A return to the drawing board is the best idea for HS2.
I agree - and the idea that people who are critical of this scheme are just trying to spread scare stories is, in itself, a paranoid scare tactic.
There will always be the nimby types along the route and certain Clarkson types who hate trains, but the vast majority of people I speak to about it (before I offer my own opinion) just think it is an incredibly mediocre project, which is costing a great deal of money, and which only benefits a relatively small number of people.
not to put in a station if the track is going under EMA is nothing short of stupid.
Actually, I would argue that a station at EMA would be stupid. Joining up stations and airports makes good sense in theory (see also SZD thread about Meadowhall), but in reality you need a certain volume of passengers to make it work, and EMA is some way short of that. Also, rail is just like air in terms of needing yield to make it work, so BHX has far more business passengers who might pay the fares needed to justify a station (together with the NEC and other reasons for using that site) - EMA does not.
The routes published have taken years of optimisation to ensure they offer the best value, benefit, minimise environmental impact and access to HS2
Well you said it not me - minimise access to HS2, which is exactly what it is doing by failing to serve the city centres of Coventry, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield - if the latest reports are verified on the release of the Ph2 route.
the additional infrastructure needed considerably slows down the services
Not necessarily as the French have been building stations for decades with fast through tracks. These cost a lot more, but they enable more stations to be built. Your problem then becomes a question of headway rather than speed reduction as fast trains will still catch up with others which are slowing down / accelerating.
That is why I was able to accept that Coventry, which is south of the M42 station, was never likely to get its own spur. However, once above this station, the line splits into three directions (-Y if you like), so frequency is much less of a problem.
My understanding is that there won't even be a spur into the centres of Sheffield and Nottingham or Derby, but as the comment from EMA says, we may still have to wait and see for this.
feeding into the High Speed 1 network
Well anyone who refers to HS1 as a "network" when it is just a single route, finds themselves losing credibility fast. Whichever way you look at it, the HS2-HS1 connection is a botched job.
Sadly, with all the plaudits St Pancras received for being the wonderful building that it is, the critics forgot to point out that it is still aligned north-south, thus it cannot serve through trains. An east-west station somewhere around this site might have done that, but the poor St Pancras shed would then have remained in the sad state it was.
Oh - and before anyone says how wonderful the new stations will be, take a look at the St Pancras domestic box, then look back at the St Pancras International roof and repeat that statement!