HS2 and the East Midlands (part two)
HS2 Ltd has produced an East Midlands ‘factsheet‘, with a photo of central Nottingham (although the company’s high speed trains would not stop there).
HS2 will widen opportunities for millions of people linking our big cities with London and with each other. It will re-write journey times between Britain’s major cities creating a high speed line that will integrate the economies of Birmingham, East Midlands, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and many more as never before as well as linking them with London, the South East and Europe.
Regular, reliable services
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Projected service times from existing Nottingham Midland in 2033:
1 hr 8 mins to London compared with 1 hr 44 mins today – three trains per hour via East Midlands Hub
36 mins to B’ham compared with 1 hr 13 mins today – three trains per hour via East Midlands Hub
46 mins to Leeds compared with 1 hr 46 mins today – five trains per hour via East Midlands HubJourney times from existing stations such as Nottingham Midland (above) will be reduced as a result of linking to HS2 at the new East Midlands Hub station at Toton. Projected journey times from the new station, for which no suitable comparisons exist, are given below.
Journey times from new East Midlands Hub station at Toton Destination Current time (mins) HS2 time (mins) London n/a 51 Heathrow n/a 70 Birmingham n/a 19 Sheffield Midland n/a 17 Leeds n/a 29 York n/a 36 Newcastle n/a 106 The current projected journey time from the East Midlands to Newcastle is 2 hr 59 minutes. HS2 will reduce this to 1 hr 46 minutes, a saving of 1 hr 13 minutes. Other intermediate destinations on the proposed service specification including but not limited to Darlington and Durham would experience similar journey time reductions. * Journeys to Heathrow Airport based on Heathrow Express/Crossral [sic] from HS2 station at Old Oak Common
Although it mentions Derby, the information sheet doesn’t provide connectivity details for that city. The sheet claims that the time from Nottingham to boarding a HS2 train at Toton would be 17 minutes, but there is no explanation as to how that could happen.
For trips from Nottingham to Birmingham, London, and Sheffield, HS2 Toton looks uncompetitive compared to a modernised legacy network. There would be a time saving on HS2 to Leeds and York, but those flows are quite small.
By rail Nottingham Midland to Toton is about the same distance as Nottingham Midland to Long Eaton, and that journey is currently timetabled taking from around 15 to 22 minutes. I would suggest that in allowing 17 minutes for the entire local leg, HS2 Ltd are engaging in misrepresentation.
Much of what has been said in connection with HS2 in the East Midlands is misleading.
For example, just look at the map re-produced above; the connection with the East Coast main line east of Nottingham (at Grantham) is south facing, whereas the map suggests it is to the north east. And a line is shown northwards from Toton to Chesterfield via Alfreton; certainly, such a route does exist, but somewhere in the many pages of documentation published I’ve seen that the Toton station would only have train services from the south.
Total journey times have been calculated by adding together sector journey times, plus the declared interchange times at each point where a change is necessary; so Nottingham – London is 11+7+51, giving 1hr 9mins in total (so where does the 1hr 8mins quoted above come from?). Therefore, to achieve these timings, it is necessary for a HS2 train to be leaving Toton exactly seven minutes after the connection arrives from Nottingham.
The above shows three trains per hour to London and three to Birmingham via Toton; as they have to be different trains, this means there will have to be six connecting trains each hour from Nottingham to achieve the journey times quoted. And unless the northbound trains depart simultaneously with the London or Birmingham ones, more Nottingham connecting trains will be required.
Nottingham station is presently struggling to cope with 11 departures each hour; therefore, unless either he station is significantly expanded in size (unlikely!) or existing services are drastically reduced, how will it be able to cope with at least six Toton shuttles each hour?
David Faircloth
February 12, 2013 at 1:15 pm
All very good points, the reality gap is widening. I had forgotten that there is no connection from Nottingham to the East Coast Main Line at Newark.
beleben
February 12, 2013 at 4:34 pm