Leeds' Bullet Train
By Spencer Stokes of BBC Radio Leeds

A train that goes faster than the bullet train and leaves France's state of the art TGV standing is being planned to help link Leeds with London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/images/2005/08/05/maglev_203_203x152.jpg
A maglev train in action

Maglev train

A top speed of 500kph or 311mph
Leeds to Newcastle in 30 minutes.
Leeds to London in 60 minutes.
Stations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
The system would cost £30 billion.

The 300 mile per hour high-speed vehicle would race between Leeds and the capital in around an hour.

The revolutionary maglev train hovers above a magnetic track and could make working in London while living in the North a realistic option for many.

If the scheme gets the go-ahead, work on its first phase, possibly linking Leeds with Manchester, could begin in 2 years' time, and be up and running in four years' time.

Maglevs, short for magnetic-levitation, already operate in China and now the British Government is looking at setting up a similar system here.

Ultraspeed UK is the company behind the hi-tec plan, they want to use German technology to transform public transport in Britain.

They envisage a network that with stations at Stratford in East London, Heathrow Airport, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/images/2005/08/05/route_150_150x180.jpg
A map of the possible route for a maglev

The trains would hover 1cm above the 3 metre wide track, and accelerate to a maximum speed of 311mph. A typical GNER train travelling from Leeds to London reaches a top speed of 125mph.

Alan James from Ultraspeed says that the maglev trains would make a night out in Newcastle a possibility for people in Leeds because the journey would take just 30 minutes.

London would be an hour way, so working in the capital whilst living in Yorkshire could become a reality for people who want to escape the rat race of the south east.

Mr James is confident that the Government could back the plan after he outlined Ultraspeed's ideas to Tony Blair at a meeting in Downing Street last Autumn. Since then Gordon Brown has experienced a similar system already up and running in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

But the plans come with a big price tag attached. It would cost a whopping £30 billion to construct the full north - south network.

05/08/05

£30 billion well spent if you ask me. a £350m redevelopment of New Steeet Station, opened with the first Maglev train journey in Britain would definately get my approval.

Yes its good but, to make it work reall, there would need to be more lines, probably following existing rail lines.

This is so cool. I love the idea of our future railway network being maglevs!

terrible, their route completely ignores every single city in the east midlands.

Agreed, the route could be improved upon. I still think that maglevs are a great thing for this country. The UK isnt a nation of straight lines :)

well the route is ok, but there needs to be a link between Leeds and London via the East Midlands and between Manchester/Liverpool-Glasgow via the north west.

Superb if it happens, it not only links Leeds to London in a very high speed service, but to all other major cities (except th East Midlands area).

However, let's wait and see if anything comes of it. This high speed link has been mentioned before but was dismissed as way to expensive, but maybe there is the will to do it now, with winning the Olympics and the green implications .. who knows.

well the route is ok, but there needs to be a link between Leeds and London via the East Midlands and between Manchester/Liverpool-Glasgow via the north west.
There's one problem. With a railway, its easy to put in points and create branch lines. With a maglev, it isn't.

Yeah but that doesnt mean it can't be done, because it can. It may be that if they really cant, then people would have to change trains at where points would be.

It seems such a great idea, for a change Britain could have the worlds best, fastest trains rather than a train system which is always the butt of someones joke. Considering what they have spent upgrading the west coast line it seems not that much of a price to start the network from scratch.

like the route on the map aswell, through the middle of the borders ;)

There's one problem. With a railway, its easy to put in points and create branch lines. With a maglev, it isn't.

Presumably there won't be many points required, it could be all a loop, with a line up and a line down the country, from station to station, and just loop round at each end.

There was a thing about it on Look North. They seem to be thinking that its a great idea, but that is a vision and will never really happen, or at least not within the next 10 years.

Presumably there won't be many points required, it could be all a loop, with a line up and a line down the country, from station to station, and just loop round at each end.
It will be like an S-shaped loop taking in London, Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Unfortunately there can't be any other cities on that line (perhaps apart from the likes of York that it could go through), but maybe it would be better and cheaper to have a TGV-style line which goes from London (with connections to the CTRL) to Birmingham, with a junction north of Birmingham where one line could shoot off towards Manchester and Liverpool, and the other line could go to Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There would be no point having both lines going to Birmingham. The planned one should be built, then it should the priority to get a link from London-Leeds taking in Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and so on into Leeds. This way, there would be a northern way line, a line linking Leeds, Midlands and London, and a line linking London, Birmingham and Liverpool.

There would be no point having both lines going to Birmingham. The planned one should be built, then it should the priority to get a link from London-Leeds taking in Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and so on into Leeds. This way, there would be a northern way line, a line linking Leeds, Midlands and London, and a line linking London, Birmingham and Liverpool.
It'll save on costs if the line splits at a junction just north of Birmingham where one line goes to Manchester and the other to Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow through the East Midlands.

i remember reading somewhere that maglev trains would also be capable of climbing much steeper slopes (2 or 3 times) than conventional railways so less engineering work would be required, saving money.

No1 - does it concern you there appear to be two stops proposed in Manchester?

No1 - does it concern you there appear to be two stops proposed in Manchester?
It might concern LN1 that there is two stops - one in Manchester and one at the Airport, but then again if there were two in Leeds and one in Manchester, it just might raise EB2s hackles. :lol:

Indeed, and at least H No1 doesn't ruin threads as EB2 seems to have a good knack of doing.

It just makes me smile the amount of times H No1 writes things like



and a line linking London, Birmingham and Liverpool.



or



the big cities like London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow etc



I think he has an allergy to typing the word Manchester, he seems to imagine that by not mentioning the place someone it'll disappear.

Funny as fuck how some people get so obsessed with such things that they deliberately ignore reality.

i may mention that place but it dosn't deserve a capital letter and its lucky if i dont call it scum

Actually no I never really think about which names to avoid or put down- Its different every time. I always put Leeds, but thats because its the 1st city that comes to mind. Im not too bothered there are 2 stops in Manchester, because 1 isnt really in Manchester, but at the airport and the other one is in East Manchester. I would think that if it did go ahead, the network would become more developed and would include a stop at LBA. I think its a bit silly to have 2 stops in one city though- its meant to be a high speed link, and having 1 more stop than needed just slows it down.

Sounds like a great idea, but I just can't work out where the new lines/tracks could realistically be built.

Sounds like a great idea, but I just can't work out where the new lines/tracks could realistically be built.
The chances are, whether its a Maglev or TGV - the tracks or bed might well have to go in bored tunnels near cities - just like the CTRL under North London.

arnt all the stations for this maglev supposed to be out of town to avoid the difficulties of the city?

arnt all the stations for this maglev supposed to be out of town to avoid the difficulties of the city?
In a way, that could be one of the downsides of a maglev, in addition to the fact that it would be difficult to create junctions for branch maglev lines, but high speed railway lines can be connected to existing lines.

In the meantime...............

New services are just the ticket

GNER hopes to run an extra 12 services each day on the line
More trains are set to run on the East Coast mainline between Leeds and London, rail firm GNER has announced.
The opening of a new line near Grantham, diverting local trains off the main track, will allow an extra 12 services a day on the high-speed route.

The expansion, subject to government approval, equates to 1.8m more seats a year on the 200-mile route.

The 12 extra weekday services and some additional weekend trains could be running by December 2006.

The opening of the so-called Allington Chord, a track which allows slower local services to be moved off the mainline around Grantham, means GNER can run 65 trains each day on the route.

Currently the firm runs 53 trains north and south between the two cities.

Christopher Garnett, chief executive of GNER said: "We are very keen to start these extra services as soon as possible.

"Leeds-London is the biggest and fastest growing long-distance rail market in the UK and these additional trains will deliver a 'walk up and go' railway and many more connection opportunities."

it is good news particularly as Leeds already enjoys very regular links to the capital by rail and air.

it is good news particularly as Leeds already enjoys very regular links to the capital by rail and air.

Yes, to York.

??? Every 1/2 hour Leeds-London, and then theres flights as well.

and theres also Midland Mainline services Leeds-London, and if you really canlt get any of those you can get Virgin despite havng to go west before coming back east.

Havent noticed them for a while, does GNER still have those Eurostar 'White Rose' trains running up to Leeds/York?

Yes IK think they do, a few weeks ago when I was in Leeds (at which time I obviously passed through the station) I saw a GNER Eurostar train. Sometimes I've seen them in Eurostar Livery though...

Does anyone honestly expect this to be built? The government is taxing us to the hilt and is still having to borrow to pay for our services so where it would find the best part of £30bn to build this is beyond me. They can’t afford to give us £400m for the Supertram!

Great idea though, although why anyone would want to stop anywhere in east Manchester is beyond me, best to keep moving when travelling through that part of the country!

Sadly, this proposal is just that. British governments have a long history of not investing in good ideas. The economic benifits of the magi-lev would be huge, but if they are diverting slower traffic off the main, 'fast' lanes, this surely points to the direction we're heading in. Using the same decrepid system to which we've all grown accustomed.

I don't expect this to go ahead any time soon... The places for maglev stations are a bit rubbish really... Stations need to be near city centres or transport hubs aka airports, shopping centres (Meadowhall/Metro Centre...etc) rather than these strange locations like East Manchester.

I don't expect this to go ahead any time soon... The places for maglev stations are a bit rubbish really... Stations need to be near city centres or transport hubs aka airports, shopping centres (Meadowhall/Metro Centre...etc) rather than these strange locations like East Manchester.
The reason for the East Manchester link is quite obvious. As well as having easy access to the motorway it's in the middle of the country's largest economic development zones, one of the poorest areas. It'd be easier for them to staff a station in East Manchester, it would get planning permission easier, it's close to the existing railway station at Piccadilly, it's in the middle of the most densely populated part of the conurbation and at the centre of what is currently the fastest growing part of the conurbation, both in terms of population and economy. Having a stop at the Trafford Centre or some similar "hub" as you describe it would do nothing but make a bad traffic situation even worse.

erm no. The reason for putting it there is quite simple: There is no room at all for one in the centre.

erm no. The reason for putting it there is quite simple: There is no room at all for one in the centre.
Actually Harrogate, there are a couple of spots big enough for this within a mile of Piccadilly station. It has nothing to do with a city centre location. The decision to go with East Manchester is because 1. it has better transport links than the city centre could ever hope for and 2. they have access to European and Government funds as part of the economic development zone. If you knew anything about Manchester you'd already have realised this.

Early bird, I disagree, people when travelling by train to a city generally want the terminal to be be in the city centre.

If your arguments are true why wasn't the Eurostar terminal in London built in the East End instead of Waterloo in central London?

you mean the Eurostar terminal that is going to be replaced by one at Kings Cross and one at Stratford in the east end of london?

you mean the Eurostar terminal that is going to be replaced by one at Kings Cross and one at Stratford in the east end of london?

A minor point, striving for accuracy as always, but the new terminal will be at St Pancras, not Kings Cross. Only 200 m away I know....... :)

... and the reasons for choosing first Waterloo, and then St Pancras are complex, but I'd agree that a terminal in central London was essential given the rail link's strategic importance. As far as I know the main reason for choosing St Pancras was simply the availablity of spare capacity (platforms and land for building new platforms).

It's at Kings Cross is it, thanks for the correction. Shows you how often I travel to the capital!