Winter events and meetings

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

Interesting that HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) is all about capacity now. Why hasn't it been renamed and downgraded engineering wise to say, 140mph if 'High Speed' is no longer the reason?

The reason for building the line is capacity.  The question should be if you are building a new line is there a business case for making it high speed?

As for capacity on the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line). Have you taken a Pendolino (three an hour x11 coaches remember) to Manchester or Birmingham at any time other than between 1630 and 1900. Plenty of fresh air being carted around and using up valuable paths that could be better put to serving semi-fast services on the southern end of the WCML.

That is all very well but what if the people who want to use the southern end of the WCML want to use it in the morning and evening peaks?

There's a lot of bluster and unsubstantiated earnings figures coming from the pro-HS2 camp as well.

I am afraid our media and all the PR^▸ (Public Relations) consultants on both sides don't believe our brains could handle all that information if they gave it to us.

[grahame]

For example, it would be a shame if what I feel is a pretty good overall report ended up being sidelined as irredeemably flawed due to concerns that are either a matter of debate or purely cosmetic.

Also, I personally think that the relatively high Trowbridge to Melksham figures recorded yesterday are more indicative of the natural difference between leisure and travel-to-work flows, and the overall count evidence so far does back this up. Whilst it is important that we give such traffic flows due weight, they should not in themselves be seen as a justification for a significant change in emphasis.

Firstly, I agree that the report is pretty good in general and should make that clear.

Secondly, I have gathered further evidence this afternoon which points to local flows developing Trowbridge - Melksham - Chippenham where I had incorrectly assigned passengers to Melksham to an origin at Bath Spa and beyond.  I was wrong in at least part of my assumption, and that mitigates the critical comments I made about a single element of the report.   I have gone back and added a correction on the end of the original post too.