Rishi Sunak finally axes HS2 in the north

Yes but not relevant to current rail strikes.

I was driving as fast as could down the Holloway Road trying to get to London City Airport to catch a flight to Manchester only to find the last one left years ago.....

I think your space ship left you on the dock years ago, 

When I first got out of the army I drove a truck for a few months, it was an easy job to fall into. I did night trunking and a regular route was down to Park Royal. I usually got there between 1am and 2am and was away back up the A40/M40 by 4am latest. But occasionally there were problems and if I couldn't get away before 6am I was stuffed. The morning rush hour started early and the sudden traffic build up meant it took twice as long to get to the M40 which by that time was already very busy, by the time I got up to the Birmingham box traffic would be crawling along at 10mph and the traffic manager would be on the phone asking where the fuck I was, I'd shouting down the phone, stuck in fuckin traffic because your office clerks fucked up the paper work. I quickly learned it was always the drivers fault and one particular stroppy clerk didn't appreciate me banging his head off his desk and holding it there as I hissed into his ear what I'd do to him if he ever spoke to me like that again. He never did speak to me again, largely because I got sacked, meh no biggie. 

Variable speed limits may well come one day when technology allows. Too hard now though. Actually though quite a lot of accidents happen on the early hours. Booze pedestrians and cars not a good mix.

starner flip-flops on HS2 again as he refuses to commit to reversing Rishi Sunak's decision and build train line's northern leg if he becomes PM.


Kneeler flip flop today refused to commit to reversing Rishi Sunak's decision to axe HS2 if he replaces him in Downing Street.

The Prime Minister has massively downgraded the rail project by scrapping its northern leg between Birmingham and Manchester.

Mr Sunak has faced a fierce backlash for junking the key part of the train line, but Sir Keir did not confirm whether he would restore the northern leg if Labour wins power.

It appeared to mark yet another U-turn for the Labour leader on HS2.

Prior to taking charge of his party, Sir Keir opposed the rail project in the House of Commons and called for it to be abandoned altogether.

But Labour's national policy forum blueprint for potential policies to put to voters at the next general election committed to building HS2 'in full'.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12598999/Keir-Starmer-flip-flops-HS2-refuses-commit-reversing-Rishi-Sunaks-decision-build-train-lines-northern-leg-PM.html

Does the UK really need TGV and ICE type trains?

Britain is a small island with only just over 600 miles as the crow flies, and 850 miles by road, between Land's End and John O' Groats.

Wouldn't it be better to run more, more comfortable trains, more frequently, to more places on existing and re-opened routes at say a max of 150mph rather than the proposed 225mph of HS2...?

The problem is that there is not enough room on the main lines to put more trains on them.  The whole point of HS2 was to remove the Intercity Express Trains from the WCML, the MML & the ECML and put them on a separate line.  Then they could do what you suggest.  Now if this is the end of HS2 north and east of Birmingham then if the reopen more lines connecting to the WCML north of Birmingham, the MML & the ECML then it will lead to more crowded trains on those lines.  Also when the East West Line between Oxford & Cambridge completed they will not be able to put more freight trains on the WCML north of Birmingham, the MML & the ECML (which was part of the plan) as there will not be enough space.

However I do agree that some mistakes have been made:-

1: The track is/was being build to take trains up to 400kph (248mph) which was too fast.  If it had been build to TGV standards of 300kph (187mph) that would have been fine and much cheaper to build (apparently it would not have made much difference to the cost to go much slower (150mph).

2: I did read in the Rail Magazine some time back that the companies building the main infrastructure for HS2 (Embankments, Viaducts & Bridges etc) were told by the government that they had to guarantee the work for 100 years.  However as the companies might not exist for that length of time they had to take out insurance policies.  As I assume that the companies would have passed the cost of those insurance policies to the government I wonder how much that added to the cost.

3: If what I said in the last comment is true I assume that the insurance companies would have wanted to make sure that they did not have to pay out.  So I assume that the insurance companies would I made the policies conditional on the companies building the line to the highest possible standard.  That would also have increased the costs.

4: Finally listening to all those nimby's and making so many expensive changes to the design of the line.

If everything that I said is correct then it is the government that has made the line to expensive not the developers.