7 Apr 2019
The HS2 alternative
This film confirms that the former Great Central alignment southwards from Rugby to Quainton Road, where the route to Aylesbury and London is still intact, remains substantially clear of development and is available for reinstatement as a 125 mph railway. Since, we are told, the reason for HS2 is to increase capacity, and the congestion is mostly south of Rugby, why don't they do the obvious thing and get on with the job? The east-west route can be done at the same time, all for a fraction of the cost of HS2, and in a fraction of the time?
Reinstatement of the connection to the GW main line between Ashendon Junction (north of Princes Risborough) and Grendon Underwood Junction is also feasible, and the connection between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury is still in use. Together with the planned reinstatement of the Oxford to Cambridge line, a useful interchange could be developed at Calvert where the Oxford-Bletchley line passes over the Great Central. When the need is for connectivity, these projects would make a worthwhile and useful package.
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Quick question, where would the station for London be?
ReplyDeleteThe old Grand Central used Marylebone, are there spare paths which the reopened line could use?
If not then you'd be left with building a new line into London, which is where a lot of the costs are.
It also doesn't serve Birmingham, so either that's going to continue to be the case (upsetting a lot of the 11 million journeys made between London and the West Midlands each year) or there's a need for a new line into Birmingham with new platforms, which again is where there's a lot of cost.
Therefore you've only saved a bit of money on the middle section, which would still need a lot of work to bring the alignment up to date, including ensuring that the drainage was adequate (read even exists).
Paddington and an enlarged Marylebone. Marylebone can be enlarged on the western side by demolition and rebuilding.
ReplyDeleteSome local services into Marylebone could use the existing Metropolitan alignment. There is a bottleneck between Rickmansworth and Amersham where additional tracks are needed. Additional capacity could be provided if necessary by constructing tube tunnels southwards from Harrow. This is indeed a major project but noting like the new tunnelling required for HS2.