E2M - Ethical Engineering for Mobility Profile picture
Sep 25, 2018 β€’ 8 tweets β€’ 4 min read β€’ Read on X
Lots of people at #Lab18 are talking about investing in the north's railways, which is terrific πŸ‘

However, do people calling for a "Crossrail of the North" know what that is? Do they actually mean a new high speed line (HS3)?

You can't have one without the other.
#Network2050 Image
We publicly launched #Network2050 at #NEREF2050 in York earlier this month, explaining the need for a step-change in transport investment across the North of England. Image
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The trouble is, you can't have both fast trains and lots of stopping services on the existing, mixed-traffic railway. It's either/or.

Without segregating fast trains into their own lines, you cannot run an intensive, Crossrail-style service on the existing trans-Pennine railway. Image
As we've explained before, this is why we need HS2...

This becomes clear when you compare the number of seats @LNER can provide at the moment on the busy East Coast Mainline with the new, dedicated infrastructure of @Crossrail or @HS2ltd.
#Network2050 Image
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The new high speed line across the Pennines would:

πŸš„ allow @TPExpressTrains services to run on their own lines

🚈 enable an intensive, high-capacity service (more like the @elizabethline or @TLRailUK) to run on the existing railway

πŸš› permit more rail freight

#Network2050 Image
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New fast lines on the ECML between Northallerton and Newcastle would directly link Teesside to Scotland and London.

This would:

⌚ improve North-South journey times

πŸš„ allow more fast trains to Darlington, Durham

πŸŒ„ improve connectivity for the whole Tees Valley

#Network2050 Image
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Pie in the sky? Not really.

There is an expected budget for new lines in the north of Β£10-24bn πŸ’°πŸ’°πŸ’° Image
*Obviously this should be #NEREF2018!

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More from @EthicalMobility

Feb 21, 2020
Despite being the first intercity line in the UK to be electrified with modern(ish) overheads, the railway between Manchester and Sheffield through Woodhead Tunnels was closed for traffic in 1981.

Many people call for the line to reopen, but how sensible would that be?
Firstly, let's look at the three great cities of the northern Pennines:

🐝 Manchester (hub for a 9.7m urban area)
πŸ¦‰ Leeds (hub for a 1.7m urban area)
🦁 Sheffield (hub for a 1.3m urban area)

Let's draw a straight line between their principal stations:
Between Manchester and Leeds, there are currently two passenger routes (the Calder Valley and Huddersfield lines), with another planned in the form of a new high speed line (alternately called HS3/NPR/HSN) to segregate express services.

These lines are all reasonably direct.
Read 11 tweets
Aug 4, 2019
The second of today’s #whyHS2 threads looks at the Great Central Main Line (often referred to as the GCR), and suggestions that reopening this railway would be a better alternative to HS2.

This simply isn’t correct. By comparing the two alignments, you can see why…
On opening, HS2 Phase 1 will relieve the WCML south of Birmingham. HS2 Phase 2A will further relieve the WCML northwards to Crewe.

HS2’s full potential is unlocked when Phase 2B opens to Manchester and Leeds, freeing up space on the WCML, MML, ECML and XC route.
To understand exactly how HS2 achieves this capacity release, see our earlier #whyHS2 thread:
Read 7 tweets
Feb 12, 2019
This week, @LiamHalligan and @C4Dispatches asked whether #HS2 was a good use of public funds, and whether the same benefits could be gained by spending the money elsewhere.

Here's our answer.
#HS2alltheway #WhyHS2
The vast majority of Britain's railways are a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Because of our mix of fast, slow, non-stop and stopping trains, we aren't able to squeeze services together to get the most out of the existing infrastructure.
The fastest services eat up the most capacity by forcing everything else to get out of the way - trains can't overtake on a two track railway.

Building HS2 unlocks a massive amount of space on the existing railway by segregating high speed services onto their own pair of tracks.
Read 11 tweets
Aug 6, 2018
This #TransitCapacityComparison looks at high speed maglev systems: the Shanghai Transrapid (operating), Chūō Shinkansen (under construction) and #Hyperloop (proposed).

We've also included the UK's second high speed rail line, #HS2.

Do the figures match your expectations?
For more information on maglev (magnetic levitation) systems, read this docu-thread by @GarethDennis... It goes through the history of the technology's development, from the Hovertrain through to Hyperloop:
(Our cross-Thames #TransitCapacityComparison is taking a little longer to curate than planned: we hope this satisfies your transit infographic appetites!)
Read 4 tweets
Feb 14, 2018
High Speed 2 continues to stir up debate...

Why it is being prioritised over other corridors such as those in the north or south west? Does it follow the best route? Is it necessary at all?

This little thread should help explain things.
Firstly, Britain's railways are getting busier... Our network is the most densely trafficked in Europe, even before you consider freight.

On key routes, existing lines are already reaching capacity.
Before discussing how to alleviate pressure on the network, let's consider the major areas of population and economic output.

These "hubs" are the clusters of cities that are, for example, connected by less than an hour's travel.
Read 14 tweets

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