HS2.

Knoyleo wrote:lmao, what a strawberry floating waste of time and money.

It's been an unimaginable success in transferring money from public to private hands

The CEO of High Speed Two Ltd (because of course it's a company) is the highest earning senior official in government.

Victor Mildew wrote:

Vermilion wrote:I saw today that Indonesia has built a high speed line at a fraction of the cost, maybe their team should have been hired for HS2?

Bloody Indonesians, coming over ere, finishing our rail projects on time and under budget!

Fyi it was built by China using the new Chinese high speed trains.

strawberry floating joke. Needs an inquiry into it.

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:

Vermilion wrote:I saw today that Indonesia has built a high speed line at a fraction of the cost, maybe their team should have been hired for HS2?

Bloody Indonesians, coming over ere, finishing our rail projects on time and under budget!

Fyi it was built by China using the new Chinese high speed trains.

Bloody Chinese, coming over ere, finishing our rail projects on time and under budget!

At least special London, the most important place in the whole wide world, gets to keep it's own special bit of special track so the special people of London can go to their 5th properties on the weekend.

Sky News were saying that HS2 at Birmingham would merge with the WCML heading to Manchester so it isn't any faster and doesn’t add any extra capacity.

Maybe the finances of doing this allow Crossrail 2 in London to get the go ahead to further entrench a North South divide....or more likely the Tories transfer the capital expenditure budget into a populist tax cut (inheritance tax abolishment costs 8 billion a year).

I'm sure Rishi will pitch up today with a new Northern rail plan that he scrawled on the back of envelope last night and then it'll be kicked into the long grass because a PM with the life expectancy of a mayfly isn't going to be able to commit to any infrastructure plans.

High Speed 2 A Point

They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

Rex Kramer wrote:I'm sure Rishi will pitch up today with a new Northern rail plan that he scrawled on the back of envelope last night and then it'll be kicked into the long grass because a PM with the life expectancy of a mayfly isn't going to be able to commit to any infrastructure plans.

Extra confusing for Rishi as he'd actually fit in that train.

rinks wrote:They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

The British version of this?

Grumpy David wrote:Maybe the finances of doing this allow Crossrail 2 in London to get the go ahead to further entrench a North South divide

I wouldn't say there is much of a north/south divide, in that the infrastructure deteriorates the further you get from London in any direction, not just north.

One of the main rail lines to south west england is single track along much of the route.

This whole fiasco demonstrates once again though that this country is incapable of building new transport infrastructure of any kind (to be fair, HS2 was lucky to get the birmingham stretch, as most transport schemes end up being scrapped without even getting underway. Ten years ago the govt promised special expressway dual carriageway roads, all this region has gotten is a puny one 3 mile dualling scheme which itself was lucky to get underway approx 8 years after the announcement).

Moggy wrote:

rinks wrote:They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

The British version of this?

Is that the one that is covered in mirrors to reflect the desert heat? Not quite that scale. Just a line of appropriate cottages.

rinks wrote:

Moggy wrote:

rinks wrote:They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

The British version of this?

Is that the one that is covered in mirrors to reflect the desert heat? Not quite that scale. Just a line of appropriate cottages.

"Hello I have a delivery for 110 High Street 2."

"Oh sorry love this is 1110 High Street 2, you need to got about 40 miles that way."

Cuttooth wrote:

rinks wrote:

Moggy wrote:

rinks wrote:They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

The British version of this?

Is that the one that is covered in mirrors to reflect the desert heat? Not quite that scale. Just a line of appropriate cottages.

"Hello I have a delivery for 110 High Street 2."

"Oh sorry love this is 1110 High Street 2, you need to got about 40 miles that way."

They can install an underground hyperloop for parcel deliveries.

rinks wrote:

Cuttooth wrote:

rinks wrote:

Moggy wrote:

rinks wrote:They should use a lot of the land that has already been set aside/purchased for the route. Sell it with an unavoidable requirement that it has to be used for affordable house building within the next five years.

(Not ALL the land for the route, obviously. Though I do like the idea of a single row of houses running all the way from Birmingham to Manchester.)

The British version of this?

Is that the one that is covered in mirrors to reflect the desert heat? Not quite that scale. Just a line of appropriate cottages.

"Hello I have a delivery for 110 High Street 2."

"Oh sorry love this is 1110 High Street 2, you need to got about 40 miles that way."

They can install an underground hyperloop for parcel deliveries.

*POLITE NOTICE*

Please can residents NOT request food delivery through the hyperloop! Food items and ESPECIALLY drinks can become dislodged and SPILL in the loop creating MESS and BLOCKAGES. So far this year the loop has already been closed for a total of 6 DAYS for repairs and unblocking, not to mention the countless SOILED LETTERS and PARCELS!

Thank you!

Now cancel the rest of it.

rinks wrote:Now cancel the rest of it.

They can't cancel the first bit as quite a lot has already been built.

rinks wrote:Now cancel the rest of it.

Construction is well underway on the first part so that will have to continue until it is finished.

No. They could stop. They won’t, but they could.

At least downgrade what hasn’t been built yet to a regular-speed line. Then it doesn't need to go as straight, and the most expensive bits are removed.

twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1709544532935598264

twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1709553251522130412

Selling acquired land immediately will make it a nightmare for Labour if they decide to commit to building HS2 up to Manchester.