Could HS2 run 24 hours a day?

[Comstock]

If it ever gets built of course..

Does it have the potential for 24 hour running, or have they not even thought that far ahead

 

[4F89]

If it ever gets built of course..

Does it have the potential for 24 hour running, or have they not even thought that far ahead

If it had passengers at night, I dont see why not, aside from maintenance. But I doubt there will be much call for it at 3 am.

 

[Peter C]

I suppose it could, seeing as it's a new line. But as @Jimathy says, the chances of people wanting a train at 3AM? Very unlikely.

-Peter

 

[Comstock]

If it had passengers at night, I dont see why not, aside from maintenance. But I doubt there will be much call for it at 3 am.

I dunno. There might well be demand for an hourly overnight service especially on Fridays and Saturdays...

 

[Bald Rick]

If it ever gets built of course..

Does it have the potential for 24 hour running, or have they not even thought that far ahead

Yes the year have thought that far ahead, and no it won’t be 24h operation. High speed railways need very carefully inspecting and maintaining, even those that are built on slab track (as Phase 1 will be).

 

[GRALISTAIR]

If it had passengers at night, I dont see why not, aside from maintenance. But I doubt there will be much call for it at 3 am.

I dunno. There might well be demand for an hourly overnight service especially on Fridays and Saturdays...

Yes - High Speed would get you to your destination too quickly!! The advantage of sleeping car trains is they run through the night and don't get in too early or set off at 3.00am. I think you could make a case for running sleepers on the line to free up freight capacity elsewhere.

 

[edwin_m]

Yes - High Speed would get you to your destination too quickly!! The advantage of sleeping car trains is they run through the night and don't get in too early or set off at 3.00am. I think you could make a case for running sleepers on the line to free up freight capacity elsewhere.

It won't have sleepers, it will be slab track

HS2 will have bi-directional signalling and crossovers, so it would be possible to run an infrequent service using single line working, but only when whatever maintenance was taking place didn't need both tracks. Much more likely that late night services would use the existing WCML, as besides the engineering issue there probably isn't much demand for a non-stop service London to Birmingham etc but there might be enough to justify one that made several stops on the way. On the rare occasions when all four tracks of the WCML needed to be shut overnight, it's remotely possible that HS2 would be used but more likely that diversion or bus replacement would apply as is does currently.

 

[Meerkat]

I thought slab track was getting chopped in the desperate cost cutting?

 

[Ianno87]

If it had passengers at night, I dont see why not, aside from maintenance. But I doubt there will be much call for it at 3 am.

The other consideration is the noise and vibration generated by movement of trains as well, which is covered in the Environmental Statements for the scheme.

 

[The Planner]

I thought slab track was getting chopped in the desperate cost cutting?

Nope, it will be slab, the amount of ballast that phase 1 would need would be eye watering and you would massively struggle to get the throughput of trains to deliver it as it wouldn't be bog standard stuff. It would need to be imported.

 

[The Planner]

It won't have sleepers, it will be slab track

HS2 will have bi-directional signalling and crossovers, so it would be possible to run an infrequent service using single line working, but only when whatever maintenance was taking place didn't need both tracks.

0000 - 0500 white period I have heard.

 

[sprunt]

Maybe not all night every night along the whole (eventual) system, but I could certainly see a demand for people in Birmingham wanting to attend events in London before getting a 45 minute train home early Saturday or Sunday morning.

 

[Comstock]

Maybe not all night every night along the whole (eventual) system, but I could certainly see a demand for people in Birmingham wanting to attend events in London before getting a 45 minute train home early Saturday or Sunday morning.

So could I , and, to a much lesser extent, the other way around.

 

[158756]

Maybe not all night every night along the whole (eventual) system, but I could certainly see a demand for people in Birmingham wanting to attend events in London before getting a 45 minute train home early Saturday or Sunday morning.

There are places on the night tube nearly as far from the West End as Birmingham would be on HS2.

 

[edwin_m]

So could I , and, to a much lesser extent, the other way around.

There are places on the night tube nearly as far from the West End as Birmingham would be on HS2.

I agree, but I doubt they would commit to it until it had been running for a couple of years and they had a better idea of the maintenance access requirements. Perhaps the window could start at about 0200 on Friday/Saturday nights, maybe with a later start on Sunday to compensate.

 

[Bletchleyite]

0000 - 0500 white period I have heard.

That's quite early given that (Saturdays aside) there's a 2300 to Manchester and 2330 to Brum, which while not *heaving* do carry a reasonable number of passengers.

 

[paddington]

It would make it possible for me to catch early flights out of BHX (maybe MAN too) without paying for an airport hotel. I often drive to Birmingham at 3am and given the number of private cars on the motorways at that time I believe there could be some demand.

 

[The Planner]

That's quite early given that (Saturdays aside) there's a 2300 to Manchester and 2330 to Brum, which while not *heaving* do carry a reasonable number of passengers.

The block will just follow the last train, I really don't see a lot of single line working happening.

 

[Ianno87]

That's quite early given that (Saturdays aside) there's a 2300 to Manchester and 2330 to Brum, which while not *heaving* do carry a reasonable number of passengers.

I could imagine that, at HS2 speeds, a 2300 Euston departure could at least get to Crewe on HS2 (to join the WCML) before midnight - given the journey time to Birmingham is only 49 minutes or so.

 

[tasky]

I could imagine that, at HS2 speeds, a 2300 Euston departure could at least get to Crewe on HS2 (to join the WCML) before midnight - given the journey time to Birmingham is only 49 minutes or so.

London – Crewe is planned to be 55 minutes on HS2 I believe

 

[Bletchleyite]

I could imagine that, at HS2 speeds, a 2300 Euston departure could at least get to Crewe on HS2 (to join the WCML) before midnight - given the journey time to Birmingham is only 49 minutes or so.

It might well carry more passengers than it presently does, too, given that both of those trains currently run slow-line to MKC taking almost an hour for what normally takes 30 minutes.