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Government to order review of costly project no-one wants.....

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    #21
    Originally posted by BlasterBates View Post
    Essentially it's the Brexiteers who want to torpedo HS2. They'd rather see the UK as a backward third world country with a rubbish infrastructure and crowded trains they can blame on immigration.
    Is it now, how inneresting.
    Old Greg - In search of acceptance since Mar 2007. Hoping each leap will be his last.

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      #22
      HS2 is more likely to pull people and businesses out of london and into Birmingham and the wider midlands

      not sure how many of you have seen the building work going on in Brum at the minute but there are high rises popping up all over the city centre,

      predication is a population increase of 300k by 2030 with 45% of those to be under 30, massive investment is being ploughed in

      if you look at who's funding many of the new housing projects, a lot of it is london investment firms

      HS2 is a vital cog in that plan i doubt their scrap it, the bham leg anyway

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        #23
        HS2 is bonkers. If they're so incompetent they can't even estimate the costs to the nearest £20 billion then they'll probably deliver something that is not fit for purpose and needs additional 'improvements' once finished.

        On face value it feels like a project supported by those that are looking to trough a few billion here and there so it needs to be sufficiently ambitious and costly to allow that to happen. If so then why is Boris now looking at it when he will no doubt have the same old boys network as Cameron and those before whispering in his ear? Maybe to find a way to fund all the other projects he wants to propose as a way of winning any upcoming General Election.

        Personally, I would prefer they spend a fraction of the money on improving the whole rail network, re-opening lines where it makes sense. They need to do this anyway if they want to hit any ambitious CO2 targets by reducing the reliance on cars to get between towns and cities.

        An anecdote of how ridiculous the current state of the railway system is: My parents live in Cornwall in a village with a station that allows easy access to Newquay or Plymouth and beyond (and all the local places in between), but the local trains barely operate during the tourist season as they run the intercity trains through instead. So there is a station that can't be used for several months each year so they have to drive instead.

        Then there is the yearly debacle of the Dawlish line being affected by waves or cliff erosion, cutting off trains to Cornwall from Exeter and beyond. They'll spend loads trying to improve it when there is already a decent proposal to re-open the line via Okehampton.

        That is the sort of capacity issue they are attempting to solve with HS2 that applies to a lot of other areas of the country.
        Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

        Comment


          #24
          Originally posted by filthy1980 View Post
          predication is a population increase of 300k by 2030 with 45% of those to be under 30, massive investment is being ploughed in
          That is likely from birth rates of the locals. Not sure it's people looking to move there for any business reason. Why did the beeb relocate to Manchester instead of Birmingham?

          I have relatives that live near brum and they take offence whenever I wind them up about how is Birmingham these days. "We don't live in Birmingham!". Are they snobby or realistic?

          i.e. Why improve the links to a 'tuliphole'?

          My only personal experience of the place is a visit to Edgbaston for the cricket. Are my views out of touch and I've been brainwashed by all the negative brum posts relating to the ongoing adventures of AtW?
          Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

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            #25
            Originally posted by Halo Jones View Post
            You say no one wants it - construction companies are happy for it
            Not only! I (and about 20 other chaps) got about 15m of contract at a juicy rate paid for my the HS2 doing Datacenter migrations as the current DC was scheduled for demolition to make way for HS2.

            That's probably the only project I have ever seen fully completed on schedule. No there wasn't an option to keep this potentially critical server that no one knew anything about online for just another month or two.

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              #26
              Originally posted by BlasterBates View Post
              Essentially it's the Brexiteers who want to torpedo HS2. They'd rather see the UK as a backward third world country with a rubbish infrastructure and crowded trains they can blame on immigration.
              Originally posted by filthy1980 View Post

              not sure how many of you have seen the building work going on in Brum at the minute but there are high rises popping up all over the city centre,

              predication is a population increase of 300k by 2030 with 45% of those to be under 30, massive investment is being ploughed in
              That'll be the immigrants then

              Comment


                #27
                Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post
                Well yes, it is a colossally expensive EU vanity project.

                But also it will actually increase the north-south divide by making it easier for people in the Midlands and even further North to commute to London.

                As someone said, it is another 1820s solution to a 1780s problem.
                It's necessary to take the pressure of the rest of the rail network.

                The money will have to be spent and when someone gets around to how best to do it, they'll end up with the same conclusion. Japan's rail network is the best in the world. One of the reasons is the dedicated intercity network and the bullet trains.

                Britain has an outdated network where local and intercity trains share the same tracks, and those tracks are where the bulk of the local travel is.
                I'm alright Jack

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                  #28
                  Oh, look, those stupid Victorians already thought of it:

                  Great Central Railway - Wikipedia

                  Until it got Beechinged along with umpteen thousand other miles of railways.
                  When the fun stops, STOP.

                  Comment


                    #29
                    Originally posted by Benny View Post
                    That'll be the immigrants then
                    Increase in population is largely due to older people, who don't travel much. Immigrants fill the hole. The working population is relatively stable.

                    Immigration will continue to keep the economy afloat, regardless of a points based immigration system. So you'll need to get used to it.

                    I'm alright Jack

                    Comment


                      #30
                      the population predictions aren't necessarily from the growth of brummie natives

                      birmingham has the highest rate of new business creation outside of london, house price rises @ 7.5% as well

                      beeb probably moved to manchester as much of it is already developed, Brum still a work in progress

                      Commonwealth games in 2022 as well

                      not going to deny there are large parts are a tuplipehole, but you can't judge us all by the impression AtW leaves

                      Originally posted by Hobosapien View Post
                      That is likely from birth rates of the locals. Not sure it's people looking to move there for any business reason. Why did the beeb relocate to Manchester instead of Birmingham?

                      I have relatives that live near brum and they take offence whenever I wind them up about how is Birmingham these days. "We don't live in Birmingham!". Are they snobby or realistic?

                      i.e. Why improve the links to a 'tuliphole'?

                      My only personal experience of the place is a visit to Edgbaston for the cricket. Are my views out of touch and I've been brainwashed by all the negative brum posts relating to the ongoing adventures of AtW?

                      Comment

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