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- cross-posted to:
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No offence London, but if it ever does come to the north, I’ll be wanting a service that goes to the Eurotunnel and on to Europe. I don’t really care about going to London it’s only a 4 hour drive or 2 hours by rail
It’s all about capacity rather than speed though, isn’t it? A big part of the reason half of the trains on the west coast main line are delayed or cancelled whilst also costing a hundred quid for an off peak ticket is that the line is now at capacity.
HS2 was supposed to be completed all the way to Manchester long before this came to fruition, so that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now. It’s going to push up the price of rail freight (and therefore prices for goods) and very likely push more and more of it onto the roads the longer we delay.
Don’t get me wrong it would be honestly fantastic if they could connect HS1 & HS2 up and build passport control platforms along the route up to Manchester—I’d love to dodge the airport for shorter journeys. However, ultimately that’s just a nice-to-have in light of the real problem HS2 was supposed to have already solved. Tbh if I was trading that off versus completing the original extended proposal up to Glasgow, that is probably of greater benefit too.
Though, frankly we should really be doing the whole lot plus the east to west rail routes
There were supposed to be Regional Eurostar routes back in the 90s. They even tested running the trains up to Edinburgh and had a depot to support them on the east coast main line. It never happened then, so I can’t imagine HS2 will ever link up with services even if the physical track were to connect.
But now it will be 1 hour 40! Think of all the extra things you can do. Go for a leisurely pee break. Buy a cup of coffee to help the economy. Flirt with a lovable cockenay. The possibilities are endless.
Vietnam’s entire high speed rail network costs just twice this
