Recent content by Sussex Star

The only bits left that are potentially cancelable are Euston and Handsacre. And given the Euston tunnels are being dug now, it's not worth cancelling the rest of it. Same goes for Handsacre once the core is up and running. What is conceivable is that it could be not far off 2050 before all...

Very interesting thanks. With those sorts of numbers I can see why they decided to press in, albeit it seems with a lower annual spend which pushes the project into the 2040s and frees up funds for other priorities.

Thanks

Genuine question: how, as the minister claims, can it cost as much to cancel the project as to spend another 10 years and billions of pounds finishing it? Is it because we'd have to spend years and billions dismantling and filling in stuff already built to make it safe?

Which decision makers are you referring to? To my mind the three most important are Reeves, Haigh, and Hendy - in that order. I've not seen anything so certain from them.

I wonder if there's any chance they will restore the journey times up to London that we had before the Gatwick Airport Station works. When the Gatwick improvements began, they added 4 minutes of padding to the journey time, claiming this was for during the works only. But now, even though all...

So what happens to Curzon St? Is the whole station is needed if there's no HS track north of Birmingham. Can it be curtailed, or is it too far gone? Or would they still switch Birmingham-Manchester trains to Curzon St anyway? The recent drone video shows work is well underway.

What is the cost of building the Handsacre junction to connect phase 1 to the existing WCML just north of Brum? If the government scraps everything north of Birmingham, will there really be significant savings* curtailing the project to a Birmingham-OOC shuttle, compared with retaining the...

Yes, 12 trains per hour would start empty from OOC.

Well that's a bit of a blow. They certainly didn't say that when they added the minutes!

Very disappointed to see that all the timetable padding that was put on the Arun Valley->London route (and possibly others) due to the Gatwick Airport works is still in place. Journeys up to London are still taking 5 minutes longer than before the airport works, even though they're almost...

So the way I read it the plan is now: By 2033: Just 3 tph Birmingham-OOC By 2035/6: rising to 6 tph by adding a service each via Crewe from Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, still terminating at OOC. With or without Handsacre link. By ?: 10 tph full west coast service when Euston opens. By...

Many thanks all for replies. Yes, it would be on a weekend jouney, so not peak time. Interesting that you say that using the return invalids the outward portion. But If I chose to come back to London on the outward portion in the evening, how would anyone know I'd already used the return...

A super-off peak day return from Chichester to Victoria costs £11.80 at the weekend with a network card. However the cheapest single from Victoria to Chichester is £19.15 with a railcard. Is there any ticketing rule that prevents me from buying the cheaper return online but only using the...