It's not just as simple as that. If either the Eastern leg or the Western leg were to be cancelled, what would you pick? That is after all one of the reasons I made the thread, as a possible way to save the Eastern leg.
Given that phase 2a (which is west only) is now fully authorised and physical work on site can legally start, and that the government has said it will soon introduce the bill for the western side of phase 2b, and that design is apparently not sufficiently advanced for a bill to be introduced any time soon for any part of the eastern arm, I think we can conclude that the western arm has won.
I’d pick the western leg to be built, if only one can be built.
This
Not so sure. The countries broke. Brexit is going to damage the country for many years to come. People aren't getting payrises yet taxes and cost of living are shooting up. People aren't going to tolerate a project that to your man on the street isn't seen as needed and isn't popular. Frankly the whole thing needs scrapping but I imagine its too late to bin the first bit.
We have done this one a hundred times before, but considering we are still using 175 year old infrastructure, why do people only look at the next 5-10 years when it comes to HS2?
The country is not 'broke'. That is a soundbite created by the right wing to make people think we need to stop spending money on public services and infrastructure. That isnt how government finances work and investing now to create an asset to last several centuries will benefit the country in spades. You invest capital in to infrastructure to increase econonic output and thus increasing tax reciepts to spend on day to day sercixes like education and the health service.
Exactly. I happen to have set off on my journey to london today about an hour ago. On HS2 I'd be arriving in Euston about now. Instead my train is in the counreyside somewhere north of birmingham.
Actually it is about imoroving times from Manc to Brum too. The train does not compete very well with the car on that journey and reducing journey times from 90 mins to 40 mins will be a huge bonus, bringing two city regions of 3 million much closer together.
Did you just call a remainer right wing? I've seen it all now.
You underestimate how slow it is to get into and out of cities. The 200+ speed is to compensate for that and keep average speeds high.
Which currently takes 96 minutes on average, with an average speed of 56mph which has little scope of being increased. If you can get a higher speed out of HS2 for a reasonable outlay because the trace allows it, why wouldn't you? An hours reduction is a game changer.
No, I said the soundbite has been created by the right wing to convince people that we should be reducing government spending, when that fails to work. Remainers can also be right wing, just look at all those tories who were purged by Johnson.
I am most definitely not right wing.
OK, seeing as we are looking to the long term future why the assumption that places like Birmingham and Manchester will continue to grow at such a fast rate?
Such a link is believed to be part of NPR. The latest alterations to HS2 phase 2b include stubs for a junction near Piccadlly.
Yes, it should be shelved north of Crewe.
Is the line to Wigan really the mainline? On the WCML that might be true, but this isnt the WCML here. Its a high speed line between London, Manchester and Birmingham. I'd say Wigan is the branchline back to the WCML.
I don't know the design speeds or radii at the junction but the line towards Wigan is straight or nearly so, while the line towards Manchester is a relatively tight curve through about 90 degrees.
