HS2 may not run through to central London - report

[Westham67]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64421566 They are making it up as they go along Its not surprising as ground was broken too early just to push to the project through Crossrail on steroids

[Fifth Column]

This was always a stupid vanity project of politicians. If they had just invested the money IN THE FIRST PLACE in northern rail it would have made much more sense. Now we've got the worst of both worlds. Shambles.

[Westham67]

"More than that MIM someone I know on LinkedIn his mate £600 a day who is ""Awful"" True Zeb Manchester to Birmingham was more practical"

[zebthecat]

"The final nail in the coffin is Rishi Sunak approving the sale of the land that has been bought for the Birmigham to Manchester route which, more or less, guarantees that it cannot be resurrected. A lot of farm and woodland has been lost and I am willing to bet that it will never be given over to agriculture or nature again. It would have been a much better idea to start with that route. The ""Network North"" thing was obviously cobbled together in a big hurry and two thirds of the money is going to raod schemes and not public transport. It also includes two schemes that have already been built and whole bunch that were cancelled by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss."

[mashed in maryland]

"Has anyone on here worked on HS2? Like actually on site? Heard a load of ""mate of a mate"" type stories about it being an abortion, trades on £35/hr dayrate sat round doing nothing cos nothing for them to do, scaffold put up, left up for weeks then taken down unused, electricians putting in a load of wiring then being told to rip it out next day, etc etc etc. None of this would be unbelievable, and would explain a lot, but unsure if true, be interested in any first person accounts from on the ground"

[Westham67]

"The PM did say one of the benefits of leaving the EU was being able to join Trans (She/her) Pacific partnership with our close neighbors Japan , Australia, Mexico, and Canada amongst others a mere 6 weeks to ship goods to the UK There is a surge in the recruitment of QSs in the. West Midlands by HS2 contractor's. Everything in a contract sighed between HS2 and the contractors for cancelled work will go to an independent arbitor and HS2 will then have to give reasons why the contractors won't be paid the full sum of money within their contracts"

[northbankboy68]

WH6 Sounds like you know what your talking about on here unlike many. I'd much rather spend billions on my mates Covid contracts than be in the single market. Ho hum.

[Westham67]

Maybe Mike knows of one hes well traveled.. I have worked on 3 high-speed railway projects and 2 ballast projects both more the 140 km. And there has not been 1 with an HS2 entity a specific company set up to manage a project . It's normally big global construction systems or railway companys managing the project they have the experience to do so

[Mike Oxsaw]

"London sending billions to fund the opulent lifestyles of bureaucrats in Brussels obviously benefits the north of England - I just need a clever person to tell me how, then we can all move on."

[northbankboy68]

"Sir Alf, We need to reverse the wealth redistribution we've seen over the last 13 years. The Brexit dividend will obviously help."

[threesixty]

"I always thought the issue with the north was more about the connections between northern cities needed improvement, not there connection to London. That’s why I never really understood hs2 in terms of what it does for commuting. I understood just as westhan67 said that the southern part was about allowing freight to move faster on existing lines. I’m not surprised that they had second thoughts about spending even more billions that they never forcasted to spend on it to be honest. It feels more of a political problem I.e. we don’t care about the north , rather than it’s actually going to ruin the country not extending hs2."

[Sir Alf]

"Am I right or not thinking the goal of this HS2 project was wealth distribution away from London at a time when everyone was travelling to a place of work everyday? I am guessing the unintentional benefit of Covid was forcing corporations and organisations to realise people could work from home( the effectiveness of that and change to work processes to make it effective is another discussion) . Moreover, the objective of wealth distribution is being progressed to some degree via WFH ? Hence cancellation makes sense in this context doesn’t it? Of course others may be able to enlighten me on what I’m missing here ?"

[Westham67]

It may have posted before. It's the volume of traffic HS2 would have taken off off of the Northern Western railway which is the issue it would made the passage of freight trains more frequent and extended the lifetime of the existing railway Tax year starting April 23/24 is the start of a 5 year spending period for network rail.The HS2 money won't be part of that spending unless the HS2 bill is revoked These new 100 projects have not been awarded to any contractor if anyone want to take it. Nothing will happen apart from a few token gestures until after the election

[chim chim cha boo]

RM10 10:20 Wed Oct 4

[eusebiovic]

"ray winstone 7:44 Wed Oct 4 The only problem with that is is it will need a brand new railway junction the size of Sheffield or Leeds city centre to accommodate the extra capacity. It's like Manchester, there is one line in and another out to cross the Pennines. As usual they are blowing it out of their arses."

[RM10]

"Mike- the British? Please don‚Äôt associate me with this cսnt of a govt that possibly is the worst since Thatcher, killed our country and its future. Add that to khan who is also killing London, to be associated with these low life‚Äôs saddens me."

[eusebiovic]

"Still, it's going to be super convenient for all the QPR fans who live in suburban Birmingham. Every cloud..."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"With a financial panache that only the British can carry off, they blew the best chance to modernise the railways in the 10 years following WW2. OK, money was tight, but there were loads of servicemen returning from battle who could have been deployed to upgrade the infrastructure whilst still in the employ of the MoD/War Office, rather than flood the labour market looking for work. After that, the Beeching cuts were virtually inevitable, especially with so much army surplus gear hitting the streets taking custom from the railways. It was said at the time of the original HS2 announcement that there were a dozen or so less glamorous opportunities to make significant differences to the network, mainly through reducing/removing bottlenecks. Many of the less glamorous improvements identified still exist and it would make sense, but probably not additional votes, to now address them."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"With a financial panache that only the British can carry off, they blew the best chance to modernise the railways in the 10 years following WW2. OK, money was tight, but there were loads of servicemen returning from battle who could have been deployed to upgrade the infrastructure whilst still in the employ of the MoD/War Office, rather than flood the labour market looking for work. After that, the Beeching cuts were virtually inevitable, especially with so much army surplus gear hitting the streets taking custom from the railways. It was said at the time of the original HS2 announcement that there were a dozen or so less glamorous opportunities to make significant differences to the network, mainly through reducing/removing bottlenecks. Many of the less glamorous improvements identified still exist and it would make sense, but probably not additional votes, to now address them."

[RBshorty]

To fix the railway’s is going to cost a SHIT LOAD of money. And no politician (Regardless of which party they lean too.) Is going to stand up and say there happy for the tax payer too fit the bill.! All that’s happened today is what they always done. Kick the can down the road. For the “Next Person.” To sort out. Remember. When the Money gets tight. The Shit gets real.!

[ray winstone]

"Sunak says he will quadruple the number of trains between Sheffield and Leeds. As there are currently five per hour each way, that will mean 20 trains per hour: one every three minutes. Lying cսnt."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"I don't think they can just bung a few extra carriages onto trains these days - nearly all are fixed formations of 2, 4 & 5 car multiple units. I also doubt that they have any spare units lying around to cope with seasonal peaks, so tough tittie for the paying-through-the-nose customer."

[RBshorty]

Bunging on more rolling stock at the weekend may help.! Sounds like a plan. However. When does said rolling stock get checked over and maintained.?

[WHU(Exeter)]

"I think they are right to spread any money around various projects, rather than one or two showpiece ones. These rail plans, most people are probably more concerned with whether the train will turn up at all, rather than how fast it's going to go. A stoppage on your journey out of nowhere for 20 minutes or so, without any announcement, (strange, considering there are all kinds of H&S and BUFFET announcements every 30 seconds), is just accepted as matter of fact. Bunging on four (FOUR) carriages on weekend journeys from Edinburgh to Penzance, in the middle of summer, as common practice...you'd have more fucking leg space on some of those trains in India, but on the plus side I suppose were not clinging onto the roof, ( although there's times when it seems preferable. Just sort the fucking trains out full stop."

[Dwight Van Mann]

Leonard Hatred 6:00 Wed Oct 4 supposedly a brilliant Zen coach though

[Leonard Hatred]

"northbankboy68 managing to incongruously shoehorn Brexit into a thread about trains. He must do this in every conversation he has, all the time. Imagine having to work with this dull, thick as shit spastic fucking wanker."