I think this proposal is pretty sensible. I would actually say that some of the proposals should be out in place whether or not the HS2 trains are routed into the main station. In particular:
- 4 tracking to the east of Leeds City should be prioritised, as should a new station near the Minster. This would allow for grade separation, lots more through services (A Leeds s-bahn) and a decent interchange with the bus/coach station and access to Quarry Hill/Markets/Victoria Quarter. If you zoom in nice and close on google you can see that the bridge over Lower Briggate has space for 4 tracks and so you are talking about very minimal demolition from there on. Extremely low grade buildings of no strategic importance and some extremely useful strips of open land, the value of which will already be depressed because they are near an operational railway and road access is constrained.
I cannot begin to count the number of times I have stood waiting on Leeds station for a Huddersfield/Manchester bound service for it to be held up in some sort of nonsense on the eastern approaches. I think this should have been done years ago.
- Taking some services away from the western approaches is also very sensible and so I like the idea of the new line through the Aire Valley zone. This is a potentially significant employment area completely underserved by rail at the moment. However, I also think it is sensible to consider whether some of these services should be switched to tram-train operation. This would mean a new line could run through the city centre on the NGT loop route and avoid the station altogether but interchange through city-square. I would personally go further, and send this line out through the other side of Leeds, down Kirkstall Road (to serve the massive development zone down there) - join the Harrogate line to Horsforth and then leave that line for a spur up to the Aiport and then to Yeadon village.
- There is also the option of a hybrid solution. Terminating London to Leeds trains run into New Lane. Trains continuing further north run through the station. These trains could be shorter formation if platform length is an issue that can not be overcome.
- Another way to create some more capacity might be to install a dive down to the north of the station (on the current car park site) to take some trains into the Dark Arches. However, I have a feeling the arches are too constrained for this to work. However, the arches obviously provide an extremely obvious solution to capacity problems in the station concourse itself. You could put together a massive circulation area down there and lots of retail to to help reduce pay-back periods for that part of the project.
At the end of the day, grade separation throughout the region, an overloaded and over complicated western approach and an under capacity easter approach have been the achilles heel of the West Yorkshire network for years. These proposals would do a lot to address that. I do think tram-trains for the Aire Valley and Castleford/Knottingley services should be considered, as should a complete reorganisation of services south west of Leeds if HS2 happens, bearing in mind capacity will be released through Wakefield Westgate. The services to the south east of Leeds have always felt like a mess.
One other point I would make is that if platform length could be solved - might it be sensible to send all York/Scotland trains through Leeds and save the expense of the link to the East? I think the answer is probably no because there is enough demand for both and the eastern link helps Scotland and York stay connected if Leeds station has operational issues.
