High-speed rail plans announced (BBC News)
 

Plans for a new rail line capable of carrying trains of up to 250mph between London and Birmingham are announced by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.

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Interesting news - for us overseas members, a link to a map with the proposed route would be appreciated.

I don't think the map on the BBC website is accurate as Lord Adonis is talking about services up the east coast on the radio and that isn't shown by the BBC

Oh, I see that they have now updated the map and added the link to the East

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8561286.stm

makes sense to me, but I notice the only people against this are either a) environmental pressure groups b) people who don't use the train or c) just idiots.

Most sane people can see that we have needed this for years and the Y shape is the right way to go. with hopefully a trans pennine route later in the offing

Well said j0hn0. We really cannot afford the time it took to get the Channel Tunnel Link past all the protestors. This project needs to be under construction within the next ten years, otherwise we run a serious risk of falling far behind many other countries in the world in the development of modern high speed links. A terrible irony for the country that gave the world railways!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I can't tell from the map although I see Brackley included. Why can't part the old GC route be used to there to overcome protests? GC alignment was laid for very high speeds so it wouldn't take much rebuilding.

Inserting a railhead at Brackley would aslo make some commercial sense if not a sensible compromise to ease local opposition.

Detailed maps here http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/hi.../hs2ltd/route/

Brackley here http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/hi...oute/map15.pdf

Looking at the old formation on the edge of the town http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.03...03726,-1.13983 it looks like they've gone outside of the bypass to keep the noise down a bit. It also occurs to me that the formation curves the wrong way for the line to run north of Brackley without a sharper curve than is required for full speed ops..

So has anyone looked in detail to see if they are planning to use any old formations or is it greenfield stuff all the way ?

It seems to use parts of the old G.C.R. formation starting just to the north of Quainton Road and finishing just to the south of where Brackley Viaduct used to be. Still looking at the rest.

Regards, 62440.

If part of the old GC is to be re-used then Edward Watkin must be laughing in his grave. After over 120 years the country has finally realise he was right to have a high speed mainline to Europe!!

They intend to dig down approx 5 ft into a semi cutting because that shields most of the noise made by the motors and the wheels, etc. all you see is a window gliding silently by with the occasional spark from above to remind you how quick its going. So there is very limited environmental impact the wires and canteenery (I cant spell the other one) being practically invisible from 2 miles and it takes seconds to go by - so whats the problem??

It would seem that about 12 miles of the old G.C.R. trackbed will be re-used to some extent, the new route does vary from the old one to ease the curves!:eek:

See Eccles71B's links above, maps 12 and 13.

Regards, 62440.:D