Most recent articles have a map or plan like above.
But, the phasing of HS2 was a mechanism to get parts of the line through Parliament and planning and other issues.
It started off in 2009 as a study covering the British mainland
The issues of mainline capacity, East Coast, West Coast and Midland Mainline were considered for this.
The ‘best route’ did form a replacement for the West Coast Main Line and assumed that High Speed Rail would be from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London.
Now, that’s a desktop exercise without detail, surveys, detail on alignment. All the things necessary.
But, the intention was to reach Scotland, not just run a line to Birmingham or Manchester.
After phasing the project emerged, the intention was shown on maps as continuations on the Conventional Rail Network as can be seen above.
What can also be seen is that Birmingham Curzon Street is a spur off the main route of HS2 to serve that city.
Similar for Manchester.
Neither city would be upon the main route north and the High Speed Railway connected at Phase 1 to the West Coast Main Line near Litchfield.
Phase 2a was accelerated to make that connection nearer Crewe with a proposal to extend further to near Wigan with the Golburne Link
If you imagine HS2 without the spurs for Manchester and Birmingham
Phase 1, Dark Blue
Phase 2, Red/Burgendy
Classic Rail Network north of that
It’s a classic project example of starting with a whole and reducing down.
The mapping as convention with North at the top.
Look at it another way
It doesn’t get very far, does it?
Here’s the plan from 2009 again
2 hours 16 minutes from London to Glasgow. Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool as destinations off the main route.
Again, I’ve flipped map to south at top. Only Preston would have been on that as an intermediate stop.
But plans change.
Euston selected as the London terminal, they looked at a link to HS1 and St Pancras and I believe that was rejected on cost as was a route going to Heathrow Airport before going north.
Old Oak Common was intended as an initial link to Heathrow by changing trains. It now has the Crossrail Elizabeth line connection as well as plans for the Great Western line to stop there.
But the ‘day one service to Scotland’ has always been said,whatever the changes.
And there’s been plenty of changes.
Phase 2b, east to Leeds with a run off to York for Newcastle and possibly even Edinburgh was dropped. It had value south to north as it would have linked Scotland to Yorkshire in the east the way a link to Manchester and Birmingham (those triangle junctions) would have worked in the west.
Crewe was even touted as a Hub to connect for Western England and Wales.
But we return to a stub at Birmingham with the latest news on the Conservative Party Conference.
The cancellation of Phase 2b shown above. It also shows the Northern Powerhouse Route. A serious proposal to link Manchester and Leeds and also Liverpool and Hull initially.
But that was watered down too, the Integrated Rail Plan for the North had further electrification northward of the Midland Main line and other alterations. most notable the ditching of the Golburne aLink from HS2 to the West Coast Main Line
As can be seen the Golburne link made a bypass of the WCML and linked further northward than at Crewe.
But, again cancelled. A vague statement said that there was an alternative that had been raised in the Union Connectivity Review authored by Sir Peter Hendy. He talked about improving the WCML north of Crewe and finding an alternative northernmost interface with HS2.
So, we are where we are. A top tier economy and member of the G7 that is struggling to justify building a high speed rail line beyond the English Midlands, never mind to the North of England or beyond that.
Chic Gibson - A blog of sorts 