Confirmed : HS2 West Midlands-Manchester line to be scrapped and replaced with other projects.

[hozza94]

Will NR build the element into Euston?

If DFT gets their hands on managing Euston project, then it's just going to be another penny pinching job.

 

[Backroom_boy]

Canning 2a to crewe then? Definate mistake

 

[ScottGallagher]

Already on the cards at the south end anyway, so a re-announcement.

What does it involve exactly?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Will NR build the element into Euston?

Shouldn't think so, the tunnelling from OOC was not the reason for cancelling the station scheme.
NR might have a bigger role in the new station development zone though.

I could also see a case for reducing the scope of the HS2 stations, with fewer HS services (and none to the north-east).

 

[LLivery]

I was expecting an explicit Leamside Line mention seeing the Tees Mayor was calling for HS2 to be axed last week.

Electric Manchester to Sheffield is interesting; is the Don Valley line meaning the whole Woodhead? Or the just branch?

Bradford is an interesting mention too.

Electrification of the North Wales Main Line to quieten Drakeford for complaining about HS2 being an English & Welsh project...

On the face of it, other than less spending in Euston (hmmmm), the announcements are great - it's all needed, but not instead of HS2, but in addition to HS2.

Saying that, I'll believe it all when I see it.

 

[The Planner]

What does it involve exactly?

Tinkering at the edges to get freight around there. Bits of signalling, track upgrades, don't ever think it was a wholesale rebuild.

 

[HSTEd]

Given TPRU has now topped over ten billion and still climbing, colour me skeptical you can get more than one of those projects for the price.

 

[SteveM70]

Yesterday it was leaked that HS2 would be cancelled and the money spent on other projects in the north and midlands

This morning that was confirmed, but with the phrase “and across the country” added

Are they laying the groundwork for moving their investment elsewhere?

 

[BanburyBlue]

For the uninitiated, what are the benefits of the OOC to Euston bit?

 

[MPW]

How would you get trains from Manchester to Bradford in 30 minutes without major tunneling? Guess have to wait and see.

 

[hozza94]

For the uninitiated, what are the benefits of the OOC to Euston bit?

So the long distance train that are rerouted onto HS2 can run into the same place as their existing terminal (i.e. the Birmingham Fast, Manchester and Liverpool)

 

[LLivery]

For the uninitiated, what are the benefits of the OOC to Euston bit?

Better connections to North, Central, SW and East London. Walking distance from St Pancras & King's Cross. More platforms (hopefully)

 

[basfordlad]

How would you get trains from Manchester to Bradford in 30 minutes without major tunneling? Guess have to wait and see.

Does anyone believe this party any more

 

[JonathanH]

For the uninitiated, what are the benefits of the OOC to Euston bit?

A station that is situated more centrally in London and greater capacity. Old Oak Common is not capable of terminating many trains in each hour.

 

[EZJ]

You can tell when an election is on the Horizon when Tory weasels like Sunak start promising the North all sorts of wonderful infrastructure, I seem to remember Bozo doing exactly the same and how much of that has come to be realised?? The sooner this bunch get voted into oblivion the better. Says it all about the Tories when the biggest attractions at their conference were Liz Truss and the excitement that Farage could one day be a Tory leader. Utter frauds the lot of them.

 

[josh-j]

Ok it's time for a rant. Because the government has promised new rail projects again and again and continually reworked and cut them back to the point that it takes years for even the small ones to start happening, and now we have this. .

I'm still waiting for Piccadilly platforms 15 and 16...

It is utter madness. If HS2 costs got too high why shouldn't that happen to these other projects? The fact is we already spent a sizeable proportion on HS2 and cancelling it now means all of that wasted. £100bn isn't much, this is a national infrastructure project with long term economic benefits not to mention all the thousands of jobs that will be lost in the short term

If we can't afford to put another 70bn or so into finishing HS2 then why can we afford to put almost 40 into "new" rail projects in the North? The difference is a rounding error in a national budget. What about the Midlands - is that where the savings are coming from? Because if an equivalent amount of new rail projects are funded in the Midlands too then the total expenditure will be the same as if they just finished the project already under way.

I can see no reason to think this is anything other than a move to cut investment and continue austerity politics.

As if there will be meaningful new projects to compare to HS2 in the pipeline. As if! They don't even want to fund school building maintenance properly.

NPR will have to be redesigned now so good luck that happening any time soon. Have fun upgrading the WCML without years of disruption and still ending up with way less capacity than a new line. Etc etc.

It beggars belief.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Among so many other things, I wait with jaded anticipation to see how 400m trains will apparently be accommodated under the Piccadilly trainshed (and indeed all the other 'classic stations en-route), without massive disruption, unforeseen cost increases and a further detriment to our scarce capacity.

I don't think 400m trains are a given.

 

[Mgameing123]

Yesterday it was leaked that HS2 would be cancelled and the money spent on other projects in the north and midlands

This morning that was confirmed, but with the phrase “and across the country” added

Are they laying the groundwork for moving their investment elsewhere?

That would be silly this late. Its already under construction.

 

[Merseysider]

How would you get trains from Manchester to Bradford in 30 minutes without major tunneling? Guess have to wait and see.

Simple - an elevated railway to go alongside all the flying pigs

 

[option]

For the uninitiated, what are the benefits of the OOC to Euston bit?

It actually gets you to London, & there's space for lots of trains to terminate.

 

[MPW]

How would you get trains from Manchester to Bradford in 30 minutes without major tunneling? Guess have to wait and see.

also noticed he said a new station in Bradford - not an underground station. He wouldn't have skipped out 'underground' if that was the intention! Maybe a new P+R station somewhere attached to one his road schemes.

 

[Mikey C]

Has the section of HS2 to East Midlands Parkway been mentioned at all?

 

[507 001]

The cost of everything, the value of nothing.


£35bn for an app that doesn’t work anyone?

 

[josh-j]

Does anyone believe this party any more?

Where's Piccadilly platforms 15 and 16? Joke of a government. Only in it for themselves.

 

[HSTEd]

How would you get trains from Manchester to Bradford in 30 minutes without major tunneling? Guess have to wait and see.

Even physics will give way to Thatcherism, clearly!

 

[ALEMASTER]

Well, for us in Sheffield we were first downgrades from full fat HS2 East to the MML being electrified for HS2 to run from East Midlands Parkway to Sheffield and now... we may get a little train from Chesterfield to Stocksbridge and a vague mention of faster trains to Manchester. Oh and £2 bus fares. Well the £2 bus fares have a reasonable chance of actually happening.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Governments always hedge investment projects with phrases like "subject to business case" and "value for money".
It will take years for any new rail project to get to parliament for approval, by which time the world will probably have changed.
The next question is what will Labour do with the hand it will (might) inherit from this government.
In the long run they are no better at investment commitments than the Tories.

Mark Harper will be the next person to put flesh on the railway bones (essentially reissuing the IRP).
He's probably as shocked as we are at the moment, at the scale of the change.
The HS2 project teams will decimated by all this, four days after the departure of their CEO.
Although it might mean that the bits of Phase 1 which were paused, can be restarted (except for the Euston station site).

 

[javelin]

Yesterday it was leaked that HS2 would be cancelled and the money spent on other projects in the north and midlands

This morning that was confirmed, but with the phrase “and across the country” added

Are they laying the groundwork for moving their investment elsewhere?

Well, Crossrail 2 & 3 need funding somehow...

 

[HurdyGurdy]

I don't think 400m trains are a given.

400m trains captive on the high speed line

 

[Howardh]

Just out of interest, what's the cost of (a) Old Oak to Euston compared with (b) Handsacre to Crewe and (c) Handsacre to Manchester?

If (a) and (b) are reasonably close on cost, to me I would have ended at OOC but have a longer line.