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You could get to the edge of the US, but you couldn't get any further.
So the issue is not whether it's a good idea or not, but how much it costs.
Now, does anyone know why it's so insanely expensive?HS1 cost £5.8 bn and is 67 miles in 2007 (about £8 bn in today's money).HS2 is expected to cost about £100 bn and is 140 miles or so.Twice as long, but 12 times the price.To me that looks like evidence of criminal activity.
Quote from: Bored chemist on 15/02/2020 12:13:27Quote from: alancalverd on Today at 11:42:53Not the track gauge, but height and width clearances.That's not what Petrochemicals actually said.Oh yes it was! He said "rolling stock gauge" which, as you remember from your Hornby catalogue, refers to the superstructure, not the bogie.
Quote from: alancalverd on Today at 11:42:53Not the track gauge, but height and width clearances.That's not what Petrochemicals actually said.
The rolling stock guage could be updated to european (and hs1) standards lots cheaper, that is the real sticking point about transeurope rail, our bridges are smaller and rollingstock narrower, we cannot run double deckers !
You are ignoring this user. Show me the post.
Today's news is relevant and revealing. In January the government offered Flybe a repayable commercial loan of £100,000,000 (enough to build a bit less than 150 meters of HS2) to cover temporary difficulties. The offer was subsequently withdrawn, Flybe is bankrupt, and a highly efficient network linking cities from the Channel Isles to Orkney and from Norwich to Belfast, has collapsed with the loss of 2000 jobs and acute hospital access from island communities.
"Orkney to somewhere else" has a good ring about it. Obviously not Inverness, because Mistress Nicola is proudly independent and won't accept a handout from Westminster. Reykjavik has good hospitals. All that is needed is to build a weatherproof bridge over one of the most dangerous bits of ocean anywhere, then subsidise some Party donor to run a train on the days when the wind drops below gale force and it isn't actually snowing. Better still, as we will soon be enjoying a cod war with the EU, why not negotiate a mutual fishing agreement with Iceland and fit a few medical beds to the trawlers (except those that were scrapped under the Common Fisheries Policy)? "Broken your leg, sonny? Never mind, we'll have you in A&E within a week, and you'll eat like a king on the way, if you like fish."
Quote from: boredchemistYou are ignoring this user. Show me the post.i love it when you say that though
Considering birmingham is londons closest neighbour
there's very little point in saving 15 minutes travelling from one to the other at the taxpayer's expense.
The point of HS2 is not actually to get people from London to Birmingham half an hour quicker. That would be silly.
Quote from: alancalverd on 13/02/2020 21:55:03you will only save 10 minutes by travelling at 120 mphDamn!.If only someone had realised that before.Oh, yeah- I forgot; they did.Quote from: Bored chemist on 21/01/2020 19:00:05The point of HS2 is not actually to get people from London to Birmingham half an hour quicker. That would be silly.If memory serves that's the third time I have pointed that out.
you will only save 10 minutes by travelling at 120 mph
HS2 could also see the amount of hourly services double between Leeds and eastern towns such as#Newark, Grantham and Retford, with direct services to Norwich and Cambridge possible.
Quote from: Petrochemicals on 06/03/2020 23:27:33Considering birmingham is londons closest neighbour If you ignore Watford, Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Coventry, yes. More to the point, Brum is without doubt the "second city", with a population of 1.3 million, the center of manufacturing industry, major hospitals, universities, banks, markets, orchestras, theaters, civic amenities, international airport.....so there's very little point in saving 15 minutes travelling from one to the other at the taxpayer's expense. If you are that desperate to hear the CBSO instead of the LSO or vice versa, or to visit your aged aunt, get an earlier train.
Of course, I keep forgetting. The point of HS2 is for the taxpayer to buy bits of expensive real estate at inflated prices, pay "consultants" as much as they want, subsidise yet another failing train operating company, pay excessive leasing charges for unreliable trains....we've seen it all before, and it is Good For The Economy.
Reply: "Fifteen Oxford graduates have held the post of Minister of Transport, and none from Cambridge."
the actual point of the project- which is to more than double the rail capacity.
Fact is that private railways make a loss despite charging 3 times as much and taking 3 times as long as profitable airlines on the same route, which suggests that there is something wrong somewhere.
Whilst Ryanair, Easyjet, Loganair and Aurigny have been making a profit on similar routes and pricing for years, despite 20% of the fare being a direct tax. The problem with Flybe was longterm mismanagement.