As a way of avoiding doing the work I was meant to do last night, I played around with the National Rail map working on the assumption that back in the 60's the "influencers" liked the GC rather than the Midland. I then worked on the basis of building no new lines at all, just not closing bits and chords that were long ago lost.
OK, that's wildly historically inaccurate but this is only a "what if" fantasy thread isn't it?
So what differences do I think it would have made from what we have now?
Well the Woodhead route is used, not the Hope Valley.
It's Sheffield Victoria, not Midland.
Fast services northbound from Sheffield would run via Huddersfield
Southbound from Sheffield to Derby would go via Barrow Hill and Chesterfield.
Southbound elsewhere would go to Nottingham Victoria.
At Nottingham there would have been a realignment of the spur from the GC lines to better access the Newark / Grantham routes.
Nottingham Midland would still be used for the slow local services to/from Derby.
Nottingham - Derby services would enter Derby from the north.
Leicester would be trickier. To get the east-west link would either require a new connecting chord and a bit of new line (redone as Lincoln was perhaps?) or it would have required the existing station to remain open to service that line, albeit probably as a rather minor stop.
Market Harborough, Wellingborough and Kettering no longer have any service.
Rugby would have a relocated station to have a single solution where the tracks cross, as at Tamworth.
The link between the GC and the GW lines would exist north of Banbury to allow NE to SW types of links.
With the lines towards London better used it is unlikely that there was the opportunity for the Chiltern services to grow and that may have never been re-instated as it has been.
Now if this had happened RailUK would undoubtedly have the following threads:
Is the Bedford-Kettering re-opening plan viable?
Bring back the Hope Valley line
Would Leicester benefit from having one station rather than two?
Does Pennistone need the platform extension from 10 to 12 car?
Cheers,
Jason