Molto flessibile

The Direttissima railway between Rome and Firenze (Florence), built in stages between 1970 and 1992, runs close to the ‘Linea Lenta’ classic railway between the two cities, completed in 1875. At Valdarno, Arezzo, Chiusi, Orvieto, and Orte, connecting lines allow trains to be switched between the the Direttissima and Linea Lenta, providing operational and resilience advantages:

L’integrazione funzionale realizzata tra i due tracciati, del tutto differenti come concezione e realizzazione, rappresenta la dimostrazione pratica della concezione italiana di linea AV/AC (adottata anche dalle Ferrovie Tedesche); si tratta infatti di un sistema molto flessibile che rende possibile lo scambio dei convogli sui due differenti percorsi perfettamente atti alla circolazione promiscua di treni d’ogni categoria.

This flexibility is absent in British high speed rail planning. The HS2 scheme has minimal freight capability, and minimal resilience. For its planners, it is more important for HS2 to be interoperable with the French network, than with the British one. Hence the specification of trains which are either too short (200 metres) or too long (400 metres) for most British needs (etc).

By contrast, interoperability and connectivity are built into the Rail Package 6 concept, with additional linkages between main lines. In RP6, fast traffic to the North is dispersed, not concentrated on a single piece of trophy infrastructure, and all lines retain freight capability.