Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how (a) many High Speed 2 trains per hour and (b) long those trains will be that will serve Sheffield Midland on the basis of the new route proposal on the M18/Eastern route.

Our current assumption is that up to two High Speed 2 trains per hour will serve Sheffield Midland to and from London and up to two further trains per hour to and from Birmingham which would require an additional northern junction. This is shown in HS2 Ltd’s Economic Case for Phase 2b (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-phase-2b-crewe-to-manchester-west-midlands-to-leeds-economic-case, Appendix 2, p.44). These trains are assumed to be 200m trains.