HS2 Approved - Great news for the North!

I'd prefer the A9 to be dualled all the way from Perth to Inverness. Currently they have a 60mph limit, but 50mph for lorries. As you can never get past the buggers that means an effective 50mph limit for everyone - and it's a loooooong road. Oh, it also has average speed checks for most of its length.
Much as I agree with you about the A9, it's not really relevant to this issue. It's under the control of Transport Scotland, and thus outside any funding earmarked for HS2 and roads in England. Ask Nicholas Turgeon to get it sorted.
 
Much as I agree with you about the A9, it's not really relevant to this issue. It's under the control of Transport Scotland, and thus outside any funding earmarked for HS2 and roads in England. Ask Nicholas Turgeon to get it sorted.
True enough - I was just responding to the comment about getting the A1 dualled to Edinburgh. :)

There's no point in asking Nicola Sturgeon to do anything; unless it will move Scotland towards independence she's just not interested.
 
Much as I agree with you about the A9, it's not really relevant to this issue. It's under the control of Transport Scotland, and thus outside any funding earmarked for HS2 and roads in England. Ask Nicholas Turgeon to get it sorted.


that was in the same vein as some welsh MP asking Boris for help yesterday about a road , swiftly shot him down in flames and told him to talk to the welsh assembly , poor bugger is probably still on fire :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
Don't worry! I read on the side of a bus somewhere that we will save this amount every day by simply leaving the EU :thumbsup:
We will once we are no longer funding the EU. :thumbsup:
 
They can’t get the existing mainline trains running properly/efficiently, so what chance HS2.
Isn't the argument that the network between London and Birmingham is so congested that if you want a more reliable service and to expand capacity then you need to lay more track.
 
Isn't the argument that the network between London and Birmingham is so congested that if you want a more reliable service and to expand capacity then you need to lay more track.

The roads are also totally congested, should we build more roads.
 
The roads are also totally congested, should we build more roads.

Quite possibly - if you are going to continue to increase the population at the same rate then you need more roads, more railways, more runways at airports, more housing etc etc.
 
What could possibly go wrong....

panic.gif
 
He missed off the great deal Boris got for the taxpayer from the London stadium deal with West Ham :laugh:

He didnt have a lot of other options - West Ham were the only club who agreed to keep the running track.

And what a mistake that was.. :laugh:
 
He didnt have a lot of other options - West Ham were the only club who agreed to keep the running track.

And what a mistake that was.. :laugh:
He may not have had a lot of other options, but West Ham wanted the stadium as much as he wanted to get a deal done.

Would West Ham have walked away if asked to pay more? I doubt it as no matter what way they spin it, they got a new £700m stadium for next to nothing.
Definitely was scope to get more out of West Ham rather than the paltry terms West Ham agreed to.

If this was truly the best deal to be done, it doesn’t bode well for future trade deals...
 
I understand the need for capacity, but if we are going to be encouraged to use trains then we need to be able to access them. There needs to be more thought given to stations outside major cities with plenty of parking so that mixed modes become viable. We live 30miles from Central London, and to get to Kings Cross to head north takes nearly 2hrs. So it’s easier just to drive to Leeds than use a train

i believe that HS2 was an opportunity to add a satellite station somewhere on M25. This would encourage those in the South East who are not in central London (there are a lot of us) to use the train to travel north.
 
Personally find it obscene that they can spend that sort of money on a white elephant when many other areas of our society are so broken. Housing, NHS, Policing and many others should be prioritised over an unaffordable transport system.



1 trillion % agree with this.

There are bigger things that matter far more than a railway line.
 
Watching the Andrew Neil show last night and Boris does not have good record on infrastructure projects, I give you the garden bridge fiasco which was never built but still cost £53 million quid, then you have his cable car which is not particularly well used, the there are the buses which you were supposedly be able to hop on and hop off except you can't.
 
Just a big waste of money, they'd be better off putting all that money towards upgrading the current infrastructure.
 
I understand the need for capacity, but if we are going to be encouraged to use trains then we need to be able to access them. There needs to be more thought given to stations outside major cities with plenty of parking so that mixed modes become viable. We live 30miles from Central London, and to get to Kings Cross to head north takes nearly 2hrs. So it’s easier just to drive to Leeds than use a train

i believe that HS2 was an opportunity to add a satellite station somewhere on M25. This would encourage those in the South East who are not in central London (there are a lot of us) to use the train to travel north.

The M25 is near gridlock every day, dread to think what it would be like building a Mainline station and then all the extra traffic it would cause.
Come to think of it, the South East is already overcrowded.
 
Greater capacity is welcome. I don't want the trains to become like the M25. I travel to London most days in around 1hr verses the 2.5 it would take to drive. HS2 means all the people from Birmingham would not using our lines.

HS2 trains take a while to get upto speed. Surprisingly the normal commuter trains are rated at 110mph and get to the normal speed of 100mph quite quickly, so actually are quick the the HS2 if the are many stations.

Design wise it all makes sense but to call ir High speed is miss leading , it's rather Luke warm speed as the Chinese train top out at around 217mph.

Further why not all the way to Glasgow, seeing as Flybe is lighly to go bust soon or has it already?
 
I’m 43 and will probably be retired before HS2 even starts running, certainly up here anyway. Meanwhile the current infrastructure is desperately in need of sorting out, and it needs doing in less than 10-20 years. The network is too crowded, and every train that’s late has a knock-on effect on subsequent ones.
Whether or not HS2 is built the rail system in the north definitely needs much more investment.
 
the there are the buses which you were supposedly be able to hop on and hop off except you can't.
That wasn’t even the worst feature of those buses. Those buses had completely sealed windows (ie cannot be opened) so in the height of summer it was like an oven as the almost non-existent aircon couldn’t cope.
They’ve all since been retrofitted with traditional opening bus windows but at an additional cost of £m.

Honestly only an idiot could have designed/approved a worse bus design.
 
Further why not all the way to Glasgow...
I am guessing that, north of Manchester, there isn't a capacity issue so the existing east and west mainlines are fine.
 
I am guessing that, north of Manchester, there isn't a capacity issue so the existing east and west mainlines are fine.
Definitely less but loads of people do Glasgow to London. One other thing that is very odd time wise is that trains often take an extra hour going north to south than south to north.
 
I understand the need for capacity, but if we are going to be encouraged to use trains then we need to be able to access them. There needs to be more thought given to stations outside major cities with plenty of parking so that mixed modes become viable. We live 30miles from Central London, and to get to Kings Cross to head north takes nearly 2hrs. So it’s easier just to drive to Leeds than use a train

i believe that HS2 was an opportunity to add a satellite station somewhere on M25. This would encourage those in the South East who are not in central London (there are a lot of us) to use the train to travel north.
I absolutely agree.

I've thought for years that trains and cars are seen as competitors, when there is plenty of scope for integration in commuter areas.

Take where I live, in South Bucks. Our nearest stations are Burnham and Taplow on the Paddington main line. There is generally a good reliable service with plenty of trains, and one day it will even be part of Crossrail.

But this is an outer suburban, largely rural area, so most people who want to get to work by train, to London or Reading, say, have to drive to the station and park for the day. But parking is very restricted at these places, and of course has a cost. So huge numbers don't bother and use the M4 and M40 instead.

Admittedly, trains are already crowded, so capacity is a problem, but Crossrail should help that, and the line has just been electrified so trains are more frequent.

But what should happen is that large car parks be provided at these stations, with electric car charging points. It should be free to use to rail travelers (or included in the cost of the ticket).

This is obviously a bit of an over-simplification, but the bottom line should be that transport developments should make it easier to get to the station. The train can't come to you; you have to go to the train.
 
Just a big waste of money, they'd be better off putting all that money towards upgrading the current infrastructure.


Which would result engineering works for at least the next 15 years every weekend, that's the problem years of underinvestment on a Victorian system
 

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