West Coast Partnership Development (WCPD), the shadow operator for HS2, has been engaging with stakeholders on some key parts of its preparation for high-speed services, including what the future market will look like and the high level timetable.

The Strategic Market Report is an annually updated report which assesses the passenger market for high-speed services and conventional services and provides a market segmentation approach for the corridor served by the West Coast Main Line and HS2.

The assessment has a 15-year outlook to 2036, but for some cases has taken an outlook to 2039 to better reflect HS2 developments. These assessments inform the level of service and customer proposition to deliver a travel experience that meets customer expectations.

WCPD has also been seeking views from key stakeholders on the Train Services Specification, which sets out what future timetables might look like once the construction of HS2 is complete and operational.

To date, a baseline validation has been completed (i.e. analysing the baseline timetable for HS2) and a long list of options have been developed.

These pieces of work will continue to be refined over the coming years in collaboration with wider stakeholders, to deliver a high-speed rail service that meets passenger needs.