Manchester Mayfield station

[Tony]

SFE, In a previous thread, you were thinking that Manchester Central/GMex could be reopened because the approach viaduct was being refurbished. Is this your preferred terminus for HS2? There is no possibility of any extra paths between Stockport and Piccadilli, so how can any high speed train get into Manchester that way?

[swisstrains]

Lack of paths won't be a problem. By the time HS2 reaches Manchester signalling/safety systems will be so sophisticated that headways will be down to just a few seconds and the only thing governing line capacity will be the number of available platforms.

[Tony]

Hi Swisstrains,
And I suppose that the Nodding Donkeys and Sprinters will be able to stop "in seconds" too! However up-to-date the HS2 trains are, remember they will still have to share tracks with 30/35 year old trains. Maybe they will retrofit "magnadesion"? (as per Hornby?)

[swisstrains]

Tony.
You are obviously more confident than I am if you believe that HS2 will reach Manchester during the life expectancy of Nodding Donkeys and Sprinters. Even they can't last for ever and will be well and truly gone by the time the first HS2 train glides into Manchester Mayfield.

[steam for ever]

Well Tony I still think that a refurbished Central station would be great, but the more Metrolink get their fiddling hands on the area the more difficult it will be.
In order to use the approach viaduct, a link viaduct will have to be built or somehow cross the metrolink lines by means of tunnel or over bridge, so either way Mayfield would be cheaper.

One of the reasons for building Hs2 is to relieve the WCML, so any traffic would be local in theory.
If a feasable way to get Hs2 into central station can be found, I'm up for it, and will back them all the way, but building a whole new line to link with the approach viaduct will involve demolition of a large portion of south west Manchester. Apart from linking with existing lines it can't be used.

If however, central were linked to exisiting local lines, this would relieve the WCML to a suitable degree to cope with Hs2 sharing the line.

So ideally, reopening both stations for different uses would create a good balance.