HS2 - Birmingham to Manchester scrapped.

[tweety]

HS2 was a sweetener to the construction companies who donated to the tory party. A ludicrous amount of money to shorten journey times in a small country. Just like the smart motorway fuck up.

 

[Kompany Car]

I do not disagree that an increase in capacity is required
The current lines aren't being maximised. Manchester/London trains are only full at certain times due to pricing policy

I live in Northwich, 25 miles from the centre of Manchester
I catch a train to Piccadilly, the journey takes an hour

You are correct in saying that the existing infrastructure isn't being utilised but its more from an operational point of view and the over reliance of outdated signalling technology. You could run trains a lot closer together (shorter headway) and potentially more efficiently if we would just bite the bullet.

 

[manclad]

Always thought it wasn't as beneficial as made out to be.
They kept talking about this as part of the Northern levelling up project.
The first and most simple thing they can do is give over 60s free travel on bus and tram as they do in London.
They get free travel on bus and tube!

As they also do in Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland.
It's just us poor oiks in the industrial North and Midlands who don't get free public transportation until we are 66.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Victoria to Lime Street the other week was great on the express train. I didn’t time it but maybe 35 - 40 minutes. It’s often an hour plus if you go from Piccadilly as it makes so many stops.

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Looks like they have cancelled it north of Birmingham. Personally I think this is wrong. If they started in Manchester or Leeds they would never have got to Brimingham or Oxford and cancelled the last bit to London.

Secondly the costs are clearly out of control, Civil Servants should nit be in charge of these sortsnoc budgets. There is no way a railway line should cost on average half a million pounds a meter to construct. Essentially most of it is earthworks. IE Cut and Fill. With short sections of tunnel in the Cities. The cost overruns on public infrastructure projects in this country are horrendous. Hinckley Point is costing £22Billion pounds. Ie £22,000,000.00. For something that is just concrete some specialised engineering.

 

[WestGorton]

A total white elephant. How much social housing would it had paid for ? Should never been even started.

 

[chesterbells]

Looks like they have cancelled it north of Birmingham. Personally I think this is wrong. If they started in Manchester or Leeds they would never have got to Brimingham or Oxford and cancelled the last bit to London.

Secondly the costs are clearly out of control, Civil Servants should nit be in charge of these sortsnoc budgets. There is no way a railway line should cost on average half a million pounds a meter to construct. Essentially most of it is earthworks. IE Cut and Fill. With short sections of tunnel in the Cities. The cost overruns on public infrastructure projects in this country are horrendous. Hinckley Point is costing £22Billion pounds. Ie £22,000,000.00. For something that is just concrete some specialised engineering.

Aren’t the huge increases very little to do with engineering costs and very much to do with paying landowners, in the London and Home Counties especially, huge sums to buy up their land??
That’s what I was led to believe anyway.

 

[chesterbells]

As a minor point, they got the branding wrong. HC2 for high capacity, to stop so many getting hung up on the journey time. Trains of a mile long could’ve carried a helluva lot.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

After all the money spent in the southeast does it come as a surprise to anyone the the money has run out. Levelling up bollock I bet this was just trotted out to keep the plebs in the north quiet on the promise of future money. Still think there was no fucking intent to spend in the north. Fuck London the Home Counties and the Tory wankers.

£18 billion plus just on crossrail. Bastards

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Aren’t the huge increases very little to do with engineering costs and very much to do with paying landowners, in the London and Home Counties especially, huge sums to buy up their land??
That’s what I was led to believe anyway.

Everything is being overpaid for. But generally if you CPO a piece of land the landowner only gets 110% of its value. And the valuation is provided by three independent valuers and an average taken. That's my understanding