Well after the government umming and ahhing, it seems that the plans to put High Speed 2 (the second High Speed Rail line) is set to be built.
For those of you hoping to do the London to Birmingham run in under 50 minutes though, hold onto your horses for a few years. More like 2026 is when the first train is going to run.
The plan for High Speed 2 (HS2) will be to build from London toward Birmingham – with the installation of a Y junction to allow it to form a “Birmingham Branch”, and a “Manchester and Leeds Branch”. Additional connections to conventional lines are planned to bring down travel times to Scotland.
To satisfy some local concerns about the noise and possible environmental effects, a some of the of the route will be built underground with major tunnelling works and cuttings in the following locations:
- Amersham in Buckinghamshire
- Ruislip in north-west London
- Greatworth in Northamptonshire
- Turweston in Buckinghamshire
- Chipping Warden and Aston le Walls in Northamptonshire
- Wendover in Buckinghamshire
- Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire.
However, the NIMBY’s (Not In My Back Yard) brigade are out in force with groups raising different concerns – from the cost of the project (and being a government project – you can bet it’ll overrun and cost more) to environmental impact, to groups who feel like they’ve had no input to where it goes
However there are some sad facts – the current infrastructure is limited in terms of how many trains can fit on the line and how fast they can go. As the current administration refuses to authorise the 3rd runway at Heathrow or expand other facilities, and rail travel is still growing, then capacity is needed along the line somewhere.
Other points in Europe have shown that High Speed Rail offers a reasonable solution, providing local infrastructure is upgraded too. In comparison to other country, the United Kingdom lags behind in terms of High speed rail, with the HS1 connecting London and the Channel Tunnel entrance as the sole “High Speed” line (~180mph). Other “main lines” within the United Kingdom operate up to 125mph (such as the East Coast, West Coast and the Great Western Main lines), with line speeds varying from the core parts of the network.
It’s a start – however this will be in legal fights for years to come before it is anywhere near complete….
