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The West / North to Manchester Airport are huge markets it would be absurd to cut them off for operating convenience. What is needed is fewer and longer services not whole arteries cut off. Of course the underlying problem is the Airport. All the routes can reach one Manchester station when...

The West / North to Manchester Airport are huge markets it would be absurd to cut them off for operating convenience. What is needed is fewer and longer services not whole arteries cut off. Of course the underlying problem is the Airport. All the routes can reach one Manchester station when...

It is the number of flat junction conflicts that is the problem. The commuter DMUs and long distance EMUs can fit around each other as per.

Network Rail are the system operator and can refuse paths as they see fit. Could be challenged via the ORR but DfT don't force them. The fact Ordsall was built at all tells you what a mess the whole structure is.

No West Yorkshire to Manchester Airport direct services?

If this is true just raise the fares for business travel and HS2 will have a financial case. No BCR required.

A pragmatic approach is already possible. Not all stations on National Rail /LUL accommodate the whole train.

HS2 was justified by valuing business users time at £47/ph (2010 prices). That is where the vast majority of the B in the BCR comes from. The C represents the stonking cash loss it makes, with revenue not coming close to the construction costs even over an appraisal period of decades.

If the platforms aren't long enough, lengthen them. There has been a near continuous programme of lengthening around London and SE now for many years.

Lost for words...

Sounds remarkably unsophisticated. What is a cold rail, or a very cold rail? Does it matter in push mode or pull mode? What was the dew point? Is there not a set of defined parameters to test compliance to, or do they really try out a few random configurations once and see if anything breaks?

Compared to the alternatives it would be very cheap indeed. Even in London station platforms are being lengthened all the time. The challenges are not insurmountable.

Lengthening trains, and where needed stations, is by far the most cost effective way to increase capacity.

That is the short sightedness that got you Ordsall. It fails to address the flat junction conflicts or the saturated viaduct section, not to mention a hefty city centre land grab. The interim solution is much longer trains and probably fewer of them.

Rather than have HS2 sink a 7.5 mile tunnel at Ardwick to the Airport, how about sinking a 4 mile tunnel at Ardwick and surfacing it in Salford. 5tph gone without even touching the existing service. Two new platforms funnelling into those 2 track viaduct lines and Spaghetti Junction is little...

Literally 15 years from the first Dawlish sit down? Does that rank as the longest running railway vehicle software update of all time?

A pity most of that article was a reheated of tired old arguments as to why the likes of Cardiff Swansea (0.3BCR, £485M) should have been electrified. The drawings should not be rolled out but recycled as an alternative to burning. Forget E-L-E-C-T-R-I-F-Y Cross Country needs C-A-P-A-C-I-T-Y...

You cannot absorb the sort of increases I have highlighted into an SSL and Northern upgrade, which are needed to deal with the crowding that already exists today. The stagnation in tube travel is at a London level, note the crowding on LUL isn't just being caused by Euston interchange...

Terminal stations are not efficient. They limit cross Birmingham and Leeds services as clearly evident from the HS2 service plans and they waste time as well as capacity. That is after all why they build the tunnel under Zurich to bypass them. At Oban or Penzance, yes but not somewhere like...

It is all too clear from the HS2 'Y' service plan. Birmingham to NE is currently 2 tph. HS2 provides the desired second Leeds train and a third Scotland via NE. Without severing SW-NE opportunities with a walk through Birmingham you will be lucky to lose one existing service (Reading to...