HS2 - Birmingham to Manchester scrapped.

[BerkshireBlue]

The govt spent £410bn on Covid shite (half of which they didn’t need), yet now they’re shelving part of a £100m transport infrastructure that will help the country for decades?

Bunch of idiots this lot.

Even Johnson thinks it’s a stupid idea.

Both legs of the North should have been done, going up to Glasgow on the Manchester side and Newcastle then Edinburgh on the Leeds side. Then Liverpool to Manchester < Leeds+Sheffield > Hull should have been done. As well as Cardiff to London.

Yet they’ve already ditched it to Leeds and now they’re not even going to bother with the Manchester line.

They can afford it, get it fucking done… all of it!

£100m? glad you're not doing the accounts

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Genuine question what was HS2 targets ,just looked it tAkes 2hr .03 min express train from piccadilly.what were the supposed savings ?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

£100m? glad you're not doing the accounts

He's really Diane Abbott.

 

[bluetonium]

Coud see this coming a mile away. Question is, what do we get instead? Trains and lines are already in a very sorry state, meaning that public transport for many is just not worthwhile, where really they should be front and centre on any green and sustainable policy we may have.

Personally I didn't warm to HS2 as I don't think it was ever going to be what the north needs. Never wished that London was twenty minutes closer, no use to me. Trouble is they could well throw out a whole host of upgrades alongside it now and widen the gap even further.

 

[BeerIsTheBest]

Genuine question what was HS2 targets ,just looked it tAkes 2hr .03 min express train from piccadilly.what were the supposed savings ?

Original concept was more about freeing freight movement and capacity on existing lines and about tackling the crappy Northern connectivity. Lines are choked and passenger movements slower coz of the need to accommodate the freight. The lack of connectivity up and across the Country in the North has been a disgrace for years.

Saving a few mins to get to London in a bullet looking train was another advantage to those few who take the trip but was always a sexier headline.

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Original concept was more about freeing freight movement and capacity on existing lines and about tackling the crappy Northern connectivity. Lines are choked and passenger movements slower coz of the need to accommodate the freight. The lack of connectivity up and across the Country in the North has been a disgrace for years.

Saving a few mins to get to London in a bullet looking train was another advantage to those few who take the trip but was always a sexier headline.

Is it just too simplistic to run freight in the night and passengers in the day ?

 

[staffsblue]

Original concept was more about freeing freight movement and capacity on existing lines and about tackling the crappy Northern connectivity. Lines are choked and passenger movements slower coz of the need to accommodate the freight. The lack of connectivity up and across the Country in the North has been a disgrace for years.

Saving a few mins to get to London in a bullet looking train was another advantage to those few who take the trip but was always a sexier headline.

The other selling point was meant to be around severely reducing the need for domestic air travel, with the subsequent environmental benefits.
In France, the development of the TGV network has made their internal airline "Air Inter" surplus to requirements.
Obviously, in the UK, there will always be the requirement to fly to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Aberdeen, Inverness and the Scottish islands. However, the days of domestic flights from the North of England to London were meant to be numbered.

 

[jrb]

Birmingham will benefit hugely from HS2. Birmingham claims to be the 2nd City. In population size it is. But it is behind Manchester economically, and more importantly in atttacting inward investment, foreign investment, and creating new jobs. HS2 will give Birmingham a massive advantage and boost over Manchester in the future when companies look to invest in the regional cities, or deciding between Manchester and Birmingham.

Using the cost Ukraine War as one of the reasons to cancel the Manchester leg of HS2 is an absolute joke and nothing more than political spin.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Fucking disgrace if it gets cancelled. A huge fuck you to the whole of the north.

Whatever anyone’s personal opinions of the necessity of it, the fact that the plug is likely to be pulled will mark the loss of any confidence for any significant investment north of Birmingham.

I suspect that not only will the cunts cancel it they’ll hand out billions of pounds worth of contracts to companies to undo the work that’s already been done making it financially impossible for a future government to resurrect it.

I wonder if John Bishop will buy back his house he made millions on at a knock down price, fucking joke of a country this.

 

[west didsblue]

If it does only get built to Birmingham, it will be a complete white elephant. It's purpose was to free up capacity on the south end of the West Coast Main Line in order to operate more outer suburban and freight services. Operating only to Birmingham will create only 3 paths per hour, some of which will still need to head to the West Midlands to serve Coventry and Wolverhampton.
If phase 1 construction is completed, and it's built to Handsacre (just north of Lichfield), joining up to the existing WCML, at least Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow services could use it.
However, not building phase 2 will mean that local services from south of Manchester will never increase in frequency, and may actually become worse if all HS2 services from London and Birmingham to Manchester have to use the existing Crewe to Manchester route.

Not building phase 2 invalidates the economic case for phase 1. They don’t want it to be a white elephant but the current plan appears to assure it will be, especially if they don’t take it into central London.

All the BS about costs being out of control is what they always say before cancelling something, and that messaging is in full flow. I don’t see any prospect of the cancellation not happening unfortunately.