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Most effort/work spent on a railway project that ultimately never happened?

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75A

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I would have said the Channel Tunnel, over the last 219 years (first proposed in 1802) how many attempts and how many lives were lost with all the 'false starts' ?

Still a bit of a white elephant as far as I'm personally concerned though, I have used it both from Waterloo when it was first opened, and also taken the car through from Folkestone, but to get to Paris it's much cheaper & hours quicker to drive to Birmingham Airport & fly.
 
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WesternLancer

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I think there were various Victorian era schemes where work got started but then was never completed. sometimes it seems to prevent the incursion of a different competing railway into a certain geographical territory IIRC.

There is a tendency for us to recall schemes within living memory but I bet plenty have faded from common knowledge.
 

43096

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Regional/Night Eurostar are up there too, but I think the DfT funded all that rather than the railway.
You can add most of the class 92 fleet too.
The NLL and Redhill-Tonbridge lines were (re-) electrified on the strength of non-existent channel tunnel traffic.
Redhill-Tonbridge was a particularly choice example: electrified for Channel Tunnel traffic (presumably to enable Class 92s to use it), yet not immunised so 92s couldn't actually use it.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Wiki says some were sold to Canada - but we know how accurate wiki is!!!! Don't know if anyone can confirm
They were all sold back to Alstom, who sold them to VIA Rail Canada, where some are in service in eastern Canada (mostly rebuilt as passenger coaches rather than sleepers).
From what I remember over half the vehicles of the intended fleet were constructed, but something less than half were completed internally.
There was also the cost of the depots, the locos (new class 92 and some class 37 upgrades) and station upgrades en route.
I remember seeing 2 new Nightstar vehicles, looking very smart, being transported by low-loader through Cahors in southern France in 1997, presumably to the UK from a factory further south.
 

fgwrich

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Not just the retractioning (which AFAIK was only part completed), but also the internal refurb and external new livery, which were done to all 18 units. Ironically the 442s are the only SWR fleet entirely in their new livery.
And new cabs fitted to 2 units.

Not quite a project, and thankfully not so much of a waste as ScotRail and LSL have found. But I want to add a small mention to the GWR First Class HST refresh - Bringing it up to the excellent standard it was, the best first class in the uk, for as little as 2/3 years before confining it to the bin.

But I fully agree with the list mentioned so far : Croxley, Bushey, 442 project, NightStar etc.
 

coppercapped

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I think there were various Victorian era schemes where work got started but then was never completed. sometimes it seems to prevent the incursion of a different competing railway into a certain geographical territory IIRC.

There is a tendency for us to recall schemes within living memory but I bet plenty have faded from common knowledge.
Quite so.

The real GWR spent a lot of money in the early 20th century (I'm not sure what 'most' means in this context) improving the harbour at Fishguard to attract calls by the trans Atlantic liners crossing between Southampton or Le Havre and New York. The idea was that they could deposit their passengers and mail earlier than calling at Plymouth and might also have been attractive to the ships on the Liverpool route. It built a new, faster cut-off line between Clunderwen and Jordanston just outside Fishguard avoiding the old rambling route via New Inn Bridge and Letterston but the traffic never materialised.
 

Journeyman

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They even built a waiting room at Glasgow Central for it (that has now been removed) - not to mention countless station cope alterations all the way to Glasgow!
Where was it? There was a lounge at Crewe as well.
 

Spartacus

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One of the biggest I can think of was the Midland Railway's plans to reach the Settle Carlisle by going via Bradford instead of Leeds. Plans were fully drawn up for a line from Royston Jn, north of Barnsley via Dewsbury and the Spen Valley and the still yet to be realised through station at Bradford, purchasing the required land from around 1900, not an inexpensive act along much of the already developed route, and in Bradford especially. The Midland got as far as building the quite heavily engineered route, to full main line standards, including tunnels, viaducts and I think two flying junctions, to a goods station in Dewsbury (opened 1906) before the L&Y granted the MR running powers over it's various lines. I believe the line from the Middlestown flying junction to Dewsbury was mostly operated as a single line for much if it's short life (closed 1950) with the other (I think down line) relegated to being one very long siding. Gradually the land was sold back over the years and the grand plan via Bradford was gradually forgotten. Must have been an extraordinarily expensive way to build an unneeded branch to a goods station. The large warehouse, indicating the scale of the plans, at Dewsbury still exists though, opposite the Royal Mail depot.
 

tbtc

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Hard to quantify some things - e.g. there were projects that delivered something but were scrapped before reaching full ambition - APT ran in passenger service so it did "happen" (it's just that the full scope of the project was never realised)

I could argue that the Midland Mainline plan for nine coach 222s to Leeds each hour "never happened" (but the carriages were built - it's just that some carriages were used to increase the four coach 222s that MM ordered to replace Turbostars to five coaches, and the hourly Leeds extension didn't happen - just the long established placing journeys to/from Neville Hill)
 

341o2

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Bulleid's Leader class must be a contender. Estimated at over £150k per loco in 1948 money
 

Dave W

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The whole of the Northern Heights project (of which Bushey was a part) was written off.

Earthworks between Drayton Pk and Finsbury Pk, the extension of FP station, the start of electrification of the Alexandra Palace branch, Finchley HL station, the earthworks at Brockley Hill, the list goes on..

Intrigued by BIB - we were talking about various elements of the now-Parkland Walk the other day on the Underground sub-forum. Did they actually begin work on this?
 

Bevan Price

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Bulleid's Leader class must be a contender. Estimated at over £150k per loco in 1948 money
Yes. Only one was completed, ran some test trips, but never worked a revenue-earning train. I think they started to build a few others, but they were never completed, and all scrapped when BR cancelled the scheme.
And his subsequent turf-burning loco design in Ireland was also a disastrous plan.
 

Journeyman

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Bulleid's Leader class must be a contender. Estimated at over £150k per loco in 1948 money
It was certainly...bold.

Some elements of the bogie design influenced early diesels, but otherwise it was an expensive failure. Brave attempt to prolong the life of steam, but far too many novel features were tried at once, and the thing was a deathtrap for the fireman.

The Southern operating men wanted a replacement for the M7 tanks, and Bulleid created an absolutely massive track-crusher that was full of untried novelties.
Yes. Only one was completed, ran some test trips, but never worked a revenue-earning train. I think they started to build a few others, but they were never completed, and all scrapped when BR cancelled the scheme.
And his subsequent turf-burning loco design in Ireland was also a disastrous plan.
Apparently the turf burner was a much better machine, and with suitable care it ran quite well - with a bit of effort there's no reason why it couldn't have worked. The more stupidly complex bits of Leader's design were eliminated.

Perhaps sensibly, though, CIE chose early adoption of diesel power. The turf burner was still a long way away from being reliable and robust enough for service.
 

DelW

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Intrigued by BIB - we were talking about various elements of the now-Parkland Walk the other day on the Underground sub-forum. Did they actually begin work on this?
Yes, the large square building west of Crouch Hill was built as a substation. Another was built at Muswell Hill but was demolished decades ago. Cable ducting was still visible in Highgate Woods, and until Finsbury Park bus station was rebuilt, it was overlooked by steelwork which would have supported high level tube platforms.

If you can find a copy of "Northern Wastes" by Jim Blake and Jonathan James, published by the North London Transport Society in 1987 and reissued in 1993, it tells the full story.
 

Journeyman

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Yes, the large square building west of Crouch Hill was built as a substation. Another was built at Muswell Hill but was demolished decades ago. Cable ducting was still visible in Highgate Woods, and until Finsbury Park bus station was rebuilt, it was overlooked by steelwork which would have supported high level tube platforms.

If you can find a copy of "Northern Wastes" by Jim Blake and Jonathan James, published by the North London Transport Society in 1987 and reissued in 1993, it tells the full story.
Apparently there was actually some conductor rail installed on the Finsbury Park to Ally Pally section, but it didn't last long.
 

jopsuk

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Regional Eurostar didn't just have trains built, there were lounges built at a few stations too.
 

Rail Ranger

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The Channel Tunnel scheme in the early 1970s. Some tunnelling took place on the British side (which from memory was used to some extent for the 1990s scheme). The Wilson Government cancelled the scheme because of the cost of, and backlash to, the proposed new line from London to the tunnel.
 

Whi

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Expensive and time consuming modifications and rebuild of Ashford International platforms to enable use for the class 374's.......then never actually running them into the station
 

Journeyman

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Expensive and time consuming modifications and rebuild of Ashford International platforms to enable use for the class 374's.......then never actually running them into the station
There was an unexpected issue discovered when they started running in there, which resulted in it having to be suspended until resolved. They will run there in future. I doubt the 373s will be around much longer anyway.
 

Andrew1395

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The additional trains for the Croxley rail link were built and now at work on the Met Lines. So to that extent most of the money spent has resulted in some benefits.
 

Ianno87

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There was an unexpected issue discovered when they started running in there, which resulted in it having to be suspended until resolved. They will run there in future. I doubt the 373s will be around much longer anyway.

Could in fact prove to be a shrewd infrastructure investment indeed if it is indeed bye-bye to the 373s soon. The present "situation" obviously resulting in temporary withdrawal of services from Ashford.

The additional trains for the Croxley rail link were built and now at work on the Met Lines. So to that extent most of the money spent has resulted in some benefits.

Isn't there still surplus Edinburgh trams to cover the cut down route? Which will presumably finally be of use to serve the Leith extension when that is completed.
 

Dr_Paul

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Class 442 retraction project. Lots of money spent for no gain, with the rolling stock now due to be scrapped.
I'm not so sure. The Porkers have a habit of reappearing. They truly are the Lazarus of the railway world.
 

Journeyman

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Isn't there still surplus Edinburgh trams to cover the cut down route? Which will presumably finally be of use to serve the Leith extension when that is completed.
Yeah, apparently there's enough to operate both the Ocean Terminal route and the Granton loop. All the trams get cycled through regularly, so they've led a pretty easy life so far.
 
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