HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion

[whole diary]

[Bob_Blakey]

A geologist writes.....

Whichever Ministerial representative(s) had been nominated to this media event need a good slap for such an abject example of political cowardice. As stated in previous posts within this thread, and in the wider world of common knowledge, sinkholes, and indeed larger caverns up to and including underground waterways, are not exactly rare in significant areas of strata composed largely of calcium carbonate. AKA^▸ ('also known as') Chalk in this instance.

They should have turned up and been prepared to explain why such small scale fissures are/were not really an issue.

I would bet that if UK^▸ (United Kingdom) winter rainfall continues as recently the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page), and others, will have to scaremonger repeatedly long after HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) construction has been completed. 

[Red Squirrel]

Meanwhile... exactly 49 years ago today, the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)'s Nationwide (sigh) reported on how the government had scrapped the Channel Tunnel project because "it was not prepared to underwrite the astronomic cost". Deja vu all over again?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/cancelled_channel_tunnel_workers/znf6xyc

[TaplowGreen]

An interesting day in prospect tomorrow.............

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sunak-to-hold-regional-cabinet-as-local-transport-fund-announced/ar-BB1iPIJu

[IndustryInsider]

I think Louise Haigh pretty much nails it.  Though it wasn’t a particularly difficult nail to hit!

[TonyK]

I think Louise Haigh pretty much nails it.  Though it wasn’t a particularly difficult nail to hit!

Rather looks that way. The sudden dash to spend money locally before the election isn't fooling everybody. Let's face it, most of the money "saved" by scrapping the clever bit of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) wouldn't have been spent for another decade or more, so hasn't even been borrowed yet. The works the money is being spent on are by and large things that should have been done routinely, not put on hold for 10 years.

[Noggin]

If I understand correctly, it's a 7 year settlement from 2025 to 2032 which gives a *lot* of money to local authorities and considerable leeway on how to spend it.

It's probably a sensible move - a long-term funding window gives local authorities the means to build a pipeline of rail projects that would have been previously outside their budget.

Despite the delays with Portishead reopening, much of WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about)'s plans are slowly coming to fruition, with dramatic increases in service frequency, new stations, funding the preliminary work on Temple Meads and Filton Bank electrification etc.   

Of course there's certainly a political element to it - the Labour devolved administrations are not going to let a Labour Government in Westminster steal their thunder, let alone take any of this funding away.

[TonyK]

As I read it, this is a 7-year program of funding, amounting to £4.7 billion coming into force in April 2025. Doing some fag-packet maths of my own (I don't smoke, so it might not be accurate) I make that about £670,000 per year, or about 2% of Devon County's transport and infrastructure budget to be spent across the whole country, taken from money that would have been spent up to 15-20 years from now, and which hasn't even been borrowed yet. I wouldn't call it transformative. From other works of fantasy, I would compare it to either Lewis Carroll's White Queen's promise of "Jam tomorrow" (but only those little single portion pots) or J R R Tolkien's description by Bilbo Baggins of himself becoming "thin, like butter spread over too much bread".

[eightonedee]

For those who do not subscribe to Paul Whitewick's excellent You Tube channel, here's his take on the HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) fiasco (and some of the opposition to it, both "environmental" and economic).-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS_KrQExIE

[TaplowGreen]

As I read it, this is a 7-year program of funding, amounting to £4.7 billion coming into force in April 2025. Doing some fag-packet maths of my own (I don't smoke, so it might not be accurate) I make that about £670,000 per year, or about 2% of Devon County's transport and infrastructure budget to be spent across the whole country, taken from money that would have been spent up to 15-20 years from now, and which hasn't even been borrowed yet. I wouldn't call it transformative. From other works of fantasy, I would compare it to either Lewis Carroll's White Queen's promise of "Jam tomorrow" (but only those little single portion pots) or J R R Tolkien's description by Bilbo Baggins of himself becoming "thin, like butter spread over too much bread".

You need a new fag packet.....add another 3 zeros onto £670,000 & multiply by 7.

[TonyK]

You need a new fag packet.....add another 3 zeros onto £670,000 & multiply by 7.

As I set off in the car about 10 minutes after I wrote that, I thought "Hang on a minute... I hope nobody notices before I get home." It is of course £940 million pa, and I'm blowed if I can think which orifice I plucked the first figure out of. That makes it a lot bigger, but still not as big as it sounds. A large amount of that will go on roads, leaving little for rail. I would assume that anything announced in the recent rash of station rebuilds - Cullompton, Wellington near me - will be included in this, so not much is going to be left for new rail projects. It might help pay for amendments to salvage something from the many schemes drawn up to link northern towns and cities to a HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) that won't be coming.

[stuving]

I think that's close to where Cecilia is. Florence is a bit further on, at the northern portal, waiting for a suitable opportunity to emerge. That was meant to a minister's hard-hat opportunity, but a number of things recently have made ministers a bit twitchy about doing such things. I don't suppose this helps.

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) (Paul Clifton) reporting that Tuesday’s media visit to film the tunnelling ‘breakthrough’ beneath the Chilterns a short distance from the sinkholes has been postponed.

A coincidence I'm sure!

If that was the plan, no-one told Florence. Seen in a drone video having emerged by yesterday, minister or no minister.

[TonyK]

Delaying things to suit a minister seems to be falling out of fashion after the Post Office saga.

[stuving]

If that was the plan, no-one told Florence. Seen in a drone video having emerged by yesterday, minister or no minister.

HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) have now said Florence will break through today (heard on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) South Today at lunchtime). If you look on the video, the cutterhead is just short of actually emerging from the face of the retaining wall. So I guess the wall broke up prematurely, perhaps because Florence braked too late.

So how do they get a video of the breakthrough event? Build a new wall quickly? Fake it using footage from their previous videos (they have lots)?

[stuving]

If that was the plan, no-one told Florence. Seen in a drone video having emerged by yesterday, minister or no minister.

HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) have now said Florence will break through today (heard on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) South Today at lunchtime). If you look on the video, the cutterhead is just short of actually emerging from the face of the retaining wall. So I guess the wall broke up prematurely, perhaps because Florence braked too late.

So how do they get a video of the breakthrough event? Build a new wall quickly? Fake it using footage from their previous videos (they have lots)?

From HS2's video of the event, it is clear that the blue TBM face you can see is not Florence (her face paint was scratched off long ago) but Muriel. The 'gap' ring around that where the cutters show through does, however, seem to have been there beforehand.

But this whole breakthrough thing is very stage managed, and appears to have been entirely minister-free.

[broadgage]

That overhead power-carrying pylon is a tad close for comfort. Imagine the power cuts if that had been on top of one of the sinkholes

I doubt that any power cuts would have resulted. ALL major grid lines are duplicated, with at least one alternative route available in case of fault or failure.
All but the smallest villages have at least two different routes by which power may be supplied.