London Banter - View Single Post - Will Brexit lead to the abandonment of Crossrail2 and Turning SouthLondon Orange?

Recliner[_3_] · June 30th 16, 02:27 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Thu, 30 Jun 2016 07:13:12 -0500,
wrote:

In article , d () wrote:

On Thu, 30 Jun 2016 09:47:41 +0100
Someone Somewhere wrote:
In terms of capacity, I realise there is freight and local services, but
is there really no scope for increasing the number of InterCity trains
north from Euston beyond 9/hour?

Obviously not or they'd have probably done it. AFAIK the real reason for
HS2 is to free up paths on the WCML for freight though I guess this
wouldn't play too well with the public: "We need you lot to pay for this
fancy train so we can shift more containers. Soz"

Not just freight. The capacity shortage also constrains commuter flows south
of about Rugby.

And that's now. HS2 isn't about meeting demand this month, this year
or this decade: it's an investment in capacity that will be needed in
the more distant future. And it's a much better, cheaper way of doing
so than to add another two dedicated tracks to the existing WCML.

One way that high speed lines add capacity is by being dedicated, so
all the trains have the same (high) performance. It's the mixing of
low and high speed trains, and flat junctions, on classic lines that
reduces capacity.