Rail Franchises

[Ameecher]

Ther have been suggestions of having a station at Oxford since its of international prominence

The main reason we are spending £60 billion is Firstly increase capacity and secondly reduce journey times. My plan does both

It doesn't do both, it solves a capacity issue but in entirely the wrong manner. You can't call your proposal High Speed because it would be so grossly inefficient, with what you're proposing you'd need fast accelerating - low top speed trains.

As for Oxford being touted for international prominence, if it was THAT popular it'd be getting more than a half hourly service to London and an hourly service to Worcester for Birmingham but to be honest you'd probably route via Reading for Birmingham. Anyway, services will be improved with the addition of services to Marylebone but I doubt many people will use the Chiltern service as an end to end route.
Oxford also does just fine being in close proximity to Heathrow, sticking a HS station in with a massive dogleg to the journey if you're using this idea as a basis that you posted a few pages back:

Watford

Northampton (not well served by VT, but that due to the Rail line around there)

Milton Keynes

Liverpool

Stafford

Liverpool

Crewe

Preston

Lancaster

Carlisle

Glasgow

Stoke-on-Trent

thats for the WCML services, but since HS2 is also serving areas that are served by MML, you need to include these stations:

Bedford

Wellingborough

Kettering

Market Harborough

Leicester

Loughborough

Derby

Chesterfield

Sheffield

Aside from some major geographical oddities (two liverpools, Northampton being before MK and Stoke being after Glasgow) you're going to have a serious weave on if you want to serve these with HS services, something that as a rule require as straight an alignment as possible. There's a reason why the Brunel and all his chums didn't try to serve everywhere with one line because it's stupid.

[Dave]

It not easy to get to Wembley from the north since fans fill up the roads and railways (when there might be improvment works since its the weekend etc)

Oxford is more than big enough anyway to gain a station, certainly improves links up North etc

People travelling on HS2 will be people commuting into the capital.

Oxford isn't even in the top 20 towns for population.

Building a HSR station will not solve the issues you claim exist at Wembley.

I've been three times by train for various things and never experienced a problem - travel into London then back out by tube or local services.

[Ameecher]

Certainly building a station for Wembley when it has large events that occur infrequently is a serious waste of money. The current situation of additional specials for football fans is a much better option.

[Dave]

Have you traveled when round the time there is a cup game at Wembley?

Yes. It is busy. Have you travelled around the time of ANY sporting or music event ANYWHERE in the country?

It is always busy. Adding extra capacity doesn't solve the problem - it's always going to be difficult to travel around those times - if you're from Manchester earning a modest wage and you're going to see your team in the FA Cup Final, do you:

a) spend a reasonable amount travelling for three hours
b) spend an extortionate amount travelling for an hour and a half

Businessmen might want speed over cost - normal people don't. Football is a game of the people.

Oxford would stongley benefit from better access to London and the North!

Prove it. If you're so sure, prove it.

HERE IS ALAN'S PLAN FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL, TO MAKE SURE HE GETS ALL OF HIS STATIONS IN

[Dave]

Well like it or not, they are effectively paying for it and Sorry but they would rather have a DIRECT high speed rail services than a few more services of the same speed as before

Lol like it or not you're effectively paying for someone to wipe the queen's arse - are you going to demand you want direct access to it?

Stop being such a communist and get it in to your thick skull that hub and spoke systems are how High Speed Rail works.

Look at the map you idiot!

[GurraJG]

HERE IS ALAN'S PLAN FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL, TO MAKE SURE HE GETS ALL OF HIS STATIONS IN

Seems reasonable to me.... Lol!

[Ameecher]

But the speed won't be any different! They might all want such things but they're not going to get them because it's a ridiculous notion. For HS to work in this country it has to be limited stop. Why didn't they stick loads of stations in Essex and along HS1 for the SE local service to take advantage of it? OH because it'd be silly.

[Dave]

ALSO note how he wants a station at CHESTERFIELD!!!! but not Nottingham! Classic!

[Dave]

In all seriousness, I think Alan wants to have a couple of branches of his "plan", so that map is a bit unfair.

But then it begs the question... If I live in Sheffield, and I want to go to Preston, what do I do!? There's no through service!

By the way High Speed Rail stops at Preston and Lancaster - effing LOL!

[Ameecher]

Preston I could probably accept, Lancaster, nah.

[Nawdic]

There's hardly a lack of capacity to Wembley - you have LU (Bakerloo, Met and Jubilee), Southern, Chiltern and London Overground providing direct services to Wembley Central, Wembley Park and Wembley Stadium.

What else do you want!?.

[Ameecher]

Ok so say you have 4 trains an hour that stop at every fourth station, that's 1 an hour to the intermediate stations and 4 an hour to Birmingham. That's stupid. There would be no need for that level of service. Make it every 2 hours to the intermediate station and then there's no point building the station. Give it up.

Edit: As for HS1 not going through Essex, whilst I was largely wrong, it does actually go through Essex at Thurrock but whatever, I was referring to the north bank of the Thames, Grays & Rainham sort of way.

[Chris]

Well like it or not, they are effectively paying for it and Sorry but they would rather have a DIRECT high speed rail services than a few more services of the same speed as before, which is why I want, Sheffield (where HS2 is passing), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Stoke, Nottingham, Newcastle, Oxford and Nottingham etc to gain HSR stations (plus you should be looking at top 20 biggest metropolitan areas)

So its still only 2 (later 4) that will be served by HS2!

Oxford has a population of 153,000. That is the 121st biggest city/town in Britain. How is that worthy of a HS station?

And in terms of metropolitan areas, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_me ... ed_Kingdom. If you really want to then you could just extend HS train services from HS2 on to classic lines to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle. That wouldn't cost much more than the current plan for HS2, but would still deliver significant time savings to those places.

What you say doesn't make sense, Leeds-Bradford is the 4th largest MA, and Sheffield is 7th. Hence you serve Leeds. The distance between Leeds and Sheffield is 56km, if you make a stop at Sheffield you add at least 8 minutes on to the journey. You do that at Leicester and Nottingham as well and East Midlands, Luton & Wembley, then that's about 48 minutes longer. The planned journey time is 1h 28m, plus 48m would be 2h 16s, which I think you'll find takes longer than the current train to Sheffield which takes between 2h 3m and 2h 7m.

[MjD]

For the 3rd and maybe even the 4th time why on earth do you want HSR to stop at Motherwell? Have you ever been there and seen the volume of people who get on any service heading South? Also have you had a look at the geography of the current station and the services that stop there. Majority of people who use the station are heading to work in Glasgow or surrounding areas, and providing a HSR stop there would be pointless due to the excellent service that it currently gets into Glasgow.

[orudge]

I think we should build a high speed line from Thurso and Wick to Penzance. It can stop at Helmsdale, Brora, Golspie, Dornoch, Tain, Fearn, Invergordon, Inverness, Perth, Glasgow, Carlisle, Warrington, Chester, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Bristol (via a snazzy new high speed tunnel under the Severn), Glastonbury (for a once-a-year event), Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance. People can use classic lines to connect to it. Simples!

I will run 8 trains an hour along it - I'm sure the people of Fearn will appreciate their express services that have to stop every 5 minutes for another little station in the middle of nowhere. Who wants to go to Warrington, anyway?

[Dave]

I still think that more of the UK should benefit from high spped services

That's the argument of a beaten man. Let it go Alan.

[Chris]

But both Ashford and Ebbsfleet are pick-up/set down only, you can't travel on Eurostar domestically. They also only have 3 or 4 trains per day to Paris/Brussels. If you're talking about Southeastern, you're silly because that isn't HS.

[GurraJG]

Remember we are spending £60+ Billion on a railway that currently only serve 4 cities!

No we're not, we're spending half of that! Stop quoting that bulls*** £60 billion figure.

[Ameecher]

I still think that more of the UK should benefit from high spped services

That's the argument of a beaten man. Let it go Alan.

You have given no good reason why Taxpayers in Stoke and other planes should pay for a High Speed Railway that will not serve then even as its passes nearby!

Remember we are spending £60+ Billion on a railway that currently only serve 4 cities!

Because they will benefit! We've pointed out that they'll get an improved and faster service as a result of the current trains that already pass them by being moved on to the new line!

Edit: Do you want the Elveden by-pass, part of the A11 dualling project to go past Hampstead? After all, you're paying for it.

[Dave]

I've said already - you pay for someone to wipe the queen's arse, do you want to see it?