Frequency of high-speed services:
HS2 will run up to 14 trains per hour in each direction for Phase One, rising to 16 (or 18 with Heathrow services) for Phase Two.
Stopping Patterns are to be determined but HS2 Ltd’s Initial Proposals are as follows:
In Phase One 2026
Birmingham City Centre and Interchange Stations will both have:
3 tph to London Euston and Old Oak Common (4 peak time)
In Phase Two 2033
Birmingham City Centre will have:
3tph to London Euston and Old Oak Common
2tph to Manchester
1 tph to Scotland (semi-fast north of Preston – alternate services to Glasgow/Edinburgh)
2tph to East Mids Hub, Sheffield, Leeds
1tph to East Mids Hub, Sheffield, York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle
Birmingham Interchange will have:
4tph to London Euston and Old Oak Common
1tph to Manchester
1 tph to Edinburgh & Glasgow (Fast north of Preston)
1tph to East Mids Hub, Sheffield, Leeds (or 2tph with Heathrow 1 omitting EMH)
(trains per hour = tph)
There will be further benefits derived from released capacity on existing routes.
Couple of questions about the documentation:
1) With me coming from Durham, I’m naturally interested in the Durham service. Under the current tentative stopping pattern, the only HS train that stops at Durham is the one to Birmingham. However, apart from that, every document I’ve read seems to be under the impression that Durham will be included in the London services too (and, IMHO, this is a no-brainer). Does anyone know what’s going on here?
2) There’s also some revised service proposals for non-HS services that came out the same time as HS2 phase 2 that were apparently used to calculate the revised business case in August 2012. (I presume this was held back until January 28th because it would have given the game away about the plans for the phase 2 route.) However, there are two plans, called “Do Minimum” and “Do Something”, but it doesn’t explain what the context of these two service patterns are, or how this relates to the business case calculation. Did anyone understand that?