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[Kevin Wood]

if its a new line why not build a maglev like japan and do 200mph plus?

Yep, and then elevate the track to 30,000 feet so you can reduce the air resistance and do 450 MPH, then do away with the track altogether and all you need is a runway.. and..

Gotta love Victorian technology.

[Raeturbo]

Waste of money, end of.

[Rods2]

The realistic cost of £100bn would buy 100 type 45 destroyers & in this unstable world I know which would be more useful. The only reason we are building HS2 is the the EU has ordered us to. Come the 31/10 we can tell them to swivel & cancel it.

Lizzie's argument is nonsensical that it will create jobs, so would bringing back wheel tappers on every platform at every station. The difference between rich & poor countries is the efficient allocation of limited resources that provides a decent ROI. HS2 doesnt where the maths I think were done by either Lizzie or Diane Abbot where it will return in the region of £eleventy-ten-one.

[Doctor Gollum]

The realistic cost of £100bn would buy 100 type 45 destroyers & in this unstable world I know which would be more useful. The only reason we are building HS2 is the the EU has ordered us to. Come the 31/10 we can tell them to swivel & cancel it.

Lizzie's argument is nonsensical that it will create jobs, so would bringing back wheel tappers on every platform at every station. The difference between rich & poor countries is the efficient allocation of limited resources that provides a decent ROI. HS2 doesnt where the maths I think were done by either Lizzie or Diane Abbot where it will return in the region of £eleventy-ten-one.

The Destroyers would be finished before the railway if they started tomorrow... 

[Lizzie Zoom]

The realistic cost of £100bn would buy 100 type 45 destroyers & in this unstable world I know which would be more useful. The only reason we are building HS2 is the the EU has ordered us to. Come the 31/10 we can tell them to swivel & cancel it.

Lizzie's argument is nonsensical that it will create jobs, so would bringing back wheel tappers on every platform at every station. The difference between rich & poor countries is the efficient allocation of limited resources that provides a decent ROI. HS2 doesnt where the maths I think were done by either Lizzie or Diane Abbot where it will return in the region of £eleventy-ten-one.

So it does not take thousands of workers to build the line, thousands to provide the materials, then hundreds to run the new lines?! Then there is the untold jobs that will be created by the more efficient movement of people between the major business centres.

So the EU is forcing us to build these new lines? Rubbish!!

If you Rod had been around in the great days of railway building they would never have been built and we would still be using horse and carts!

Roads are too clogged and slow, air travel is damaging the environment, and the current railway lines from South to North, at least, have reached maximum capacity, but people will still need to travel between cities, and fast.

No, just another negative comment to justify the usual negative comments about everything.  

[Marks DTM Calib]

Look it’s simple... jobs for ‘the boys’.. grease here, grease there, for the time it saves it’s ludicrous and who wants to go there in the first place?

I think they are talking 15 -20 minutes quicker? 

AND, more importantly, it frees up paths for stoppers plus freight on the east/west coast mainline  (which most forget) 

[Sir Tigger KC]

Jonathan Pie on HS2! 

Obviously NWS! 

https://hs2.jonathanpie.com/

[Lizzie Zoom]

Look it’s simple... jobs for ‘the boys’.. grease here, grease there, for the time it saves it’s ludicrous and who wants to go there in the first place?

I think they are talking 15 -20 minutes quicker? 

AND, more importantly, it frees up paths for stoppers plus freight on the east/west coast mainline  (which most forget) 

Exactly, the existing lines are running at full capacity,,as are the passenger trains.  But all some are seeing is, yes, the massive cost of building the high speed lines to meet the needs of the rest of this century.

[TheBoy]

So it does not take thousands of workers to build the line

They wont be taxpayers, and they will put nothing back into the local economy. In fact they will damage the local economies.  Our local council is already running up huge costs due to this.

[TheBoy]

Look it’s simple... jobs for ‘the boys’.. grease here, grease there, for the time it saves it’s ludicrous and who wants to go there in the first place?

I think they are talking 15 -20 minutes quicker? 

AND, more importantly, it frees up paths for stoppers plus freight on the east/west coast mainline  (which most forget) 

Exactly, the existing lines are running at full capacity,,as are the passenger trains.  But all some are seeing is, yes, the massive cost of building the high speed lines to meet the needs of the rest of this century.

I regularly get on both existing lines that serve between Birmingham and London. Ignoring the 7:20 - 8:30am rush, the trains are short and still empty.  I frequently get a whole carriage almost to myself.

If you need more track capacity, then reduce the frequency of these passenger services to make room for freight...


Because HS2 has no stops, and only a small percentage of people want to go from Birmingham to London, the HS2 trains will remain near empty, leaving the existing 2 lines carrying pretty much the same number of people.


Remember the maths is for well over a million people a day to use it (Phase 1) at full fare, with a 60% taxpayer subsidy.  I'd wager it won't even get 1 million passengers a year, let alone a day.  It will be too much of a burden to run, so will need to be closed down.  Which will leave a scar on the rural landscape, piss many people who have been displaced, and leave the country an as yet undecided £xx billion (Phase 1 won't stop at £50b, and will easily quadruple in the next 6 years) worse off in construction.

[Raeturbo]

Remember this ‘Fantastic Project’

      https://www.brightwork.com/blog/project-failures-londons-1m-per-month-millennium-dome

[Rods2]

The realistic cost of £100bn would buy 100 type 45 destroyers & in this unstable world I know which would be more useful. The only reason we are building HS2 is the the EU has ordered us to. Come the 31/10 we can tell them to swivel & cancel it.

Lizzie's argument is nonsensical that it will create jobs, so would bringing back wheel tappers on every platform at every station. The difference between rich & poor countries is the efficient allocation of limited resources that provides a decent ROI. HS2 doesnt where the maths I think were done by either Lizzie or Diane Abbot where it will return in the region of £eleventy-ten-one.

So it does not take thousands of workers to build the line, thousands to provide the materials, then hundreds to run the new lines?! Then there is the untold jobs that will be created by the more efficient movement of people between the major business centres.

So the EU is forcing us to build these new lines? Rubbish!!

If you Rod had been around in the great days of railway building they would never have been built and we would still be using horse and carts!

Roads are too clogged and slow, air travel is damaging the environment, and the current railway lines from South to North, at least, have reached maximum capacity, but people will still need to travel between cities, and fast.

No, just another negative comment to justify the usual negative comments about everything.

Yes, they would have as their was a sound business case for this technology & likewise there has been for CrossRail & there is also for the Heathrow loop. A simple rule for infrastructure investment is that it pays for itself in terms of significant time saving & thus cost and/or significantly more people use it. HS2 has only been justified on the basis of mythical increases in passenger & freight traffic & being able to charge much higher prices. None of these hold so it is just a massive white elephant which will make us all collectively poorer.

A maximum practical daily commute time is 1 hour each way for the majority of people & London to Manchester is slightly beyond this & Leeds & Liverpool are significantly beyond this limit, especially where they are now on cost grounds talking about potentially limiting the trains to a maximum of 195mph (from 225). Japan & China are showing the way ahead with up to 600kph Maglev lines. These would bring Manchester, Liverpool & Leeds all in daily London commute times & would beat flight times with their much faster boarding & alighting times, thus capturing a significant portion of this market. The Chinese are testing at the moment their latest 600kph Maglev prototype, which they are aiming to put into production in 2021. The problem is the lack of imagination & foresight of our politicians where they think almost 200 year old steel rail technology is the future, it isn't Maglev & Hyperloop are. Like so many British inventions with Maglev we are letting our competitors develop, invest & out compete us.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-highspeed-maglev-prototype/index.html

[Varche]

Cant argue with “ our politicians having a lack of imagination and foresight.”

[Lizzie Zoom]

Cant argue with “ our politicians having a lack of imagination and foresight.”

No, nor can I

But they never have.  It has always taken people with foresight and imagination to achieve what this country has in the past, and hopefully will do in the future. That process must never be slowed down or stopped, as then we will become just that little Island off the coast of Europe.

[TheBoy]

The problem is the lack of imagination & foresight of our politicians where they think almost 200 year old steel rail technology is the future

I think the lack of imagination is with the rail industry TBH. Which in itself is pretty much still of civil service mentality, so they will never have the imagination.