DynamicSpirit
Established Member
As far as I can make out from the maps, the HS2 line into Curzon Street runs for quite a long distance alongside the existing line between Birmingham and Water Orton. That made me wonder whether, at some point in the future, it would be worth building a link between the two lines, to allow some HS2 trains from Leeds/Manchester to run into New Street instead of Curzon Street. Those trains could then run on to Bristol/Cardiff/etc. That answers one of the criticisms of HS2 - that fast NE-SW journeys will require changing trains and walking from New Street to Curzon Street.
I realise it's not that easy: To make that plan work, you'd probably need additional capacity at New Street. You'd likely have to do something about the bottleneck between New Street and Kings Norton of fast and slow trains sharing the same tracks. And you'd certainly have to electrify Bromsgrove-Bristol. But those are all things that are going to need doing at some point anyway - hence why I'm qualifying my suggestion with 'at some point in the future'.
Thoughts? Could that idea work, or is there something I haven't thought of that would make it completely unviable?
I realise it's not that easy: To make that plan work, you'd probably need additional capacity at New Street. You'd likely have to do something about the bottleneck between New Street and Kings Norton of fast and slow trains sharing the same tracks. And you'd certainly have to electrify Bromsgrove-Bristol. But those are all things that are going to need doing at some point anyway - hence why I'm qualifying my suggestion with 'at some point in the future'.
Thoughts? Could that idea work, or is there something I haven't thought of that would make it completely unviable?