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Written question asked by Lord Berkeley (Labour) on Monday, 13 March 2017, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 March 2017. It was answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 March 2017 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

High Speed 2 Line

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 9 March (HL5562), how, assuming that signalling is designed appropriately for the relevant speed, operating at a speed of 320km/h rather than 360km/h would reduce capacity on the high speed line.

Original answer

Reducing the maximum speed of trains from 360km/h to 320km/h would result in trains taking longer to complete their overall journey. This means that, unless we buy more train sets, we will not able to run as many train services on HS2 and therefore capacity will be reduced.

In my previous answer [HL5562], reduced capacity was also in the context of running tilting trains at 300km/h on the HS2 network. Mixing tilting trains running at 300km/h on HS2 with non-tilting trains running at 360km/h would also reduce capacity because it would reduce the number of train paths available per hour. Furthermore, the response to our market sounding of rolling stock manufacturers has indicated that titling trains offer reduced seating capacity per train set compared with non-tilt.

The answer was corrected by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Conservative)

on Tuesday, 28 March 2017 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Corrected answer

Reducing the maximum speed of trains from 360km/h to 320km/h would result in trains taking longer to complete their overall journey. This means that, unless we buy more train sets, we will not able to run as many train services on HS2 and therefore capacity will be reduced.

In my previous answer [HL5562], reduced capacity was also in the context of running tilting trains at 300km/h on the HS2 network. Mixing tilting trains running at 300km/h on HS2 with non-tilting trains running at 360km/h would also reduce capacity because it would reduce the number of train paths available per hour. Furthermore, the response to our market sounding of rolling stock manufacturers has indicated that titling tilting trains offer reduced seating capacity per train set compared with non-tilt.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL5993
Session
2016-17
Related items
High Speed 2 Line
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Speed limits High Speed 2 line
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk