High Speed 2 Phase Two

High Speed 2 - Phase Two
The Phase Two route, highlighted in red, consists of two lines to Manchester and Leeds
Overview
Type	High-speed railway
System	National Rail
Status	Planning stage
Locale	Midlands, North West, Yorkshire
Termini	Birmingham Curzon Street Manchester Piccadilly Leeds New Lane
Stations	Manchester spur: Crewe Manchester Airport Manchester Piccadilly Leeds spur: Toton Sidings Sheffield Meadowhall Leeds New Lane
Operation
Opened	2032-33 (planned)
Depot(s)	Golborne
Rolling stock
Technical
Number of tracks	Double track throughout
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	GC
Electrification	25 kV AC overhead
Operating speed	Up to 250 mph (400 km/h)

High Speed 2 is a planned high-speed railway line connecting the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The railway is to be delivered in two phases. The first phase linking London and Birmingham, the second linking Birmingham with Manchester and Leeds. Phase Two is planned for completion in 2032–33. Phase two is split into two sub-phases, phase 2a and phase 2b. Phase 2a is the section from Birmingham to Crewe, with phase 2b the remainder of phase 2.

The concept of HS2 was that all major cities covered would have a city centre station. Liverpool along with London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds was envisaged to have a city centre HS2 station. The preliminary route for Phase Two was announced on 28 January 2013. It is envisaged construction on Phase Two will start in 2022 with completion by 2032.

Manchester sits on a spur of the mixed use West Coast Main Line (WCML), one of the busiest rail routes in Europe from Scotland, through the populated regions of North West England, the Midlands and onto South East England. Demand from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston grew 70% between 1999 and 2010 with the WCML accounting for 43% of all rail freight traffic in the United Kingdom. Network Rail released a study in 2011 stating that capacity on the West Coast Main Line would be almost full if rail usage continues to grow.

A plan to upgrade the West Coast Main Line was undertaken between 1996 and 2008 by Railtrack and continued under Network Rail from 2001. The £2.2 billion plan was to originally upgrade the speed of the existing tilting Pendolino trains from the maximum speed of 110 mph to 155 mph, reducing journey times between Manchester and Liverpool and London to approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. The upgrade costs spiralled to over £8 billion, not delivering the planned 155 mph speed and 1-hour-45-minute journey between both cities. Central to the modernisation plan was implementing moving block signalling; however, this had only been successful on metro lines and light rail systems, and the implementation on a heavily used line such as the West Coast Main Line failed.

Birmingham to Crewe is phase 2a, which is propesed to be built before phase 2b. HS2 will pass through Staffordshire and Cheshire, in a tunnel under Crewe station but not stopping at Crewe railway station. However, the HS2 line will be linked to the West Coast Main Line via a grade-separated junction just south of Crewe, enabling "classic compatible" trains exiting the high-speed line to call at the existing Crewe station.