HS2 - winners and losers in the East Midlands

The long awaited announcement of the governments preferred routes for High Speed Rail 2 north of Birmingham came with few surprises. 
 
North of Birmingham the line will split (the so called Y network) with one route serving Manchester and the North West, with the other travelling through the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and to Leeds. Derby and Nottingham would be served by a parkway station at Toton Sidings, roughly equidistant between the centres of the two cities.

While I appreciate that it will be good for Derby in that the city won’t be completely ignored by the new  High Speed Rail network; I am still a little disappointed.

I just can't get excited about a station at Toton.

At first glance it seems the ultimate compromise, not favouring one city over the other. But even by the governments own economic impact assessments a station at Toton will not generate as much benefits as a station in either of the two city centres. A fear a political decision if ever there was one.

Even the most partisan Nottingham folk acknowledged fairly early on that a stop in Nottingham City centre would not be likely. Even without the arguments about having to slow the trains too much  to go into City centres and therefore increasing travel times  (a similar argument for putting the Sheffield stop at Meadowhall);  Nottingham’s existing train corridors and geography would make it extremely difficult to force a route through. Realising this, Nottingham fought a rear guard action for at least a stop on its outskirts. 

There were ever only three real options for a station in the east midlands.

• at Toton sidings - the current preferred choice
• in the vicinity of the existing East Midlands Parkway station just a mile or so south of Toton, and close to East Midlands Airport 
• or in Derby City Centre

A stop at the existing East Midlands Parkway station  or at East Midlands Airport  seems to have never really been in the running. On the face of it, an existing station on the Midland Mainline with direct services to Nottingham, Derby and Leicester; close to the East Midlands Airport and excellent road links, the East Midlands Parkway station would seem ideal.  The preferred route is even in a tunnel under the runway. The route planners must really have a downer on the airport. 

The 'Derby route'

Derby on the other hand had it all to play for and campaigned vigorously from the onset for a City Centre station.

As opposed to Nottingham, Derby is placed much better to receive the route through the centre of the city and utilising existing rail corridors which roughly run north to south (to Birmingham) and north to east (to Nottingham). The route through Derby could easily utilise the north south line; and furthermore, as has been argued for elsewhere, the existing Birmingham to Derby rail corridor could be further developed for high speed trains and thus preventing the line going through miles of fields in North West Leicestershire and upsetting the County Council and the local Conservative MP.

Looking at a map, and presumably the route planners have, the most natural route of HS2 would be to utilise the existing Birmingham to Derby corridor. Of course there would still have to be considerable engineering works but it would be largely restricted to the existing rail routes.

North of Derby there would have to be some new line building. The route would roughly follow the A38 (taking in some old railway lines along the way) before going through some open country to join the currently planned route at the M1 (junction 29).

Again looking at a map - a much more direct route than forcing it east towards Nottingham.

The 'Derby route' is in red

After wading through some of the background papers to the planning process, it appears that the ‘Derby route’ did come pretty close to being the preferred route (it was in the final shortlist of two) and a significant amount of work took place into analysing its suitability. 

And it is certainly feasible.

Look what you could have won

The following document is certainly worth a look as it shows how the different routes were analysed and options taken forward, and even how a new Derby station could look like.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/68956/hs2-phase-two-engineering-options-report-west-midlands-to-leeds.pdf

A plan showing a completely rebuilt Derby station combining High Speed Rail and conventional platforms

An impression of how a rebuilt Derby Station would look

An impression of how the internal spaces would look in a rebuilt Derby Station

The main argument against, seems to be that a station in Derby wouldn't serve the larger East Midlands region as well as a station at Toton. Perhaps, but the current rationale for high speed rail is now about regeneration and it is a curious arguement to accept when the total regeneration benefits for a station at Toton is so limited and will likely have a negative impact of the regeneration of both of the two city centres.

In economic terms the benefits of the 'Derby route'  would be in the region of £145 million for Derby itself ;  for the wider Derby-Nottingham area about £295 million; and could create around 12,300 jobs in Derby due to the associated regeneration opportunities. 

No wonder Derby City Council is continuing to lobby the government to try and change the route to go through Derby. Economically, there is an awful lot to play for.

The decision seems to be that it is better to share a much lower overall benefit between the cities than to hand the entire benefit to one. I can certainly see why Nottingham favours this arrangement, as a city centre station for Nottingham was never likely to happen, and in the continuing comepetion between the cities any inward investment into Derby is seen as investment lost to Nottingham.

For Nottingham a Toton station is a net gain. For Derby it is certainly a loss.