- Location
- Limousin, France
It's the cost to build a mile of HS track.
HS2 phase 2 cancellation ?
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
Ah, so the graphic isn‘t strictly true then? It says UK, not HS2.
- Location
- Limousin, France
It's the cost to build HS track in different countries
Ah ok, thanks for the clarification. It wasn’t clear at all from the graphic. We’re world leaders then? Something to be proud of at last.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Red Fred
Member
- Location
- Hants/Dorset border
We were building a new chicken run and saw an ad for used Heras panels in Dorset. We took the Ifor to a yard where they had the panels and there were thousands and thousands of them all stacked up. They said they were coming from the HS2 works and they had to use new ones all the time, presumably due to H&S, so all these good as new panels were disposed of.
- Location
- Northumberlandia
Be nice just to have a dual carraigeway up the A1 to scotland first thats been delayed & delayed & we all know why.
Swarfmonkey
Member
- Location
- Hampshire
Sounds about right. Nothing pishes money away faster than a project paid for by the taxpayer.
Talking to my neighbour the other day about paying tax ,if you have to just pay it,if you start thinking how they waist your hard earned money it’ll screw you up.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Why?
Just stating some facts. Apparently it could have been done cheaper by upgrading existing lines, but the HS2 corporation decided that they would make more money by building a whole new line. Have you seen it? It absolutely breaks your heart, a huge swathe of land abused. And if nobody has mentioned it yet, the administration is abysmal, I know farmers along the route without payments, then if they get a payment, it's a random sum with no paperwork for what it's for. And if you look at all the wasted land, you can see where it will all get sold on for development if ever the thing gets finished. The Hoover dam and other projects in the states were started as work creation schemes to kick start the economy during the depression, I think this is all this is supposed to be.
Tarw Coch
Member
- Location
- Bottom of Wats Dyke
It really is disgusting that anyone has lost some or all of their property without being fairly compensated up front and it’s the government that’s doing it, makes it even worse.
Not only that but the only land they should be allowed to compulsory purchase should be that that is directly needed for the project. Any land needed for bases during the construction of the project should be rented for the duration of the building works and handed back in a state at least as good as it was before works had started.
Anything less is an abuse of power by the government, this ain’t communist China ………..but it doesn’t seem that those in power realise that.
TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
I very much doubt that it could have been done cheaper by upgrading existing lines - we've already had the West Coast Route Modernisation that went massively over budget, over time and under delivered, then more recently we've had the Great Western electrification & upgrades - again over budget, over time and under delivered. Then of course there's the issue that upgrading the railway might improve top speeds, but unless you put in more lines to separate the high & low speed traffic then you actually reduce overall capacity due to the speed differentials. The extra space for those lines, particularly through towns & cities that are already cleaved in two by the railway doesn't come cheap, nor do the flying junctions (over & under passes) required to stop trains on diverging routes from blocking the lines when they cross from one side to another - for example the Werrington Diveunder cost £200 million. Add up all those costs over the route & I very much doubt that you'll see much saving, whilst at the same time you will be subjecting the existing railway to years of significant disruption and further reduced capacity. I'd also point out that it was not HS2 that decided to build a new railway, but was given a mandate to investigate and subsequently build a new railway by the then incumbent Labour government & has continued to see broad cross party support ever since.
- Location
- S. Staffs
I thought that one of the major arguments in favour of HS2 from the start was that the existing network, particularly the West Coast main line, was already at maximum capacity?
So the new line would be a passenger line leaving more space on the old lines for freight.
The WC main line itself has only just (last decade) been upgraded near us to allow full speed running in both directions, from Tamworth to Armitage, where HS2 is supposed to join that line up to Manchester, but I haven't seen this option mentioned lately.
So the new line would be a passenger line leaving more space on the old lines for freight.
The WC main line itself has only just (last decade) been upgraded near us to allow full speed running in both directions, from Tamworth to Armitage, where HS2 is supposed to join that line up to Manchester, but I haven't seen this option mentioned lately.
Doing it for the kids
Member
The waste and inefficiency is indeed awful but our train system is knackered.
A friend is high up in the industry and was saying that they were running at 110% a few years back so even with covid, substantial upgrades are still needed.
One of the reasons for the cost is the level of red tape, much of this is is linked to safety. We still seem to be terrible at these projects but it will be safe
A friend is high up in the industry and was saying that they were running at 110% a few years back so even with covid, substantial upgrades are still needed.
One of the reasons for the cost is the level of red tape, much of this is is linked to safety. We still seem to be terrible at these projects but it will be safe
- Location
- Limousin, France
It would have made more sense to me if it had joined on to HS1 and you could get on a train in Europe and get off in Scotland.
The Italians seem to manage to put you on a sleeper train in Milan and you wake up in Palermo. The carriages go on a ferry across the straights of Messina. For less than €100 a person.
The Italians seem to manage to put you on a sleeper train in Milan and you wake up in Palermo. The carriages go on a ferry across the straights of Messina. For less than €100 a person.
Red Fred
Member
- Location
- Hants/Dorset border
They should never have given up the old trackways after the network was so hard won through the 19th century. The short-sightedness of letting people extend their gardens across the closed down lines was criminal. In our neck of the woods, we still have about 80% of a ready made system of trackways between our communities but the bits that were sold off are gone forever and prevent the whole network being reinstated for cycling, walking or whatever may evolve in the future.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
It almost seems to be the case that doing anything is unaffordable for us in the UK now. Costs have reached a point that they significantly outweigh the benefits.
I think in many respects this is true both at a government level, and very soon (and I think happening for many already) at an individual level also.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
We're still living off the Victorian's over-engineering several hundred years later - putting multiple times the weight and capacity across their bridges than they were ever designed for.
ollie989898
Member
If you think the railway system is knackered, for Godsake don't go looking too closely at the UK water or gas network!!!