HS2

[Pondrew]

I may have this wrong, but now the 'northern link' of the HS2 has been scrapped are we not just going to get a £5,000,000,000,000 train line from London to Birmingham?
There has been a perfectly adequate train line from Marylebone to New Street for decades (the chiltern line). The zillions of public money seems to just be paying for another one (going a slightly different way) and being 10 minutes quicker.

So Roland (sorry Rishi) is sweetening the blow by announcing the money saved is being spent on upgrading the pennine route, basically Manchester to Hull. Who the feck goes from Manchester to Hull on a regular basis? OK maybe about 100 people.

He 'announced' it today, but there is absolutely no timeline involved.

My town has been 'allocated funds' for a brand new sports complex and swimming pool, out of the bullsh*t "levelling up" fund. That was last year. There has been nothing done at all by the County, or District Councils, so far. No plans (apart from the 'vision' ones which got the funding).
The irony is that we have a perfectly good sports centre and swimming pool. We don't need to spend £500,000,000 of public money on new ones with more glass!

Sorry to anyone who works for the Gov, but our central Gov, County and District Govs couldn't organise a shag in a brothel, or a pi*s-up in a brewery. They would be good at spending millions trying, but would ultimately fail.

Then the Tories will lose the next election and the lefties will spend even more public money trying and failing aswell!

[TitanTim]

I may have this wrong, but now the 'northern link' of the HS2 has been scrapped are we not just going to get a £5,000,000,000,000 train line from London to Birmingham?
There has been a perfectly adequate train line from Marylebone to New Street for decades (the chiltern line). The zillions of public money seems to just be paying for another one (going a slightly different way) and being 10 minutes quicker.

So Roland (sorry Rishi) is sweetening the blow by announcing the money saved is being spent on upgrading the pennine route, basically Manchester to Hull. Who the feck goes from Manchester to Hull on a regular basis? OK maybe about 100 people.

He 'announced' it today, but there is absolutely no timeline involved.

My town has been 'allocated funds' for a brand new sports complex and swimming pool, out of the bullsh*t "levelling up" fund. That was last year. There has been nothing done at all by the County, or District Councils, so far. No plans (apart from the 'vision' ones which got the funding).
The irony is that we have a perfectly good sports centre and swimming pool. We don't need to spend £500,000,000 of public money on new ones with more glass!

Sorry to anyone who works for the Gov, but our central Gov, County and District Govs couldn't organise a shag in a brothel, or a pi*s-up in a brewery. They would be good at spending millions trying, but would ultimately fail.

Then the Tories will lose the next election and the lefties will spend even more public money trying and failing aswell!

Yes basically the ultra modern HS2 train will transfer to the Flying Scotsman on the current ancient mainline, think it might be at Streethay in Lichfield, Staffs which will then chug its way to Crewe and Manchester.

Listening to Sunak today at the Party Conference, trying not to feel ill, I just wasn't feeling all the fantastic other transport projects HS2 funds will be diverted to. The money I fear will just get diverted away to other crisis that will pop up under this Government, probably some of which will be used to prop up bankrupt Local Authorities such as Birmingham trying to keep services going on fresh air.

Tim.

[Pondrew]

Listening to Sunak today at the Party Conference, trying not to feel ill, I just wasn't feeling all the fantastic other transport projects HS2 funds will be diverted to. The money I fear will just get diverted away to other crisis that will pop up under this Government, probably some of which will be used to prop up bankrupt Local Authorities such as Birmingham trying to keep services going on fresh air.

Listening to Roland today; I took it as a desperate attempt to try and keep the 'Northerners' on board, as there is an election looming.
It is blatantly obvious that in this day and age, they will do anything to try desperately to keep in power. It's great for them, because they make promises that will never need paying for until they are getting their (considerable) payouts and working for business as 'consultants' and raking it in.
Make a promise today then kick the can down the road for years until it's someone else's problem. Then someone else comes along and overturns those promises (which the first lot were elected for) then blames the previous lot for being stupid. And so it goes on ad infinitum. That seems to sum politics up for me.

[TitanTim]

So as Staffs will lose HS2 not all is lost as its just been announced a line from Leek to Stoke-on-Trent closed 66 years ago will now be reopened with diverted funds from HS2

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... en-8804679

Really, its only a few miles and you can take a bus for £1.50

Just need to wait 10 years though

Tim.

[MikeyH]

Well, of no use to me, I would need to get to London from Devon first. Took my daughter to Birmingham yesterday, took 9 hours there and back total, with wife sharing the driving. All because of the bl**dy strikes. My son lives in Japan and loves using their trains. Quick, on time and clean, perhaps we should get them over here to show us how to do it properly

[Nanu]

Last few times I flew to Manchester. Was £70 return compared to about £250 for a train ticket. Madness.

I used to travel to Birmingham from Sunderland for work on occasion which was a round trip of 400 miles. Cost by train was £245 return but even in the old 35is travelling at 70 mph of course cost just over a tank of fuel which at the time was about £70.

[N4LLY]

Last few times I flew to Manchester. Was £70 return compared to about £250 for a train ticket. Madness.

I Cost by train was £245 return

Don't have to use the trains much but did 5 years ago to go collect my Z.
Folkestone to Leeds, i booked 1st class as it was only about £ 80-90 (One way of course)

They better not be on strike on the 20th I got very expensive west end theatre tickets

[mr wilks]

As a northerner i couldn't be happier with the news that no more tax payers ££ would be squandered on this project .
i get why southerners would want it but not the other way around there was a time when many friends /associates travelled south weekly for business , right now i couldn't think of one & that's down to more than just WFH .

To stretch this thread into more general political comment i think Rishi & his team have done a great job in tightening the nuts on all 4 wheels that were wobbling big time after the idiot Boris & his joke cabinet ( a dancing bear would have done a better job )
Wind back 6 months & a labour victory was pretty much assured but have to applaud the tory team for cooking up some bold moves in the last few weeks
1) extending the availability of petrol / diesel vehicles : if there wasn't a incentive for personal tax or business to save money for users they would have barely caused a ripple in sales : for 9 out of 10 owners they aren't desirable for what they represent environmentally .
2) rapists to serve all term of sentence : & so should all other criminals
3) announced they want to "max out" oil & gas drilling : great pity it can't go straight to UK users at base cost
4) stepping up the anti immigrant / stop the boat impetus : quite simply cannot carry on as it is .

If they get the timing right with regard numbers on cost of living / inflation & interest rates are seen to have peaked i wouldn't write off another tory parliament after this one .
Or am i just delusional

[TitanTim]

I think what alot of people miss with or what was HS2 is it wasn't just about passengers but also freight ie by moving alot of long distance traffic off the old rail network, already clogged up roads etc onto a high speed line or what would have been one and so improving local and national freight services.

It's a shame more of a handle wasn't paid to the increasing costs for HS2 but then when the rail network was originally conceived had our Victorian friends agonised over costs it would never have been built in the first place, same with canals etc and all the other fantastic engineering projects. Perhaps they just had more competent accountants.

It's a shame this country will now be left with a half hearted transport system that just happens to be in the South

Definitely agree with comment above, look at Japan on how to do high speed rail properly.

Tim.

[MikeyH]

I think what alot of people miss with or what was HS2 is it wasn't just about passengers but also freight ie by moving alot of long distance traffic off the old rail network, already clogged up roads etc onto a high speed line or what would have been one and so improving local and national freight services.

It's a shame more of a handle wasn't paid to the increasing costs for HS2 but then when the rail network was originally conceived had our Victorian friends agonised over costs it would never have been built in the first place, same with canals etc and all the other fantastic engineering projects. Perhaps they just had more competent accountants.

It's a shame this country will now be left with a half hearted transport system that just happens to be in the South

Definitely agree with comment above, look at Japan on how to do high speed rail properly.

Tim.

No, the Victorians had an abundance of very cheap labour.

[TitanTim]

I think what alot of people miss with or what was HS2 is it wasn't just about passengers but also freight ie by moving alot of long distance traffic off the old rail network, already clogged up roads etc onto a high speed line or what would have been one and so improving local and national freight services.

It's a shame more of a handle wasn't paid to the increasing costs for HS2 but then when the rail network was originally conceived had our Victorian friends agonised over costs it would never have been built in the first place, same with canals etc and all the other fantastic engineering projects. Perhaps they just had more competent accountants.

It's a shame this country will now be left with a half hearted transport system that just happens to be in the South

Definitely agree with comment above, look at Japan on how to do high speed rail properly.

Tim.

No, the Victorians had an abundance of very cheap labour.

Yes but more foresight, they must be looking down and laughing.

Tim.

[pvr]

Victorians didn’t have to deal with overpaid lazy train drivers either.

[pvr]

mr wilks, you forgot the statement about that a man is a man, and a woman is a woman and no other nonsense.

Another bit of realism that Labour wants to stop.

[TitanTim]

Victorians didn’t have to deal with overpaid lazy train drivers either.

Agree on the cheap labour they had to build but its all relative to the time plus they could only dream of today's technology, equipment readiness of raw materials etc compared to then.

Tim.

[Mr Tidy]

It's a shame this country will now be left with a half hearted transport system that just happens to be in the South

I really don't understand why this myth persists!

I live in a village in Surrey that's only about 2 miles from the M3 but we only get 8 buses a day on weekdays in each direction, the last around 6pm, and just 2 on Saturdays! Nearest stations are 1.4 or 2.2 miles away.

It's no wonder everyone travels by car.