Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• jakthe lad, leamington spa

  HST will be the biggest white elephant in transport history, will probably end up costing 100 billion+ and to who's benefit im sick of reading in the transport press glowing progress reports about it meanwhile the poor commuters have to daily put up with the money grabbing TOCs and the more than useless NotWork Fail with their never ending 'signalling problems' and why no mention of the the double whammy of the Caladonian Sleeper/Overhead line collapse on the WCML the other night? (200 taxis on the way to Scotland) because no 'buses and in the case of the sleeper no replacement loco nearby at Nuneaton so when it eventually staggered into Edinburgh@breakfast time it was termintated,but the best was the return portion from Inverness(Class 170 anyone?) yes really! HS2 a sucess? dont make me laugh

• George Davidson, Newport

  I hear that Japan are now going to construct a Maglev (Magnetic levitating 'train') between their major cities. Perhaps we should skip building high speed trains & make it a maglev system instead?
  
  It has also been reported that the mock up of the proposed Hitachi Electric so called 'Super Express' shows that the 4 seats at the ends of each carriage will not have windows & be narrower (no arm rest between each pair). This is so as to accommodate the internally sliding doors rather than those that fold outwards. All well & good for those who just wish to look at screens but tough on those who wish to look outside. Perhaps the designers will not put seats in these positions but use the space for baggage / bicycle storage?

• Chris, London

  Let us hope that the interiors prove to be a huge stride on from the ergonomically poor Virgin Pendolino designs that Priestman Goode showcase on their website. To what extent they were constrained by their client is clearly unknown, however fundamental basics such as placing table legs in the same location that customers would want to put their own legs, using difficult to read LCD screens for seat reservations and providing a poor window to seat relationship in Standard do not make for a great product. Neither is the use of window blinds, which in Standard mean that one customer can dictate the blind position for up to three rows of seats! Incidentally the view out appears to have been improved in some of the recently delivered 10th and 11th cars, so it could have been done throughout the trains on day 1.

• Chris Neville-Smith, Durham, England

  Lutz: "Will provision be made for expansion from two to four tracks at a later date, either in part or through-out?"
  
  I believe the consensus is that if it is decided an extra pair of track is needed at a later date, it should be a new line completely rather than an extra pair to London. As most of the route into London is tunnels anyway, I imagine it would make little difference to the cost whether the extra tracks ran alongside the HS2 alignment.
  
  "If you want Gold you have to go to China or Japan where the politicians aren't scared of new technology"
  
  China tried Maglev from Shanghai airport, had a chance to see how well it worked out, and decided to stick to high-speed rail for Beijing-Shanghai. "New" does not automatically mean "better".

• Roshan, Leeds

  Christine, if HS2 Ltd do their job properly as they are required to do, then people living near the tracks should be compensated well enough. There are many noise mitigation techniques which can be deployed to reduce the noise HS2 will make, such as planting trees (which also reduces the visual impact) and installing a sound barrier. Bear in mind that HS2 will have lots of tunnels too. High-speed trains are very well aerodynamically-designed, so they won't be that much more noisy than conventional electric trains despite the higher speeds. HS2 will use electric trains, so if there is a modal shift from road to rail (as there has been with all other HSR projects) then this will reduce pollution and CO2 emissions. I still believe HS2 should run at 300 - 320 km/h to reduce noise and energy consumption though, and it should follow already busy transport corridors such as the M40 or M1.
  
  The impact of HS2 has mainly been focused on from a noise and aesthetic point of view. Not enough people are considering the impact on wildlife and habitats. Using the Wildlife Trusts plans, the HS2 corridor could be beneficial for wildlife as there will be little human activity in the vicinity of the tracks.

• Tim, Devon

  Gold standard? More like silver. HS2 is 20th century technology. If you want Gold you have to go to China or Japan where the politicians aren't scared of new technology

• Colin Dimond, South Wales

  I'll believe this when I see it. Is this the same Transport Secretary that signed off the design of IEP with 8 seats per carriage with no windows?

• Christine Cooper, Stoke Mandeville

  But not so gold plated when it comes to compensating those people whose homes are blighted by this project. How can a person rejoice knowing that people have had hundreds of thousands wiped off the property values and find it impossible to sell at a fair price and find it practically impossible to pass the EHS vague criteria enabling judgement to be highly subjective. Come on, please be fair.
  

• Roshan, Leeds

  It's good that HS2 will be built to the highest standards of engineering (as it should be) but really there has to be more focus on mitigating the environmental impacts of HS2. The Wildlife Trusts published a great report on how this could be done. I would love to see a partnership with the Wildlife Trusts, Campaign to Protect Rural England, RSPB et al to do this and include the upgrading and restoration of habitats along the route and elsewhere.
  I think they could reduce the line speed to 300 - 320km/h too. No countries have a top line speed of 400km/h as increasing the top speed further reduces the journey time benefits, and it makes even less sense in England where the distance between major cities is less than it is on the continent or in Japan. The track could easily follow existing transport corridors too. I think this could really eradicate a lot of the opposition to HS2. No doubt the anti-HS2ers will find a way to complain about this story too, probably making it to appear that HS2 will literally be gold-plated!

• Peter Storey, London

  HS2 is such a step-change in transport infrastructure for the UK that we would expect nothing less than marvellous state-of-the-art design.
  With an ever growing population excellent public transport will become even more important to the majority of the people as they try to comfortably move around the country. We now know that building additional roads never solves the congestion problem long term but only gives a temporary relief.
  I would suggest that only a major shift to better, faster and cleaner public transport with rail as the predominant long distance carrier can be the long term answer to the country's future needs.
  We are seeing the benefits of new investment in public transport projects starting to come to fruition in the south-east, such as the upgrading of the Overground Network, an enlarged Kings Cross station and a transformed St Pancras station and this needs to be replicated quickly throughout the major conurbations to attract more people off the roads and onto public transport.
  In London perhaps the most important change has been the introduction of The Oyster Card which is expanding to reach further and further out of London. By using just one touch card for all public transport methods greatly reduces the complexity of changing from bus to tube to tram etc. It's not yet perfect but has made travelling by public transport in London far easier and the principal perhaps should be expanded to encompass the whole of the UK transport network.
  HS2, once completion becomes ever closer will I'm sure capture the imagination of the nation provided it is NOT built on a shoestring. Stations must be proper interconnecting transport hubs, welcoming, warm in the winter, and roomy. St Pancras has shown that when designed properly a station can serve as a destination point with good restaurants and shopping and great transport connections. This will generate new business areas around the new stations giving the northern cities vital new investment.
  Perhaps most important of all good HS2 design and practice is our best opportunity to showcase to the world that the UK is open for business and looking forward to the future with confidence.

• Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex

  Ye gods a photo of what must be the worst bus ever designed in the world with its porthole windows that restrict vision and open platform ready for people to get killed failing off.
  
  While as proved in recent accidents its wall of glass just shatters in what are in fact minor collisions and its best described as a SIDRAT as it's smaller on the inside than the amount of road space it needed compared with buses nearly 2.metres shorter -,( Smaller Internal Dimensions Rearly Awful Transport !) and it carries fewer passengers than real modern buses 100 grand cheaper !
  
  So design for HS2 needs to be more like Artic buses or trams or Q1 Trolleybuses !
  
  

• Tony Pearce, Reading

  I hope the HS2 project will be terrorist proof as well. Coming from Northern Ireland, I like all my Countrymen think like a 'Terrorist'. This was our way of staying alive. When we got on a NIR train or Ulsterbus, our first thought would be - 'Is there a bomb on-board and where would it be hidden'. Maybe this made us Paranoic. But coming from Ulster, it is soon obvious that Public Transport is a number 1 target for Terrorism. The IRA factions are not completely dead, and they still know how to make Bombs, but the World is seeing a great increase in Terrorist Activity- not just from Irish Nationalist community. Their main Targets are usually Airlines but with all the security that is in place then often go for railways as an alternative. Their aim as always is to gain as much 'Publicity' as possible. I believe that Terrorism will become even more prevelant and that HS2 will in future years be a 'Publicity' target. Anti-Terrorist measures need to be thought of at the design stage not when it is too late.

• Stephen cryan, Warrington

  If you make a major investment in infrastructure the most important thing is to get it right. There should be no quick fixes to ensure the budget is as low as possible because it would work out more expensive in the long run.
  
  However, that does not mean one should concentrate on the appearance. Wrapping something up in coloured paper does not make something a birthday present. Be careful that "gold plated" does not mean "hiding the cracks". Be vigilant.

• Lutz, London

  OK, here's one to start with: Will provision be made for expansion from two to four tracks at a later date, either in part or through-out?