The problem with a proposal that sees Coventry get its own HS2 services is what happens to the train afterwards. Running the trains on the existing line to Leicester won't be much quicker the route from St Pancras. Birmingham is served by its own HS2 services so how is the capacity justified?
It was never considered and it would be a pretty substantial chord considering how low HS2 is to the Cov to Leamington line. There is also the issue that there is no direct link from Coventry to Leicester at Nuneaton.
Thats interesting, they didn't even draw a couple lines on a map to explore it. If they had wanted too, would it have been possible to reroute HS2 to give a cheaper profile for the chord? The nuneaton issue is rather small in comparison to the scope of HS2.
That is putting the cart before the horse, changing the route of a high speed line to allow this would likely change the route for 5 miles either side. It would have to be grade seperated on HS2 for a start. There isn't even a defined solution for Coventry to Leicester direct services for normal traffic, let alone the complete rebuild required to get Spon End above 20mph and the rest up from 45mph to Nuneaton.
That makes sense, the line it would take is rather bendy - spon end is by the station so i assume it wouldn't affect journey time that much. I wasn't insinuating that the the people behind HS2 were wrong, just curious about there decision making process.
There are only 17 paths per hour in the example timetable, while there is an extra one for future expansion which could be used for Coventry.
Yes, but is 1tph really worthwhile to a destination like Coventry when a lot of the potential traffic could either still use the WCML or go to Birmingham Interchange. 1tph is not the sort of traffic you build sustantial dedicated infrastructure for.
To be fair, there is/was an infrastructure solution to get both XC via Coventry, you don't need HS2 to do it.
I guess you could take over one of the newcastle paths as well, given that a turn up and go frequency is less important.
Parkway stations are good for people leaving a place but not good for heading into the city centre. So there would be more economic development in Coventry if a city centre station was built instead.
Totally, looking at it i can't see any service that i would replace with one for Coventry although i feel Coventry would justify one if capacity on HS2 was not limited. There's a reason the designers didn't do this after all.
Hopefully with better seating and legroom than a 153, though!
It's not very convenient unless you're driving to Interchange though. Hopefully the tram line from Coventry to Interchange goes ahead.
If your coming from Coventry city centre you probably will be better of just taking the classic lines down to london, since the total time will be similar and there is an extra change involved with HS2. I assume the tram would take a more northerly route, along the A45 and A4114, where it will serve different suburbs to the trainline. Given how rural the area is between coventry and the airport there would probably be only two stops (Meridian and Milisons wood) so i dont think it would be slow enough to make taking the train worthwhile. This is ignoring the fact 90% of people will drive though.