HS2 VIA : INDICATIVE TIMETABLES

1 Comprised within the document entitled 'DELIVERING HIGH SPEED RAIL TO THE AND YORKSHIRE' are indicative train service plans for HS2 routed via Derby instead of through Toton and the ; these use portion trains, and six of the eighteen train paths planned for HS2 north from Euston have been allocated for use by trains serving destinations east of the Pennines.

2 The indicative train plans also include equivalents to services currently operated by CrossCountry Trains in the West of England – Bristol/South Wales – West Midlands – East Midlands – South Yorkshire – West Yorkshire – North East England – Scotland corridor.

3 By using high speed train journey times published by hs2 Ltd and the current sector journey times comprised in Network Rail's working timetables, these indicative train service plans have been validated by creating an indicative timetable; this validation exercise identified points of conflict and some omissions in the train service plans, and these conflicts and omissions have been eradicated or corrected, as necessary.

4 Two separate timetables have been produced:

a) one is for London starting services; train paths departing from London on the hour and thereafter at ten minute intervals have been used for planning; and

b) a second one for trains in the Birmingham – Derby – Yorkshire/North East England corridor.

A common one hour time slot has been used for both timetables.

5 Of necessity, journey times for freight trains and empty stock movements have been used for some sectors; these are adequate for these indicative timetables.

6 Some additional indicative timetables have been produced as part of the validation process; these cover:

a) the East Midlands – Leeds corridor; and

b) the – Birmingham corridor.

7 Connections with Leeds are proposed for enhancement by extending a fast St Pancras – service (via the - “MML”) north of that city to Derby, stopping at Loughborough and East Midlands Parkway; at Derby, it would join with a train originating from Nottingham, and the pair would then go forward using HS2 to Leeds, calling en route at Meadowhall. It is estimated that such a service would establish a Nottingham – Leeds journey time of 58 minutes (the current best is 104 minutes with a change at Chesterfield, 121 minutes by direct train). 8 Further analysis has shown that the theoretical current best time between Nottingham and Leeds via Sheffield is about 92 minutes; however, if a connection between the Nottingham – Lincoln line and the East Coast Main Line was to be constructed where they presently cross at grade, a journey time between Nottingham and Leeds of about 78 minutes should be possible. Such a service should be considered as:

a) it significantly reduces the current journey time between Leeds and Nottingham; and

b) it establishes DIRECT rail communications between Nottingham and Retford and Doncaster, and also maintains a direct connection with Wakefield (which will be lost if trains are routed via HS2).

Moreover, the Ordnance Survey map for the area adjacent to the Newark flat crossing suggests that the land needed for the connection described in this clause 8 is already owned by Network Rail; in railway terms, therefore, the cost of constructing such a connection should be “peanuts” .

9 The St Pancras/Nottingham – Leeds service was included in the indicative service plans to serve a number of purposes:

a) primarily, as a fast London – Leicester/Loughborough service using the MML;

b) as a means of providing a fast connection between Leicester/ Loughborough and Leeds;

c) by adding a Luton Airport stop, a direct service between Leeds, South Yorkshire, Derby and the airport's station;

d) a direct, fast, service between London, Leeds, and South Yorkshire and East Midlands Parkway, for the nearby airport of the same name;

10 As operating constraints limit passenger train lengths on the MML, extension of a short, classic compatible, train north of Derby over HS2 is an inefficient use of a train path on the high speed railway; efficiency can be improved, therefore, by amalgamating two short trains and then using a single train path for the combined one. This principle has been used when formulating the indicative train plan; two short trains – one from London via Leicester, the other from Nottingham – have been joined together at Derby to continue northwards to Leeds. Combined passenger numbers should – hopefully! – be sufficient to make such a combined service commercially viable.

11 In the Nottingham – Birmingham corridor, current journey times are 74/75 minutes between the two cities; stopping patterns vary to maintain a more-or-less consistent journey time, and all trains travel via Derby where reversal has been necessary since the closure of the original Midland Counties Railway route into the city via Chaddesden (in 1969, as part of the Derby area resignalling scheme). Restoration of the direct route between Raynesway (the A5111 Derby ring-road) and Chaddesden sidings via a slightly different alignment to that abandoned (much of the abandoned solum is now used by the A52 Brian Clough Way) should be possible, but this would save, at best, three minutes in journey time between Nottingham and Birmingham (typically, five minutes is allowed at Derby to reverse trains using this route, and the three minutes saving has been calculated by assuming that a two minute station dwell time would still be required).

12 However, a significant improvement to the journey time between the two cities can be achieved without any infrastructure investment and the retention of the Derby reversal by:

a) changing the stopping pattern of the train service; and

b) using different trains to operate the service.

The latter would need to be 125mph capable trains with a high power-to-weight ratio – 'Voyagers' or 'Meridians' – so that they can take advantage of the upgrade works on the Birmingham to Derby line, undertaken as part of the Virgin Trains' 'Operation Princess' project.

13 A thirty-minute transit between Birmingham and Derby is possible; although no trains are timed to this, running times of 30 minutes between the two cities are often achieved. The fastest journey time achievable between Derby and Nottingham is about eighteen minutes; therefore, if these two sector times, plus five minutes to reverse at Derby, are added together, a journey time of 53 minutes is the result.

14 An alternative route for trains between Nottingham and Birmingham avoiding Derby has been considered; working timetables show that there is only one non- freight train working using this Derby avoiding line (which runs between Sheet Stores Junction at and Stenson Junction at Willington via Castle Donington), an empty stock diesel multiple unit transfer between Nottingham and Tyseley Depot, Birmingham. This is allowed the same time between Sheet Stores Junction and Stenson Junction as is possible with a train such as a 'Voyager' or 'Meridian' running via Derby (and reversing in that city).

15 Although this route isn't very well aligned, it is reasonable to assume that some minutes can be “shaved” from the sixteen minutes allowed for the empty stock transfer; however, if passenger trains were to use the line on a regular basis, it is very likely that pressure will be exerted to reopen at least one closed station (Castle Donington) and to construct a new one on Derby's southern edge where the railway line passes adjacent to the A50/A514 intersection in Chellaston. This is a location already served by local buses, and is close to the world headquarters of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace and the new Infinity Park development; Toyota's main UK manufacturing facility is less than ten minutes drive away by car. The effect of just one station stop would probably neutralise any journey time benefits gained by diverting services to use this route.

16 It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that – based upon present plans – the best Nottingham – Birmingham journey time achievable with a change at Toton will be approximately 41 minutes; this is calculated by adding together hs2 Ltd's Toton – Birmingham Curzon Street journey time of 19 minutes, a journey time of 12 minutes for the Toton – Nottingham transit (this is the time allowed for train 1Y03, the 07.03 Sheffield – Nottingham service which is routed via Toton instead of the usual route between Trowel Junction and Mansfield Junction), and ten minutes to change trains at Toton. Provided that the Birmingham train leaves Toton exactly ten minutes after the connecting shuttle arrives from Nottingham, using HS2 gives a 12 minute journey time advantage over a direct service between Nottingham Midland and Birmingham New street; and as New Street is closer to much of Birmingham's city centre than Curzon Street is, the actual point-to-point journey time benefit for a passenger will, in reality, be less than this twelve minutes.

17 As a comparison, a 45 minutes transit has been calculated (and incorporated into the draft Cross Country HS2 timetable) for a direct Nottingham – Birmingham service, reversing at Derby; this uses the HS2 Derby route. Moreover, it uses Birmingham New Street station instead of Curzon Street, and therefore the actual point-to-point transit times for most passengers travelling between the two cities would be more or less on a par.

18 At the Independent Transport Commission's Nottingham Workshop, it was declared that a journey time of 26 minutes would be possible between Nottingham Midland and Birmingham Curzon Street if a connection between the classic network and HS2 was to be constructed in the Trent area; this seems a reasonable assumption regarding journey time, but the cost of the connection would be considerable and it is unlikely that it could be justified if it was only to be used by trains travelling between these two cities.

19 In summary, therefore, the validation exercise has “proved” that the indicative train plans proposed can be delivered; moreover, routing HS2 through Derby and establishing connections between HS2 and the classic network at suitable locations (driven by rail geography) enable desirable city pairings to be more commercially attractive than would otherwise be the case by enabling such pairings to be extended well beyond the new high speed rail infrastructure (such as by providing one of the fast Birmingham – Nottingham services by it being part of a much longer one between Birmingham and Hull). The validation process has also raised the question “why wait?” As journey time improvements are possible WITHOUT HS2, why can't they be introduced before the 2030s if there is sufficient demand for them?

20 The draft timetables referred to in this introduction are attached; HS2 services are attached first, followed by Nottingham – Leeds and finally the proposals for the Nottingham – Birmingham corridor.

CROSS COUNTRY: NORTHBOUND OFF-PEAK TIMETABLE THROUGH BIRMINGHAM – SHEFFIELD CORRIDOR

BRI- LMS- BHM- CDF- BHM- LMS- BRI- PLY- BHM- BHM- BRI- PLY- MKC- CDF- BRI- PLY- HUL DBY NOT EDB HUL DBY HUL EDB NOT LDS HUL EDB LDS LCN HUL EDB (cont) (cont) (cont) (cont) (cont) (cont) (cont)

Plymouth dep 07.15 Newton Abbott dep 07.52 Exeter St David's dep 08.13 Tiverton Junction dep 08.26 Taunton dep 08.40 Bristol Temple Meads dep 08.56 09.13 Cardiff General dep 08.34 09.00 Newport (South Wales) dep 08.49 09.15 Bristol Parkway dep 09.05 09.12 09.22 ▲ Chepstow dep ▼ 09.33 Gloucester arr 09.30 09.59 dep 09.38 10.01 Cheltenham Spa dep 09.45 09.50 09.55 10.13 Worcester Shrub Hill dep 10.13 Redditch dep University dep 10.54 Reading dep ? Oxford dep ▲ ? Milton Keynes dep ▼ ? Leamington Spa dep 09.27 Coventry dep 09.39 Birmingham Interchange dep 10.53 Birmingham International dep 09.50 Birmingham New Street arr 10.00 10.25 10.35 10.50 11.00 dep 10.05 10.29 10.32 10.35 10.42 10.51 10.56 11.05 ▲ ▼ Sutton Coldfield dep 10.21 Lichfield City dep 10.33 Alrewas (National Memorial Arboretum) dep 10.40 ▲ Water Orton dep ▲ ▼ Wilnecote dep ▼ Tamworth arr 10.45 11.11 dep 10.46 11.12 Burton-on-Trent dep 10.48 10.56 11.23 Willington dep 11.03 Derby arr 10.54 10.57 11.00 11.04 11.14 11.17 11.27 11.35 dep 10.56 11.02 11.06 11.20 11.19 11.32 11.39 Long Eaton dep 11.29 Beeston dep 11.40 Nottingham arr 11.47 dep 11.20 11.50 Newark Castle dep 11.45 12.15 Lincoln arr 12.37 Retford dep 11.57 Chesterfield dep 11.21 11.34 11.54 Sheffield Midland dep 11.32 11.44 12.04 Meadowhall dep 11.16 11.34 12.12 Doncaster dep 12.11 12.32 Goole dep 12.50 Selby dep 12.26 ▲ Brough dep 12.45 ▼ 13.07 Hull arr 13.02 13.22 Wakefield Westgate dep 11.59 12.11 Leeds City arr 12.11 12.23 dep 12.16 Leeds New Lane arr 11.51 York dep 11.41 12.44 Darlington dep 13.13 ▲ ▼ Durham dep 12.19 13.28 Newcastle dep 12.35 13.43 Berwick-upon-Tweed dep 13.08 14.17 Edinburgh Waverley arr 13.49 14.57

NOTES

The simultaneous arrivals at XX.00 and departures at XX.05 are possible; the trains arrive from different directions, and use different pairs of tracks between Birmingham New Street station and Proof House Junction when departing (their onward journeys diverge at that point). The train shown as MKC-LDS would start before Milton Keynes, and reach it from Oxford via Bicester Standard station three letter codes have been used with the exception of for Leeds New Lane; LDS (Leeds City) has also been used for the new station LINKING NOTTINGHAM WITH LEEDS

ST PANCRAS/NOTTINGHAM – LEEDS SERVICE VIA MML/HS2

STP-LDS NOT-LDS

St Pancras dep 10.00 Luton Airport dep 10.20 Leicester dep 11.03 Loughborough dep 11.13 East Midlands Parkway dep 11.20

Nottingham dep 11.15

Derby arr 11.30 11.33 ▼ ▼ ▼ dep 11.37 Meadowhall arr 11.56 Leeds arr 12.13

ALTERNATIVE NOT – LDS SERVICE VIA NEWARK & ECML

Nottingham dep 11.15 Newark Castle dep 11.35 Retford arr 11.45 Doncaster arr 11.57 Wakefield Westgate arr 12.19 Leeds City arr 12.33

COMPARATIVE JOURNEY TIMES

Current (via Sheffield) 104 minutes WITH ONE CHANGE 121 minutes DIRECT via Sheffield (theoretical best) 92 minutes DIRECT Via Newark and ECML 78 minutes Via HS2 (direct via Derby) 58 minutes via HS2 (change at Toton) 54 minutes BIRMINGHAM – NOTTINGHAM

VIA DERBY VIA CASTLE DONINGTON

Birmingham New Street dep 10.00 10.00 Stenson Junction pass 10.26 10.26 Derby arr 10.30 dep 10.35 Castle Donington pass 10.37 Sheet Stores Junction pass 10.42 10.42 Nottingham arr 10.53 10.53

COMPARATIVE JOURNEY TIMES

Current best 74 minutes Theoretical best 53 minutes Via Toton and HS2 41 minutes (includes 10 minutes to change) Direct via HS2 26 minutes

NOTES

The time allowed for train 5H74 (the 19.54 XC ECS working between Nottingham and Tyseley Depot) has been used for the Stenson Junction – Sheet Stores Junction segment; this is the only non-freight service currently using the line on a regular basis. Some journey time benefit SHOULD be possible; however, the construction of a station on this route on Derby's southern edge (adjacent to the A50/ A514 junction) needs to be considered if passenger trains use this line regularly. Other locations for stations also need to be considered; Castle Donington is a case in point.