Yes of course it has. In fact SNCF are having to upgrade the route to cope with the traffic.
My comment about "Lessons Learned" refers. It's a lot easier to design it right in the first place, rather than coming back later to install piecemeal fixes.
To amplify. Advice taken from people who have done it before us was to avoid intermediate stops unless you want all services to stop there (like Old Oak Common station and Birmingham Interchange station).
And £100bn later here we are realising that that isn’t as easy as it sounds either!
Politically a tunnel under Welwyn might be fairly long - but it could have steep grades and politically would be pretty uncontroversial.
People from the south do travel to the north! And people from the north also travel to visit them.
So why did you say LGV Sud Est only had 4-5 trains an hour?
Part of that also is the rail industry trying quite so hard not to offer one. Pushing for cancellation was perhaps the easier path given the cost escalations.
I mean people are still arguing today against intermediate stops when there is no realistic prospect of anything beyond maybe phase 2a.
It is going to cost whatever you do, construction in the UK it generally more expansive (for road, rail and other projects). Hobbling HS2 is not going to justify the expense of a high speed route designed and built to bring UK cities further North closer to London in terms of time and convenience.
Phase 1 still brings long distance benefits, phase 2a cheaply brings a lot more long distance benefits.
HS2 would not have been built the way it was if only the Chilterns to/from London were the priority.
LGV-SE first station Le Creusot, almost 200 miles from Paris GdL
LGV-A first station Vendôme, just over 100 miles from Paris Montparnasse
LGV-N first station Haut Picardie, just over 80 miles from Paris GdN
LGV-E first station Champagne-Ardennes, about 85 miles from Paris Est.
80 miles from Euston on HS2 is near Leamington.
It’s 7 mins from 350km/h, with a 2 minute dwell.
My bold. Good point. Furthermore, just to highlight, Leamington is not too far the station being built near the HS2 Birmingham / M42 "Birmingham Interchange". So a good job nothing nearer London.
Given this white elephant is now only going from London to Birmingham (already served by WCML and Chiltern) you might as well turn it into a commuter railway serving places such as Aylesbury, Brackley etc.
Might actually get more ridership that way!
Wrong. HS2 phase 1 is going beyond Birmingham, and will bring benefits to those travelling all the way to Glasgow.
Phase 2a cheaply brings more benefits from North of Birmingham to a point short of Mancheser.
Phase 2b more expensively (tunnel and Manchester) gets the entire route to Manchester finished.
In all case the HS2 trains are going to various destinations. They are not stopping in a field somwhere NW of Birmingham. They can continue on existing lines beyond the end of phase 1, or phase 2a.
The whole point is to avoid HS2 being a commuter railway for shorter journeys. Otherwise it will be useless for the longer distance travellers. HS2s purpose is to take pressure off the West Coast Mainline by getting the fastest trains on a purpose built line. Its sole purpose is not boosting the economy of the SE of England but also bringing the likes of Manchester and Birmingham into the sphere of benefits. Boosting the economy of the whole of the UK is what it is about - instead of stifling economic growth.
HS2 is not a white Elephant to the people who want and need a faster service between London, Birmingham, Manchester and beyond.
HS2 is not a white elephant to the people who use the stopping services on the South end of the West Coast Mail Line.
HS2 is not a white elephant to the freight operators who would love better paths on the Southern end of the West Coast Mail Line.
Allowing for more freight on the West Coast Mainline also might mean less pressure on the Chiltern route thus allowing more passenger trains there. People want more services there right ?.