HS2 revisited - it's not about getting there faster but on time

My original blog on HS2 here, lamented the paucity of our ambition. How we're paying enough for our new high speed rail line to be a game-changer, a world leading, envelope-pushing, technology-driven wonder that reduces journey times between say Glasgow and London to about half an hour. When what we're actually getting is something that the French (TGV) have been doing since the early 1980s. We're paying enough to lead the world but we're just catching up with 40-year-old technology.

(There's a link in that original piece about an amazing new concept being proposed in California which is exactly the sort of thing we should be looking at).

I stand completely behind what I originally said, but there's another major issue that no-one seems to be talking about: Punctuality.

You see the main thing is not about getting somewhere a few minutes earlier than you can now, it's getting there on time. Getting there when the timetable says you will so that you can plan your day accurately. If you need to get there earlier, you take an earlier train. It's not as if one cannot work, communicate etc., in relative comfort, on the train.

A few minutes' journey time is neither here nor there, as long as you arrive at your destination when the timetable says you will, so you can meet with the people you need to meet with at the time agreed and are not left wasting your time and theirs because you've been let down by the service for which you've paid a hell of a lot of money.

On some high speed lines in Spain, for example, if the train is more than 5 minutes late all passengers are entitled to a full refund. (Sevilla is 5 minutes; it's 15 minutes on Barcelona lines). In the UK they can cancel services and face no penalty.

When one plans a rail journey one is not particularly concerned about the speed at which one will be traveling. One is concerned about the time that one will arrive. It's not the speed of the journey but the arrival time that affects one's planned day.

And we cannot even come close to achieving that guarantee at the moment. Maybe we should learn to walk before we can run? It'll be the same idiots running HS2 as are currently providing such a poor service on our existing tracks. Maybe we should sort that out before we give them £80 billion for a new train set?

Thanks for Reading, Slough and connections westward.