Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Fry
A Alternative to High Speed 2 is upgrading the West Coast Main Line
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Not really. There are limited speed improvements to be wrung out of the WCML. It isn't even a single line - it's a complex route network carrying freight and passenger services of different speeds. Any kind of work on the WCML is complex and vastly expensive (as we saw in the middle of the last decade).
We have reached the point where we need a parallel network if we're going to see any significant speed improvements. And significant improvements is very much what is required, as that is what justifies doing the work at all. HS2 really does start to make sense when it gets far north enough to start making domestic connections to Heathrow and central London a viable alternative to flying. That means getting into Brmingham ASAP as proof-of-concept, then getting to Leeds and Manchester, and ideally Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh as soon as possible after that.