Should HS2 have fewer tunnels?

[AM9]

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but when specifying your train, specify the seats and then tell them to arrange the windows to align with them. They seem to somehow manage that with cars, buses and coaches.

If you do that, then the seating is fixed for the next 30+ years, - no chance of changing it as it might upset all of those for whom a window trumps comfor, safety and whether they get a seat at all. Oh and by the way, how many cars are there on the road with more than two rows of seats and two full sized windows per side? Totally irrelevant to the train window situation.

 

[HSTEd]

It is worth noting that the Avelia Horizon (or whatever the new SNCF double deck TGVs are being called) will have an interior that can be entirely replaced inside a day.

That might allow easier tweaking of operational schemes over time, or even seasonal layouts - surfboard racks in the summer anyone?

 

[21C101]

If you do that, then the seating is fixed for the next 30+ years, - no chance of changing it as it might upset all of those for whom a window trumps comfor, safety and whether they get a seat at all. Oh and by the way, how many cars are there on the road with more than two rows of seats and two full sized windows per side? Totally irrelevant to the train window situation.

It is no more fixed for the next 30 years than it is with any other window configuration. As BR and its successor TOCs proved when they all too often rejigged trains that had windows and seats that did align into configurations that didn't to sqeeze a few extra seats into the carriage.

In any case a decent window design like the class 700s ensures there is a lot of acope for windows to align with seats whatever the seat configuration.

But if you build something with little more than portholes down the side it becomes more tricky.

 

[CW2]

Also HS2 is in some regards a "high speed metro" with just two tracks and all trains having an identical stopping pattern of calling at Old Oak and Birmingham International. <snip>

All HS2 trains will indeed call at Old Oak Common, but only a proportion will call at Birmingham Interchange - hence the lengthy loops , high speed turnouts, and flyovers, allowing some services to run through non-stop at line speed.

 

[AM9]

It is no more fixed for the next 30 years than it is with any other window configuration. As BR and its successor TOCs proved when they all too often rejigged trains that had windows and seats that did align into configurations that didn't to sqeeze a few extra seats into the carriage.

In any case a decent window design like the class 700s ensures there is a lot of acope for windows to align with seats whatever the seat configuration.

But if you build something with little more than portholes down the side it becomes more tricky.

Having a policy of designing coach bodies based on where seats are placed at the introduction just to give some passengers a view is as you say pointless. The structural safety of high speed trains is far more dependant on the size and locations of windows, so as safety of passengers is a primary concern, the body shell is designed to achieve that. There are plenty of instances where the internal layout needs to change so the relationship the seats have with the windows that are provided is less of a driver in the design of high-speed vehicles than it is in those designed to run at more modest speeds.

 

[matt_world2004]

Hanger Lane Gyratory was also in the way. This made it cheaper and less disruptive to tunnel rather than be on the surface here.


Poor (or non-existent) mobile and or wifi reception complaints too I expect. HS1 has no reception in the London or Thames tunnels

Crossrail has 4g reception in tunnels so does Heathrow the tube is getting it. So HS2 will likely have it too.

 

[edwin_m]

Crossrail has 4g reception in tunnels so does Heathrow the tube is getting it. So HS2 will likely have it too.

It would be very short-sighted not to have it, or whatever technology is current by then. Being able to work on the train is a major factor for the business people who are essential to generating a lot of the economic benefit of HS2.

 

[HSTEd]

Given the enormous tunnel bore diameters, forced by aerodynamic effects, there is plenty of room to fit all sorts of equipment.

Leaky feeders for communications to people on the train is an obvious peice of equipment to fit.