Greengauge21 has developed a proposition for a high-speed railway line for the UK, building on the success of High Speed 1. Our report, ‘High Speed Two’ explains how this can be done affordably, delivering major benefits to the Midlands, the north of England and to Scotland without major disruption to our current railway.

High Speed Two would be a high-speed railway between London and Birmingham, with links to the West Coast Main Line further north to link the North West, north Wales and Scotland, provided with direct connections using a spur into Heathrow airport. The total new route length of this proposal, including the connections to the existing network and High Speed One, is 150 miles.

The overall High Speed Two (HS2) route

The North West Corridor is a good candidate corridor for the next high speed route because of the pressing capacity pressures on this corridor, even after completion of the West Coast upgrade. Furthermore, this corridor also provides the best opportunity to link High Speed 1 with Heathrow Airport.

The environmental impacts of HS2 would be minimised by following existing railways and motorways. Costs per route mile would be much lower than on High Speed One. Greengauge21 estimates that HS2 would cost £6.6bn in 2007 prices, or £11.0bn with the Government’s standard 66% optimism bias adjustment.

High Speed train services with HS2

With High Speed Two, journeys in the North West Corridor, from London to the major centres in the West Midlands, the North West and Scotland, will be 30 minutes faster than on the West Coast route, and very much more reliable. Journey times to Heathrow from places such as Birmingham and Manchester will offer substantial journey time savings of an hour or more.

A key feature of High Speed Two as proposed by Greengauge21 is that it not only supports the operation of longer distance high-speed services, but also regional express services, broadening the spread of its benefits. The Javelin train service on High Speed 1 could be extended through to Heathrow or to Oxford/Milton Keynes, for example.

Read more about ‘High Speed Two’ in this Greengauge21 publication.

A regional High Speed Network for the South East