Jimmy Owl;
Yeah not the Met. (Hah usual rivalry coming out there)
Hmm I think you are right as they are already thinking of expanding the platforms further like John Carlson said, also I found that they are making a southern entrance in the future which also looks a tight squeeze in itself. Still I do think it would be better to keep a HS2 station in the city centre as moving 1000+ passengers 3 x an hour from say an outer station to the centre must be difficult?
Only places that come to mind would be two brownfield sites, one on Whitehall Road right near Globe Road (possibly using the carpark aswell) and a place on Sweet Street West (which appears to have an old factory there, although it may have been torn down now). As for blank canvasses Cross Gates that Invincibles mentioned does seem really viable, as for me I just found one right near White Rose Shopping Centre although it does seem far out.
Invincibles;
If I went for a station on the out skirts it does seem pretty viable to put it there, out of looking at all other areas around the Leeds suburbs I was struggling to find anywhere else apart from White Rose to be honest, so thanks for the info!
WatcherZero;
Hmm for the purpose of the report I was asked to look at just the Birmingham to Leeds section, but the grand scheme of the easterly HS2 section would be to link up Newcastle and Scotland aswell, so i’m still quite torn between either putting a station in the centre or on the fringes.
John Carlson;
Well that trackbed does look pretty promising but the full station would have to be elevated and I gather the high speed trains would have to use existing track at some points to enter Leeds as there just doesn’t seem to be any room at all to put in a new segregated high speed track unless a lot of Leeds was bulldozed...
Nym;
There does seem to be some brownfield sites about where a local station could be created as I think platforms 1 – 5 in Leeds run local services, which could be moved thus making room for HS2 platforms if the car park was rearranged, I’m just speculating though.
Thanks again for all your input, it’s given me a lot to think about.