HS Atlantic (Funding Pending)

[Frank Scully]

This is my entirely unrealistic and never-to-be funded-in-my-lifetime plan for a new build high speed route which would connect the far south west and south coast with Gatwick/London Victoria and the international station at Ashford, allowing for interchange with HS1. It opens up a new continuous route across southern England and gives a direct connection from the SW to Gatwick and Ashford while avoiding travel and interchange at Paddington. Stopping pattern could be New west Cornwall HS station>>>New mid Cornwall HS station>>new east Cornwall station>>Plymouth>>>>Exeter>>Somewhere in Dorset maybe>>Bournemouth>>new South Hants station serving the conurb>>Brighton>>Gatwick Airport>>London Victoria (or ...Brighton>>Ashford International). Blue line is the alt route which allows for a more central station serving south Hants.

 

[swt_passenger]

It’s definitely not original. Posters have come up with such a route quite a few times before.

I’m sure you must have read the map caption for the South Downs National Park before drawing a line through it? Similarly the New Forest, 3 or 4 AONBs?

 

[Frank Scully]

Moot points really as this country is in the grip of a chronic nimby epidemic and we'll soon be building nothing anywhere so your land designations are quite safe.

 

[Iskra]

...Was anyone else expecting this to be a thread about a High Speed Line under the Atlantic?

 

[PGAT]

How would you have High Speed Rail (especially in 3rd rail land!) from Gatwick to Victoria?

 

[JohnElliott]

...Was anyone else expecting this to be a thread about a High Speed Line under the Atlantic?

Or a 4-4-2 steam loco running at over 120mph?

 

[Bald Rick]

Somewhat disappointed that the Isle of Wight isn’t on the route.

 

[HST43257]

Somewhat disappointed that the Isle of Wight isn’t on the route.

I’m sure the OP could fit a Smallbrook Jn Hub in there somewhere

 

[mike57]

Taking this proposal semi seriuosly, there just will never be the passenger flow to justify an HS4 or what ever. From west of Exeter you would catch a train to London, then catch HS1 from there, from Brighton north you already have Thameslink which goes through St Pancras. Which leaves Bournemouth - Southampton - Portsmouth (forget west of Bounemouth to Exeter there just aren't the centres of population). The Hampshire coast could benefit from better links east - west along the coast, journeys are slow, but even improvements to existing infrastructure seem unlikely.

 

[zwk500]

I'm surprised by the choice to bypass every single major urban area except Plymouth, which gets completely buldozed to fit the HS line in.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

The one merit to the principle behind the idea is the provision of additional track capacity between Brighton and Southampton. Services all along that corridor are painfully slow thanks to the relatively high density of population served by just a double-tracked line. There is surely a lot of medium distance traffic being lost to road travel thanks to having to fit in a decent frequency of stopping services and thereby preventing the operation of genuinely fast trains.

 

[D365]

The thread title confuses me. What does "funding pending" mean?

 

[mike57]

is the provision of additional track capacity between Brighton and Southampton.

The existing route is pretty hemmed in by development so I dont think 4 tracking would be an option, so any new route is going to have go north of the existing strip of urban sprawl. That raises several problems, geography, and the fact that the South Downs National Park pretty well starts where the urban area finishes, certainly at the eastern end.

Its a while since I was down there, but from memory most of it is ~70mph, would there be any benefit in upping this to say 90mph where the alignment allows, its fairly straight for the most part.

 

[zwk500]

The one merit to the principle behind the idea is the provision of additional track capacity between Brighton and Southampton. Services all along that corridor are painfully slow thanks to the relatively high density of population served by just a double-tracked line. There is surely a lot of medium distance traffic being lost to road travel thanks to having to fit in a decent frequency of stopping services and thereby preventing the operation of genuinely fast trains.

No it doesn't because it doesn't go anywhere near Brighton and there's no sensible way to get trains out of Brighton and onto the new line. The new line also runs effectively slap bang over the top of the South Downs.

Its a while since I was down there, but from memory most of it is ~70mph, would there be any benefit in upping this to say 90mph where the alignment allows, its fairly straight for the most part.

the amount of Ldvel crossings may well constrain the linespeed, but even if it was possible the amount of stations down there means it would be difficult to take advantage of any uplifts.

 

[swt_passenger]

The thread title confuses me. What does "funding pending" mean?

I think it means it’s total fantasy and funding hasn’t been considered at all.

 

[MattRat]

Does OP live in Plymouth and just wants their own Eurostar to Paris? Because that's what this looks like. Even then, there are better ways to do this that can be useful to London too.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

No it doesn't because it doesn't go anywhere near Brighton and there's no sensible way to get trains out of Brighton and onto the new line. The new line also runs effectively slap bang over the top of the South Downs.

There's a reason I used the word principle, namely that additional track capacity would be very useful but the OP's proposal wouldn't provide it in itself. I'm also well aware of the significant geographic obstacles to just about any expansive rail scheme along the Coastway. The only realistic option would be for some dynamic loops here and there but the locations where it might be possible to add a stretch of 3 or 4 tracking might not actually help to provide a useful timetable.

 

[zwk500]

There's a reason I used the word principle, namely that additional track capacity would be very useful but the OP's proposal wouldn't provide it in itself. I'm also well aware of the significant geographic obstacles to just about any expansive rail scheme along the Coastway. The only realistic option would be for some dynamic loops here and there but the locations where it might be possible to add a stretch of 3 or 4 tracking might not actually help to provide a useful timetable.

Indeed they don't. The areas it's needed most is Portslade-Shoreham/Lancing area, which is heavily built up and has lots of level crossings. There's no realistic open land until you're beyond Barnham. The only thing that might make a substantive improvement is the grade-separation of Arundel Jns/Ford Triangle, but that doesn't help with slow trains delaying fast trains.