Sounds good, but it is the HS2 fan club on here who are arguing tooth and nail against any expansion of the scope of the project to serve more places, or even against higher capacity on the line planned.
Except we are building for services faster than anywhere in the world's, and speeds which (many on here accept) HS2 services will never reach, and increasing cost, and reducing capacity, in the process
There's a problem, many who support HS2 want it to go ahead (as well as improvements to the existing network), however if we extend the scope of the project that increases the cost.
If we add various additional parts to the scheme then the overall cost of the scheme increases.
Given the fact that many are opposed due to the cost if there was a headline figure of (say) £200 billion then that's more likely to leave the country with no HS2 or any of the improvements which could be developed following is building (including a link to the South West).
The operational speed of HS2 is expected to be 320kph (which other countries do have lines and trains which run at that does) but with the potential for higher speeds. That potential is only to design it so that the design doesn't inhibit the potential to do so at a later date.
Likewise it could be possible to increase the frequency by lowering speeds at a later date, however to do so would likely reduce the benefits to Leeds/York/Newcastle's journey time to/from London.
Such a reduction in speed could be possible at a later date, however to do so would most likely be most beneficial if there was a further HS line following a more direct route towards the East Coast of the UK.
Such a line could run from a different London Central station to an Eastern outer hub station before going onto Cambridge and then onwards to Leeds/York before either heading to Newcastle or serving it.
We could then build another HS line from the West which connects at Old Oak Common and the Eastern outer hub station and onwards to HS1.
The cost? Probably high enough that if you put it out into the public domain that it would likely kill all HS projects. However over a 20 to 40 year period would make it affordable.
That would be in ADDITION to improvements to the existing network.
I would be surprised if many, if any, of those who support HS2 would object to the principal of extra HS lines and continued speeding on the existing network.