"At least nowadays you get some compensation"

Where I live we get the HS2 and the second split (HS3 ?) 15 or more years of construction misery. Digging of "Borrow Pits" to extract local gravel, and compensation ? Market value plus 5% is all that is offered. Who could get a comparable house for just 5% more It won't cover legal fees and stamp duty.

HS2 is uneccasary, and grossly overpriced. No doubt it was lobbied for by representatives of the firms who will build it, and they were able to convince the government tnat the country desperately needed this project, whereas in reality, the only people who desperately need it are the contractors, who rely on endless govenment contracts and bottomless pits of taxpayers money. We have one of these megacontractor vanity projects in our neck of the woods., it is known as "The Humber bridge", or by the locals as "the bridge to nowhere". It was supposed to cost 80 to 100 million, ended up costing 800 million, carries nothing like the amount of traffic it was supposed to, did nothing to halt the decline of East Yorkshire and noth Lincolnshire, spawned no new business, and now they talk about scrapping the tolls, as they are not worth collecting! HS2 should be scrapped, as should the other vanity project at Hinckley, especially in the present economic downward plunge caused by Covid 19.

Phil

Totally agree HS2 is totally unnecessary and eye wateringly expensive, it is just a cash cow for the contractors who will keep hiking the price up and governments will continue to hand over cash. Perhaps now that Covid19 has nearly bankrupted the country the power that be might reign in their spending on such large projects.

HS2 is a hugely upscaled version of the Edinburgh Tram Farce

We could have had free buses (or 20p a pop) for 50 years with the billion plus quid the trams cost

50 years of free travel for the entire city, chuck your car away

What could you guys have done with the 200 billion quid that HS2 will eventually cost?

The bigger the crime the fewer the number of people who can comprehend it

But you'd have to close the West Coast main line for a long time to do this, you can't do serious upgrades to a line with trains whizzing past. We don't have the alternative routes they had back in the 60's when the WCML was electrified. What I object to is the phenomenal amount of money spent on non construction, lawyers, enquiries, environment surveys etc etc. Don't get me wrong we should do our best to minimise the environmental impact, but according to a chap I know who has been involved in a similar project they send one chap to count the trees, another to count the bats and so on and so on. It only took about 6 years to build the GWR from Bristol to London, why does it cost so much nowadays when we have all the construction kit? The French can build infrastructure a lot cheaper and faster than we do. I wonder if instead of lawyers and accountants they have engineers?

According to **LINK** we managed to spend £53 million on the Garden Bridge, don't try crossing it, you'll get your feet wet. We could have done a fair bit of upgrading of the Trans Pennine routes for that, as it is we still have to suffer Pacers on long distance journeys.

Edited By duncan webster on 24/04/2020 16:43:20

For obvious reasons I haven't been on a train for a month, but according to **LINK** there are still some in service as of April.

Someone is actually proposing to preserve some. Perhaps it's to be an example of how not to design a passenger train

The UK rail loading gauge is quite tiny thanks to Mr Stevensons coal cart gauge.

regards Martin

The West Coast Mainline is already operating at capacity. Actally operating at more capacity that was designed in during the modernisation that caused major disruption to travel over a long period.

Modifying the route to increase the loading gauge is a non starter while it is in operation. There are little things like tunnels that would need to be closed for the odd year or two in each direction to make this happen. Doing so would reduce the line's capacity to about 20% of its current capacity.

Moving over to broad gauge, while an excellent idea, has the problem that you need to do it to every line in the country to avoid the problems that caused it to be replaced by standard gauge. Do you put containers two wide in freight trains?

Double decking might help increase passenger carrying capacity (see note above, why it won't happen)., but it does bugger all to help freight capacity, unless you go to two high container trucks.

The amount of land taken up by HS2 might seem large when viewed from a pedestrian/personal viewpoint, but it is small compared with even something like the A14 or the M1.

The way to improve our 100 year old rail infrastructure is to build new lines that are good for the next 100 years or more. That can't be done over the existing rights of way (in use, built around, croocked), so new routes need to be planned and built.

Instead of pissing and moaning about it because it offends indifidual sensibilities or won't be used by those upset by it, we should be pushing forward to get it done more rapidly so the country can benefit from it. Just like it does from the motorway network, the channel tunnel, even nuclear power stations (we need more of those as well!)

Stop being a bunch of nimbys and get out of the way of progress!

Hi, first caveman said to second bothered caveman "what's a matter you" bothered caveman says "another blot on the landscape, they recon they building something called houses to live in, ugly looking things, don't know why they can't find a cave, like most people do"

Sorry I've got my devil hat on.

The main thing about upgrading the railways to wider or double decker trains in the UK, is that you would have to demolish half of the capital, as it was built in Victorian times, when such expansion wasn't thought of.

Regards Nick.