25 Mar 2009
Today, Arup outlined how high speed rail should be extended to Birmingham.
At a conference attended by Lord Adonis the Minister of State for Transport and Alison Munro, the Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd, Arup Director, Dr Peter Gist, presented the firm’s findings on the topical issue of extending the high speed rail network to the Midlands.
Dr Gist said: “High speed rail will enable people to travel between the city centres of London and Birmingham in just 45 minutes, and between Birmingham and Heathrow Airport in 37 minutes.
“We firmly believe that the greatest benefit to passengers can only be delivered by providing them with a high speed rail service directly between city centres. Our research has also established that travelling from London to Birmingham via Heathrow provides the significant benefit of direct access to the UK’s main airport and solves many of Heathrow’s access problems without any significant penalties: the additional journey time would be just under two minutes”.
As well as establishing the passenger benefits of providing the London to Birmingham high speed service, Dr Gist went on to investigate some of the implications for extending the UK’s high speed rail network: “While we firmly support extending high speed rail to Birmingham, a number of issues need to be addressed if the maximum benefits of extending the high speed rail network are to be achieved.”
During his presentation, Dr Gist raised a number of issues including:
- The difference in journey times and distances when considering different corridors between London and Birmingham
- The time and distance implications for travelling between London and Birmingham via Heathrow airport
- The options for a London terminus
- The options for taking high speed rail into Birmingham City centre and beyond
When looking at the issue of a London terminus, Dr Gist explained: “Our research has determined that Euston is an obvious central London station with the potential capacity to act as a terminus for high speed rail. However, if we want High Speed trains to be compatible with those in continental Europe, we must ensure that platforms are 400m in length in order to accommodate standard European high speed trains. To incorporate 400m platforms at Euston would require a substantial rebuild of the entire station. Perhaps we need to consider other options such as a new, underground terminus, or a ‘through’ service with trains turning around in an alternative location”.
Dr Gist also outlined the possibilities and implications for taking high speed rail into Birmingham: “In order to give faster journey times to passengers, it is vital that they are able to travel directly from city centre to city centre, however, taking substantial new infrastructure into an existing city has significant implications. There are a number of options for Birmingham, including a high-speed by-pass with a ‘branch’ to the city centre, a tunnel directly into the centre or a combination of by-pass and direct access. It is also vital to make decisions based on where the high-speed network will go to beyond Birmingham.”
Dr Gist concluded: “Efficient travel services can provide immeasurable benefits including regenerating areas, boosting business prospects and providing invaluable inter-city connectivity. The economic benefits of High Speed 1 have been valued at £17.6 billion so the potential to spread this scale of benefit to the Midlands and beyond is an exciting prospect, however we need to consider all the elements to make sure that we make the right decisions about the future of UK rail infrastructure.”
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