East Midlands HS2 station location

[brianthegiant]

I thought I'd start some wild speculation & controversy about what is being planned for the East Midlands station...
This is NOT a thread re whether HS2 should happen, that (endless) argument is catered for elsewhere...

My understanding is that the station will aim to serve the cities of the East Midlands (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester).
Whilst they're already served by Midland Mainline, HS2 would offer direct connections to e.g. Old Oak, Heathrow, Birmingham International.

The possibilities:

East Midlands Parkway: non starter, too far south & east, would lengthen & bend the Birmingham -Leeds branch too much

EastMidlands Airport: non starter, lack of connections via rail to to other local stations

Toton sidings:
+ as equidistant to EM City Centres as is reasonably achievable
+ favoured by Broxtowe Council,
+ avoids Greenbelt land take,
+ existing 2 double track approaches from Trent Junction area currently under-utilised,
+Tram would only need to be extended a few km from Stapleford Tram Park&Ride which is a firm project.
- not near any existing station, would need major changes to Trent Junction & passenger routes in the area (costly).

Derby
+ direct rail connections to all other stations in east midlands
- lack of undeveloped land near existing station, poor road links
- HS2 station in Centre of Derby politically unpopular with Nottingham

 

[mallard]

My idea of the Leeds route from a previous thread:

Follow the Derby-Birmingham route until just south of Willington, follow the Trent and join the currently freight-only line through Weston-on-Trent and Castle Donnington. Build the station close to Jct 24 of the M1. Turn north and follow the M1 corridor for a short distance, leaving it just before Breaston towards Heanor/Langley Mill and following the general corridor of the Erewash valley line, leaving it to run east of Chesterfield and passing through Sheffield via the Darnall and Meadowhall areas (with a station near one of these). Re-join the M1 corridor past Barnsley leaving it to run between Osset and Dewsbury and joining the Wakefield line just north of Tingley and into Leeds.

Additional stations as necessary. When I say to "join" an existing line, this may mean extra parallel tracks, interworked tracks or the replacement of the existing line.

Nottingham could be reached by continuing to follow the Castle Donnington line to Trent Junction. Connections to the existing lines in the Sheffield area would be desirable.

The issue of the curve is mitigated by having the station on it. i.e. Trains would have to slow for the station anyway. You have to go one side of Derby or the other, going through isn't really feasable, if you go north then the station would too far north to effectively serve Leicester.

Connections to existing transport would be fairly straightforward, with bus connections to East Midlands Airport and East Midlands Parkway as well as a rail connection to Nottingham (probably a shuttle between Nottingham and the new station, or maybe extend Skegness services).

 

[bb21]

I don't really understand the need for HS2 to serve Leicester. The current service level for the city is more than adequate. London is between 60 and 90 minutes away, Birmingham is up to 60 minutes away (which really ought to be quicker), and connections to the north can either go via Nuneaton/Birmingham for the WCML or Sheffield for Doncaster and ECML or Leeds.

I would be more inclined for the line to serve Derby, which has a real potential to develop into the regional transport hub. This would then allow services in/out of Derby to regional centres to be enhanced, particularly southbound services towards Leicestershire, which currently finish quite early. It does not matter what people in Nottingham claim, the station just isn't as conveniently located as Derby is and is not on the main Cross Country trunk routes.

 

[bangor-toad]

If the East Midlands branch of HS2 is built, then any station will be on the site of Toton sidings.

There is no other north south route that doesn't involve massive tunnelling or smashing it's way through urban areas. Using the Erewash valley line provides a far simpler and cheaper way to get through the Derby / Nottingham area.

All of the advantages mentioned by Brianthegiant are correct which adds to the location. However, there is the possibility of all northbound services from Nottingham being diverted through the new high speed station complex for interchange. That'd need changes possibly to signalling and timetabling and possibly the reinstatement of an old chord whchi someone's built a factory on. All of these are frankly pretty cheap compared to a new line...

Cheers,
Jason

 

[WatcherZero]

My prediction last time this topic came up was the line would follow the motorway and a parkway station off the Motorway/A road junctions, either at the Airport or just north of it.

 

[WillPS]

Toton seems like the best bet to me.

 

[MidlandMainlie]

Toton seems like the obvious place to locate an East Midlands station, hopefully HS2 will have direct rail links to the Nottingham-Derby line so that Classic Compatible trains can run along the existing tracks to serve Nottingham and Derby stations directly.

When are HS2 Ltd due to publish the routes North of Birmingham?

 

[WatcherZero]

Given to government within the next couple of months actually (how fast the year flies!) but may not enter public domain till early next year. Depends what the government decides to do with it, whether it leaks, etc...

 

[notoemt]

If they are going to build it in this Toton place they will need make sure it is connected to the local network by fast (125mph (does anything actually run at that speed?)) trains otherwise it runs of the risk of negating any benefit.