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  1. G

    Restarting HS2a

    Sorry it was at least 60 trains per hour. 30 trains, of varying type and journey purpose, per hour on a single track. No non-metro line has ever got anywhere near that number. Not to mention that he doesn't cost in the £10s billions to upgrade lines either side of the tunnel to accommodate...
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    Restarting HS2a

    Why was Andrew Gilligan a transport advisor though? Basically because he was mates with Boris Johnson. Before he became a cycling advisor to Johnson, he'd never worked in transport and had no academic transport qualifications. He has very little understanding of rail operations and I'd...
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    Restarting HS2a

    Andrew Gilligan is a journalist not a rail expert. If he has any expertise in transport, it's in active travel and not rail. I'd challenge that fact too though. Take that quote. Significant increases in capacity can be delivered in months or week using modern rolling stock. What rollingstock...
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    Restarting HS2a

    There were studies done for the alternatives. Its never going to match Avanti for speed and Marylebone is a very constrained station with little room to expand. One of the biggest issues with the southern WCML is that the fast lines are completely full until Rugby. The only way to solve that...
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    Restarting HS2a

    Major upgrades are also hugely disruptive. You only have to look at how passenger figures have dropped for TPE while nearly every other operator is seeing increased usage. The North TPE route has alternative diversionary routes that aren't at capacity too, which has meant trains have still run...
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    Some (radical) ideas of how to upgrade Leeds to Sheffield

    I'm hoping we'll get something like this. Grade separating and speed improvements at South Kirkby Junction in the way you've suggested makes sense to me, as does 4 tracking through Fitzwilliam as Network rail suggested in the past. Grade separation at Hare Park Junction might also make sense but...
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    St Pancras - Leeds?

    So more tracks need to be built, particularly if there isn't going to be an alternative HS2 style route on that corridor. I'm hoping that the early NPR upgrade at Sheffield includes additional track/tracks through to Dore. I think I read that the first phase would allow more trains to run from...
  8. G

    St Pancras - Leeds?

    I like that idea but the only issue is you're adding another service between Sheffield and Birmingham which might be a struggle. Hopefully NPR will accommodate 3 additional services from Leeds to Sheffield all of which can be extended to the Midlands with one to Nottingham, one to Leicester (and...
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    Saltburn to Darlington via Middlesbrough electrification business case?

    It does seem remarkably sensible for once. Seems to suggest that they've got some expertise in and it's not just ideas from Houchen and his staff. I did see that a former transport planning colleague was working there so maybe they're finally building a transport authority. Teesside has pretty...
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    St Pancras - Leeds?

    Extending the EMR services would primarly be about better connections between West Yorkshire and the East Midlands. As others have pointed out its unlikely to happen currently due to capacity constraints but NPR aims to upgrade and electrify Sheffield-Leeds which will make journey times more...
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    St Pancras - Leeds?

    Not really an answer to my question but never mind. Firstly, the service started a couple of months ago and demand doesn't appear out of thin air. Also, Northern aren't exactly awash with units at the moment. There could quite easily be more demand for the service but, in the short term, that's...
  12. G

    St Pancras - Leeds?

    Possibly but we're still at least 5 years out, so I doubt the 350s would be in great condition if left to sit for that time. I'd also be shocked if Northern operate the fast Sheffield-Leeds services long term. The government will probably want to fast services between major cities to be seen as...
  13. G

    St Pancras - Leeds?

    There will be but I'd be surprised if that offsets the benefits of operating through services connecting Leeds to the likes of Leicester. I also think it's possible that there could be upgrades that up the linespeed to above 100mph between Sheffield and Leeds.
  14. G

    St Pancras - Leeds?

    The NPR plan is to increase the fast Leeds to Sheffield services to up to 4 trains per hour. Northern's existing fleet isn't going to be able to cover that, so new rollingstock will be needed anyway. Using bi-modes won't make a huge difference to the electrification business case. Cancelling...
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    St Pancras - Leeds?

    Extending the St Pancras to Sheffield service to Leeds sounds like a pretty good idea in theory. It'd probably need additonal units but that could be spun as an early benefit of the government's investment in NPR. More rollingstock is going to be needed to operate additonal fast services...
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    How much does "privatised planning" contribute to high costs?

    That's why it's important to have public sector/client organisations that have sufficient time and knowledge to dedicate to a project. I've certainly experienced issues with public sector clients not having the knowledge or skills to provide guidance on a project. That inevitably leads to...
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    How much does "privatised planning" contribute to high costs?

    To answer the title, probably not that much. I getting the feeling sometimes that a lot of people believe a large part of infrastructure is paid to consultancies but its a tiny cost in reality. New stations generally cost £20 million+ but most of that is going to be construction costs and...
  18. G

    How do you solve a problem like Bradford?

    Yes it would be around 1km walking distance to the entrance of the current Interchange station on Bridge Street.
  19. G

    How do you solve a problem like Bradford?

    All the information points to St James Market currently though. I'm going to step away from being as deeply involved now because it's clear there's a million different ideas about what this station is and we simply don't know that currently. If the location was the blue area then I'd certainly...
  20. G

    How do you solve a problem like Bradford?

    That's not really fares is it, its journey purpose. It frees up space for business pax on the faster Dewsbury route. Anyway there's people being paid to produce the business case. I'll leave it to them to see what they come up with.

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