it completely. The out-of-town stations, such as that in Sheffield, render the whole thing absurd. The time-saving argument is a complete non-starter. I love high-speed rail travel in mainland Europe, but we've gone about it in totally the wrong way — not least because privatisation has seen virtual abandonment of notions of a national rail network, and the HS2 services would surely be viewed as premium offerings rather than as part of the regular network. (French and German high-speed services do command slightly higher fees, but, in each case, as part of a wider nationwide structure.)

As for what the money saved by cancelling HS2 should be spent on, I can, as someone who uses trains right across the UK, think of many priorities higher than London services.

I 100% agree.

It would be nice to have faster trains but it really isn't a priority when you consider the improvements we could make elsewhere.

[Mark]

I'm going to a client meeting in London tomorrow. The 7.00am train from Leeds gets in at 8.59 and I can be at my client by 9.30am. OK so quicker would be better but the sheer cost of HS2 doesn't justify the relatively small reduction in commute, which isn't too bad if services are running on time and are not delayed. What I would prefer is a reduction in train fairs and uninterrupted services. I fix tickets where I can but an open return between Leeds and Kings Cross is in the region on £250 which is far too much.

To be fair the East Coast Main Line is probably the best and fastest service into London. But I'm sure what you'd benefit from more in your day to day life is faster connections to Manchester, Sheffield, York etc. rather than being able to get to London 10 minutes faster. And as HS2 would take an indirect route via Birmingham it's not going to be that much faster anyway -- All this is assuming it ever gets to Leeds, which is unlikely, even if the line to Birmingham is built.