Do we still need HS2?

[Ianno87]

Yes, true, though you've also got to find a way not to only charge a tenner to someone who will pay £100.

That is presumably where, on some trains, you would require booking at least X days in advance to get a fare below a certain threshold.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That is presumably where, on some trains, you would require booking at least X days in advance to get a fare below a certain threshold.

But then that leaves the market that LNR and Chiltern presently exist in untapped, i.e. people who travel at short notice but are willing to accept a slower journey for a lower fare. LNR do Advances, yes (do Chiltern?) and they're pocket-money, but most people use the walk-ups.

I do however think you won't need both Chiltern and LNR in that market, and the south WCML has the capacity to provide it and Chiltern doesn't without harming what it's supposed to be doing (being a suburban and outersuburban operation). So I think adding HS2 basically cuts Chiltern loose from that role.

 

[Starmill]

There are indeed lots of Chiltern Advance tickets. Bicester North to London or Birmingham to Banbury for example have them. There are still a few intermediate journeys where you can't get an LNR Advance too, such as Watford Junction to Rugby (which is an amusing example because you can get an Avanti one).

 

[squizzler]

In the post Covid landscape I am not convinced of the need for another thread to debate the necessity of HS2. With the actual railway under construction and the need for speculating alternatives now reduced, I think capacity for more HS2 wibble can be provided without having to break new ground:

• Lengthening existing threads. I am not convinced that the capacity on our existing HS2 speculation threads have been maxed out, and the same threads with more pages can be accommodated with platform lengthening. In off-peak times, some of our other 'do we need HS2' threads are not even that busy. Some sort of 'smart signalling' system could be used so that posts are efficiently slotted amongst existing discussion on HS2 speculating threads.
• Reopening closed threads that already exist on the forum. There have been lots of threads on the need for HS2 that have been shut down and their alignments can be used for new HS2 speculation.

This should prove sufficient to cope with any realistic expansion of HS2 wibble. Of course if the need to discuss the need for HS2 remains or increases despite progress on the real life railway, it might be necessary to revisit this and open a new thread that serves HS2 speculation for the next hundred or so years.

 

[Bald Rick]

In the post Covid landscape I am not convinced of the need for another thread to debate the necessity of HS2. With the actual railway under construction and the need for speculating alternatives now reduced, I think capacity for more HS2 wibble can be provided without having to break new ground:

• Lengthening existing threads. I am not convinced that the capacity on our existing HS2 speculation threads have been maxed out, and the same threads with more pages can be accommodated with platform lengthening. In off-peak times, some of our other 'do we need HS2' threads are not even that busy. Some sort of 'smart signalling' system could be used so that posts are efficiently slotted amongst existing discussion on HS2 speculating threads.
• Reopening closed threads that already exist on the forum. There have been lots of threads on the need for HS2 that have been shut down and their alignments can be used for new HS2 speculation.

This should prove sufficient to cope with any realistic expansion of HS2 wibble. Of course if the need to discuss the need for HS2 remains or increases despite progress on the real life railway, it might be necessary to revisit this and open a new thread that serves HS2 speculation for the next hundred or so years.

Very good

May I also add that we could have “Smart Threading”, where we use the existing threads, but through some wonder of technology (that doesn’t actually exist) have more discussion in the same thread but used more intensively.

 

[NSEFAN]

In the post Covid landscape I am not convinced of the need for another thread to debate the necessity of HS2. With the actual railway under construction and the need for speculating alternatives now reduced, I think capacity for more HS2 wibble can be provided without having to break new ground:

• Lengthening existing threads. I am not convinced that the capacity on our existing HS2 speculation threads have been maxed out, and the same threads with more pages can be accommodated with platform lengthening. In off-peak times, some of our other 'do we need HS2' threads are not even that busy. Some sort of 'smart signalling' system could be used so that posts are efficiently slotted amongst existing discussion on HS2 speculating threads.
• Reopening closed threads that already exist on the forum. There have been lots of threads on the need for HS2 that have been shut down and their alignments can be used for new HS2 speculation.

This should prove sufficient to cope with any realistic expansion of HS2 wibble. Of course if the need to discuss the need for HS2 remains or increases despite progress on the real life railway, it might be necessary to revisit this and open a new thread that serves HS2 speculation for the next hundred or so years.

I disagree. Post-COVID there will be more people working from home, hence there will be a greater demand for long-distance, non-stop wibble. Having a dedicated thread for HS2 will allow ranting to bypass the local wibble, about issues such as East-West Rail and COVID Passports. Okay, longer threads and re-opening old threads will work for a while, but what about in 100 years time when we are STILL complaining about the issue?

 

[Ianno87]

I disagree. Post-COVID there will be more people working from home, hence there will be a greater demand for long-distance, non-stop wibble. Having a dedicated thread for HS2 will allow ranting to bypass the local wibble, about issues such as East-West Rail and COVID Passports. Okay, longer threads and re-opening old threads will work for a while, but what about in 100 years time when we are STILL complaining about the issue?

But the key question is how much will those HS2 threads cost to access? They'll just be for rich businessmen to access the latest posts 20 minutes sooner than everybody else, surely?

 

[21C101]

We need a way for posts to skip stop between threads effectively as the discussion veers between the speculative and known.