Technically it was precisely designed to be connect directly to HS1 avoiding Euston/St Pancras altogether before the bean counters decided the tunneling was too expensive then it was designed to at least interconnect with an easy interchange with HS1 (E.g. through a new bridge between stations) then the beans counters decided that bothering to get into London at all was too expensive. Finally, we have a decision that half the number of platforms we need in London will be built ensuring we either cripple it’s performance for decades or end up spending even more retrofitting the station at a later date.
My hope is that as soon as it opens, it becomes very clear that more platforms are needed so they build a new station, connecting hs1 and 2 at the same time with said station.
I suspect that’s some thinking internally too. Wait until you have more political capital.
Unfortunately, at the moment the government isn’t even committed to going past Birmingham so at the moment we paid a lot of money to slow down the west coast main line in order to relieve capacity for Milton Keynes. So I guess in terms of priorities I’d say getting it up to north Scotland more important
Technically it was precisely designed to be connect directly to HS1 avoiding Euston/St Pancras altogether before the bean counters decided the tunneling was too expensive then it was designed to at least interconnect with an easy interchange with HS1 (E.g. through a new bridge between stations) then the beans counters decided that bothering to get into London at all was too expensive. Finally, we have a decision that half the number of platforms we need in London will be built ensuring we either cripple it’s performance for decades or end up spending even more retrofitting the station at a later date.
Thanks Treasury!
My hope is that as soon as it opens, it becomes very clear that more platforms are needed so they build a new station, connecting hs1 and 2 at the same time with said station.
I suspect that’s some thinking internally too. Wait until you have more political capital.
Unfortunately, at the moment the government isn’t even committed to going past Birmingham so at the moment we paid a lot of money to slow down the west coast main line in order to relieve capacity for Milton Keynes. So I guess in terms of priorities I’d say getting it up to north Scotland more important
Ohh value engineering, why do a job properly when you can do a much worse job for slightly cheaper and then get paid a lot more again to fix it.