HS2’s original plan relied on a railway signalling system that didn’t exist

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that HS2 railway will use the European Train Control System (ETCS) signalling system, which seemed like a small administrative announcement. ETCS is the future of railway signalling and is already being rolled out in the UK, so it’s unlikely the announcement surprised anyone.
That was until this morning, when the Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, revealed that the original plan was for HS2 to effectively invent a brand-new automatic train-operating signalling system t