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Who Is or has done work on the HS2 project?


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16 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

my understanding is that it is not about just a quicker journey but greatly increased carrying capacity !

 

Carrying what? Nobody will be able to afford to use it regularly unless they are on expenses.

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HS2 will cost a lot but if it reduces the number of cars on the road it will benefit many people. The construction cost is high but rail journeys don't always cost a fortune and can be a relatively stress free way of traveling. Kendal to Manchester airport for £6.50 one way means it can be cheaper than driving. My brother in-law spends a lot of time in London and usually takes the train, his take on it is that capacity is the problem not speed. Even if HS2 is expensive the old line can be used for those not on company expenses.

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3 hours ago, patrickgalloway3 said:

HS2 will cost a lot but if it reduces the number of cars on the road it will benefit many people. The construction cost is high but rail journeys don't always cost a fortune and can be a relatively stress free way of traveling. Kendal to Manchester airport for £6.50 one way means it can be cheaper than driving. My brother in-law spends a lot of time in London and usually takes the train, his take on it is that capacity is the problem not speed. Even if HS2 is expensive the old line can be used for those not on company expenses.

This is exactly what’s wrong with the railways - you state that it ‘can be cheaper than driving’. 

It SHOULD ALWAYS be cheaper than driving.

Bigger trains/more capacity/simplified transparent ticket pricing/subsidised (where necessary) fares to keep prices economically viable thus enticing people out of their cars. 

I rarely travel by train, but when I do I am (generally) impressed by its service/speed. However, my limited use has been disrupted by cancelled trains and I’ve experienced ridiculous overcrowding on tiny trains - doing a daily commute being exposed to the apparent lottery of standards certainly doesn’t appeal. And as for pricing - why is it that any time I want to buy a ticket for a previously travelled route the price will be different online/at the station/on the train? My family took the train to Manchester for the day over Christmas and there were 6 or 7 different prices available from the ticket machine for our return journey. Why?!?!!!! 

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9 hours ago, patrickgalloway3 said:

HS2 will cost a lot but if it reduces the number of cars on the road it will benefit many people. The construction cost is high but rail journeys don't always cost a fortune and can be a relatively stress free way of traveling. Kendal to Manchester airport for £6.50 one way means it can be cheaper than driving. My brother in-law spends a lot of time in London and usually takes the train, his take on it is that capacity is the problem not speed. Even if HS2 is expensive the old line can be used for those not on company expenses.

I took my old classic car 115 miles from Skegness to Nuneaton for some leather work.  16 mpg cost about 7 gallons of petrol at say £6 a gallon around £42.   Journey about 2 hours 15 minutes in great comfort, breathing my own air, listening to my own music on 8 track stereo.  Luggage in the boot, not touched from home to destination.

Went back to fetch it a week or two later and thought that I would try public transport.

Walked with my heavy case about a mile to the main road bus stop where it was not at all clear about the times, or the bus number.  Had to pay about £5 to sit next to a huge woman who took up half my seat and stank.

Skegness rail ticket to Nuneaton about £50 with two changes involving lugging my case a distance down various platforms, stairs etc until I arrived at Nuneaton still two miles from the industrial park.  Had to summon a taxi which cost £8

The whole journey took five hours or twice as long as the car,  cost more plus all the lugging and walking and standing around on draughty platforms.  It could have been raining.

Compare this to say four people sharing the journey in my Peugeot which does 60 mpg.  £12 petrol divided by 4 = £3 each

 

Rail travel has a long way to go before I can become enthusiastic about it.

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8 minutes ago, Billhook said:

Rail travel has a long way to go before I can become enthusiastic about it.

I had a SWT pass for work in 2011 my colleagues were jealous but I only used it for about 4 days and that was only to access south london stations and my annual medical. Driving the van made better use of my time.

 

 

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10 hours ago, Billhook said:

I took my old classic car 115 miles from Skegness to Nuneaton for some leather work.  16 mpg cost about 7 gallons of petrol at say £6 a gallon around £42.   Journey about 2 hours 15 minutes in great comfort, breathing my own air, listening to my own music on 8 track stereo.  Luggage in the boot, not touched from home to destination.

Went back to fetch it a week or two later and thought that I would try public transport.

Walked with my heavy case about a mile to the main road bus stop where it was not at all clear about the times, or the bus number.  Had to pay about £5 to sit next to a huge woman who took up half my seat and stank.

Skegness rail ticket to Nuneaton about £50 with two changes involving lugging my case a distance down various platforms, stairs etc until I arrived at Nuneaton still two miles from the industrial park.  Had to summon a taxi which cost £8

The whole journey took five hours or twice as long as the car,  cost more plus all the lugging and walking and standing around on draughty platforms.  It could have been raining.

Compare this to say four people sharing the journey in my Peugeot which does 60 mpg.  £12 petrol divided by 4 = £3 each

 

Rail travel has a long way to go before I can become enthusiastic about it.

Same here i just dont see the point of HS2, and rail travel is something i have never used for the very same reason you will not use it in a hurry again, inconvenience i think they call it, last time i was on a train was back in the late 70s on a steam train on the Settle Carlisle line, and that i plan to do again either on the Flying Scotsman or the Jacobite (train used in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Express) its not that long since a friend of mine went from Lancaster to Manchester on the train and had a total nightmare of a day 2 changes, then a late train, then had to wait about 2 hrs at wigan for some debris to be moved of the line, His words never again, next time i will drive and just drink coke,

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A couple of years ago I thought I would try the train home from London Kings Cross to Grantham.  Another half mile yomp up the platform to find myself in a coach full of people shouting down their mobile phones

However the line was smooth and the train seemed fast and it was not long before we arrived at Peterborough.  A few more minutes to Grantham and I thought that I could really perhaps warm to rail travel

Moments later the train started to slow and the man came onto the intercom.  I thought he was about to tell us that we were approaching Grantham.  But no, the train had broken down and it was two hours before we were moving again.

We used to have the main line from Grimsby to London three miles away delivering fish to the capital with few stops

My Great Great Grandfather could make it to London in the 1870s quicker than I can by car or bus or train today.  Progress????

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If a project involves public funds then the price we're told will always be about half of what it actually costs. I believe this is deliberate. Where the public to know the full cost before anything started they/we would be up in arms and hopefully force a stop to the madness. But the drip, drip, drip of cost increases seems to be accepted by the masses. 

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