HS2 - Birmingham to Manchester scrapped.

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Banbury is about 20 miles from Warwick - and so definitely isn’t in the south east!

My ERO had twelve months at Warwick Uni, not in Warwick but Coventry, and once we'd ventured past Coventry I felt some magnetic pull to the SE rather than an equal and opposite pull towards God's own country in the NW let alone the delights of Birmingham, Tipton or even Sandwell!

 

[bluenova]

That list is filtered for the South East region only although number 1 is the same number 1 as for the whole UK.
Interestingly, if it’s filtered for the North West, the Etihad north stand expansion comes in at £1.5bn so not sure where the figures are from.

The same site described it as a £340m project in August, so there must be something different going on when they talk about the 'project value'.

Etihad Stadium Extension Plans Given the Go-Ahead - Barbour ABI

Every week, we're bringing you top projects from across the UK construction industry, including the upcoming Etihad Stadium extension.

barbour-abi.com

Perhaps @jrb could cast some light on it?

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

My ERO had twelve months at Warwick Uni, not in Warwick but Coventry, and once we'd ventured past Coventry I felt some magnetic pull to the SE rather than an equal and opposite pull towards God's own country in the NW let alone the delights of Birmingham, Tipton or even Sandwell!

Warwick Uni might be in Cov but the students tend to live in Leamington and Kenilworth, or at least the posh ones do!

I accept the SE has to start somewhere, but if you were using the M40 as the barometer fwiw I’d say Thame. I’d say Bicester was in the Midlands, albeit on the southern edge. Think the SE starts at the top of the A34 personally.

 

[Corky]

The whole of Oxfordshire is the the South East on the border with 3 other regions. They have to draw the line somewhere. Even though the regions were scrapped as Government Offices after the 2010 election as the Torys saw them as a Labour thing, they still went back to regional groupings for grant funding and data publications a few years later.

Banbury is actually right on the border with the East Midlands/Northants under a mile away, the west midlands about 2 miles away.

 

[Jimmieblue]

Reprendre le contrôle?

That sounds like a start

 

[Jimmieblue]

The French have the luxury of building most of their infrastructure upon open fields, and I understand there's nothing like the hullabaloo in French planning if the French Govt want their way!

Exactly, what’s the matter with the Civil Service, the Ministers and the people who are supposed to get things done, the people we give the power to every 4/5 years.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Warwick Uni might be in Cov but the students tend to live in Leamington and Kenilworth, or at least the posh ones do!

I accept the SE has to start somewhere, but if you were using the M40 as the barometer fwiw I’d say Thame. I’d say Bicester was in the Midlands, albeit on the southern edge. Think the SE starts at the top of the A34 personally.

As I recall, the A34 starts somewhere in Salford, near Quay Street, and ends up in Winchester.

Depending on which way you're travelling of course.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Banbury is about 20 miles from Warwick - and so definitely isn’t in the south east!

Banbury's arguable, perhaps (although twenty miles is actually quite a lot in the smallish country that is England). But the most important town in Oxfordshire is Oxford. And I'm pretty sure that most of its inhabitants (excluding students, of course, who come from all over) don't see themselves as living in the Midlands. So wherever they are, it's not there.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Having a couple of nights in Warwick midweek for the horse racing....I'll see if it feels north/midlands/south etc and give an on the spot update.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Exactly, what’s the matter with the Civil Service, the Ministers and the people who are supposed to get things done, the people we give the power to every 4/5 years.

They don't do the same job as the French where they have specialist finishing schools for civil servants.

The English equivalent hire consultants and spaff money up the wall rather than develop specialist knowledge and skills and manage projects efficiently.

 

[Jesus H Gabz]

I see the tube strikes have been called off, wonder if the trains oop North will follow suit ? Nah…me either

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

If they’d started building HS2 from north to south, would they still scrap it?

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Warwick Uni might be in Cov but the students tend to live in Leamington and Kenilworth, or at least the posh ones do!

I accept the SE has to start somewhere, but if you were using the M40 as the barometer fwiw I’d say Thame. I’d say Bicester was in the Midlands, albeit on the southern edge. Think the SE starts at the top of the A34 personally.

We cycled from Cov to Leamington on a day we visited Warwick campus. Stopped at the Costa and there were some gingerbread men on the counter wearing skyblue 'n white scarves. Said to Mrs Ewing I'd have to have one of those, knowing full well it was Coventry City and she told the assistant I was a Man City fan. And yes yer've guessed! He was a Rag! I can't recall the tail end of the conversation but it revolved around David Gill, and the lad had no idea who he was!

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

If they’d started building HS2 from north to south, would they still scrap it?

Oh yeah, 'cos by the time it had reached Crewe it would have cost more than MPs screw out of the taxpayer by way of expenses so it would have been deemed a very expensive white elephant with no obvious benefit to anyone!

 

[Ashton Moss Messi]

Should have built the northern section first not just another commuter route into London

 

[Beswick Prize Bands Big Drum]

If they’d started building HS2 from north to south, would they still scrap it?

No chance.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Banbury's arguable, perhaps (although twenty miles is actually quite a lot in the smallish country that is England). But the most important town in Oxfordshire is Oxford. And I'm pretty sure that most of its inhabitants (excluding students, of course, who come from all over) don't see themselves as living in the Midlands. So wherever they are, it's not there.

That’s fair comment. Wasn’t being entirely serious tbf. Plus it’s weird to think I live 20 miles from the South East as the crow flies!

 

[Grassland Blue]

I used to get the train to London a couple of times a month when it was operated by Virgin. Got on at Stockport and off at Euston and I am sure it was 1hr 55 mins which was a completely acceptable journey time for the distance. There were 3 services an hour also which seemed good.

I got on it the other week with the new provider and they seem to have added more stops to the journey thus turning it into a 2hr 10 min journey (probably to make more money from the same train), they appeared to be less frequent and then announced an apology for lack of seats as they had 2 less carriages.

I can understand there being a driver shortage and strikes to cause delays but not having enough carriages just seems really poor preparation or maintenance planning from the company.

It seemed a pretty decent service to me before but has been made worse in both time and traveller comfort by the supplier. You don’t need to spend billions to improve that.

There was indeed a morning train which did the journey from Manchester Piccadilly to Euston in 1hr 55mins.
All the others were timed at 2hr 7mins for the journey.
The 'Pendolino' trains are getting on a bit now and after spending many years working flat out are starting to show their age and in the not too distant future, they are going to need replacing.
Have the powers that be considered the cost of replacing the old trains with a newer version? Is it included in the overall cost of HS2?

 

[ysmsa]

So it was always going to be a High speed line from London to Birmingham, much of it in tunnels through the Chilterns!

 

[Kippaxpete]

Quite honestly, it's probably safe to remove the question mark from the title of this thread. The shower of shite currently in power are responsible for the worst kept secret in history and still the fuckers keep up the pretence! If the Tories had set out to insult the electorate's collective intelligence, they couldn't have done a better job.