They have also muddied the waters by including rolling stock in some statements on the up to date cost whereas it was never included in the original costs. I'm trying to find the info, but it was covered in Green signals.
And you'd be paying for the rolling stock anyway because the Pendos will become life-expired and need replacement.
There has been a lot of muddying of costs happening, by both opponents and proponents of HS2, whether they had any actual knowledge of what was going on or not. Lots of people in the media then made this worse by mixing up the various figures.
A good time to dig out good news? Is the term 'dead cat' appropriate, taking attention from news about 'the economy', trumpian/ realiation tariffs, China, gaza, Iran, ...
It's also quite interesting when read section 3.1 etc that the committee are instructed to modify the Bill as it still has Golborne spur in. There are also still provisions for new depot in Scotland, and modifications to some West Coast stations eg Preston. Section 6.2 suggests a new link (instead of Golborne) is now intended to WCML due to commitment to serve Scotland
It's the middle of a pretty normal working week. Parliament is in recess, as they are for a pretty large proportion of the year, but work goes on. It was indicated in the King's Speech that this bill was going to be repurposed for NPR, and this will be part of the process. If they want to convene a committee after easter it may well be a pre-requisite.
And I wish HS2 would report costs properly too. They still present their accounts and current and future costs at 2019 prices, with no conversion factors published to say what those numbers are in current money.
Yes, it's a really good outlook..
I disagree. Much as I want rail's success to remove internal flights, without a capacity upgrade all the way to Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh) I fear that trying to recreate an airline-on-wheels as a primary objective will just leave us (again!) with a stripped-down internal UK service on the grounds that "London to Glasgow is more important and there are no paths for WCML stopping services. So tough **** Crewe, Lancaster, Penrith etc..."
It was never clear to me what would have been gained by building the Golborne Link. There are currently two trains an hour from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow on the West Coast Mainline. The plan was to have two HS2 trains an hour from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow on HS2 and the West Coast Mainline.
except that the "Class 1" Euston to Glasgows (i.e. not via the W Midlands) have already had the Crewe stops removed on all but the first and last trains of the day (I think) because of the overcrowding in the southern bit of the journey. When the stops were removed the Crewe MP protested after my lobbying and was told that it was because he had complained of the overcrowding!
I think you are wrong, but even if we ignore
it's not just aboout London, you know, the rest of us pay our taxes too...
I’m not denying that it’s not all about London, but a big part of it is. London has around 7 times the population of the second largest city in the UK Birmingham.
In a world with HS2 to Crewe, would 400m Euston-Crewe services purely on HS2 be an option to provide lots of capacity?
I am aware of that. However, I am suggesting adding the Crewe stop back into all the glasgows, primarily for interchange purposes. Potentially, you could run 400m trains London-Crewe, with 200m continuing north of there (as 400m trains don't fit in Glasgow), or of course doing the splitting/joining thing further north (likely Carlisle), and serving both Edinburgh and Glasgow with the same 400m train from London
This is unfortunately a very fair point.
Avoiding the congested junctions around Crewe, plus Winsford/Weaver/Winwick.
Correct, one fast London and one via Birmingham train.
Two very fast Londons, one Birmingham, and one London-Lancaster semi-fast.