Suggestions for HS2 Eastern Arm

[edwin_m]

The whole "how do we serve the Sheffield area" saga is not an easy one. Putting the HS2 main line via central Sheffield would be very expensive, and hugely disruptive to the existing railway, but would provide the greatest benefit to Sheffield itself. The original planned station at Meadowhall was a compromise in that it was a location on the preferred through route to Leeds which could serve as a railhead for the entire South Yorkshire region - including Sheffield, Rotherham, and Doncaster. The local machinations of the Sheffield City Council saw Meadowhall scrapped and a new route devised through South Yorkshire, but with a promise that SHeffield would get its own HS2 trains serving the existing Midland station. So instead of SHeffield being served by through trains to Leeds / Newcastle (as would have been the case at Meadowhall) now it has its own dedicated trains to/from Euston, possibly linking up with other sets at Toton.

I'd expect NPR to provide some Sheffield-Leeds services using a connection to the HS2 Leeds line. This is currently planned to be off the Swinton and Knottingley north of the existing connection towards Wakefield, but I believe if some thought was put into the needs of NPR rather than just bolting on to whatever HS2 have chosen then some option would be possible that made more use of high speed infrastructure. A link between HS2 and the existing Woodlesford line would allow these service to continue north-east via the existing platforms at Leeds.

 

[krus_aragon]

Crayonistic, but it would be more about Union building than a useful service. Claiming that north and south wales is connected via high speed rail wins political brownie points in the same way extending HS2 up the WCML towards Glasgow would. The idea being to counter the narrative that HS2 (or High Speed in general) is a London only thing.

It would also help address grumbles that the current phase of HS2 is considered to be spending on behalf of Wales (i.e. no Barnett Consequentials for the Senedd to spend) when neither the route nor any planned services cross the border.