HS2 debacle

wints

wints

Roofer
Gone from being a super fast route from central London, to Manchester or Leeds, to being a quick route from Outer London to Birmingham only.

If, and when, that bit stretch is finished, and you use that route together with existing lines at each end (including train changes) to get from London to Manchester, it will actually take longer than on the normal West Coast line. Given that half of the 'abandoned' bits are already built and are likely to sit idle, it really demonstrates how kin useless this bunch of tossers are.
 
When the idea was first approved I had a long discussion with the editor of Rail magazine. I said that I just didn't see the need but his argument was very persuasive so I sort of came round to the idea.
Since then of course we have had the pandemic and WFH has become more popular and the economy is not doing so well.
Maybe we're taking the wrong view of this, it's going to be in use for a long time so maybe we should just get on with it but make sure the contractors are not taking the piss and the clever fuckers in hard hats and expensive suits are not over complicating things.

When France built their high speed line there didn't seem to be so much fuss.
 
Since 2018, to have been completed early this year, the French have built five new LGV lines at a cost of 13.4 Billion Euros. They've been slightly delayed due to Covid but expect to be completed early next year.

The new LGV (Lignes a Grande Vitesse) rail lines are to run from: Bordeaux-Toulouse, Montpellier-Perpignan, Marseille-Nice, Paris-Le Havre and CDG airport Roissy-Picardie. The Paris - Limoges line will be improved. Ouigo services from Gare de Lyon is also set to grow its service and will start running services from Gare de Lyon in Paris to Marseille and the Côte d'Azur from December.

As you say, no fuss, just get on with it.

Oh and cost per mile there is approx 1/8th of cost per mile here. We are being royally ripped off here by large contractors!
 
Either don’t start or finish the whole lot. Building new rail lines in highly populated areas is obviously a challenge. But the real shambles is this on / off inability to take a firm decision and see it through. For better or worse other countries are much better at deciding something and then doing it.
 
True, but the French see the benefits of such infrastructure to the Nation as a whole, something we here have been ‘weaned’ off by decades of short term policies designed to appeal to the individuals interests over and above the National long term interest. Beeching with knobs on!
 
On a similar note a few years back Eurostar bought Thalys and are rebranding it all as Eurostar soon. That may well open up more direct routes from St Pancras.

I was in Cologne last night and saw my first Eurostar branded train at the station.
 
soupsandwich said:
Since 2018, to have been completed early this year, the French have built five new LGV lines at a cost of 13.4 Billion Euros. They've been slightly delayed due to Covid but expect to be completed early next year.

The new LGV (Lignes a Grande Vitesse) rail lines are to run from: Bordeaux-Toulouse, Montpellier-Perpignan, Marseille-Nice, Paris-Le Havre and CDG airport Roissy-Picardie. The Paris - Limoges line will be improved. Ouigo services from Gare de Lyon is also set to grow its service and will start running services from Gare de Lyon in Paris to Marseille and the Côte d'Azur from December.

As you say, no fuss, just get on with it.

Oh and cost per mile there is approx 1/8th of cost per mile here. We are being royally ripped off here by large contractors!
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It's the dicking around that wastes huge amounts of money.
I work for a company involved with the design of HS2 up to construction, when we got the contract people were worrried about how we were going to do the work and actually make a profit as we'd gone in so low to get the contract.

This is just the government trying to save some money now when they know damn well that eventually it will run to Manchester/ Leeds and Scotland. It's needed to help upgrade the existing lines, saying it would reduce journey times for business people was not a good move.
 
DagenhamFox said:
On a similar note a few years back Eurostar bought Thalys and are rebranding it all as Eurostar soon. That may well open up more direct routes from St Pancras.

I was in Cologne last night and saw my first Eurostar branded train at the station.
Click to expand...
Thalys have began rebranding their trains as Eurostar is a more internationally recognised brand.
The journey from St.Pancras to Cologne is already pretty straightforward with guaranteed connections in Brussels.
Unfortunately Eurostar have cut many services & plans, Amsterdam,EuroDisney, south of France & Bordeaux off the top of my head.
Until the situation at St Pancras can be resolved with border checks speeded up thats' likely to continue to be the case.
 
hackneyfox said:
It's the dicking around that wastes huge amounts of money.
I work for a company involved with the design of HS2 up to construction, when we got the contract people were worrried about how we were going to do the work and actually make a profit as we'd gone in so low to get the contract.

This is just the government trying to save some money now when they know damn well that eventually it will run to Manchester/ Leeds and Scotland. It's needed to help upgrade the existing lines, saying it would reduce journey times for business people was not a good move.
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The "in the know" railway press have always argued that it was to make more room for freight services, if you think about it the TGV lines are only used for high speed passenger services so it sort of makes sense.
 
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