Hs2 Review recommendation

[GRALISTAIR]

However, if the clowns, sorry, politicians have learned anything from Grayling, it is you don't cancel you defer for a few years and then you don't have to go through all the statutory crap through Parliament again.
They will have to sweeten the pot somehow. MML in full plus ECML connectors for a start.

 

[TrafficEng]

How bad is the politics of spending £8Bn on nothing?

New Government, relatively clean hands. Blame the £8bn on previous Governments going all the way back to Blair. Stop the rot, lance the boil. (other three-word soundbites are available)

Perhaps sweetened by looking at what parts of the scheme could be salvaged to deliver short-term benefits (in the North) without precluding future delivery of something bigger.

 

[Mogz]

Just out of interest, given one of the primary purposes of the line is to take pressure off the WCML, has anyone evaluated how much it would cost if built as a “classic” main line?

 

[class26]

New Government, relatively clean hands. Blame the £8bn on previous Governments going all the way back to Blair. Stop the rot, lance the boil. (other three-word soundbites are available)

Perhaps sweetened by looking at what parts of the scheme could be salvaged to deliver short-term benefits (in the North) without precluding future delivery of something bigger.

Still would go VERY bad in those newly won northern Tory seats. Real dilemma for Boris

 

[yorkie]

Just out of interest, given one of the primary purposes of the line is to take pressure off the WCML, has anyone evaluated how much it would cost if built as a “classic” main line?

If anyone wishes to explore this suggestion further, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum section. Thanks.

 

[WatcherZero]

https://assets.publishing.service.g...e_2b_Working_Draft_ES_Alternatives_report.pdf

That should give you an overview and links to more specific studies in the footnores.

 

[StephenHunter]

Think Phase 1 is all we're going to get.

 

[class26]

Think Phase 1 is all we're going to get.

But so much changes over the years. Phase one will not open for a decade, who is to say what political wind will be blowing by then? Open part one and there is always the chance that various cities start clamouring for a link to HS2 . Who knows? Getting part one up and running would be an achievement. If broken down into stages rather than single . all embracing "grand projet" the cost MIGHT be more palatable and you never know, we might have developed a way of working that is more cost effective.

 

[Meerkat]

If Phase 1 came in reasonably on time and budget then there would be pressure to keep going, both in transport terms and in keeping the workforce employed.

 

[Lucan]

Why does it cost so much? Is there a particular aspect that causes it? Purchase of property? The civil engineering? The signal engineering? The trains? The studies that accompany it?

Meanwhile, over the last two decades (or more) hundreds if not thousands of miles of new fast A-roads have been built in the form of extended by-passes or entirely new roads - the A14 through East Anglia for example, with hardly a murmur from the environmental lobbies, in Parliament, or in other than local media. It seems a trend to build a what is effectively a motorway but call it an A-Road because that generates less opposition.

Assuming these fast A-roads/M-ways are much cheaper to build than a HS railway - why? - or are they? I realise that HS rail needs to be straighter and more level than a motorway, but does the civil enginering really cost that many times more?

 

[Gareth]

Think Phase 1 is all we're going to get.

Better doing Phase 1 properly than the whole thing with corners cut, left, right and centre.

 

[Lucan]

If Phase 1 came in reasonably on time and budget then there would be pressure to keep going, both in transport terms and in keeping the workforce employed.

That did not happen with nuclear power stations after Sizewell B, which was very successful as a mega-project. It was supposed to be the first of a series (Hinkley Point C, Dungeness C, Bradwell B).