Gibb plans HS2 alternative with 155mph Pendolinos

Former Virgin West Coast manager Chris Gibb is putting forward a radical alternative to the cancelled HS2 route between Birmingham and Manchester, writes Peter Plisner.

Gibb envisages maximum use of existing assets, including a major refurbishment of the Class 390 Pendolino fleet with a 155mph upgrade.

Gibb was chief operating officer at Virgin West Coast. He has pulled his plan together with the help of his many contacts at all levels of the industry.

Called ‘Getting the Job Done - A new approach’, the document suggests that it is “unrealistic” to freeze HS2 as a London to Birmingham railway.

It makes the point that in a little over five years, HS2 will be ready to run, yet currently there is no acceptable industry operating plan and passenger proposition.

Instead, Gibb’s plan would offer an interim solution which defers key strategic decisions and major investments until after 2040, when HS2 will have been running for a decade.

A major part of the proposal is to refurbish the existing Pendolino fleet to run at 155mph on HS2.

“I have spoken to engineers, who say that raising the speed of the trains is not difficult,” he said.

“They will need new bogies and new traction systems within the next five years, and they would also need a new pantograph to go faster. The same trains in Italy do 155mph on high-speed lines, so why not here?

“The Pendolinos are in excellent condition. They were built by Alstom in Birmingham and well-maintained at Longsight and Oxley, and they can run to 2043, with nothing more than the continued overhaul of the train in the current manner.”

Gibb suggests that the upgrade of the train could be funded through an extension of the current leasing deal with Angel Trains, which would also bring private sector funding into the proposal. He also makes the point that in France, SNCF is currently refurbishing some TGVs built in 1988.

In addition to the refurbished 266-metre Pendolinos, the new HS2 fleet of 200-metre trains (already ordered) would run at 186mph (300km/h) to accommodate mixed-speed operation on HS2 and to reduce electricity costs.

Seat numbers would be increased or maintained on all routes by running new trains at varying lengths - including 400 metres long between London and Birmingham, and 200 metres London-Liverpool and Birmingham to Manchester - plus Pendolinos on London-Manchester and London-Scotland.

Current plans are struggling to avoid reducing seating capacity in the absence of 400-metre platforms in Manchester and elsewhere.

The plan uses a proven Italian model of mixed tilt and non-tilt trains on both high-speed and conventional lines.

Pendolinos would also run at up to their design speed of 140mph north of Preston, where the tilting technology would allow faster speeds with the imminent signalling renewal incorporating European Train Control System (ETCS) cab signalling.

Gibb said: “Running the new-build trains on HS2 at a lower speed of 186mph and the Pendolinos at 155mph provides an optimal combination that allows 11 trains per hour between Euston and Birmingham. With an 11-minute gap between trains, the fast HS2 train catches up the Pendolino train as you approach the Birmingham area.”

The document proposes a Northern Powerhouse Rail extension between Staffordshire and Manchester.

What is being called the New Northern Line (NNL) would run on broadly the same alignment as the cancelled HS2 route.

It would deal with existing and future capacity issues on the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham.

Gibb explained: “If Northern Powerhouse Rail is going ahead, what I’m suggesting is that it’s extended down to Fradley Junction to meet HS2. NPR is being built to a more conventional railway specification to Manchester Airport. I’m suggesting extending it from there to Fradley Junction via Crewe using the existing parliamentary powers.”

Gibb maintains that unlike HS2, NNL would be a conventional railway, built to a lower speed of 155mph with ballast and sleeper track instead of slab-track.

“It will be a normal bit of railway - a bit like the Norton Bridge bypass that was built in Staffordshire a few years ago. It means that we’ll be back in the realms of it being a reasonable thing to do.”

Renewal work at Crewe is key to the plan. It’s now due to begin in Network Rail’s Control Period 8 (CP8, 2029-34).

Gibb maintains that under his scheme, Network Rail could do the work there and build NNL at the same time.

“The biggest challenge to the New Northern Line will be connecting it up at Crewe, which is a Network Rail responsibility,” he said.

Building the new line as part of CP8 would likely mean it opening at around the same time as the Euston HS2 station.

Gibb also makes the point that the new HS2 trains won’t be able to run into Manchester’s Piccadilly station and would have fewer seats than the current Pendolino operation.

A new station with 400-metre platforms would be required.

Any new station is likely to be underground as part of the NPR project, which he says is another reason why the refurbished Pendolinos are seen as an ideal stop-gap.

The document also assumes that all passengers travelling between London and Birmingham on London Northwestern Railway and Chiltern Railways services would move across to HS2, attracted by faster journey times, additional seats and enhanced frequency.

Gibb said: “That in turn will provide more seats for passengers at places such as Milton Keynes, Bicester and High Wycombe.

There could also be more capacity to run additional freight services each hour between Wembley and Crewe and the West Midlands.”

The new plan is seen as being complementary to a study commissioned earlier this year by Mayors in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

It’s being put together by consultants who are expected to publish their findings later this year.