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"HS2: 'Timetable needed' for high-speed rail to reach Scotland"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    When I was a child, in the 1980s, it was almost inconceivable to take the train to travel between most cities in Spain. The default was a car or a bus. And well into the 1990s a rail journey involved an old, decrepit and congested train. Now it’s almost inconceivable not to take the train if you want to get from Madrid to Barcelona, Seville or Valencia.

    The country has managed to build itself the longest high-speed rail network in Europe and the second longest in the world, now spanning approximately 2,500 miles (4,000km) (and still expanding). By way of comparison, France has built 1,740 miles (2,800km), and Britain – still coming to terms with its latest high-speed fiasco – 68 (110km).

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/spains-high-speed-trains-arent-just-efficient-they-have-transformed-peoples-lives

    Posted 1 year ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    A golf club in Staffordshire that in is the path of HS2 had a new £7m club house bankrolled by the Government after sacrificing £400,000 of land, i can reveal.

    https://inews.co.uk/news/golf-club-hs2-bankrolled-government-2679981

    Posted 1 year ago #
  3. chdot
    Admin

    Ok feedback from my regular Friday lunch with friends from DfT/Treasury/Cabinet Office. 1/5. HS2 appears now to be in a state of total chaos thanks to the PM. His fantasy announcement at conference & subsequent undiscussed/un consulted utterances have everyone going in circles

    https://twitter.com/southeastrailgp/status/1720849207664197819

    Posted 1 year ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    38m ago

    15.36 GMT

    Q: What is going to happen about the HS2 station at Euston? Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, says your plans to get the private sector to fund some of it won’t work.

    Hunt says he thinks the project will attract private sector finance.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/nov/29/theresa-may-criticise-rishi-sunak-oil-gas-licences-north-sea-green-policy-covid-inquiry-uk-politics-latest?page=with:block-656759fe8f085effa870ffe4#block-656759fe8f085effa870ffe4

    Posted 11 months ago #
  5. chdot
    Admin

  6. chdot
    Admin

  7. chdot
    Admin

  8. chdot
    Admin

    The mayors said their largely privately funded alternatives would cost “considerably less” than HS2, although no precise figures existed at this stage.

    The remaining London-Birmingham line will be ‘very poor value for money’, MPs on the committee said.

    The mayors have created a consortium chaired by Sir David Higgins, a former chair of HS2, which involves private engineering and finance companies including Arup, EY, Skanska and Mace.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/07/mayors-put-forward-alternatives-to-hs2-scrapped-northern-section

    Posted 9 months ago #
  9. Arellcat
    Moderator

    That Jago Hazzard guy is quite worked up about the whole HS2 thing.

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Flash Video

    Posted 9 months ago #
  10. chdot
    Admin

    HS2 Chiltern Tunnel sinkholes appear in Buckinghamshire

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68326138

    Posted 8 months ago #
  11. Tulyar
    Member

    The Spanish High Speed line through a limestone aquifer was abandoned when the water poured in

    A key failing of HS2 was that it bypassed the regular project safeguards that most railway work has to meet - namely the GRIP stages 1 to 8. These mirror what is referred to as a stage-gate process, where the preceding stage need to be complete before passing the gateway to the next stage

    Thus the project scope and needs have to be assessed before evaluating route & other options

    One moment that really delivered a spat out my coffee moment was when in 2008 a claim was made that no new main line had been built in over 130 years

    Thanks to a visionary MD of the railway that crossed under the Pennines on a near direct line between Manchester(Liverpool) & Hull, who then bought into the Metropolitan Railway and the SECR, and in 1896 planned the main line to get from Sheffield to Aylesbury, and then to a terminus at Marylebone, but also connecting through via SECR to a Channel Tunnel near Dover. In 1906 (with the twisting and busy Metropolitan Railway a big constraint) the direct main line with parliamentary powers to build 4 tracks, high speed alignments, and provision to enlarge clearances for European mainland trains we had a joint GC/GW railway to Sheffield (right up the middle) and Birmingham

    It was a good railway and the prototype Class 47 averaged 100mph for 7 miles (105mph through Bicester) on jointed track with semaphore signals in 1962. However in 1968 the line from Euston to Birmingham was electrified, and to make the figures look good the GC line was closed to a residual backwater to force all passengers on to the Euston route

    There are moves that can salvage what damage has happened to date but there are many ways to get capacity through a programme of much smaller connected and separately delivered details, very much more like the EGIP programme in Scotland

    For the headline routes Glasgow-and Edinburgh-London, each side has around 3 major 'slacks'
    ECML - Morpeth (50mph) Newcastle (20mph) and York (35mph)
    2 - new lines bypass tight bends (Morpeth - inland - York from Clifton to Askham under Holkgate Hill)
    Biggest challenge - Newcastle - ideally a tunnel Heaton to Tyne Yard

    WCML - Carlisle (20mph) Preston (40mph?) and Stafford/Crewe (various)

    Other less severe ones apply near level crossings (74 were in a plan in 2013 that's made minimal progress between London and Doncaster), and non-stop runs of under 4 hours have been done to Euston and Kings Cross with the current trains

    4 hours centre to centre is a cleaner and less piecemeal journey than flying, with the ability to do work (earning fees rather than raising costs, plus also having meetings with people joining the train for part of the trip (I used to do debriefing of Grimshaw after a visit to Scotland on the 1 hour trip Glasgow-Carlisle with wine, cheese & rolls from Peckhams)

    Remember too that neither LNER or Avanti are using IntercityRailfreight with cycle couriers doing final mile and premium parcels service - London to Scotland door to door in 5 hours or less

    Also noting daily 100mph freight train Birmingham-Motherwell does round trip in around 8 hours replacing up to 24 trucks & drivers, 6-8 hours one way at 56mph top speed

    Al lot to push for using the existing network plus taking back the old lines kept intact by cycle routes, with a deal that was almost delivered as 'agreed' by Network Rail to build a parallel cycle route, which would be opened when the railway was opened - cue for pestering MSP's about the failure to deliver the section of cycle route Plains to Drumgelloch.

    Posted 8 months ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

    Posted 6 months ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    HS2 has revealed more than £2bn in costs linked to Rishi Sunak’s decision to downgrade the high-speed rail line.

    In the annual report of HS2 Ltd, the company revealed that it had written off £1.1bn in costs incurred during “phase two” of the project, which was due to link Birmingham to Manchester, only for the leg to be abandoned last year.

    The company also disclosed a further £1bn in accounting charges relating to the project’s reduced ambitions, which will lower its expected future income

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/29/hs2-costs-rishi-sunak-chief-executive

    Posted 3 months ago #
  14. chdot
    Admin

    According to the Network Rail ­spokesperson: “There are basically two designs for Euston, one that incorporates HS2 and one that doesn’t.”

    That sounds sensible, except it turns out there isn’t really a design for either. One insider on the ­­redevelopment team says that there are several planning stages to go through before any kind of designs are drawn up, and no ­master plan exists at present for either eventuality.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/28/euston-we-have-a-problem-how-can-london-fix-the-worst-main-station

    Posted 1 month ago #
  15. chdot
    Admin


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