High Speed Two Moves Closer (by 15 Years)

With high speed rail we’re behind France, behind Germany, behind Spain, behind Japan, but maybe just maybe that gap is about to narrow:

A new rail terminus could be built in central London under plans submitted to ministers as part of the proposed high-speed rail connection to replace short-haul flights in the UK.

The station would cater for commuters travelling to the West Midlands on the 250mph trains that form part of the government’s plan to get domestic air passengers a year to switch to the north-south rail line. If approved, the line aims to open towards the end of 2025.

Under the plan, to be submitted this week by High Speed 2, the company charged with identifying possible routes and stations, the new London station would handle up to 18 trains an hour, with each train capable of carrying more than 1,000 passengers.

The proposals are part of the initial plan to build a link to the West Midlands, and then to extend the line to Scotland. HS2 also aims to link the station to Heathrow airport and to the channel tunnel rail link, now known as High Speed 1 (HS1).

That’s still a hell of a long way away, but it would be about time if HS2 were to be approved. It’s been strange that a government which has publicly aspired to cutting the country’s carbon footprint hasn’t yet embraced strategies to move away from short haul air travel, and it makes you wonder whether this would finally fit in with viewing all government policies through a prism of their likely impace on the climate. Andrew Adonis has said:

“For reasons of carbon reduction and wider environmental benefits, it is manifestly in the public interest that we systematically replace short-haul aviation with high-speed rail. But we would have to have, of course, the high-speed network before we can do it.”

I hope then that when HS2 is approved he signals that the third Heathrow runway is dead. Cynical? Me?