Recent content by Shrop

There was a time when HS2 was proposed to link with HS1, which could have produced direct rail links between cities in France, Germany, Belgium etc and provincial UK, thus reducing the need to link to Heathrow. It's already possible to fly direct to a great many cities that Heathrow serves, from...

I don't disagree, but a route serving Manchester and Leeds would have had inherent benefits to relieving the WCML. It also wouldn't have been too hard, once the route had reached the Rugby area, to provide a link to Birmingham, but without Birmingham being the primary objective.

Yes, emphasis on Heathrow and Birmingham, which is why we are where we are now. The emphasis should have been on links to cities further north, with Heathrow and Birmingham being the secondary considerations. Northern cities as add-ons to these as primary objectives was always a plan for failure :s

Okay, a quick Google search reveals this document which dates from 2007, ie five years before the document that I linked to at post #336 High Speed Two: A Greengauge 21 Proposition Here are three quotes from this document as examples which show the importance of Heathrow, as do the diagrams...

Are you seriously suggesting that there would be documented evidence still remaining about this, which could embarrass MPs etc? Next you'll be suggesting that all MPs were whiter than white with everything to do with Covid, and if they weren't then all the evidence should still be there to prove...

No, the Chiltern route was never the best route, it was ONLY the best route from OOC to Birmingham, and even this aspect was debatable. As a project to benefit the UK, the primary objectives for HS2 were to relieve pressure on WCML, and to provide a route to major population centres at least 150...

Absolutely right, but many people seem incapable of comprehending this. I've argued many times that the M1 corridor wasn't properly considered and I've never seen any convincing evidence that it was. Documents such as this...

So build the new railway to the larger gauge, and if it's prohibitively expensive to keep going at that gauge, then design an easy cross-platform facility on to the UK gauge where needed. Almost everyone arriving into large cities are already used to changing transport mode as soon as they...

While I wouldn't agree exactly, it's nevertheless good to see someone making positive suggestions for a change, instead of the very regular comments on this forum which are all too often about finding reasons NOT to do things. In terms of wanting to serve every large urban area, such proposals...

HS2 delays have been featured on here before, but this is beyond a joke. This morning’s news widely reports an expected further delay in the opening of HS2, beyond 2033. Construction has already been underway for several years, and yet here is a further delay to BEYOND ANOTHER EIGHT YEARS in the...

Yes, I expected that, however if much of the new line could be built to accommodate double deck trains, then we would only be considering upgrades on relatively short sections. These short sections may of course be hugely expensive, but at least they should be costed. And without any bias too.

Worth another re-think of this part of the timetable perhaps. I'm not sure how easy it is to gauge the justification for serving passengers from London based on existing statistics - is there a reliable way to quantify any latent demand?

As you’ll see from my original post, I recognised the huge impracticalities for providing double deck trains in the UK. However that wasn’t the question, I asked whether some routes might have been costed such that they could be compared to the cost of others, because some routes might lend...

Yes, I was surprised at that gap, and on Saturdays it's not so bad as there is an 11.25 from LLJ, it just seemed unfortunate that this gap exists on weekdays just as the train from London arrives. Your suggestion of splitting the following two sets at LLJ is better than nothing (and a helpful...

Mrs Shrop and I had a lovely day in Llandudno last week, taking the train from Shropshire but once again leaving me with a question. As we stopped in Llandudno Junction at 10.53 I was aware that there was a train from London just a few minutes behind us, due in at 10.59. We duly departed before...