Recommendation 17

The cancellation of other HS2 phases will inevitably result in some design changes to Phase 1. HS2 Ltd told us that the top of its list is the implications for how HS2 trains will join the West Coast Main Line. HS2 trains would have joined the line north of Manchester if Phase 2a were being built. But in order to travel on HS2 trains through to Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland, HS2 trains will now need to join it at Handsacre, which is near Lichfield.35 Once the HS2 trains have joined the West Coast Main Line they will be limited to that line speed, rather than able to travel at faster HS2 line speeds, and likely be slower than the existing tilting Pendolino rolling stock.36 HS2 Ltd described Handsacre junction as already being a choke point for the West Coast Main Line. It told us it was working with the Department to look at whether the junction needed to be bigger and what expansion might mean in terms of land and cost.37