Which style of high speed rail network would suit the UK?

Question

For example the TGV is mostly high speed running on dedicated lines, but operates more like an airline, bypassing most towns and cities on route. But the German ICE consists of some high speed running on dedicated lines on the core routes and a lot on existing lines with a speed upgrade around the periphery. Its not as fast as the TGV but allows more places to be served. Which do you think would be better for the UK

No I don't mean the Transrapid maglev - that is still not suitable for much more then short demo lines - the problem is where do you put the new lines when it comes to the cities, normal high speed rail can use the existing lines into the centre. Also Maglevs are extremely sensitive to on track debris - the equipment that was involved in that crash was used every morning to sweep the track of leaves and debris

Answer 1

The system being used in Kent should be the way forward: a mixture of dedicated spinal high speed line linked in with domestic trains serving existing local destinations.

The signalling needed for those high speed lines would not work on the existing infrastructure. The infrastructure is in place to run 140mph on the East Coast Main Line but the wear and tear of the rails at that speed on the old fashioned network is too much for Network Rail to pay out.

It is a real shame that the LAST mainline built in the UK - the Great Central, with it's Woodhead tunnel was closed. It was built straighter and with more capacity than the East or West Coast main line. I can imagine Woodhead tunnel being used for a high speed link to Manchester again in a decade or two.

I believe that the CTRL will pave the way eventally for a new high speed north/south line which will link London with Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow using this spine. It will cost a massive amount and like the channel tunnel, may well spiral and bankrupt the investors.

Answer 2

They could do with new railways lines set up by a certain private company for example Virgin. In the UK a city to city high speed service would be great and get even more people off the roads. However we already have a intercity train service. perhaps a london to birmingham with one stop in between would be ok?

I think the ICE thingy is more suited to UK.

Answer 3

Is the ICE the new Japanes Method that is on trial in Germany. The one that it does not actually run on rails but hovers on magnets producing reverse poles?

That is the one that sounds best to me.

The end of the day the train service should be fats reliable and provide a good service to all regions via trunks and branch lines as it was in the siixties before politicians strpped it to it's bones.

The caveat is that it needs to be cheap to draw more people onto it and relieve roads. It also need to be well serviced with additional services from the stations with clean cheap and regular transport services. So I guess were F****d ......lol

Answer 4

The lines on the west coast and east coast main lines cannot handle the speeds of these trains, but the tracks are now able to handle the virgin trains pendelinos speeds of up tp 160mph which journey times between london and glasgow is 3hours 50minutes.
so at the moment we are in progress in joining the fast lane in train travel in europe.

Answer 5

A short one! Ha ha ha

Answer 6

One with a shovel attached to the front, you now what a problem those leaves are

Answer 7

Any that ran on time. But would think the latter would be better.

Answer 8

Steam - then everyone would use it.