HS2

[Chippy_Tea]

I have moaned about HS2 many times on the forum and today we read this

The UK's HS2 Project is set to cost £100 Billion; over four times its original budget adjusted for inflation. So how did this happen? We speak to Gareth Dennis, a rail engineer, writer and expert on the issue, to find out why HS2 has been so expensive

that money could have been used to help those in need not to get a small percentage of the population from one place to another a little faster.


The HS2 rail line has been given an "unachievable" rating by an official watchdog.
It has been given a "red" warning for its first two phases - from London to Birmingham then onto Crewe - by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
The project aims to create high-speed rail links between London and central and northern England, but has faced major delays and criticism.
The government says it remains committed to delivering HS2.
The red rating came in the IPA's annual report on major projects, which was published on 20 July and gave a snapshot of progress on 244 projects.
The IPA describes itself as the government's centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects, and reports to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.
Under the IPA's grading system, a red rating implies: "Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable."
The rating also means there are "major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable".
"The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed."
The phase of the project running from Crewe to Manchester was given an "amber" grading by the IPA, under which successful delivery of a project "appears feasible", but "significant issues already exist".
The London to Birmingham leg of HS2 was due to open in 2026, but is now expected between 2029 and 2033.
An eastern leg of the line running to Leeds has been scrapped, and instead a shorter high-speed line will link Birmingham and East Midlands Parkway.
The BBC understands that the IPA's assessment of the HS2 project does not take into account the government's decision in March to delay the Birmingham to Crewe leg by two years to cut costs.
An HS2 spokesperson said construction on the line was now hitting a "peak", with "work intensifying and huge civil engineering structures taking shape along Phase One of the route".
The spokesperson added the priority was to ensure that the initial high-speed services - connecting Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham

Management issues and unrealistic land valuations have caused costs to spiral.
A budget of £55.7bn for the whole project was set in 2015, but the target cost excluding the eastern leg of Phase 2b from the West Midlands to the East Midlands has soared to between £53bn and £61bn at 2019 prices.
Earlier this month, HS2 Ltd's chief executive Mark Thurston announced his resignation - he will leave his role in September after six and a half years.
His resignation came as phase one of the project between London and Birmingham is under construction, with major work taking place at more than 350 sites.
In March, Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced work at London Euston would be paused for two years after costs increased from £2.6bn to £4.8bn.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said: "We remain committed to delivering HS2 in the most cost-effective way for taxpayers.
"HS2 will bring transformational benefits for generations to come, improving connections and helping grow the economy."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66352286

 

[Chippy_Tea]

In July the government said it remains committed to delivering HS2 and today we read this -



The government has refused to guarantee the future of the HS2 rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.
A Downing Street spokesperson instead suggested that ministers would need to balance the interests of "passengers and taxpayers".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt met on Wednesday and discussed the HS2 project.
Their primary concerns are said to be over spiralling costs and delays to the project.
"Spades are already in the ground on our HS2 programme and we're focused on delivering it," the prime minister's official spokesman said.
Asked whether Mr Sunak was committed to the line going to Manchester, the spokesman did not confirm whether it would, saying: "We are committed to HS2, to the project."
However, No 10 did confirm that ministers were looking at "rephasing" the project, hinting at a possible delay.
Speculation over the scheme's future resurfaced this week after The Independent carried a photograph of a document with details of a "savings table" of the costs of each part of the scheme north of Birmingham.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said: "Why should it be the North of England that pays the price?
"What we are going to end up with here is in the southern half of the country, a modern, high-speed rail network, and the northern half of the country left with crumbling Victorian infrastructure. That won't level us up, it will do the exact opposite."
HS2 has been somewhat symbolic for the government's levelling-up agenda and has been seen in recent years as an important way to help bridge economic regional disparities.
In March, Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced that work on a new station at London Euston would be pushed back by two years because of rising costs.
At the same time, the government said the section between Birmingham and Crewe would be delayed by two years, to spread out spending.
Costs around HS2 have increased significantly and are now well above its original budget of £33bn, which was set a decade ago when work on the line began.
It was originally planned for HS2 to run between London and Birmingham before splitting into two sections to Manchester and Leeds.
But two years ago, plans for the eastern leg from Birmingham to Leeds were cut back, so the new line would stop at the East Midlands.
A spokesperson for the High Speed Rail Group said scrapping phase two would be a "disaster" for the North of England and the Midlands and the "ultimate U-turn".
He added: "The government needs to kill the speculation and make its intentions clear, and it ought to commit clearly and unambiguously to delivering the project as planned.
"The 30,000 people delivering HS2 deserve this. Our future generations deserve this. The North and Midlands deserve this."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66813734

 

[AlBrew]

I'm here!

(teleported from the ev thread)

 

[AlBrew]

Totally agree Chippy, sound like a huge waste of everyone's money.

How will this help to 'level up' the country?

Rising tides may raise all ships but not everyone owns a boat.

I can see it even starving the non-connected areas of opportunity.

It's like Concord; in current circumstances, I'll never travel on it, and nobody I know locally ever will either. It'll be nice to look at on the news if/when it opens I guess, at least Concord probably flew over your town once when you were a kid and made a huge noise.

Give me £100bn and I bet you I could make more of an economic difference than HS2 ever would,..... go on then.... give me it..................... please?

 

[jof]

They should have started building from the north down to the south.
So now as it gets canned for being a waste of cash, at least those up north got a few miles of new track and some shiny trains.

 

[AlBrew]

They should have started building from the north down to the south.
So now as it gets canned for being a waste of cash, at least those up north got a few miles of new track and some shiny trains.

I could get to Middlesbrough in 10mins! After a 10min journey to Newcastle and an optimistic 10min wait for the train.

 

[chthon]

HS2, not H2S. But seeing the opinions on this, it might as well have been :-p

 

[Chippy_Tea]

HS2, not H2S. But seeing the opinions on this, it might as well have been :-p

Or for us NOHS2

 

[hoppyscotty]

Totally agree Chippy, sound like a huge waste of everyone's money.

How will this help to 'level up' the country?

Rising tides may raise all ships but not everyone owns a boat.

I can see it even starving the non-connected areas of opportunity.

It's like Concord; in current circumstances, I'll never travel on it, and nobody I know locally ever will either. It'll be nice to look at on the news if/when it opens I guess, at least Concord probably flew over your town once when you were a kid and made a huge noise.

Give me £100bn and I bet you I could make more of an economic difference than HS2 ever would,..... go on then.... give me it..................... please?

Well no infrastructure projects come in cheap but they always end up delivering benefits...Most people who experience it praise continental high speed intercity rail services...we hold it up as an example of how Europe does these things 'properly'....so why is it the UK should be denied a modern 21st century infrastructure?

Getting around the UK is crap...by rail or car....we used to have a reasonable air links between main cities in the UK but they have slipped by the wayside so hard to fly between main UK cities so you're stuck with an old and tired road network that has been under developed and underfunded for decades and is no longer fit for purpose as the world and our lives has continued to progress, and we're trying to play catchup on centruries of underfunding and under invenstmentin the rail network.

Sure the existing network also needs upgrading and that is happening...and costing a fortune too, but will always be limited in its capacity and efficiency as its essentially victorian infrastructure..sure we can improve with with modern trains and tech, but ultimately its just putting lipstick on a pig and can never fulfil the future needs of the nation especially if more people do start ditching cars and jumping on trains....whci will never happen and will take an extraordinary feet of governmental totalitarianism of such an extent that even the Chinese government would shirk.

We are crap at any infrastructure projects..politicitians cant hemp meddling...they ruin everything, unless its something happening in London, so HS2 is no different...its just been politicised and weaponised which is why so many people pretend to care about it.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Getting around the UK is ****...by rail or car....we used to have a reasonable air links between main cities in the UK

Its a shame they couldn't have turned it around instead of closing all the lines i guess that's the price we paid for wanting our own private means of transport. (Cars)

The Beeching cuts?​

 

[Clint]

Just a load of bluster and flannel from the start.
I'd like to know how many "directors" and "jobs for the boys" were created on the back of this?

 

[Rodcx500z]

Just a load of bluster and flannel from the start.
I'd like to know how many "directors" and "jobs for the boys" were created on the back of this?

You will never know they lost all the whats app messages