I always saw HS2 as less about speed and more a about freeing up capacity on existing railways for regional, local and freight services. I see why they tout the high-speed part of it since it’s a headline-grabber, but it’s the first long-distance line that’s we’ve had in, what, 100 years?
With regards to the East-West link: 100% agree. HS between Liverpool - Manchester - Bradford - Leeds with upgraded links to Hull, Sheffield, York and Newcastle, if you please. Chop-chop.
One other thing I like about buses you mentioned is that they can provide a very local service but they can also run grade-seperated like a metro service; there’s a bus from Manchester to Leigh that runs semi-autonomously along a guideway for much of it’s length but the buses can peel off the guideway when they want to wind through towns and villages.
Someone once told me that the Manchester tram system was one of the only ones that ran at a profit in the UK and that it was because it replaced a railway service and just upped the frequency, but that was years ago now and I see they’ve expanded it quite a lot since then.
I always saw HS2 as less about speed and more a about freeing up capacity on existing railways for regional, local and freight services. I see why they tout the high-speed part of it since it’s a headline-grabber, but it’s the first long-distance line that’s we’ve had in, what, 100 years?
With regards to the East-West link: 100% agree. HS between Liverpool - Manchester - Bradford - Leeds with upgraded links to Hull, Sheffield, York and Newcastle, if you please. Chop-chop.
One other thing I like about buses you mentioned is that they can provide a very local service but they can also run grade-seperated like a metro service; there’s a bus from Manchester to Leigh that runs semi-autonomously along a guideway for much of it’s length but the buses can peel off the guideway when they want to wind through towns and villages.
Someone once told me that the Manchester tram system was one of the only ones that ran at a profit in the UK and that it was because it replaced a railway service and just upped the frequency, but that was years ago now and I see they’ve expanded it quite a lot since then.