How Will HS2 Change Journey Times To And From London?

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The proposed site of the HS2 east Midlands hub in Long Eaton, on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

DatablogHS2 This article is more than 11 years oldHow will HS2 change journey times to and from London?This article is more than 11 years old

The head of HS2 wants to start building the northern section of the line earlier than planned, which would mean the journey to Crewe from London would be reduced by over a third as early as 2027. What do planners estimate the differences in journey times to be to other UK cities?

George ArnettMon 17 Mar 2014 11.28 GMTLast modified on Mon 17 Mar 2014 11.57 GMTShare

How long will high speed rail take to transport you to Crewe? Well, if the chairman of HS2’s recommendations are accepted then it will be, at the time of writing, approximately 13 years and 58 minutes.

Sir David Higgins has called for the construction of the second northern stage of the line to start at a similar time as the southern section from London to Birmingham. This would mean that travellers would be able to travel on the train from the capital to Crewe in just 55 minutes as early as 2027.

To recap on the effect of the project, we thought we’d show you the planned reductions in journey times to other important stations from London according to a Department for Transport (DfT) document from January last year. Under the current plans, HS2 should reach northern cities such as Manchester and Leeds by 2032 or 2033, with phase one of the network to Birmingham opening in 2026.

So the biggest reduction in terms of number of minutes will be Manchester Airport, which will have a huge 75 minutes lopped off its journey time from London. To view the true scale of reduction though, take a look at the chart below.

That75 minute reduction in journey time to Manchester Airport means that the journey has been reduced by 59%, which is the largest proportional drop. Crewe fares well with a 35.6% reduction. The destinations listed that will have the least change in journey time are the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the latter only losing 12.1% off travelling time.

Still having trouble visualising it? Take a look at this animation of a day in the life of Britain’s future rail network that the Datablog published back in 2012.

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