Where I do agree with shmmeee though is the execution of projects is always late and over budget. Still amazed me how the Italians managed to install high speed rail connections across the whole country years ago but we can’t build even one between Birmingham and London, never mind the other links.The day north western took over they reduced the number of carriages they put on.
Avanti relied on the good will of drivers doing overtime to keep their trains running and had to cancel trains left right and centre when that goodwill was withdrawn.
There's easy fixes to some of the issues out there but we seem incapable of implementing them so I'm not sure HS2 will improve our lot.
Where I do agree with shmmeee though is the execution of projects is always late and over budget. Still amazed me how the Italians managed to install high speed rail connections across the whole country years ago but we can’t build even one between Birmingham and London, never mind the other links.
It now won’t even stop at Euston. Time to cut our losses personally.
As I said, higher capacity on local routes. Which is what’s needed. What’s your answer for improving the rail network?
I think one of his SPADs has been looking through the Things that annoy you thread for inspiration. It’s almost every post!Sunak really gunning for that 3% of the vote Lozza Fox has got.
The fact that it won't link up with the Eurostar line is stupid IMO. It should go to St Pancras. I admit that's not the easiest logistically but given the overall cost of the project and the long term effect they want it to have it's something that needed to be sorted out.Where I do agree with shmmeee though is the execution of projects is always late and over budget. Still amazed me how the Italians managed to install high speed rail connections across the whole country years ago but we can’t build even one between Birmingham and London, never mind the other links.
It now won’t even stop at Euston. Time to cut our losses personally.
Unfortunately I think we’ve passed the point of no return on that one.Time for this colossal waste of money, resources and land to be scrapped
HS2: Rail link rated 'unachievable' by infrastructure watchdog
An infrastructure watchdog gives the project a "red" warning, raising issues over budgets and schedules.www.bbc.co.uk
The way it was sold too. It was sold as this exciting fast way to get to London that would be the envy of the world isn’t Britain great. The free capacity on existing lines is actually the best reason for building it and I think if they’d sold it on that basis in the first place it would be seen as necessity not vanity and more accepting by the public.And this is exactly why we have shit infrastructure in this country. The problem is delivery not the project itself, which is needed for the capacity boost elsewhere.
Correct, anybody who is keen on infrastructure spending campaigning for projects to be cancelled is just a turkey voting for Christmas.And this is exactly why we have shit infrastructure in this country. The problem is delivery not the project itself, which is needed for the capacity boost elsewhere.
I remember it being sold as a 'levelling up' sort of deal - connecting the north better and so making it more enticing to investment. Personally I thought that was horseshit and it was a way of allowing BHX to be used as extra airport capacity to London. I never expected anything other than Stage 1 to be built. I also expected it to be wildly overbudget (I predicted £80bn from a, I think, £30bn initial expected cost) but even that seems to have been massively optimistic.The way it was sold too. It was sold as this exciting fast way to get to London that would be the envy of the world isn’t Britain great. The free capacity on existing lines is actually the best reason for building it and I think if they’d sold it on that basis in the first place it would be seen as necessity not vanity and more accepting by the public.
Fact is if we didn’t have watered down over budget infrastructure we’d have no infrastructure at all.
The UK train service is very poor compared to the Italian one, especially when it comes to ticket prices.Where I do agree with shmmeee though is the execution of projects is always late and over budget. Still amazed me how the Italians managed to install high speed rail connections across the whole country years ago but we can’t build even one between Birmingham and London, never mind the other links.
It now won’t even stop at Euston. Time to cut our losses personally.
The problem is when it's watered down to the extent it doesn't achieve much of what it's supposed to is the huge overspend worth it?
I was able to go from Rome to Naples in an hour for less than £20. An equivalent distance in this country would be nearer £60-70.The UK train service is very poor compared to the Italian one, especially when it comes to ticket prices.
Presumably that was on a high speed train? I went from Bologna to Ravenna the other month for something like €8.I was able to go from Rome to Naples in an hour for less than £20. An equivalent distance in this country would be nearer £60-70.
Wait until they cut the frequency of services from Coventry, Warwick, Leamington and rugby too, expecting people to first go to Birmingham...I know someone who’s a project manager on the section between London and Birmingham. Like the literature on this he is shall we say unconvincing. Public transport in NI is even worse but like most things there we’ve given up trying.
The work done will ultimately just help people get to London quicker from a few select places. I fail to see how that improves capacity in places like Scotland and Wales or even to be honest places nearer to London like East Anglia. I would support something that makes more routes available within these areas, not something that at best makes more carriages available.
We need to fix the fact it takes decades and billions to so much as dig a hole in the ground in this country. And the political cowardice that means it gets watered down.
There’s no magic other rail project that’s going to get funded instead. This is just more austerity.
I 100% agree with your first paragraph.
But costs can't be far off quadruple what they were originally and with stage 2 or whatever it was called cancelled its not going to deliver huge chunks of what it was supposed to, is it right to just carry on because we need more infrastructure spend?
Yes because we really need infrastructure spend.
But do we need to spend on infrastructure that doesn't deliver? Seems crazy.
In what way doesn’t it deliver? Is it as good as it could have been? No cos it’s watered down. Is it better than nothing? Surely?
We’ve got no high speed rail compared to most countries our level. We’ve got a rail network that’s one of the oldest in the world. We cancel this and then what? Another 50 years to do the same thing again?
Yes it was. We went Bologna to Rome also high speed for a similar price, just 2 hours travel time.Presumably that was on a high speed train? I went from Bologna to Ravenna the other month for something like €8.
Was reading an article about light railways and it’s the same in the UK. We’re paying more per km for light railways too, anywhere between £50-75M per km. we only have 9 in the whole of the UK, way below the European average. But then again we’ve invested about 40% less over the last 75 years in transport infrastructure so we’re probably just paying the cost of catch-up.I read that the average cost of new rail lines in Europe is 25 million per KM, HS2 is on course to cost 200 million per KM.
It won't deliver much of what it was supposed to and the costs are likely to keep increasing, I can't see the logic in ploughing on regardless.
I've been sceptical since the start but there's something in what you say about the necessity for infrastructure spend but surely it needs to ne done right?
As for having one of the oldest rail networks in the world there are countries with older that still piss all over ours in terms of reliability and pricing.
A man who would turn up for the opening of a packet of crisps posing as a banking expert.If I wanted to ask you something mate it'd be about mortgages
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Even more of theseA man who would turn up for the opening of a packet of crisps posing as a banking expert.
Drag racing in Mike Gove’s constituency?Sunak going to force councils to have high speed residential roads, for … reasons.
It’s one thing staying in government when you can’t be arsed anymore and just want to keep power, it’s another to just start going full windmill.You got to admire the brazenness. Policy after policy that’s not only a terrible idea but unpopular too. His paymasters really squeezing the value out of Sunak before he goes.
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