FDF,
For the technical stuff re: HST, please see the thread on JB. But the current plan is that York & then NCL inc Darlington + Preston, Carlisle etc would all be served as extensions from the end of Phase 2, which stops at Leeds and Manchester. Planned date is 2033, give or take, but I certainly hope to still be around by then
With regards to:
The point of expanding domestic routes is to provide much needed capacity to relieve chronic road congestion and rail overcrowding in a more comprehensive way and at a fraction of the cost of the HS2 and to provide consumer choice.
You have to remember that when the Tories came out with the firm 'No R3 @ LHR' policy, they needed to be seen to be doing something in its place. Theresa Villiers then came up with the ridiculous idea that HS2 was the substitute for this runway. So the idea that there's be any support for using NHT to compete with HS2, into which they are pumping billions, would be just as daft.
If, on the other hand, they see NHT as serving routes onto the Continent, and to Ireland + IOM, CI etc - ones that HS2 can't reach, then maybe.