HS2 - Birmingham to Manchester scrapped.

The plan to complete the second phase to Leeds and Manchester by 2033 was Always a political stunt. The arseholes who dreamt this project up will be long retired from government life with peerages and privilege when this crappy concept finally evaporates.I bet few of them truly believed this project would actually ever be fully completed. London and the South was always going to be the main beneficiary with new or revamped stations and infrastructure. Levelling out investment into the provinces…, let’s see the physical evidence and benefits now, not in 12 years time.
 
NeilYoungIsBack said:
The Ashbury's-Phillips Park chord?

It seems like it could be put to a bit more use? I think the old Scotland to Harwich boat trains used to use that route until the late 1980s.

Pre-Covid there was also a once per week TPE service to Scarborough that used it, presumably so that drivers could retain route knowledge?
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As I recall and it is a while ago! basically Ashbury's would have been totally removed and what is now the mainline would have hooked up and over a four tracked viaduct onto the whole thing being 4 tracked to Phillips Park and then down the hill to Victoria, one of the advantages being you would have the ability to avoid Stockport going to London(by agreement for the land ownership all trains passing through Stockport have to stop).

Not sure about the TPE once a week service, I left the railways in the UK before Privatization, but I know back when I worked for RRNW there was a once a week service we ran to Guide Bridge from Stockport and the reason for that was to maintain the GMPTE subsidy on the line, we only ever got railfans on those trains.... it was kind of a strange thing! So TPE might do something like that, as their depot is right there I would guess they run a bunch of stuff back and forth light anyway, so I wouldn't think its to maintain route knowledge, but then again its been a while and that's just a guess on my part. I haven't been on a train in the UK in 20 plus years
 
DontLookBackInAnger said:
As I recall and it is a while ago! basically Ashbury's would have been totally removed and what is now the mainline would have hooked up and over a four tracked viaduct onto the whole thing being 4 tracked to Phillips Park and then down the hill to Victoria, one of the advantages being you would have the ability to avoid Stockport going to London(by agreement for the land ownership all trains passing through Stockport have to stop).

Not sure about the TPE once a week service, I left the railways in the UK before Privatization, but I know back when I worked for RRNW there was a once a week service we ran to Guide Bridge from Stockport and the reason for that was to maintain the GMPTE subsidy on the line, we only ever got railfans on those trains.... it was kind of a strange thing! So TPE might do something like that, as their depot is right there I would guess they run a bunch of stuff back and forth light anyway, so I wouldn't think its to maintain route knowledge, but then again its been a while and that's just a guess on my part. I haven't been on a train in the UK in 20 plus years
Click to expand...

That plan for Victoria sounds interesting, I'll have to do some research on that. It's worth noting that the TPE trains are now nearly all going via Victoria rather than Piccadilly, partly due to congestion on the Piccadilly-Deansgate corridor.

The Stockport-Stalybridge "Parliamentary" service still runs. As you'd expect, those types of services attract people who come just to tick them off a list.

(2) Stockport to Stalybridge - Parliamentary Train - YouTube
 
NeilYoungIsBack said:
That plan for Victoria sounds interesting, I'll have to do some research on that. It's worth noting that the TPE trains are now nearly all going via Victoria rather than Piccadilly, partly due to congestion on the Piccadilly-Deansgate corridor.

The Stockport-Stalybridge "Parliamentary" service still runs. As you'd expect, those types of services attract people who come just to tick them off a list.

(2) Stockport to Stalybridge - Parliamentary Train - YouTube
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Good luck with the research, yes the Piccadilly-Deansgate corridor and the Windsor link have always been the achilles heel for Piccadilly. Thanks for the video, brings back old memories!
 
NeilYoungIsBack said:
Yes, I was specifically thinking about those terraced houses in Mossley when I mentioned demolitions.

I agree the Hope Valley route also deserves a major upgrade. Isn't there some improvement work now underway at Dore/Totley junction?
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Yeah there’s junction improvement work ongoing and some train detection mods to allow the electrification of the Midland Mainline to Sheffield.
 
Adebayor's Skidmarks said:
I think these petitions that automatically trigger a Parliamentary debate once they reach a certain number of signatures are fairly pointless to be honest, except maybe as just another barometer of public opinion. I can't think of any policy that has actually changed as a result of one. The media don't appear to be speculating as yet so I would be very surprised if this one was any different.
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Some do get changed as a result of petitions. The government u-turn on extending free school meals (Marcus Rashford's campaign) was last Autumn if I'm not mistaken.
 
The Government should have been forced to build the f*cking thing in reverse order starting with the North and working South. You'd pretty much guarantee they would have worked their arses off to get it finished instead of fannying around and binning it half way (which I honestly think was the intention all along).
 
The scrapping of the Leeds HS2 extension hides the real dissapointment of the cancelling of HS3 or any new line linking Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Upgrades of existing lines just arnt as good and cause huge delays while they are inacted. Crossrail 2 will be built before any new cross country line is built in the so called northern powerhouse. Politicians are all the same, London centric.
 
There is no prospect of the railway service being improved in the forseeable future for any of us. HS2 is still a pipedream. Extensions to it will not happen for decades and it will be proven to be one of the most expensive white elephants ever - should it ever be completed. There is no prospect of ticket prices coming down, and in the absence of that happening, the vicious circle of under funding/lack of investment/unreliability of what is already an inadequate service for many will continue.
Half of the £90B investment referred to today takes account of the HS2 investment already announced, so the remainder is money which, like much of the rolling stock, will probably never arrive as the plans will hit the buffers as soon as the purse strings need to be tightened again.
And in the meantime, reliance on road and air travel in the UK will continue to expand. So much for the greening of our economy. Good job City are back this weekend so we don't have to think too much about shite like this.
 
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

London's train infrastructure surges ahead - meanwhile the North waits

“This part of the network is the buckle in the belt of the North's rail network."
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Sums it up. Delay after delay followed by cuts for the north. Thats the Westminster track record! While Burnham pushes ahead with the biggest low emmission zone, aka stealth congestion charge tax in Europe. Leaving people in Greater Manchester with no alternative due to the woeful investment in public transport. Come the revolution. I wish.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
The scrapping of the Leeds HS2 extension hides the real dissapointment of the cancelling of HS3 or any new line linking Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Upgrades of existing lines just arnt as good and cause huge delays while they are inacted. Crossrail 2 will be built before any new cross country line is built in the so called northern powerhouse. Politicians are all the same, London centric.
Click to expand...
Anyone with half a brain knows Liv-Manc-Leeds commute was crucially needed to improve the north. That was the investment that I was desperate to happen and as ever, these tossers that only care about the south east haven’t done it.
 
I wonder if all those who sold their houses at massive profit (John Bishop) to make way for the new line will now buy back their old places at huge discount!
 
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