Alternatives to HS2

[NSEFAN]

Does anyone actually know how much a ticket on HS2 is going to cost in comparison to conventional services taking into account inflation and any potential slide time of the project? I imagine it will not be cheap.

It would have to be affordable, otherwise what is he whole point of building more railway capacity if the majority cannot afford it?

 

[najaB]

Does anyone actually know how much a ticket on HS2 is going to cost in comparison to conventional services taking into account inflation and any potential slide time of the project? I imagine it will not be cheap.

Nobody knows with any certainty but there will be many thousands of seats a day that need filling, logic dictates that tickets will have to be cheap.

 

[AM9]

Nobody knows with any certainty but there will be many thousands of seats a day that need filling, logic dictates that tickets will have to be cheap.

Making due allowance for an initial burst of interest in a high-speed line bringing full trains for a few months that will allow premium pricing. I can just see the postings from HS2 detractors saying "told you so".
Give it a couple of years to let demand stabilise and then look at the prices that normal passengers are paying.

 

[Trog]

Exactly, so as an alternative you save loads of cash by not doing captive and not having to deal with different platform train interfaces at existing stations.

As Crewe is going to be so close to the end of the dedicated high speed line would it not be possible to have perhaps just a couple of platforms at the new Crewe built with say gauntleted track to allow captive unit trains to finish their journey there before heading back south.

 

[The Planner]

You could, but you wouldn't, you want the trains to carry on to other destinations, Crewe will never be a terminus for HS2.

 

[HSTEd]

It all depends on cost really.
Being able to detrain captive sets easily at Crewe is probably worth something - even if it is not normally done in the timetable.
But I imagine it would come out too expensive, especially when the project is in such a hostile spending evironment.

 

[notlob.divad]

I suspect "Crewe Hub" will consist of some 400m long classic compatible platforms allowing trains to split/join en route to Liverpool, Preston and Chester.

No sense in stopping Manchester services or installing European gauge platforms at Crewe. 2-3tph will be quite sufficient to serve Crewe.

This is what I think will happen. By having 400m CC platforms at Crewe, it will mean trains can join/detach there before joining the HS2 route which will rationalisation of Crewe-Birmingham paths. If 200m CCs have to run to Birmingham before they join that will surely be deemed a huge waste of capacity down the line. Whether Crewe gets these platforms now or at some point down the line, it is inevitable.

By the time HS2 opens, I could see wires going up to Chester/North Wales and we will have the completion to Blackpool. with 400m platforms at Crewe, That would mean an Hourly Chester/N-Wales train and the hourly Preston (Blackpool) train could each join a Liverpool train at Crewe and use no more paths than current proposals. (It may infact save one). If Liverpool did then get a direct captive connection, these could then join each other thus still keeping the same total number of paths as now.

 

[The Planner]

Depends on which bit of HS2 you mean, 2A in 27 or 2B in 33. You wont get wires by 2A.

 

[Holly]

As Crewe is going to be so close to the end of the dedicated high speed line would it not be possible to have perhaps just a couple of platforms at the new Crewe built with say gauntleted track to allow captive unit trains to finish their journey there before heading back south.

It all comes down to need.
If sufficient demand for Crewe terminators is there then 2002/735/EC compliant platforms will be built. Otherwise they won't.

You have to remember that HS2 is not just about speed, it is also about capacity. More freight paths will be needed in the NorthWest in the decades ahead. Freight and CC trains on the same rails don't mix all that well.

 

[The Planner]

There won't be Crewe terminators. Freight and passenger trains in general don't mix very well to be honest!

 

[HowardGWR]

There won't be Crewe terminators. Freight and passenger trains in general don't mix very well to be honest!

Self evident, it would seem, from the number of delays caused by their engines breaking down. I sometimes think reliability on the Welsh Marches line would be improved if they went back to using Churchward 2-8-0s.