The Anonymous Widower

HS2 Does The Right Thing At Leeds

I don’t like the concept of most of the HS2 stations.

Euston, isn’t too bad, as the HS2 platforms are alongside those for the main station and I suspect that when and if I see it in reality, I will be able to arrive in the station on perhaps a London Midland train from Bletchley or Tring and just walk across to the HS2 platforms.

At some of our better interchange stations like Reading, to change trains, you go up escalators to a wide overbridge and then walk across to the escalator for the platform of your departing train. The design also allows seats and cafes in a totally non-claustrophobic environment. I have a feeling that the new London Bridge will raise the bar of this type of station even higher!

To my mind the designs for HS2 station at Birmingham is absolute rubbish and truly terrible. Birmingham is developing a local train, tram and bus network centred on New Street station, so instead of HS2 arriving into this hub, it arrives at a separate station some distance away and many passengers will have to get a tram to connect to their ongoing service.

As HS2 will run very large trains, imagine say a thousand Chelsea fans arriving on HS2 to go to a match at Villa Park and needing to get a train from New Street. You save masses of time by using HS2 and then waste it queuing for a tram.

But if HS2 arrived directly into New Street, a lot of the problems would be solved with a short walk.

In Birmingham there is no space in New Street itself, but why shouldn’t HS2 arrive in an underground station beneath New Street? Or in my preferred solution, in a giant double-ended station stretching right under the City Centre.

As they’ve got a redundant piece of Grade 1 Listed railway memorabilia, they’ll use that instead. The heritage lobby should crawl back into its hole!

But at Leeds, HS2 have put forward a new proposal, where HS2 meets the existing station in a giant version of the way  trams met the train at Nottingham.

This is the only picture I can find of the proposal. It’s in an article in Global Rail News.

HS2 At Leeds Station

Passengers arriving in Leeds would just walk to the front of the train and then they’d be over the platforms of the existing Leeds station. If that is too difficult, then I’m sure we’ll see a few travalators.

It is a much better layout than that proposed for Birmingham.

Interchange between HS2 and local services must be a short walk, assisted by lifts, escalators or travalators as required.

December 19, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Birmingham, Euston Station, High Speed Two, Leeds, Trains