Wednesday, January 28, 2009
High Speed 2 edges closer to take-off
The decision to rebrand the Channel Tunnel Rail Link as High Speed 1 appears to be starting to pay off. Quite intentionally, the name created an assumption that the UK’s first 300 km/h railway would in due course be followed by more.
Not that there has been any shortage of proposals. Lobby group Greengauge 21 put forward a suggestion for High Speed 2 between London and Birmingham in June 2007. Network Rail has a working group looking at options for increasing network capacity, with a brief that includes examining the case for high speed lines. And last year Greengauge 21 put together a consortium of businesses and local authorities to fund a feasibility study of five potential corridors.
At long last the Department for Transport seems to be starting to recognise that high speed rail may have a role in the UK. With the multi-modal ‘national networks’ steering group convened by Transport Minister Lord Adonis expected to report shortly, Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon announced on January 15 that a company called (surprise, surprise) High Speed Two is being formed to consider options for a new line between London and Birmingham, as the first step in a route which could later serve Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Scotland. High Speed 3, 4, 5 and 6 may follow, we hear.
At first glance, Hoon’s announcement was more about mitigating protests against government backing for a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport and further expansion of motorway capacity than a specific endorsement for high speed rail. But with decades of experience to draw on from countries such as Japan, France, Germany and Spain, where construction is still proceeding apace, the main question to be addressed is how any new lines could best fit into the UK transport mix.
The opposition political parties and many other bodies believe high speed rail could avoid the need for the third runway at all, as rail could substitute for short-haul domestic and international flights. But with or without the extra runway, there is little doubt that Heathrow needs to be properly plugged into the inter-city and international rail networks in the same way as rivals such as Schiphol, Frankfurt, Paris or Zürich.
Hinting at an announcement later this year about electrification of the Great Western Main Line between London, Bristol and South Wales, Hoon suggested that HS2 and Crossrail could converge at a new Heathrow International hub on the GWML. Given that this line passes about 4 km north of Heathrow, a better option might be to copy what the Swiss did at Zürich 20 years ago and re-route the railway under the airport.
One problem is that the volume of air traffic which could be diverted to rail is not enough in itself to justify a new line. Most rail business would still be city centre to city centre, unless the proposed hub can attract large volumes of connecting traffic from the surrounding region. And a 20 km westward kink to serve Heathrow would add a significant time penalty for passengers between London and the north. So there will be plenty of topics to debate at our forthcoming conference on Growth & the Capacity Challenge, being held in London on March 10-11.
London & Continental Railways has already demonstrated with HS1 the benefit of having a dedicated company to champion a high speed rail project. Let us hope that HS2 will have the same effect, although at this stage there seems little urgency. There are suggestions that work is unlikely to start on the ground before 2015, with opening dates of 2027 or later being floated.
A reminder of what can happen without clear leadership is painfully apparent in the Netherlands, where there are still no services running on HSL-Zuid long after the original planned opening date of October 2006. With a multitude of different companies responsible for building, equipping and operating the line, not to mention commissioning ETCS Level 2 equipment on both track and trains, target after target has been missed. There have been acrimonious claims for compensation, and regular ministerial statements to parliament.
We reported in Railway Gazette International last April that NS Hispeed was hoping to ramp up services during 2008, starting with an interim Amsterdam – Rotterdam shuttle using leased Traxx locomotives pending delivery of the 250 km/h Albatros trainsets from AnsaldoBreda, followed by diversion of Thalys and Benelux services to the new line this year.
On December 19 the concessionaire announced the fares for its shuttle service, revealing yet another target date of July 1. A further two years may elapse before the whole Thalys fleet has been retrofitted with ETCS, and there is still no indication of when the Albatros sets might be ready.
