Capacity Crunch At Chester – HS2
The Capacity Crunch At Chester article in the July 2017 Edition of Modern Railways didn’t say much about HS2.
This is said about HS2 services and North Wales.
There are aspirations in North Wales for additional services to Crewe by 2027, when HS2 is due to begin operating between London and Crewe.
This is said about Liverpool and Chester and HS2.
Liverpool City Region’s rail strategy envisages Chester-Crewe electrification enabling Merseyrail services to Crewe, connecting East Wirral and Ellesmere Port to HS2.
And then there is The Constellation Partnership.
This is a massive project to take advantage of the opportunities of Crewe being just 55 minutes away from London.
This is their mission statement.
This is a boundary breaking partnership between two Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) and seven Local Authorities, with strong Ministerial backing from Government, and a unified fast-track approach to plan-led economic development, making it all the more powerful an investment proposition.
These partners share a single vision – a single economic footprint creating a coherent investment market boosted by the international investment magnet of High Speed Rail connectivity. This is an unbeatable growth opportunity for investors.
With powerful Government backing, the partnership’s ambition is to deliver 100,000 new homes and 120,000 new jobs by 2040.
The partners range from Stafford in the South to Warrington in the North and from Stoke-on-Trent in the East to Chester in the West.
Liverpool To Crewe Via Chester
Merseyrail’s new Stadler FLIRTs are being designed, so that they can eventually run on both 750 VDC third-rail and 25 KVAC overhead electrification, so if Crewe to Chester is electrified, Liverpool will get its wish of direct services from East Wirral and Ellesmere Port to Crewe.
Chester To Crewe
If the line is electrified, which I feel will happen, Chester to Crewe probably needs a service of four trains per hour (tph), to take passengers to HS2.
Two of these services will probably go to Liverpool and the other two to North Wales.
But because of the connectivity at Chester, services could also come from Shrewsbury or Wrexham.
Conclusion
Don’t underestimate the effects HS2 will have on trains in the Mersey Dee area.
Birmingham Airport Mulls Plan For Terminal Inside HS2 Station
This is the title of an article in Construction News.
This Google Map shows Birmingham Airport, the current Birmingham International station, the NEC, with the M42 Motorway going North-South down the Eastern side.
Currently, it is planned that the Birmingham Interchange station for HS2, would be on the other side of the M42 to the NEC.
Surely, the Construction News headline is indicating that something better can be done.
In an ideal world, Birmingham Airport would have one station for HS2, West Coast Main Line and local train and tram services, with a step-free lift/escalator connection between all platforms and both Departures and Arrivals at the Airport.
Borders Railway Extension Prospects Studied
This is the title of a news item on the BBC web site.
This is the first two paragraphs.
A new study is to look at the possibility of extending the Borders Railway beyond Tweedbank to Carlisle.
Transport Scotland has announced it intends to award the contract to look at wider transport issues across the south of the country to Jacobs UK Ltd.
I have this belief, that it would be in everybody’s interest to see Carlisle developed as an interchange between all the lines meeting in the city.
In September 2015, I wrote If Manchester Victoria And Birmingham New Street Were The First Two Courses, Is Carlisle The Third?, which details how Network Rail are spending £14.7million to improve Carlisle station.
Rail Services From Carlisle
Carlisle has its fair share of touristic rail lines in addition to the West Coast Main Line between Glasgow and the South.
- Barrow-in-Furness via the Cumbrian Coast Line
- Glasgow via the Glasgow South Western Line.
- Leeds via the Settle to Carlisle
- Newcastle via the Tyne Valley Line
The Settle and Carlisle has recently been rebuilt and Northern are providing better services on all the English routes, they service.
What is missing is a connection to Edinburgh via the Borders Railway!
What would it do for Carlisle’s position as a tourist destination to have a connection to the Borders and the Scottish Capital?
HS2
In any discussion of rail services North of London, HS2 always makes an appearance. I reckon that the journey time from London to Carlisle will drop by at least thirty minutes, so will be under three hours.
Conclusion
I come to the conclusion, that extending the Borders Railway to Carlisle is not solely a Scottish project, but an English one as well!
HS2 Potential To Northern Connectivity Not To Be Underestimated, Says Percy
This is the title of an article in Rail Technology Magazine.
Rail and road connectivity is not a simple matter.
Although there is a need for East-West routes across the North, there is also the need for better High Speed Rail connections between pairs of cities like.
- Newcastle and Leeds
- Leeds and Nottingham
- Sheffield and Nottingham
- Birmingham and Manchester
- Leeds and Sheffield
- Birmingham and Leeds.
- Birmingham and Preston
All these connections will be provided by HS2.
Of the other major links that are needed.
- Manchester and Sheffield
- Manchester and Leeds
- Blackpool and Leeds
- Leeds and Hull
- Liverpool and Manchester
The first three are very difficult because of the terrain.
Because Leeds has good High Speed Rail connectivity to the cities East of the Pennines via HS2, the Leeds-Manchester route is probably the most important.
As High Speed Rail is a long term project, it will tend to grow, where the returns and needs are greatest.
Extending The Docklands Light Railway West From Bank Station
Two possible routes have been proposed foe extending the Docklands Light Railway to the West
Whether either is worth developing, I don’t know.
But consider.
- The Thameslink Programme will improve access between London Bridge and Charing Cross stations, which could take pressure off the Jubilee Line.
- The Thameslink Programme will improve Southeastern services into Cannon Street and Charing Cross stations.
- Charing Cross station has a couple of spare platforms, that some would like to re-use.
- Euston and St. Pancras stations have bad access to Canary Wharf and South East London.
- The Bakerloo Line Extension has been given the green light.
- Crossrail connects Canary Wharf to Bond Strreet, Heathrow, Liverpool Street and Paddington.
But the big issue, is what happens about Crossrail 2.
I feel that the more likely extension to the West is to go from Bank to Euston via City Thameslink and Holborn and/or Tottenham Court Road stations and finish by going on to St. Pancras.
It could link HS2 at Euston and European services at St. Pancras to the following.
- Thameslink at City Thameslink station.
- Crossrail at Tottenham Court Road station.
- Bank and Canary Wharf stations.
It would also provide a decent link between the long distance services at Euston, Kings Cross and St. Pancras.
These factors would also influence the design of the DLR Extension.
- The DLR has all the agility of a mountain coat to climb hills and turn sharply, so it might be possible to squeeze it through places impossible for a Crossrail or an Underground line.
- 3D-design techniques are getting better every year.
- Tunnel boring machines are getting more accurate.
- Escalators are getting longer.
So could we see the extension going from Bank to City Thameslink as a traditional extension and then going in a long double-track loop via some or all of the following stations.
- Holborn
- Tottenham Court Road
- Oxford Circus
- Regents Park
- Euston
- St. Pancras
- Covent Garden
It would all depend on where they could squeeze the tracks through.
- Stations could be island platforms between the tracks.
- Platform edge doors could be fitted.
- Escalators and lifts could link the platforms to existing station.
There’s no reason why the line should be designed traditionally for the DLR.
Will High Speed 2 Have Go-Anywhere Trains?
I ask this question as after writing Plans For Toton Station For HS2 Are Beginning To Emerge, I started to think about the specification of the trains that will work on HS2.
Extending North |From Toton Or East Midlands Hub Station
Extending HS2 to Sheffield from Toton will eventually be via a dedicated High Speed Line, where the trains can run at their design speed of 225 mph.
But Toton HS2 to Sheffield via Chesterfield will be linked by the Erewash Valley Line, where trains will be able to travel at least as fast as 125 mph.
The Erewash Valley Line will probably be electrified before HS2 opens to Toton HS2 around 2030, to bring Sheffield consistently under two hours from London.
Extending North From Crewe
Similarly Crewe to Liverpool will not be getting a dedicated High Speed Line, but there is already a route where at least 125 mph is possible.
As passengers won’t want to change trains, Liverpool will get two trains per hour (tph)from London on HS2.
The only work needed North of Crewe would be to create extra and longer platforms at Liverpool Lime Street, provided that the new HS2 trains can work on classic high speed lines like the West Coast Main Line.
These improvements at Liverpool Lime Street are actually underway and knowing Scousers as I do, you could bet your house on it being ready in 2027, as they would want to have HS2 services at the same time as Manchester, if not a couple of years before.
Learning From The French
We should also look at how the French do things.
If you travel from Biarritz to Paris via a TGV, the service runs on both High Speed and classic lines.
From the Liverpool and Sheffield examples, I suspect that we will adopt a similar philosophy.
Consider when HS2 opens, the places that could be served directly from Crewe.
- Runcorn and Liverpool
- Manchester Piccadilly, if there is platform space.
- Warrington, Preston, Carlisle, Glasgow and Edinburgh – Why not?
- Chester and Holyhead – If the North Wales Coast Line is electrified, as has been threatened!
Note most of the West Coast Main Line routes are covered.
Can this explain the decision to combine the HS2 and West Coast Main Line franchises and the early extension of HS2 to Crewe?
The new franchise could even use the same 225 mph trains for HS2 at a slower speed on the West Coast Main Line to replace the Pendelinos.
The only disadvantage would be that the new trains couldn’t take advantage of the more generous HS2 loading gauge, unless of course the classic lines, where they are to run have their gauges enhanced. This may already be the case, as many of these routes have a loading gauge of W10 to take large freight containers.
The Trains For HS2 And West Coast Main Line
I think we’ll be seeing a very interesting specification for the HS2 trains.
- 225 mph capability on High Speed Lines
- 140 mph Pendolino performance on classic lines where possible.
- Short and long trains. Class 800 trains and others seem to be ordered this way, as five and nine/ten car units.
- Automatic coupling and uncoupling of units, just as Class 395 trains do now!
As the trains won’t be delivered for nearly ten years, wouldn’t be surprised to see that they have a 100 mph independently-powered capability of perhaps 100 miles. This would enable the trains to reach places like Aberdeen, Barrow in Furness, Blackpool, Inverness and Lincoln from the West Coast Main Line or Phase 1 of HS2.
Expanding The High Speed Network
It may seem strange to use perhaps onboard energy storage to extend services away from HS2. But this capability would probably only be given to the shorter trains that can join and split at Crewe or Birmingham International for fast running to and from London. Generally, when operating on onboard energy storage, the trains will be travelling at slower speeds. so less energy is needed.
This would mean that places like Barrow-in-Furnace, Blackpool, Cleethorpes and Lincoln could be easily added to the high speed network.
The High Speed network could also be expanded by improving the current network with selective electrification and the capability for higher line speeds.
All of these improvements on the classic lines, would mean that local and freight trains were able to provide a better service too!
Coupled with HS2, they would make a wonderful marketing opportunity.
I estimate the following using new trains and HS2 from Crewe, when Phase 2a of HS2 is complete.
- Glasgow-London would take under four hours for the journey as opposed to just over four and a half hours now.
- Liverpool-London would come down from two hours twelve minutes to one hour 33 minutes.
- Preston-London would down from two hours fifteen minutes to under a hundred minutes.
- Wigan-London would come down from just over two hours to just 87 minutes.
And some commentators and politicians doubt HS2 is needed.
Conclusion
Certainly, the decision to extend as fast as possible to Crewe was a very good idea.
Consider going from Euston to Glasgow in say 2028.
- The train would run from Euston to Crewe at full speed of 225 mph stopping if required at Old Oak Common and Birmingham International in a time of 58 minutes.
- From Crewe to Glasgow, the train would run at least at 125 mph stopping as appropriately.
- Selective improvements and in-cab signalling would reduce journey times from those of today to the North of Crewe.
Ten years or so later, the journey time will be even faster as the High Speed line was extended past Crewe.
Plans For East Midlands Hub Station For HS2 Are Beginning To Emerge
East Midlands Hub (Toton) station depending on who’s writing the words is beginning to emerge from HS2’s plans. (I shall use Toton HS2 in this post, to emphasise I mean the HS2 station.) Wikipedia says this about the station.
It is intended to be located on the existing railway sidings in Toton, situated between Nottingham and Derby. A connection to the Nottingham tram system and new connections to existing rail services are proposed, to link the station to Nottingham, Derby and Leicester railway stations. The station would be located adjacent to the M1 motorway in Nottinghamshire, close to the border with Derbyshire.
This Google Map shows the location.
The red arrow marks Toton Lane Tram Stop, which is a Psrk-and-Ride terminus of the Nottingham Express Transit. Between the tram stop and the M1, the Erewash Valley Line passes through in a North-South alignment. South of the East-West A52 is the site of Toton Sidings, which is proposed for the new Toton HS2 station.
I think that HS2 have made a good start in the planning of the connections at this station.
Link To Nottingham Express Transit
Extension of route 1 to serve HS2 at Toton and Derby is a section in the Wikipedia entry for the Nottingham Express Transit.
This is said.
News that a station for the proposed HS2 line (the East Midlands Hub) is likely to be built on the site of Toton sidings, only a short distance from the Toton Lane terminus has fuelled speculation that the line could be extended to the new station. In November 2015 there was a proposal for the tram network to be extended from Toton to Derby. Two routes were later proposed by the D2N2 local enterprise partnership for the route to Derby. The first route would be via the A52 while the second would be via Borrowash and Spondon.
This is not a cheapskate extension to connect Nottingham to HS2, but a proper solution, that creates a high-capacity link running from Nottingham to Derby via the new Toton HS2 station.
- The A52 is the East-West road connecting Derby and Nottingham, which is clearly shown on the Google Map.
- Borrowash is a village at the Western edge of the Google Map, with Spondon, which has a station on the Midland Main Line to Derby, just off the map to the West.
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of extending the trams from Toton HS2 using tram-trains to go via Long Eaton and Spondon to Derby.
- Tram-trains could use existing track between Toton HS2 and Derby, provided it was electrified.
- Daul-voltage tram-trains would be needed to work on main line and tramway electrification.
- Journey time from Derby to Toton HS2 could be around 20 minutes.
- Network Rail’s plan to move Long Eaton station should make this easier.
- A high frequency service could be run.
- Extra stops could be introduced.
- There are tram-train versions of the Alstom Citadis trams used in Nottingham.
Tram-trains would need 25 KVAC electrification along the route between Toton HS2 and Derby stations. But surely the Midland Main Line electrification will have got to these two stations by 2026 or so!
Nottingham To Derby Via Toton HS2
Nottingham and Derby are two very different cities, but both are successful in their own ways.
Currently, there are about three direct trains per hour (tph) between the two cities.
- Birmingham-Coventry has 7 tph
- Birmingham-Wolverhampton has 9 tph and the Midland Metro.
- Manchester-Leeds has 8 tph
- Leeds-Bradord has 6 tph
Nottingham and Derby get a very raw deal and working on the London Overground/Merseyrail principle of Turn-Up-And-Go , Derby and Nottingham need a four tph connecting service to give passengers something that is acceptable.
As with Birmingham-Woverhampton, a mix of heavy rail, tram and perhaps tram-train might give the two cities the service to Toton HS2 and between themselves, that they need.
Bssed on good practice in London, Birmingham and Liverpool, I would provide the following minimum service.
- 4 tph – Express heavy rail stopping at Beeston, Toton HS2, Long Easton and Spondon.
- 4 tph – Tram-train stopping everywhere between Hucknall and Derby via Beeston, Toton HS2, Long Eaton and Spondon.
- 3 tph – Extra long distance trains calling at both, which would probably also stop at Toton HS2.
It would be a darn site better than what is currently provided.
A Notts/Derbys Crossrail
There might even be a case for a Newark to Burton-on-Trent service via Nottingham, Toton HS2, Long Eaton and Derby. It would be Notts/Derbys version of Crossrail, feeding passengers from all over the area to HS2.
Nottingham City Centre To London In Under 90 Minutes
Currently Nottingham to London takes one hour forty minutes by the fastest trains. But after HS2 opens, it would take 30 minutes from Nottingham to Toton HS and the 52 minutes by HS2 to London.
So even if the classic service to St. Pancras gets faster and more frequent, will passengers opt for the quicker HS2 from Toton HS2?
If say Toton HS2 to London was four tph and run on almost a Turn-Up-And-Go basis, and the connections to Derby and Nottingham were upwards of six tph, the classic trains will have to work hard to maintain market share.
Derby to London wouldn’t show the same improvement as Nottingham to London, but the service could be more frequent and probably well under ninety ,minutes.
The big winners would be the passengers from the Far West of Derby to the Far East of Nottingham.
Using The Erewash Valley Line
Network Rail is improving the Erewash Valley Line. Under Future is a section in the Wikipedia entry for the line.
This is said.
Network Rail as part of a £250 million investment in the regions railways has proposed improvements to the junctions at each end, resignalling throughout, and a new East Midlands Control Centre.
As well as renewing the signalling, three junctions at Trowell, Ironville and Codnor Park will be redesigned and rebuilt. Since the existing Midland Main Line from Derby through the Derwent Valley has a number of tunnels and cuttings which are listed buildings and it is a World Heritage Area, it seems that the Erewash line is ripe for expansion.
It would seem that Network Rail are creating a 125 mph-plus line between East Midlands Parkway and Chesterfield stations. Is this part of a pragmatic philosophy to improve services from London to Chesterfield and Sheffield.
- Derby to Chesterfield along the Derwent Valley will not be electrified because of heritage and engineering reasons.
- Derby to Sheffield via Chesterfield will be served by bi-mode or other independently-powered trains.
- The Erewash Valley Line will be electrified and could even be cleared to allow 140 mph running.
- London to Sheffield trains would go via East Midlands Parkway, Long Eaton, Toton HS2 and Chesterfield.
Even if HS2 isn’t built, Chesterfield and Sheffield would get a vastly improved service to London.
When HS2 is built to Toton HS2, HS2 can take advantage of the Erewash Valley Line to create faster services to the North.
Extending HS2 To Sheffield
If HS2 can get to Toton HS2 in 52 minutes, surely this could mean a London-Sheffield time of well under two hours once the Erewash Valley Line is electrified, even if passengers had to change trains.
But I think we know enough about the dynamics of High Speed Trains, that can run at 225 mph on High Speed Lines to get them to run at 125 or even 140 mph on high standard main lines, like the Midland Main Line.
After HS2 opens to Toton HS2, Chesterfield and Sheffield would get a better service from London in three ways.
- Direct from London on the Midland Main Line.
- By HS2 with a change at Toton HS2 to a classic service.
- By HS2 direct.
All services would use the electrified Erewash Valley Line to get to Chesterfield.
It should be noted that from 2020, London-Norwich will be on a frequency of 3 tph. Surely, the much larger Sheffield needs 4 tph to and from London.
Using The Robin Hood Line
The Robin Hood Line goes between Nottingham in the South to Mansfield Woodhouse and Worksop in the North.
- It is an underdeveloped line with diesel multiple units running to a frequency of 2 tph.
- The Southern end of the line connects to the tracks through Toton HS2, so it wouldn’t be difficult to use the new station as an additional terminus for the Robin Hood Line.
- At the Northern end, there is scope to develop new branches.
I can envisage Nottingham developing the Robin Hood Line into a suburban network feeding passengers to both the City Centre and Toton HS2.
Extending HS2 to North Nottinghamshire And Lincoln
In After The Robin Hood Line Will Nottingham See The Maid Marian Line?, I wrote about an article in the Nottingham Post is entitled Hopes HS2 could see ‘Maid Marian Line’ opened to passengers.
There is a freight only line, that if reopened to passenger traffic would allow trains to connect from Toton HS2, through Ilkeston and Langley Mill to North Nottinghamshire and all the way across Lincolnshire to Lincoln, thus giving a large area direct access to HS2.
Lincoln to London would be under two hours with a change at Toton HS2.
Will All Sorts Of Towns And Cities Get The Benefit Of Direct HS2 Trains?
I have mentioned a lot of stations at various town and cities in this post.
To take Langley Mill station as an example, currently this gets at least one fast train a day to and from St. Pancras.
When the new HS2 trains are running between London, Chesterfield and Sheffield via Toton HS2, will they do the same thing?
If they do, then stations like Ilkeston, Langley Mill and Alfreton could get a direct HS2 service to and from Birmingham and London.
One of the things to note, is that the new trains will be much faster at stopping and getting on their way again, than the current generation of trains, so adding stops between Toton HS and Sheffield. won’t delay the service like it does today.
As I said earlier, I believe there could be a similar connecting service from Toton HS2 to Lincoln, calling at Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Mansfield, Gainsborough, Lincoln and Cleethorpes.
The train to Lincoln would probably be a short five can train and it would couple and uncouple with a similar train at Toton for the express journey South.
Other destinations from Toton HS, might include Doncaster, Doncaster Airport and Hull.
It’s one thing for a short train to trundle round Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire at 100 mph, but when on HS2, you probably need two trains coupled together to maximise the use of a limited number of train paths.
Connections could also be created using slower trains! But they wouldn’t be so sexy!
A New City At Toton
The Sunday Times has an article this week, which was entitled Next Arrival On The HS2 Line: A Brand New City.
It is an interesting proposition.
- There’s certainly space between Derby and Nottingham.
- Birmingham will be 19 minutes away by HS2.
- London will be within the hour.
- The M1 will pass right through the city.
But above all we need more housing.
Conclusion
The HS2 station at East Midlands Hub or Toton HS2, is a lot more than a HS2 station for Nottingham and Derby.
I would do the following.
- Electrify to Sheffield on the Erewash Valley Line and between Derby and Nottingham.
- Extend the Nottingham Express Transit to Derby via Toton HS2 using tram-train technology.
- Run a 4 tph express local service between Derby and Nottingham via Toton HS2.
- Make sure that HS2 reaches Toton HS2 as soon as possible.
- Build the new city at Toton.
Surely because the Nottingham-Derby area has a lot to gain from HS2, it would probably be very beneficial for HS2’s revenue.
After The Robin Hood Line Will Nottingham See The Maid Marian Line?
This article in the Nottingham Post is entitled Hopes HS2 could see ‘Maid Marian Line’ opened to passengers.
There is a freight only line between Kirkby-in-Ashfield station on the Robin Hood Line and Pye Bridge on the Erewash Valley Line.
The proposal would allow trains to go between Kirkby-in-Ashfield via Pinxton and Selston to Langley Mill and Ilkeston and then on to Nottingham.
I’ve been here before in September 2015 in a post called Expanding The Robin Hood Line.
But the new baby elephant in the room is the new Ilkeston station, which hopefully opens on the 2nd of April 2017.
Given Chris Grayling’s thoughts, that I wrote about in Government Focuses On New Stations And Trains, could it be that if extra trains can be found, that to provide a second train per hour between Nottingham and Ilkeston, a second route to Kirkby-in-Ashfield and on to to Mansfield and Worksop, is opened up the Erewash Valley Line.
The route could even terminate on the proposed extension of the Robin Hood Line to Ollerton.
The route from Nottingham to Ollerton would be.
- Nottingham
- Toton for HS2
- Ilkeston
- Langley Mill
- Selston – New station
- Pinxton- New station
- Kirkby-in-Ashfield
- Sutton Parkway
- Mansfield
- Mansfield Woodhouse
- Shirebrook
- Warsop- New station
- Edwinstowe – New station
- Ollerton – New station
I think it is likely that this route could be developed.
- The track is all there and is used by freight trains and/or for driver training.
- An hourly service on this route would mean additional services for many of the stations on the route.
- The only problem would be finding some suitable diesel trains for the route.
- It could probably be trialled to Mansfield or with a simple station at Ollerton.
- The track from Ollerton appears to be intact all the way to Lincoln.
But the clincher is that it would provide connectivity for HS2 all the way from Worksop and Mansfield to Lincoln and Grimsby.
HS2 is needed, but we must make sure that the benefits of the line are spread to all parts of the country.
If this route to Lincoln could be developed as a 100 mph line, the time from Lincoln to London with a change to HS2 at Toton could be likely to be under two hours.
In Government Focuses On New Stations And Trains, Chris Grayling mentioned the route from Grimsby to Sheffield. Surely creating this route from Lincoln to Toton via Ollerton for HS2, is what really improves train transport in North Lincolnshire.
The Anonymous Widower 