High-speed rail plans announced by government.

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I thought you meant they were going to carry out their plans at high speed. I thought it was too good to be true.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Unfortunately the high speed bit won't start until you have arrived by another 'normal' train into Birmingham...

London is now 1hour 20 minutes from Stafford. Highly unlikely that this time will ever be beaten,ever, ever ... :/
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
30yrs ago it was 1hr 45 to euston, the question is what can one do with the extra 25mins?.......
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
I guess 25mins in stafford could mean a lie-in for some, if you've to be in london for a meeting and you're 25mins early then there's plent of coffee shops to visit......that's progress..........
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Perhaps if they had a third class cattle truck for £20 a trip and no advanced booking it would liven things up a little
 

Mr X

Well-Known Forumite
basil said:
30yrs ago it was 1hr 45 to euston, the question is what can one do with the extra 25mins?.......
30 years ago if your train was half an hour late you might miss your very important meeting. Today, when the train is half an hour late you make it with a few seconds to spare. Surely that is progress!

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of things to do in London for 25 minutes. I'd far rather have to kill 25 mins in the capital than kill 25 mins waiting for a connecting train in some of the stations in this country!
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
John Marwood said:
Unfortunately the high speed bit won't start until you have arrived by another 'normal' train into Birmingham...

London is now 1hour 20 minutes from Stafford. Highly unlikely that this time will ever be beaten,ever, ever ... :/
Actually Stafford would benefit....

The HS2 line according to the plans will split into two somwhere near Coleshill - a branch goes off into Birmingham to a new City Centre station at Curzon St (wonder if it'll incorporate the orignal station)... then the main line continues past Coleshill, skirts west of Tamworth, round the edge of Lichfield and joins the Trent Valley line with a bloody great junction near Elmhurst.

If HS2 gets built then the fast services that call at Stafford now would turn off at Elmhurst and continue their journey on HS2 line meaning faster journey times. In turn that frees up capacity on the "old" line and so we'd benefit from that as well.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
If you could possibly explain that in a little more detail please henryscat...

are you saying we need to 'bus ' it to the Seedy Mill Golf Course giant platform to get the new train ? Because I believed that Stafford could not afford a new platform for said train

Surely that would 'even out ' the timings?

:/
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
John Marwood said:
If you could possibly explain that in a little more detail please henryscat...

are you saying we need to 'bus ' it to the Seedy Mill Golf Course giant platform to get the new train ? Because I believed that Stafford could not afford a new platform for said train

Surely that would 'even out ' the timings?

:/
If HS2 is built there will be two types of rolling stock ordered - one that can only run on HS line (TGV / Thalys type stuff) and another capable of HS2 line speed, but able to use the rest of the normal network as well as HS2. Trains would be 200m long (but could be coupled together) and so would be able to call at normal stations like Stafford without any major issue (no buses necessary!). Just delved into the technical stuff that's been published and my understanding of that is Stafford to London would be done in 55 mins with one stop at a new Old Oak Common station for interchange onto Crossrail.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
basil said:
I guess 25mins in stafford could mean a lie-in for some, if you've to be in london for a meeting and you're 25mins early then there's plent of coffee shops to visit......that's progress..........
25 minutes to me is the difference between eating and not eating lunch, or perhaps making an important phone call to the bank for example.... today things are much different...I have to work 60+ hours a week and that's 60 hours of work, not 60 hours of being at work, having lunch and coffee breaks etc.

Travelling is a bitch and frankly if they can shave 5 minutes off an hour journey I'm all for it.
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
indeed, phone calls to the bank can be unimportant as well as important.........
 

stoofer34

Well-Known Forumite
Any HS line would bypass Stafford It is already a bottleneck on the current West coast services
There already is a plan to Bypass up the Trent Valley. This would mean a new line from near Weston across to rejoin the main line near Norton Bridge? With a Stafford Parkway Station near the Services on the M6

S
 
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