Comments on: Manchester Airport cuts back growth target following HS2 North cancellation https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/manchester-airport-cuts-back-growth-target-following-hs2-north-cancellation-13-02-2024/ Civil engineering and construction news and jobs from New Civil Engineer Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:49:53 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0 https://www.newcivilengineer.com/wp-content/themes/mbm-mops-2017/images/logo.gif New Civil Engineer https://www.newcivilengineer.com 125 75 Civil engineering and construction news and jobs from New Civil Engineer By: nigel.scott@blueyonder.co.uk.qsi https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/manchester-airport-cuts-back-growth-target-following-hs2-north-cancellation-13-02-2024/#comment-4665 Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:49:53 +0000 https://www.newcivilengineer.com/?p=274261#comment-4665 In reply to John Porter.

John – thanks for your continuing contributions to the HS2 conversation in the NCE comments section. I find them informative and useful. Hopefully some of your ideas get picked up by the various working groups so that something useful can be rescued from the HS2 debacle.

]]> By: John Porter https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/manchester-airport-cuts-back-growth-target-following-hs2-north-cancellation-13-02-2024/#comment-4663 Tue, 13 Feb 2024 19:49:34 +0000 https://www.newcivilengineer.com/?p=274261#comment-4663 I support HS2 and see the private sector redevelopment of Euston as a way of keeping public expenditure within a fixed ceiling. I hope that is what Labour leader Kier Starmer had in mind when he said that [bringing back the full former HS2 plans is] “not going to happen.”
HS2 Phase 2 should be replaced by cheaper, better focused schemes. I look forward to hearing the conclusions of the private sector group launched by the West Midlands and Manchester mayors – to explore what’s justified between their two regions – and Midlands Connect’s plans to deploy its extra funding reallocated from HS2 Phase 2.
Alongside those, I favour a cheap link from HS2 to the Birmingham to Derby line. HS2 trains could then use the Cross Country Nottingham/Derby to Cardiff train paths if Cross Country trains are diverted via Leicester and Birmingham Moor Street.
Similarly, HS2 trains reaching Derby from London within 60 minutes could replace the Birmingham New Street and Airport to Sheffield, York and beyond Cross Country services if HS2 trains start dividing at Derby and Birmingham.
But affordable passive provision for that link and the potential diversion of a few HS2 trains to Euston West Coast Mainline (WCML) platforms is needed to avoid the disruption to services they would otherwise cause.
If all come to fruition Heathrow, the WCML and Midland Main Line can be relieved and the prospect of 15 (rather than the original 18) HS2 trains an hour kept alive.

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