Department of Transport: more information on HS2 maintenance depot

The Department of Transport has issued new detailed information on the proposed size and scope of the infrastructure maintenance depot to be located near Steeple Claydon.

This can be found on their website at the following link:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/highspeedrail/proposedroute/depot/

From the website:

'This report provides operational and engineering proposals to assist HS2 to identify the best possible location and the master layout of the Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD) for the London to West Midlands HS2 route.

The report identifies a suitable site for the IMD and develops a master layout for the site, including both rail infrastructure and ancillary facilities such as office accommodation, services buildings, storage and lay down areas, staff parking, approach roads and other related items.'

There are 4 possible sites for the depot, all near the point where the new HS2 will
cross the East West Railway, planned to be operational by 2017. The preferred site
is adjacent to the East West railway to the north (west of the road from Steeple
Claydon to Calvert). This would have a major impact on the village and its surroundings.

More information on this location from the report:

Bounded to the South by the EWR line, to the West by HS2, and to
the North East by the chord line. The level of HS2 in this area is not finalised, but it is intended that it will run at level and the EWR line will be raised over it. This assumption means that the site could be level with relatively minor earthworks, though the former Great Central Main Line embankment would need to be removed.
Land take would be relatively modest, and would maximise use of land already sterilised by the construction of the chord line. The site could be accessed from the Northern section of the existing unclassified “Thame Road”, which in any case will require to be diverted because it crosses the EWR line at almost exactly the point where HS2 will intersect it.
The site is not adjacent to any properties. It appears that almost all the site could be constructed in one field running in an L shape from Claydon Junction to the HS2 route, though land ownership has not been researched. In the South West corner of the site between the East West “Thame Road” overbridge and the Great Central embankment there is a gas Pressure Reducing Station on the national gas network, owned by Scotia Networks Ltd. There does not appear to be a difficulty in designing a site layout that preserves this.
However the location of the associated gas pipelines has not yet been ascertained in a services search and this may present a project risk if the pipeline is found to restrict site layout options or operations.
One public footpath runs across the site, which will require closure or diversion.

Connections to HS2

Access to HS2 would be via the run round loop also required for waste trains from Bristol to Calvert, which would also act as headshunt for the site. A chord line would be constructed to the HS2 north, and trains to HS2 south could either use this chord and run round at the loops near Twyford village, or could use the existing east to south chord and access HS2 opposite the waste terminal.

For more information (and photos of the 4 locations being considered) please see the report on the DoT website.