Who Is or has done work on the HS2 project?

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, spuddog0507 said:

Its something that i will never use, and i can just see HS2 as being on of the biggest flops in British history and lets face it they cant manage the rail network we have now, so god help those people who are all for HS2 what it will be like is anyones bet, i just see it as a bid drain on public funding which could be spent on far better projects to benifit more of the population nation wide, and it will be like the railways where a couple of years ago and unorganised chaose comes to mind,,,

Might have been a far better more beneficial use of taxpayers money to reopen some of the many branch lines closed years ago by the beeching cuts, I know up here in Aberdeenshire the amount of traffic in and out of Aberdeen city every morning and evening would be dramatically reduced by some form of half decent rail network. Give people the option to not drive rather punish them for having to drive. HS2 will most likely join the long list of massive overspend poorly run publicly financed projects( or worse still privately financed but with a huge payback/profit to be had)There is a huge disjoint with upper management and people at ground level on sites in the UK, management that has consistently been proven to be poor in comparison to many of their overseas counterparts in similar roles. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Johnsond

[spuddog0507]

13 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

Might have been a far better more beneficial use of taxpayers money to reopen some of the many branch lines closed years ago by the beeching cuts, I know up here in Aberdeenshire the amount of traffic in and out of Aberdeen city every morning and evening would be dramatically reduced by some form of half decent rail network. Give people the option to not drive rather punish them for having to drive. HS2 will most likely join the long list of massive overspend poorly run publicly financed projects( or worse still privately financed but with a huge payback/profit to be had)There is a huge disjoint with upper management and people at ground level on sites in the UK, management that has consistently been proven to be poor in comparison to many of their overseas counterparts in similar roles. 

I live approx 1/2 a mile from the westcoast main line London to Edinburgh and we have a station here that was closed in the late 60s, and now the town is growing faster than ever it would really benifit the use of the rail station to be reopened but even with the petition that has been raised i very much dought the station would reopen, shame really, 

[Mr. Squirrel]

15 hours ago, 5 shires said:

I hoped Boris would be a bit different

Why?! Have you seen his list of failed projects while he was mayor of London? The man is beyond incompetent. 

 

Anyhow. HS2 will be a failure. But lots of people will clearly get absolutely minuted in the process. So pretty much like most government projects then, but more ambitious...

[openspaceman]

51 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

Might have been a far better more beneficial use of taxpayers money to reopen some of the many branch lines closed years ago by the beeching cuts,

I don't think this HS2 project has been well managed and I cannot see why it will be so expensive. Does anyone know how the projected costs are attributed between  compensation, land purchase and civils/engineering work?

 

I grew up in the age of the car and tend to use mine for all my travelling so I do not understand how people use the rail services but I do realise a lot of people in cities don't own cars and rely on public transport and taxis.

 

Anyway one of the things it is supposed to address does include reopening some old lines  and stations but this cannot be done while the current main lines share tracks with local traffic. There are often simply not enough  time slots to fit extra traffic from old lines to run onto the existing network.

 

Consider also that trains have to be separated by 15 minutes, so one 125mph train occupies a lot more track than a commuter train running at 45 mph.

 

Taking high speed trains off the typical 4 track mainline could double its capacity for stopping trains.

 

Also more lines were closed since 1920 before Beeching than after.

 

Also think about how railways were originally funded, it was not by the government but by entrepreneurs expecting to make a profit from the investment.

[AHPP]

Nobody in their right mind will admit to being part of it. It’s an abhorrently big pork barrel project.
The only public infrastructure project worth doing is digging a hole the size of Shropshire and burying the government in it.

[spuddog0507]

7 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Nobody in their right mind will admit to being part of it. It’s an abhorrently big pork barrel project.
The only public infrastructure project worth doing is digging a hole the size of Shropshire and burying the government in it.

Digging a hole the size of Shropshire for burying the government would not be enviromently friendly ? i would put them in the middle of the channel tunnel and drill a hole in the roof, then lets see how fast they could really move !!!!

[5 shires]

I have never been a protester or ever felt like marching for any reason in my life before but i’am feeling really upset and on the same level so angry about all the ancient woodland and ecology distruction that will happen when the HS2 rips through our ever decreasing country side and let’s make no bones about it that’s basically what will happen and yes the good people of the  HS2 project will say they are doing everything by the book and relocating certain plants,newts etc etc etc but the fact is ancient woodland is exactly what it says on the tin,Ancient which means that a lot of the woods & or forest are 400 years and more old and they are irreplaceable but we all know it’s been rubber stamped now and that’s it so time to say good bye to some beautiful scenery which we have had for 100’s of years and will be gone forever man made landscaping and planting is not the same as a natural wood land or forest...sad times and I for one feel sorry for the genarations of this country who will never know the true beauty of this once green and pleasent Land.

[Big J]

High speed rail is best suited to countries where geographical distances are a limiting factor for the economies, where populations are widely distributed and countrysides that aren't cluttered with centuries of historical development. 

 

The UK is a tiny country. It takes very little time to drive from one end to the other. I did Edinburgh to Devon just after new year in 6hrs 45min overnight and that was just about sticking to the speed limits.

 

High speed rail requires long, straight lengths of track. England is the most densely populated country in Europe (as a misanthrope, quite why I moved here is beyond me!) and trying to cut an unyielding straight line through two millenia of civilisation is going to be staggeringly expensive and massively unpopular.

 

The 20th century was the age of personalised transport. I have my car/van on my drive, I get in it, I go to where I want to go and get out. My vehicle is still there when I want to come back and I don't have to share that space inside the car with anyone not of my choosing enroute. That convenience is absolutely unbeatable when compared to the public transport alternatives. 

 

The investment needs to be going into hugely upgrading the road network. I know I bleat on about it, but the roads here in Devon and the South West more broadly are horrendous. They are the cause of very slow average speeds, very high emissions and frequent, avoidable accidents. The two closest towns to Cullompton (where we live) are Tiverton and Honiton. Tiverton is only 4.5 miles away, but the main road is so bad (ie, 50% single track) that they don't recommend you go that way at all and redirect you via the M5 and the North Devon link road, which is 12 miles. Similarly, the Honiton road has frequent pinch points that are only a fraction better than single track.

 

My point is, no one in their right mind is going to give up their car to use high speed rail, and the only people that HS2 makes sense to are people in the London bubble.