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The construction of HS2, a high speed rail link between London and the north of England, has been approved. The announcement was made by Boris Johnson yesterday. Phase 1, due for completion in 2028 at the earliest, will be between London and Birmingham; Phase 2, due in 2035 at the earliest, will be two separate lines onwards to Manchester and Leeds.
The trains will travel at up to 250 mph. They will otherwise be conventional, and will take electrical power from overhead catenary. The line will have connections with existing ones, enabling some trains to continue at lower speeds to further destinations, such as Liverpool and Scotland.
The routes will be broadly parallel with existing ones, which are generally running at full capacity. Rail passenger travel in the UK has greatly increased in recent years and this, rather than the reduction in journey times, is the main driver for the project.
Note : It is called HS2 because it is the second high speed line in the UK, HS1 being the link from St. Pancras International railway station in central London to the Channel Tunnel.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 13 2020, @11:35AM (2 children)
Do bear in mind that the only posrtion of high-speed railway that has actually been authorised and confirmed so far is from London to Brimingham (plus a spur toward Crewe for onward connections). Trains will then continue on the existing tracks to a variety of destinations including Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow (i.e. Scotland), while any additional portions of high-speed line are built.
Original plans included subsequent high-speed routes to Manchester and Leeds in a Y-shaped configuration, but there's since been a political commitment to an east-west high-speed railway somewhere along the Manchester-Leeds axis, and it's not clear how these objectives are going to be combined; that's part of the reason that "phase 2" has been sent back to the drawing board.
Furthermore, responsibility for rail infrastructure has been devolved from Westminster to Scotland, so if they want high-speed rail north of the border, they'll be building it themselves. Not that there's much point in them starting to build southwards until England has built their line a bit further north...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 13 2020, @11:49AM (1 child)
(Sorry, I can't resist, but bears do it in he woods)
Now, with that lameness outta my mind...
Well, that does not sound like "Heya, neighbor! Need a hand?".
A reason more for them to think at independence, 'cause if the neighbor looks down on you (because, wtf, Scotland has nothing but deficit) and is not willing to get on a better footing, what good is to let that neighbor tell you how to live?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday February 14 2020, @06:33AM
Scotland may have responsibility for their own rail infrastructure, but they get a budget for it too. Because the UK is spending all this extra money on high-speed rail in England, the federal funding rules (Barnett formula) mean that Scotland gets a certain proportion of the total cost to spend as it sees fit. They could spend it on their own little high speed line, but I understand they're using it for other improvements, like electrifying existing lines.