Comment by tomatocracy
14 hours ago
That is partly true but it's a downstream consequence of the ultimate cause. Those running and pushing the project in the early stages desperately wanted it to be a 400+kph route for "prestige" reasons.
If they hadn't been so focused on that, they could have built the new rails largely alongside the existing West Coast Main Line which would have been quicker, cheaper and much less controversial.
But because they wanted those very high speeds, the route had to be flatter and straighter than the existing WCML, which means many more tunnels, longer and more complex construction, more people objecting, inconvenienced etc and ultimately much more cost however you look at it.
London-Manchester being an hour trip instead of 2+ would be a game changer on day commutes. Yes prestige played its part too.
You mean from 2h15m to 1h40m (the actual estimates)? It really wouldn't. As someone who actually does that commute - getting up for a 6:00am train isn't much different to getting up for a 6:35am train.
What I would care about, is the price drop associated with the capacity increase/reduced stress on the existing main line. Not sure if speed factors into that.
My job is reactive, and I often need to travel that route on very short notice. Having the daily travel time on those days go down from 4.5 hours down to 3.25 would be massive for me.
I dont care about price as the company pays, but my time is very valuable to me.