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| Re: Phila Inquirer: Gas prices, global warming renewing interest in high-speed rail (488598) | |||
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Re: Phila Inquirer: Gas prices, global warming renewing interest in high-speed rail |
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Posted by Fytton on Mon Sep 10 08:20:29 2007, in response to Re: Phila Inquirer: Gas prices, global warming renewing interest in high-speed rail, posted by Rail Blue on Sun Sep 9 10:02:33 2007. 'Impossible Ideal HSR Diagram [of England]'Not totally impossible, just expensive and disruptive to existing land-uses, if you: (a) adopt the system of building it in stages, with links to existing highish speed lines to use in the meanwhile, or indeed forever if you don't wnat to be nice to the Scots; and (b) build the new lines alongside motorways. Leaving aside the question of where you London terminus should be - the British Library having snaffled the obvious site, alongside the Eurostar terminus - you start off alongside the M1 to Watford Gap. Lay in a connection to the existing WCML where it's alongside the M1 already. Stage 2, you continue from Watford Gap alongside the M6 to Birmingham (new station near Spaghetti Junction somewhere) and Liverpool - *but see below. You also continue a second route from Watford Gap Junction, alongside the M1 to East Midlands Parkway, Sheffield (Meadowhall), Leeds (station location to be decided), and then following the M1 again northeastwards back to the A1 corridor near York. Then make a link to the existing ECML to reach Newcastle and Edinburgh (and maybe Glasgow) - if you make the junction south of York station the HSTs can stop there too, and at Darligton, for Teesside, if you like. *Alternatively to running B'ham-Liverpool, run up the M6 to a Manchester/Liverpool Parkway station near where it crosses the M62, and continue to Preston, where you rejoin the existing WCML south of the station, to allow through running to Glasgow. Stage 3, follow the M4 to Bristol Parkway and South Wales (exact location of the Greater Cardiff station to be determined). Stage 5, follow the M5/M6 from Bristol Parkway to Birmingham (Spaghetti Junction station) then the M42 to East Midlands Parkway, before heading north of the aformentioned route to Sheffield etc. That's done most of it. The East-West route in the Leeds-Manchester vicinity could probably be accommodated by upgrading existing lines to give a fastish Hull-Leeds-Manchester(centre)-Manchester/Liverpool Parkway-Liverpool (centre) route. The country isn't actually very wide at that point, and the distances from one major city to the next barely exceed 40 miles. |
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