Journeys between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston will take just one hour and 11 minutes on HS2, 54 minutes quicker than today's fastest time by rail.
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The government says HS2 will cut the time for this journey to 49 minutes, making it 30 minutes faster than now. Importantly, the line will start at Euston, in central London, rather than a new station to the west of the capital as some had speculated in recent weeks.
HS2 servicesThese will become 'integrated high speed stations', where passengers can catch HS2 trains and access the high speed network to the south. With two services every hour in each direction, journey times between Liverpool and London will be over 40 minutes quicker, at just over one and a half hours.
HS2 blasts through sensitive wildlife sites, because the speed means the tracks need to be straight. Possible connections between HS2 and other railways, especially East West Railway, have been ignored. HS2 does not provide interconnectivity and is far from an integrated solution.
The maximum speed currently possible in the UK is 186mph, achieved by Eurostar trains on the HS1 line between London and the Channel Tunnel. The HS1 line is used by Eurostar services and Javelin commuter services from Kent, although the latter have a max speed of 140mph.
HS2 services in ScotlandHS2 services will reduce the journey time between Scotland's central belt and London to just over 3 and a half hours. Scotland will be part of the HS2 network from day one, with HS2 trains serving Glasgow on the West Coast Main Line.
HS2 does not anticipate being the fastest network once it is up and running. Indeed, Japan has already test-run a new bullet train, powered by electrically charged magnets, which reached an incredible 603km per hour.
HS2's British-built, bullet-style trains will also be able to continue on to the existing network, and will serve major towns and cities in the North West and Scotland, including Liverpool, Preston and Glasgow.
While most Shinkansen currently operate at a maximum of 300 kph (186 mph), the E5 “Bullet Trains” of Japan Railways East (JR East) run at up to 320 kph (200 mph) on the Tohoku Shinkansen, which runs north from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori.
The proposed new station was officially abandoned when the United Kingdom government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the cancellation of the Manchester leg of High Speed 2 on 4 October 2023.
How much will tickets cost? There is likely to be a premium of between 20 and 33 per cent for using the fast service. That would in theory push the cost of a London-Manchester Anytime ticket from £180 to £240 at 2020 prices, which works out at 6p per second.
Britain only has a small section connecting London with the rail tunnel to mainland Europe. In terms of speed, HS2's planned top speed of 225 miles per hour (mph) could make it Europe's fastest rail network. Over the years, successive governments have pitched HS2 as a way to reduce regional economic disparities.
Trenitalia's Paris to Milan route was first introduced in December 2021, serviced by Hitachi Rail's ETR1000. This super high speed train travels at 300km/h - with the ability to go400km/h if not limited by track regulations - making it the fastest train in Europe.
The longest UK train journey is Aberdeen to Penzance. Covering 785 miles, this train journey takes about 13 hours and 20 minutes to complete (give or take a few minutes). It has 36 stops and spends about two hours in total waiting for passengers to embark and disembark at each railway station along the way.