Forgive me but I find it funny that you refer to York as a glorified commuter town while suggesting building an HS2 station at Durham Tees Valley Airport. While I hope it survives its passenger numbers have been falling drastically and while things are reported to have improved slightly the situation still dire.
I can understand the idea of high speed bypass of Darlington if a high speed line North of the Leeds area ever gets built. However it would make much better sense to use the existing station for the stopping HS2 services.
Hers why. All of the trains your talking about stopping at a Darlington Parkway already stop at Darlington. Yet just about every existing ECML train would have to be diverted out of Darlington into this new station to give connectivity to places like Durham and Thirsk . The problem is then what do you do with the existing Darlington station? Its Graded II star and already underused for the size so its not like an cost savings could be made in closing it down.
It might be that classic ECML services still call there but then your deliberately getting into the awkward territory of having trains going to the same place stopping at only one of two completely separate stations in the same town which is hardly a positive move. Much better to have everything in the one place. An probably cheaper too.
If ever a classing station was ready for HS services its Darlington. Its fairly central and has space for car parking. More importantly its platforms are massive with plenty of room for more and extensions to the existing ones.
Yes York is close to Leeds but Leeds is also close to York. As mentioned where exactly a Leeds HS2 station would go is a toughie to call because the existing station is already full, set to get fuller and has little room to spread out. How close a high speed line could actually get to Leeds without having to drop to classic speed is something I would like to know. Google Earth suggests not very without massive demolition.
Here's a thought, why not bring HS2 on the ECML just south of Doncaster upgrade the Selby diversion to four tracks at 220 mph and then you can run straight into York and build the HS2 station in the freight bypass yard where their is plenty of space.
This would also give Doncaster an Hull access to HS2
Firstly, yes, my entire post assumed continuing HS2 north of Leeds to Edinburgh. It was about how that would happen.
Secondly, I clearly said on the site of, Durham Tees Valley, not for. Tees Valley airport is equidistant between Darlington & Middlesbrough, and is on the Tees Valley line between them. So, as I very clealy stated, this would be a Tees Valley Parkway station serving all of Teeside as well as southwest county Durham. While it would probably boost the airport, the flights would not be essential for its use.
Thirdly, the existing Darlington station would serve Darlington on the Tees Valley line (as I said, electrified between Saltburn & Bishop Auckland), as well as serving it with all the existing services it has. You presuppose a substitution of services onto the HS line from the classic line, which is utterly false, as HS services would, be definition, be in addition to existing services (or there would be no capacity enhancement). There would be no 'necessity' of shifting services, as
1) I sited the station to plug into the existing infrastructure between Darlington & Middlesbrough
and
2) HS services running Leeds-Newcastle direct will allow places like Thirsk, Northallerton & Chester le Street to come back onto the IC map in a big way (i.e. being added to the ICEC & ICXC stopping patterns)
Yes, this would give Darlington two stations. The reason for this is that TVP would also be serving Teeside (i.e. Middlesbrough, Thornaby etc., which you conveniently ignore. The current Darlington station is very little use for this, given its distance from Middlesbrough & destinations east of it. Given the Darlington on its own is not large enough to justify an HS service, the line must necessarily move east. As I said previously, journey time on a 350 or similar from Darlington-TVP would be about 10 minutes, hardly problematic, and as for car parking, well, that can be built at TVP.
Fourthy, York-Leeds. Leeds is close to York, but its close to York in the wrong direction (northwards) so putting the HS station for Leeds at York would destroy any time saving on Leeds-Sheffield and Leeds-London over classic infrastructure, so you don't serve Leeds in a 'parkway' fashion, you leave it off the HS map.
The approach to Leeds the HS line will take is the existing southeastern approach from Methley Junction to Hunslet via Stourton (Pontefract & Hallam lines). This is easily wide enough to be 4 tracks, if not 6, should the need for local services increase. At Hunslet you come to a junction with the old approach to the original Leeds Crown Point terminus (later Goods station, IIRC). This is now the site of an industrial retail park, and is abutted at the far end by Hunslet lane, and then by the old Tetleys Brewery site (now closed).
The HS line would take the Crown Point approach, into the area currently the retail park where the station would be. The platforms would need to be on a declining gradient to the north, so the lines could pass beneath Hunslet Lane & the current Brewery site (where the station building would sit, between Waterloo Street & Meadow Lane, abutting the Brewery Wharf development & Salem church. The line would then need to tunnel under the River Aire & the east of the city centre, swinging sharply east, before emerging in the now-mostly defunct goods yard at Neville Hill. From here there's easily enough space to widen the East Leeds line to 4 (and again, if not six) lines until reaching Cross Gates station & the junction with the old Leeds-Wetherby alignment, where the line swings north & heads dead straight to TVP & Newcastle.
Yes, the above means that between Thorner & Methley Junction (about 10 track miles) trains wouldn't be able to run at any more than classic speeds, but given that everything running would be stopping, that's not really an issue. Forgive me for putting it in an obvious way, but speeds are always lower at major stations than out in the countryside.
As for your last suggestion, because that bypasses completely the biggest & most important city in the north east, destroying almost the entire economic case for the line in the first place, serving two much smaller towns (between them not even 1/3rd the size of Leeds) which already have very good classic services, and will do so after HS.
