New rail services boost from HS2

THE building of High Speed 2 will result in plenty of opportunities for new services, a new report suggests.

The study by Greengauge 21, a consortium of the project’s stakeholders such as Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham City Council, says that services which do not currently exist will be able to be fitted onto the new fast rail service between London and Birmingham.

Greengauge 21 director Jim Steer said: “Non-stopping intercity services from the north and the Midlands to London will transfer across to HS2, making space on the West Coast Main Line for more freight on rail and more local services.

“Towns and cities along the route will be better off, including Lichfield, Tamworth, Nuneaton. Rail services to these and other destinations will be faster, more frequent and with much better connections.”

The reports suggests a series of service improvements brought about by HS2, including a twice-hourly service between London and Wolverhampton and a twice-hourly fast service between Birmingham and London.

Freight services will also be expanded. It says the new timetable developed for the West Coast Main Line provides for three train paths an hour for freights throughout the day, which it calls a “substantial increase” on capabilities today.

A spokesman for Centro, the region’s transport authority, added: “Research already shows that HS2 will bring substantial economic benefits to the West Midlands in terms of 22,000 new jobs and a £1.5bn a year boost to the regional economy.

“This is in stark contrast to not building HS2 which would lead to a very real risk of local and regional services being pushed off the West Coast Main Line to make way for more profitable inter-city services.

“It would be a lost opportunity not to make that new route high speed and reap all the extra benefits such a railway line would bring in terms of economic regeneration, job creation, released rail capacity and shorter journey times.”

Click here to download Greengauge 21’s full report: ‘Capturing the Benefits of HS2 on existing lines’.

 

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