New propsals for High Speed Two

After the completion of High Speed One, there have been many proposals as for where the UK should go next with high-speed rail - High Speed Two. The most prolific of these at the moment is the Greengauge 21 Proposals for the continuation of HS1 onto a point in the Midlands, most probably Birmingham. Now however, a team of 21 local authorities opposed to the expansion of air travel have unveiled their proposals - High Speed North.

This proposes a network of High Speed Lines designed to connect all of the UK together, as well as services envisaged onto the continent. The main line would run off from High Speed One just before it turns South to St. Pancras, at first making a connection with the West Coast Main Line somewhere North of Euston, and then onto a new station in North London, dubbed the 'Cricklewood Interchange', providing interchange between Thameslink, Midland Main Line and Eurostar. The main line would follow the M1 and go to Glasgow via Edinburgh as per the current East Coast Main Line, serving Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle on the way. Spurs would connect with major cities not on the route such as Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool.

Services Beyond London would use Stratford International for pick-up and drop-off of passengers for London, as well as the Cricklewood Interchange, avoiding a tricky reversal maneuver at St. Pancras. Potential services include:
Glasgow/Edinburgh - Paris
Liverpool/Manchester - Milan
Leeds/Sheffield - Amsterdam
Leeds/Sheffield - Frankfurt
Liverpool/Manchester - Amsterdam
Glasgow/Edinburgh - Frankfurt
Glasgow/Edinburgh - Geneva
Birmingham - Amsterdam
Birmingham - Barcelona
Liverpool/Manchester - Berlin
Leeds/Sheffield - Paris
Birmingham - Nice (& Cote d'Azur)

The plans envisage Heathrow Airport being a central part of the proposals, wanting to complete the Airtrack plan to Staines and Woking, and running Heathrow Express along Crossrail to give access to the city, and heading North around the capital to Stevenage and Cambidge, connecting with the Cricklewood Interchange, and to the West services to Slough and Reading for connecting services to Wales and the West Country. These would enable easier access to Heathrow for people from most parts of the Country, not having to enter the capital to go back out again to access Heathrow.

Also, presumably high-speed domestic services would operate, e.g. Ashford - Glasgow, Ebbsfleet - Liverpool. This scheme to some extent revives the abandoned plans for the 'Regional Eurostar' proposal, running through services to the continent from North of London, and also the 'Nightstar' sleeper services. Both of these were dropped due to the budget airlines, but with the price of flying going up, and the better enviromental profile of trains, this may be the revival of the plans.

Another main aim of this plan is to get rid of the 'North-South divide' in the United Kingdom, with the North having no true High-Speed Rail, and not having much benefit from the recently completed HS1, compared to the large amount of new services for the South-East.