HS2 Train/Rail link, Good? or Bad?

[Ratman]

Just watched the channel 4 dispatches programme on HS2 rail link, titled

“the great train robbery”

They propose that the final bill cost will be £56billion pounds [emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] shit..... the bed!!! BUT according to the channel 4 programme, things are not all rosey in Londonville! What are peoples thoughts on it? Do we know just how far they have progressed with the line out of London yet? Will it benefit us all? Is it just going to accentuate that ever increasing scenario of the north / south divide? Should they tone it down and plough more money in to the northern lines to link the northern cities instead / first? [emoji848]

[LGP Eddie]

Should be started at all of the ends back to the middle to ensure it gets done.

Too tempting an option when a bucket of money has been thrown at a new line from London to Birmingham to say, that was too expensive, pull the rest.

 

Spread some of the work opportunities out too.

 

Eddie.

[Anno]

All that money wasted, loss of habitats and massive loss of Ancient Woodland throughout the route to shave off 15 minutes travel to an overpriced shithole?

Not massively impressed, no.

[Dan]

1 hour ago, Anno said:

All that money wasted, loss of habitats and massive loss of Ancient Woodland throughout the route to shave off 15 minutes travel to an overpriced shithole?

Not massively impressed, no.

The trouble is that it doesn't even do that as it doesn't go into the centre of either Birmingham or London! So by the time you travel from Central Birmingham to the hs2 station you will have lost that time anyway. 

[Dan]

I do like the idea of big shiny whizzy trains tho. 

[Matthew Storrs]

3 hours ago, Anno said:

All that money wasted, loss of habitats and massive loss of Ancient Woodland throughout the route to shave off 15 minutes travel to an overpriced shithole?

Not massively impressed, no.

Exactly. I heard that the trains aren’t even going to be as quick as originally intended. Complete joke and waste of money, environmental damage at the expense of the taxpayers- hope it derails before its even out of London.

[Woodworks]

Same old same old really. Massive project ludicrously over budget as per usual. 

 

Living down in the SW it makes diddly squat difference to us other than the taxes to fund it. Meanwhile, our only train line is often out of action at Dawlish but there is never any money to sort this problem once and for all.

 

Speaking to a fairly high powered business chap recently who thought the money would have been far better spent on high-speed internet for every home and business in the country bringing all of us closer together. Not sure I agree but it was an interesting take on it.

[TIMON]

The actual train ride itself won’t mean much in real terms to most people, but the jobs created and boost to the economy in that sense could be beneficial.... HS2 is an industry in its own right.

[AHPP]

2 hours ago, TIMON said:

 the jobs created and boost to the economy in that sense could be beneficial....

 

Nah. If it needed doing, people would do it voluntarily. It's a shuffling of money from taxpayers' to a few who profit from the contracts (with the important footnote that the politicians and civil servants get paid in the middle).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Edited March 4, 2019 by AHPP

[AHPP]

The people of Birmingham have my greatest sympathies. Londoners might visit.