Campaign grows to switch the building of HS2 station to Sheffield city

[Annie Bynnol 612]

So the HS2 will cut most communities in half but bring no benefit other than to those collecting the train numbers as the high speed trains whizz by.

 

HS2 will pass at least a hundred communities between London and Leeds/Manchester

Please name 51 communities that are cut in half?

[ricm 10]

I recall it's going to pass straight through the Wheeltappers Arms. He's really not pleased.

[Haydn1971 10]

HS2 isn't about getting people to London quicker - what HS2 does is free up our existing rail network of express trains that take space that local and regional passenger services, or freight services could overwise use. It's extremely difficult to widen existing routes from 2 to 4 tracks, because much of our rail network has been developed around.

 

Think of HS2 as being like when the motorways were introduced, previously you had to drive from town to town to make a journey, the motorways removed these congestion points and created faster journeys, the benefits were also felt on urban streets, as the through traffic was reduced, making more room for local and regional journeys.

 

To say you won't use HS2 is a bit blinkered really, you won't have the choice, the long distance services will move wholesale to HS2 and the connecting routes up the east and west coast mainlines, the only things running on the existing mainlines will be stoppers and semi-fast services.

[JFKvsNixon 11]

As a Sheffield resident I would never use HS2 at Meadowhall. Why travel out there, wait, change trains or tram only to spend possibly more time doing that then get on a slower direct train from Sheffield Midland?

 

And how does either option serve all the people of South Yorkshire? Someone, somewhere is going to have a difficult journey to connect with HS2. And how does shaving minutes of the journey miraculously bring prosperity, more jobs, inward investment to the region?

 

I find the case overstated.

 

I think all most people want is a commitment to a rail network that continues to be improved everywhere over time. A single HS line can only ever benefit a few alongside or near to the direct route. I'd rather see a long-term solution that benefits "the many" by upgrading the existing network for all the major towns together with improved connecting links.

 

Now if HS2 were the beginning of that wider network that would be different...

 

Unless you live next door to Midland station, don't you already have to travel to it and have to suffer all the hassle that describe? So if the transport links are greatly improved to the HS2 station, whats the tangible difference between catching your train from Midland or Meadowhall?

[Eater Sundae 12]

Completely agree. I don't feel "domestic" users will have any benefits - many losses, in fact, from destruction of homes, businesses and our countryside. It feels like we are being left with very little "up North" to warrant business travel from the south. What business expansion is there likely to be only on the back of what we are being told about HS2, much of which is somewhat hazy? Will new businesses take the risk of development prior to HS2 or will they wait for HS2 to come first?

Pessimistic I may be but I have a grave niggling doubt that the southern part may well be accomplished only for our northern part to be delayed/put on hold. The north/south divide will become even greater.

If I'm wrong and it does happen and new large businesses haven't been developed up here, then until they are, the travel will still be one way - north to south!

As regards our existing networks. As an elderly couple, no longer driving, I have recently explored rail services for access to numerous places, north, south, east and west. Most journeys would be horrendous - with up to 4 changes to make for what, on our small island, would be a relatively short journey.

 

Even if HS2 in the north is completed to programme, it will still be behind the south's HS2, so the south WILL move further ahead of the north. The only way to create a northern powerhouse would involve building the north's HS2 first.

[Haydn1971 10]

Even if HS2 in the north is completed to programme, it will still be behind the south's HS2, so the south WILL move further ahead of the north. The only way to create a northern powerhouse would involve building the north's HS2 first.

 

Too late for that now, Phase 1 is well progressed and to stop that to push forward with Phase 2 would be wasteful. Also, the limitations of the existing network are most acute between London and the Midlands, thus building Phase 2 first wouldn't yield the return on investment as quickly.

[Annie Bynnol 612]

Even if HS2 in the north is completed to programme, it will still be behind the south's HS2, so the south WILL move further ahead of the north. The only way to create a northern powerhouse would involve building the north's HS2 first.

 

To clarify:

HS1 Kent to London St Pancras (built)

HS2 London Euston to Phase1 (a) Birmingham Phase2(b) Manchester © Leeds and future Scottish connection via the NE.

HS3 Cross Pennine/Northern Powerhouse. Imaginary pre election idea- won't and cannot be HS, still at back of a cigarette packet stage, some funds provided for pre planning information gathering.

[Chez2 10]

HS2 is about increasing capacity and connectivity not about faster service. Several people (including me) have already mentioned this.

[ghost rider 10]

As a Sheffield resident I would never use HS2 at Meadowhall. Why travel out there, wait, change trains or tram only to spend possibly more time doing that then get on a slower direct train from Sheffield Midland?

 

And how does either option serve all the people of South Yorkshire? Someone, somewhere is going to have a difficult journey to connect with HS2. And how does shaving minutes of the journey miraculously bring prosperity, more jobs, inward investment to the region?

 

I find the case overstated.

 

I think all most people want is a commitment to a rail network that continues to be improved everywhere over time. A single HS line can only ever benefit a few alongside or near to the direct route. I'd rather see a long-term solution that benefits "the many" by upgrading the existing network for all the major towns together with improved connecting links.

 

Now if HS2 were the beginning of that wider network that would be different...

 

Agreed, i would prefer a railway that went to rural areas like they used to do rather than just from city/large town to city/large town.Unless you live in the main centres the train is not much good.By the time i have travelled to my nearest station on public transport i have already wasted about an hour and half,it is easier to just travel by car.I have used a train once in the last 36 years and it took me ages to get to where i wanted to go.I thought it might be fun to go by train,i will not be doing it again and it was not cheap either.The annoying thing is a railway runs past where i live with a defunct station that is now someones house.I could get to work and back easily ,if we had a station.Opening more stations and improving the existing network and reopening closed lines would be better value for money for me.

[26b-6 16]

Sheffield city centre is embarrassing, the last thing it needs is more folk having to seeing it.

[nightrider 13]

Interestingly this may all be a moot point. The times has reported the Sheffield station may be dropped entirely to save money:

 

http://www.51m.co.uk/a-desperate-search-for-cost-savings-will-mean-that-hs2-becomes-vision-lite/

 

There would be a "spur" line from the HS2 line to the centre. I assume that means HS2 just won't stop at Sheffield, but there will be a station in the middle of nowhere with a link to a new line into Sheffield?

[Hambeast 10]

Interestingly this may all be a moot point. The times has reported the Sheffield station may be dropped entirely to save money:

 

http://www.51m.co.uk/a-desperate-search-for-cost-savings-will-mean-that-hs2-becomes-vision-lite/

 

There would be a "spur" line from the HS2 line to the centre. I assume that means HS2 just won't stop at Sheffield, but there will be a station in the middle of nowhere with a link to a new line into Sheffield?

 

The way I reads it, HS2 will come into Sheffield and terminate there without serving anywhere further north from Sheffield. If you want to go to Leeds or anywhere else north on HS2 you would have to travel south and "double back", probably at the East Midlands station.

 

Or it could mean what you said: there will be a random station on the HS2 line which will link into traditional train services into Sheffield. Plenty of space at Beighton for this I would have thought. You would have to travel to this station to go north to Leeds or anywhere else on the HS2 network.