Playing with trains/ HS2 & 3

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was impressed by the Transport Secretary's speech today, but squirmed every time she said "haitch ess 2".

[MrGongGong]

The Victorians used underwater rack and pinion drive systems that enabled barges to follow a single track through the water !

did they ?
I thought they used horses

[Nick Armstrong]

Who wants to go to Birmingham?
What a South-East-centric remark!

The original poster seems to overlook the fact that HS2 gives the inestimable benefit of being able to leave Birmingham at equally high speed

[Serial_Apologist]

I was impressed by the Transport Secretary's speech today, but squirmed every time she said "haitch ess 2".

Not as much as I squirmed this afternoon hearing the Katie Derham, presenting Afternoon on 3, refer to "Boulaye". Patti, I wondered??

[ahinton]

Not as much as I squirmed this afternoon hearing the Katie Derham, presenting Afternoon on 3, refer to "Boulaye". Patti, I wondered??

I'd not even have credited her with such a gaffe had you not mentioned it! You don't suppose it might have been anything so "subtle" as a deliberate wind-up, do you?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

From a quick Google it seems that about 3% of the UK's transported goods were carried on internal waterways including river estuaries in 2007, so I would guess that canal traffic is light and could accommodate far more.
I think it extremely unlikely that new canals would be built but I suppose my point was that new internal waterways might be feasible and more acceptable than other transport infrastructure developments, but one never sees them mentioned.

There was a brilliant plan some years ago to construct a broad canal linking most population centres, but without any locks. It couldn't quite reach London in view of its low altitude.

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a brilliant plan some years ago to construct a broad canal linking most population centres, but without any locks. It couldn't quite reach London in view of its low altitude.

Well, most of Birmingham is more than 100 metres above sea level. I suppose one of the problems would be all the higher bits in between!

[ahinton]

Let's face it, the notion of using canals as a viable means of passenger or freight transportation is pretty absurd! Britain's pironeering early history of railway building has long since dwindled to a position far from the forefront and even the much-vaunted HS2 is hardly "high speed" in today's terms; what's so spectacular about a 400kph facility in 2020 when China already has a train capable of 500kph and a French TGV on test reached a whisker below 575kph almost five years ago? (narrowly beating even the world-class Arriva Trens Cymru's "service" from south Wales via Herefordistan to who knows or cares where).

I'm not against HS2 in principle but I do think that the heyday of British trains has long since passed and it'll never be possible for Britain to compete in that kind of business in future.

[John Wright]

I've always been against HS2, I just think this country is too small to need it.

Friend in London says for a trip to Birmingham she gets up at 7.00am, gets to Euston at 8.30 gets to New St between 10 and 10.30am, gets to the Brum office destination at 10.45 - 11.00am. So total 'journey' time is 4 hours

With HS2 the difference is she can lie in till 7.30am. Still arrive at office destination at 11.00am. So total jouney time is 3 hours 30mins.

So shaving 1/2 hour of a morning's travel.

So £32 billion for half hour lie in.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've always been against HS2, I just think this country is too small to need it.

Friend in London says for a trip to Birmingham she gets up at 7.00am, gets to Euston at 8.30 gets to New St between 10 and 10.30am, gets to the Brum office destination at 10.45 - 11.00am. So total 'journey' time is 4 hours

With HS2 the difference is she can lie in till 7.30am. Still arrive at office destination at 11.00am. So total jouney time is 3 hours 30mins.

So shaving 1/2 hour of a morning's travel.

So £32 billion for half hour lie in.

For London to Birmingham, it isn't really necessary, but for longer distances, such as Manchester to Lyon, we should have our own bit of the HS network. I would have preferred it if the project had started from Glasgow and moved slowly south. Then the people in the south would have been whinging that they wanted it, instead of the other way round.

[Flosshilde]

I would have preferred it if the project had started from Glasgow and moved slowly south. Then the people in the south would have been whinging that they wanted it, instead of the other way round.

[scottycelt]

When one considers the relatively short distance (by world standards) between the five largest cities in the UK (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow) it is quite astonishing that high-speed travel on the West Coast Line was not introduced decades ago.

To be perfectly honest, I'm still not sure all this will ever get off the ground, even now. Even if it does, it could be another APT or Old Channel Tunnel farce. Work starts and then well into the project its cancelled because unforeseen problems are encountered and/or there's no more money left because the government has bankrupted the nation.

I can see it all now ... and I'll be dead when it doesn't happen anyway.

[Dave2002]

I had a look at details of the TGV lines. Typically they are considerably longer (distance) than London-Birmingham, and the longest construction time to service was about 5 years, with some being significantly less.

Although I have reservations about the HS2 route, if they're going to build it at all, why can't we have it in service by 2018? The UK is pretty hopeless at this sort of thing.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

..there's no more money left because the government has bankrupted the nation.

No, that was the bankers.

[ahinton]

No, that was the bankers.

Really? I thought that the (Bliar/Brown) government started it and set an example for the bankers to follow, which they did, with gusto - and neither has stopped yet!