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General Discussion Area / Re: Cost overrun
« on: Today at 10:15:48 »This *ISN'T* the way.I see a report has been released stating that the cost of the great white elephant that is HS2 will likely rise by a measly £30bn.When a project is put out to tender and then contracts signed how can costs be allowed to just spiral in this way?
It is a major British engineering project, so yes it is "allowed" to rocket beyond budget and behind time targets. It has happened so often throughout our history over the last 200 years.
yes and the rich taxpayers have deep pockets so why let a minor overrun upset anyone.
Indeed, and just think of the jobs it will create.
In addition we all want to see Britain Great again, so with the money they tell us we will save by existing the EU we can pay for this new line outright!
Again, from the roadshows, for this to break even (ignoring build costs, this is just running costs), the maths is:
60% of every fare is to be subsidised by the taxpayer
Every train has to be at capacity (1200 people)
A train has to run every 3 minutes (I challenged them on the safety of a 180mph train at 3 min intervals, but was assured this wasn't an issue)
So, being the stupid kid from the local comp, my maths aint great, but that means it needs to carry well over a million people at day at full fare... ...and "break even" still means the taxpayer footing 60% of the running cost (which again my schoolboy maths puts that well in excess of £55bn of taxpayer burden annually, or about £2k for everybody in employment).
Its an absolute colossal waste of money and resources. Their figures do not add up by orders of magnitude, and to quote on of the senior Network Rail execs at one of the early meetings when I pressed him, this is to secure their jobs, and make money for them.
Obviously, build costs do not include the additional costs to local councils for this great white elephant. Our local town council are having to spend a fortune on anti gypo defences everywhere around town, because even the council is intelligent enough to know that this will not be built by skilled labour, but by diddys.
