If a high-speed route between Manchester and Leeds is indeed to be built (if such a route can be genuinely high-speed with a central station and a stop in Bradford!), then presumably the future for the LNW line through Huddersfield is for semi-fast and local passenger services and freight. In that case, how necessary is it under the TRU programme to get best possible speeds in all locations? But if no high-speed line is to be built (or if it is likely that any scheme is likely to face the same sort of eternal questioning as HST2b), then shouldn't the Standedge route be modernised to the best possible standard and with adequate future capacity for all needs, using some of the options TRU seem to have studied but rejected on grounds of expense? Doing that would take a fraction of the money "HS3" would need! There are surely two decisions to be taken, but decisions that do have a real impact on each other.
As for stations, what we've heard so far is very light on any detail. Warrington and Bradford should both have central stations, but no mention of how and where, no mention of what sort of station Manchester should get or what the impact on journey-time over a new line via Bradford a terminal station would have, and now detail of the proposed arrangements to allow HS2 trains into Leeds to run through the existing station as well as use their terminal platforms.
One hopes there must be a lot of detailed work underpinning the current announcement and it would be nice if some of the detail could be shared with the public. Or are we just getting a pat on the head and being told that our betters are looking after things?
