Why aren’t we building a station at Calvert?
Did you know it would just take two platforms to connect seven of the top ten universities in Europe?
I’m not entirely serious - it would take two platforms, some passing loops and quite a few extra signals.
But we’re remarkably close to being able to do it. And we’re not going to.
I’m not close to the detail of this one, so I’m sure there’s a good reason, but on the surface it seems a remarkable missed opportunity.
The leading knowledge cluster in Europe, or the whole world?
Here is a list of the top 20 universities in Europe. Eight are in Britain:
Every single one of the eight is either on HS2 or the new East-West line; the only two major English rail projects currently under construction.
Moreover, those two projects meet; in a village in Buckinghamshire called Calvert.
Calvert is planned to have a station on the East-West line and a maintenance depot on the HS2 route. But no station on the HS2 route.
If we were building a station on HS2 at Calvert, academics from eight of the top 20 Universities in Europe would be a maximum of one simple interchange from each other.
Given the proven economic benefits of agglomeration - especially in knowledge disciplines - the impact of this could be tremendous.
I haven’t researched this in detail but I think we could argue that this would create the leading academic cluster in Europe; and possibly on Earth. Brexit Britain’s going to need assets like that.
Here’s how it would look:
Now I’m sure there are superb reasons why we’re not building an HS2 station at Calvert. I think we’re worried that the extra braking required would reduce the capacity of the line, but putting in long passing loops would add to the cost.
But we only get one chance to get HS2 right.
Maybe we should just think again on this one?
