A major through station in the centre of Leeds that would serve both the proposed High Speed 2 and High Speed 3 lines, as well as existing services, has been promoted in a paper developed by the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.
HS2 Ltd’s presently published plan for Leeds is for a terminal station aligned north-south and situated south of the River Aire.
However, this location would involve either a considerable walk or the installation of a lengthy travelator from the commercial and retail districts of the city, which would negate much of the time savings being offered by the high-speed link.
A line running northeast from south of Leeds to Church Fenton would connect HS2 to the East Coast Main Line through York, but HS2 trains would have to reverse to travel north from Leeds.
This proposal is now being reviewed by HS2 Ltd Chairman Sir David Higgins, because of the remote location of the HS2 station, the poor interchange it gives with existing services, and in the light of the proposed HS3.
- For more on this story, see RAIL 781 published on August 19 2015
Graham Nalty - 13/08/2015 11:55
This is a much better idea than the original HS2 proposal that would have been very inconvenient for anyone going beyond Leeds. But would it not be far better to bring in trains from the south from the western side so that they could go on to York and Newcastle. But either way this also gives the opportunity for HS2 trains from London and Birmingham to serve Bradford. High Speed UK have a slightly different approach to Leeds station, but combining the best of both would be really good. But the original proposal for a separate station was really not very clever.