Hot on the tail of the Rail Electrification Plan comes an announcement yesterday that the first High Speed Rail link costing £34bn will be on the West Coast Main Line. No need to get too excited it won’t reach Glasgow till 2030ish so Preston will be in that later phase. Although Birmingham and Manchester will get it sooner.
The line through Preston is part of the grand plan to have a fast link from London to Glasgow to reduce air travel. Although if I was connecting at Heathrow I’d rather fly, especially if the airline has some liability to get you there.
I’m not sure if the route will follow the existing line or be a new one as it’s a big job to iron out the curves.
The announcement claims London to Glasgow in just over 2hrs which is an average of around 200mph. I read an article saying the UK should go straight to a 300mph train and skip the 180mph.
Where in Preston is a train going to pass at 200mph? Preston Council said they want road traffic limited to 20mph on every road in Preston last week. Trains will shoot through at 200mph – crossing the Ribble at 8am and out of Fulwood at 8.01. Not that the two are related but it seems road and rail transport are going in opposite directions. By 2030 cars will be limited to 10mph on clear days and not allowed out in the rain, so a ride on High Speed Rail will be for kicks.
The cost of £34bn for 500 miles of track sounds a lot. Is it worth it? Nearly £2bn a year sounds easier on the ear, but that’s 20million tickets at £100 every year just for the track. The scheduling and reliability of these trains sounds ambitious on such complex routes over such long distances but the French are doing it.
An interesting announcement, look forward to learning some more.