HS2: Could a lasting shift towards home-working make it obsolete? - BBC Newsnight
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2020
- As construction work on HS2 officially begins, are infrastructure projects like high speed rail the boost the economy needs or is it a relic from a pre-Covid era? Subscribe to our channel here: goo.gl/31Q53F
Construction work on HS2 officially began on September 4, with companies behind the controversial high-speed rail project expecting to create 22,000 jobs in the next few years.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said HS2 would "fire up economic growth and help to rebalance opportunity".
But has Covid-19 changed the equation? Now there may be a shift towards remote working after coronavirus, do we still need the extra capacity HS2 provides?
Business Editor Helen Thomas reports. Joining Kirsty Wark is Senior Vice President of the Institute of Civil Engineers Rachel Skinner, former Deputy Mayor of London Baroness Jenny Jones, who represents the Green Party in the House of Lords, and Adrian Quine from the Adam Smith Institute.
Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight
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Facebook: / bbcnewsnight
Finally. HS2 does wonders for commuters as it relived capacity for slower trains.
@orbitaldildo Oh yes they will as when finished at least 95% of long distance Commuters and tourists between Birmingham and London will use HS2 when complete and working from home finishes after Covid and the lazy so and so's have to go back to proper work.
@@peterwilliamallen1063 you can still work from home and do 'proper work' :)
@@Alex-lh9tz Sorry but firms are now making people come back to the Office, the reason for example Travel Agents and Banks, you go into the travel agent or Bank to do business, you are seen usually with in 10 mins and have sorted your problems out with in 15 mins, total time 25 mins, you phone your bank or travel agent and you are left hanging on the phone for 4 hours or more, how is that proper work working from home. The only jobs that are successful working from home is people like Gas Engineers and self employed Builders, not office workers.
@@peterwilliamallen1063 I hear you, however I work in an office and have worked absolutely fine from home for 19months!
@@Alex-lh9tz Oh I feel sorry for you that you may have to go back in the office, I wonder how many times working from home you have been tempted to go out for something that you could not of done while working in an office and the example I explained, the travel agent was TUI, trying to sort out a Holiday booked before the pandemic at a TUI Travel Shop, as it was booked this way you could not go on line and enquire about things, instead it took nearly 2 weeks of constant phoning and on the phone listening to silly music for 2 hours at a time and still not getting contact with them, so, so much for working from home, but this is about HS2 which is needed for the future, if we do or did not build it now, like we look back in History at the achievements of the Wright Brothers and Stephenson and the Rocket steam engine and the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, if they had not done this we would be still on horse and carts, so will our Great, Great, Great Grand Children despise us for not building HS2 and being stupid and selfish to their future needs, what we think of as environmentally friendly will impeded our future generations future, after all it is not humans destroying the planet as little Gretta thinks, the Earth is destroying itself with Vulcanic Eruptions and there were more trees chopped down in Tudor Times to build their Galleons than 12 HS2 lines put together, so HS2 is needed and when finished will be environmentally friendly, and I bet you will either in 12 months time be back in your office or made redundant.
In response to destroying the countryside. How wide do you think a two track railway line is. Maybe 25 metres including fencing and ballast either side of the track. You are cutting a 25m wide line through the countryside. In terms of total area that is very small area compared to what HS2 achieves.
Secondly. HS2 takes the fast trains off the other tracks and means slower commuter trains and freight trains can bunch up Closer together as the headway’s between trains don’t have to be so big. So by building HS2 you are actually getting 2 railway lines. HS2 itself and the spare capacity you have created on rest of the network. This allows the rest of the network to carry more trains and thereby increase passenger numbers which draws people away from their cars and into the trains. This also solves the issue of it being a London centric line. Even Aberystwyth (a long way away from London) will hugely benefit from HS2.
Let me explain: HS2 goes to Birmingham. The train to Aberystwyth travels through Birmingham. By removing the fast trains from London to Birmingham onto HS2 capacity around Birmingham is relived meaning more trains could go to Birmingham and they would be more frequently on time as they no longer get held up by fast trains that have priority.
So actually HS2 is hugely environmentally friendly. Directly environmentally friendly is debatable, but environmentally friendly in terms of the capacity it relieves definately
Should have been finished years ago, back when France and Japan were building their high speed lines. Our idiotic planning procedures beggar belief, there only to benefit lawyers
This is a fascinating topic I gotta say, in ww2 Italy would spend 2 years designing a new tank only to then say "This tank is now obsolete" and start designing a new one...they did this for years, right up till the end of the war
Is Hs2 our Italian tank?
Yes and I've shown calculations to prove it - see above.
@@chuckschumer7783 Why my friend Chuck is that all your life is about doing Calculations about things and never publicly show them, you must have a boring life as you and your calculations seem to know more than the official HS2 design team.
No, it isn't, especially considering it'll be the most advanced high speed line on the continent
What most people don't think about is that although advances in communications technology connect people more, they also separate people from each other more too. It blows my mind that COVID-19 is being used as an excuse to separate people even more by having them work from home. At least since the invention of the telegraph in the 1830's personal, face-to-face contact between people has been on a rapid decline. I would submit that the ONLY Real Social Contact is when 2 people are standing in front of each other and conversing. Any other type of "social contact" is merely a Representation Of Social Contact through a communications medium, and not Real Social Contact at all. That people so easily confuse Real Social Contact with Representations Of Social Contact through electronic means is troubling and is at the root of many sociological problems, at least here in America. Advances in communications technology is a major component of what Existentialists in the 1950's called "The alienation of modern man", alienation of people from each other. In America, this alienation has led to rampant crime and great social divisiveness of many stripes simply because it is much easier ro victimize people, whether by crime or even by business practices when one is emotionally isolated from them, from their humanity. The ONLY Reason why "working from home" is considered as the "new normal" is that it benefits Big Business, pandemic or no pandemic. It obviously saves Big Business Big Money to have people work from home because that means more expensive office space can be eliminated to some degree. Big Business only cares about making more money, even if it means isolating workers in their homes, devoid of the Real Social Contact that all human beings need for optimal mental health. ... jkulik919@gmail.com
People would have travelled alot less in the 1830s.
Working from home frees people from hours of daily travel and cuts travel. We need to stop travelling so far to work, that is the only way to cut emmisions
Commuting costs money!!
Expand HS2 to Glasgow to help keep the union strong.
Ace Garcia yes 👌👌👌
Aye & free Haggis & Iron Brew too
Scottish, Welsh independence and United Ireland. ....... Cymru am byth
Sagittarius A* nah fine thanks
Scotland will be better off away from this corporate mess
how quickly the story can change back and forth
Trains becoming increasingly obsolete isn't going to change. I've shown calculations to prove it - see above.
@@chuckschumer7783 smh 😂
Finally not everyone can work from home.
The railways our country currently rely on were built in about the 1860s. They could never imagine the number of people who use the railways (pre Covid) now. The future will be different than it is now. We cannot base a major infrastructure project that is going to last 100+ years on a virus that will only be around for maximum 4 years
Newsnight is a fantastic advertisement for the licence fee. Completely understand the desperation from Number 10 to get us back into cities just really struggle to see how you do it, people are happy WFH.
There is no going back now. People and companies now know people can work from home.
But once this pandemic ends they will be back working from offices and factories, NO working from home DOES not work, as the lazy buggers do not answer the phones when you call them, examples it took 6 weeks to get someone to answer the phone from TUI, 40 mins both British Gas and Curries PC World, the prime example was British Gas, I phoned them up to enquire about some spare parts, the phone rang for about 30 mins playing stupid music, then when I thought someone was about to answer the phone on their private number it went to their answer machine with a message stating at 10.00AM in the morning that they could not take the call and could I leave a Message. I rung off and rerung British Gas and seemed to get to the same phone but this time someone picked up their phone and answered it just as the answer phone was going to but in, so my friend NO WORKING FROM HOME DOES NOT WORK AS THE PEOPLE ON THE OTHER END ARE SKIVING AND NOT ANSWERING THEIR PHONES AS NO ONE IS CHECKING UP ON THEM DUE TO COVID, so the answer is yes we do need public transport and HS2 to be built.
It’s over and WFH continues
As an American, it makes more sense if you take care of the commoners that need to get to work. I know little about HS2, but we had a light rain here in Minnesota. They delivered long-distance, not seeming to care as much about the commuters.
The idea is that putting long distance trains on a special high-speed track, it will free up alot of space on the existing network for local trains.
Definitely the point about slower train capacity is interesting - of which I'm not sure that HS2 would ever be able to solve.
I commute into into Glasgow every day (although a city which isn't getting high speed rail) is a city in desperate need of investment to commuter rail capacity. Often you'll find that the majority of the journey time into Glasgow is not from the journey itself, but from the sitting outside central station for your train to get its spot on the platform. Even post-covid, the station is running far in advance of what it was designed to do. Investment there would make a huge difference.
There is a simple solution, one ready-made thanks to COVID. Work from home, it is sustainable, yes many people will still have to travel but far far less. It is cheaper for the government, saves the working-class time and money in commutes, and most importantly it will be environmentally friendly!
Like the trains weren’t environment friendly in the first place
Natenae well HS2 won’t be will it...
Oliver Read I’m pretty sure they are even doing environmental mitigation so idk what your on about it’s a fucking train track it’s thin as fuck it serve as a good alternative to flying idk how is it so bad for the environment.
@@oliverread1060 Cars are bad for the environment , So how does a train that runs on electricity pollute the planet. Also do you want to know how much it cost to run a car, Here the low down, Purchase/Depreciation per year^ £1,175
Petrol and Diesel £904
Car Insurance £470
Repairs and Servicing £279
Motor vehicle road tax £144
Parking fees, tolls and permits £48
Garage rent, car washing, etc. £35
Motoring organisation subscription (e.g., AA and RAC) £30
Driving lessons £13
Anti-freeze, battery water and cleaning materials £4
Motoring fines £4
Annual running costs for a car £3,107
www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-cost-run-car-uk
4:55 Oh ! a Lady Hale clone resplendent with spider !
HS2 will take high speed off existing rail freeing up so much capacity for commuter services.
@Bill Whittaker shut up Bill you wanker
But will there be any commuters?
What's your expertise in this? Reading about it somewhere doesn't count.
@Bill Whittaker why would u what an autonomous car when the trains are good?
@Bill Whittaker that's it's a bullshit figure u made up.
its privatised , let them pay not the state. the state needs to build homes, or tell people to have smaller families. basic problems such as housing and even food shortages we saw during covid is more issue to look at.
The root cause of the housing shortage is immigration, the native population are breeding at below replacement levels.
@@chuckschumer7783 yes every country has to take responsibly. but things on happen if theres money in it. and there isnt
The difference between "was" and "has been". The reporter uses "was job creation around cities" to show her leading of the audience. Surely it should be "has been job creation around cities" because we do not yet know what will happen, post-covid.
It's going to be a big waste of time. It is highly destructive to the environments it passes through and it's path is 100m wide! You can already get from Manchester to London in 2 hours. This is a comparatively small country and the future is local not long distance. The ridiculous amounts of money would absolutely be better spent elsewhere
I completely agree and I've shown calculations to prove it - see above.
Like where.
While people on here are right in that after plagues and pandemics in the past, normality did restore itself but technology has made this one different. Broadly speaking, most of my colleagues and other people I know who work from home are actually far happier than they ever were prior to Covid. They have more free time, don’t need to get up at stupidly early and they can see their families more. This last point was doing catastrophic social damage in this country and I’m glad that’s changing. Home working isn’t going away anytime soon.
Didn't USA think railways were dated in the 50's? Look at their railway system now?
I feel like this is our Google Stadia...
NO! It's not about commuter time!!!
What really irks me about this whole HS2 thing is that they keep saying it will benefit the North. It is not true. The French have seen an economic increase in Paris but not in the cities connected to Paris via high speed rail link. Also if it is to benefit the North why is it first being connected to London and not Manchester to Leeds / Birmingham? Why is it not more viable to just increase capacity on existing lines?
HS2 is first being built from Birmingham to London to free up the WCML, the line to Manchester and Leeds is still in the planning stage and will only be built once the Birmingham Section is completed, You don't get it lie everyone else, you cannot physically increase capacity on the existing rail network without causing years of cancellations, diversions, disruption and major rebuilding and widening of existing lines and their infrastructure which will cost just as much and still would not bring the benefits of a new HS2 railway line.
Personally I’m for the project but it’s clear the leadership group and Engineering Teams are not fit for purpose. The estimated cost increase and delayed end date demonstrates this.
unless there are plans to make this high speed rail cheap there is absolutely no point to it, just more leeching off a commuters salary, when its cheaper for business to cut down on office space needed, and its cheaper and safer for commuters to stay at home, the only businesses losing out are railways and rent holders -who arguably already overcharge and are in part responsible for the continued austerity happening pre-lockdown
That man has a bang on impression of Matt Smith
Shopping, gourmet tourism, couriours, people paid to work inside London and out on a tax basis. You imagine hoods travelling the lines and transport businesses set out around transport in and out of the capital, imagine the ideas coming from London to the rest of the country.
Most of the ideas in London come from people who now live there but are actually from other parts of the country. It's called the brain drain
People don't travel by train simply to go to work or for business reasons. What is wrong with reducing travel times for leisure travellers? More time with friends or family and less time wasted on the journey For 200 years since the invention of the steam locomotive and steamship we considered faster travel as part of progress. Air travel went backwards when we lost Concorde. Now we seem to be heading the same way with land travel. We must resist these reactionary nimbys who would have us back on stage coaches taking days for journeys rather than hours. Driving has become a nightmare with ever more crowded motorways and ridiculous speed limits. Taking the train is the only sensible and eco-friendly option, what is wrong with building new faster routes to replace and supplement our existing railways built in the mid 19th century. Germany is the best example to follow. The new high speed ICE routes have been built as short-cuts along routes that would have been impossible to build or operate 150 years ago. Oh, I forgot, that would mean using technology and following the example of another European country. Impossible to accept for the anti-HS2 idiots who are probably also reactionary Brexiteers. The irony is that the Victorians who they seek to emulate were very keen on embracing new ideas and progress. They built our existing railway network brushing opposition aside and getting the job done! Let us adopt some real Victorian values!
If the aim is now to increase rail capacity surely the much lower cost faster construction option is to reopen the Great Central linked to an upgraded Settle and Carlisle and reopened Waverley route as a third thru spine from London to Glasgow. The path of the Great Central from London (Quinton) to Nottingham is still as clear as when the track was first installed in 1900 other than a bit around Leicester and I expect the whole thing thru to Glasgow could be reopened for at least 160k running in five years
Sorry, Frederick Miles you are like many people who seem to no nothing about the Railways and the point of HS2,
1/ HS2 is being built primarily to improve Rail Travel firstly between Birmingham and London and then the North.
2/ The Great Central Railway ran no where near Birmingham or the West Midlands, so would not do the Job HS2 is being Designed to do.
3/ The Old Great Central Railway Route has been totally decimated between the North and London so would cost more than HS2 to rebuild and a lot longer to do.One problem is the Bridge over the West Coast Main Line at Rugby, it was demolished in the late 60's and no it is not as clear as when it was built, the only clear bit is around Loughborough where the Great Central Private Steam Railway Operates, between Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester North.
So basically reopening/ building a totally destroyed Victorian Designed Railway built in the 1900's, that was designed for a top speed of around 90 MPH, to totally rebuild everything for a 240 MPH high speed train that if this happened would not serve any areas of Population except Manchester and missing it's main objective of Birmingham, the UK's second Largest City after London with a population in its own right of 1.3 million people would make it a total failure, hence the reason of running it from Birmingham to London Initially and then up North to free up the busy WCML for other traffic, so your ideas are a total no no I am afraid.
It's not about faster travel, or even getting from A to B. It's about what lobbyists want, backhanders and real estate.
It's about none of that, it's about a capacity improvement for existing regional, local and commuter services
The could have spent the money transforming our existing lines to fit those double decker efficient trains they have in Europe and increase capacity that way. Not that I think capacity has anything to do with it in reality. They could stagger working start/finish times so the peak hours are spread out. As I said, it isn't about capacity at all
I completely agree and I've shown calculations to prove it - see above.
No this is incredibly inefficient. You would have to shut down the East Coast Mainline for up to 30 years to perform the maintainence necessary to upgrade the line for this kind of work.
Double decker trains also don't even come close to matching the capacity that HS2 provides. HS2 will add over 30% to the network. It's effectively 3 lines for the price of 1.
@@Alto53 And what a price it is, if they ever even finish it. And the tickets themselves will be prohibitive to most. It isn't worth the cost at all
@@TheEsmeraldaD of course it will be finished, however you can probably bet the timeline will be delayed as with Crossrail. The expensive cost is an argument, however it loses water when you factor in that it will be cheaper than the annual highway budget and that you are getting effectively 3 lines for the price of 1. Nevermind the fact that the money is being borrowed against future growth where it will make it's money back over time.
@@Alto53 How do u argue 3 lines for the price of one? As though 3 x as many people will use it? There are many journeys that need to be made away from the route of HS2 and thr annual spend on our highways is about 3.5 billion. I looked it up and your 115 billion is total highway assets including land, roads, structures, technology etc not an annual amount. It won't be used to full capacity, it won't help level up the country and it won't ever be carbon neutral in its entire 120 year lifespan. That has already been proven.
The idea is to shift more of the remaining journeys off road transport, so we can reduce congestion, pollution and accidents. The existing network has no space for extra regional/commuter services if all of those trains have to dance around the express intercities. HS2 moves these express trains onto a dedicated route, with the benefit of extra speed (by the way, extra speed is easy on high speed lines as they can climb much steeper gradients, due to distributed traction seen on modern EMUs) and capacity. Obviously, we need to improve transit networks within our regions, towns and cities too, but it should not be an either or. HS2 is an important part of modernising our transportation network. It is not the whole solution, but it is part of a wider solution to bring Britain into the 21st century and help us to compete with other nations who have had this technology for decades.
Not needed anymore. People don't want to be ripped off with train prices to line some company's pockets. Also pay 10 or even more for a coffee. Unless I am wrong maybe some people do
In answer to the title of this video - No.
@Bill Whittaker Tell me bill, how would increase the capacity required to move more freight onto the current rail network?
Yes - and I've shown calculations to prove it - see above.
@@chuckschumer7783 Your calculations are made up and based on random assumptions. I ask again. What's the alternative to increase the capacity required on the rail network?
@@gregmarah8908 _'how would increase the capacity required to move more freight onto the current rail network?'_ According to my friend at Network Rail, 'Digital Railway.' (Slight problem with that though is that Tory donors would probably be left short.)
@@turquoiseowl I work on the railway. Digital railway doesn't solve the problem of a mixed railway (Intercity, regional, stopping and freight services) meaning we currently can't efficiently use the capacity we have. We need HS2 to take off high speed services from the network on their own independent line and digital railway with in cab signalling as HS1 trains have.
88 billion pound?.. The numbers get bigger when it comes to wasting money
It will be an achievement and investment if built and managed properly.
Did the construction start in the North and work it's way down south or is it starting South and working up to the North? If so, does that mean the South sees the benefits first?
London to Birmingham first, of course
No the HS2 project is being built all along the route together, the new stations at Birmingham Curzon Street, Birmingham Interchange, London Old Oak Common and London Euston are all being built at the same time as is the track bed, so as the infrastructure is completed the track will start to be laid from both Birmingham and London at the same time, not sure as you put it the track up North will be started, definitely not until the Birmingham to London section is completed and up and running.
So 20th century
Notice the benefit / cost ratio mentioned of £1 spent for £2 return, is for the WHOLE rail network, not hs2. Hs2s cost benefit ratio has always been based on an impossible and unneeded number of trains per hour. For every £1 spent, there may be 60p return. That was before everyone started working from home though
Borris needs a vanity project to carry his name, then he will probably quit as PM.
So he should. He should be remembered for centuries to come. Great man.
Wishful thinking !
gavloft So it’s you who voted this clown in..
susan brown indeed
@@susanbrown2909 14 million people did.
It s still all about London. Get workers to London. London needs to give up power. London acts like it is Rome. The Roman empire. England, the United Kingdom is all about London.
Well said, the capital needs to swift ever so slightly to tge north, and across the border into Scotland
The argument has been won. It is logical freeing up commuter and frieght services benefitting the environment..
Bill Whittaker what a debating point, hs2,3 and hopefully 4 will all be completed
I completely agree and I've shown calculations to prove it - see above..
Frieghtit: definition: a tosser who doesn't have an idea but needs to talk crap to sound slightly but not at all environmentally leaning..
@Raw Engineer and a hugely inefficient method of travel. Rail dwarves road in terms of passengers per kilometre per hour, and in terms of goods per kilometre per hour. Plus the massive environmental cost of existing diesel and petrol cars and lorries which will be around for a long time. Even with the switch to electric you've still got the environmental impacts of battery manufacturing, brake dust and rubber. Plus the inherent ineffeciencies when charging those batteries compared to OLE and the contact area of a pneumatic tyre on a road compared to a steel wheel on a steel rail. Then you look at the devastation road construction causes. The Lower Thames Crossing alone will destroy more habitats than the entirety of HS2 and that's just to cross one river.
@Raw Engineer that's grossly misleading, it was Arriva Northern who were told they couldn't use the word "efficient" until they could back up their claims which considering the woeful performance of that franchise would be difficult. If carriages are empty then they need filling, 2 million people driving vehicles spewing out CO2, NOX, brake dust and rubber in to the environment of one city, let alone the rest of the country, is a slowly unfolding catastrophe. As many people and goods as possible need taking off the roads.
This will be funded partly by welsh tax payers who will actually be financially hurt by this (as more jobs may leave wales). I'd rather this doesn't get built at all..
Totally agree with you there.
It isnt being funded with anybody's taxes, becuase that isn't how funding infrastructure projects works
@@isnitjustkit barnett formula m8
@@TheOneReesy Did you even read what I said? It isnt being tax payer funded _at all_ let alone because of some formula
@@isnitjustkit yeah, we don’t pay taxes because we want infrastructure and services paid for.. not at all
All these commentator on HS2 are getting it all wrong in one breath they are saying it should start from Birmingham To the North not London, and then in another they are saying there are no pinch points other than up North, well it shows how much these people know about the whole idea of HS2 and then they go on about adding bits here then adding bits there to the existing rail network and segregating Freight trains from Passenger train services., well get a grip this has been tried, the west Coast Mainline has been upgraded twice now and has not made one apath of a difference to the Train Services on that line, even new signalling has been installed.
To answer one point, yes there is a pinch point on the West Coast Main Line and that is not in the Manchester area, it is in the Birmingham area from Birmingham New Street to Rugby, it is only 2 tracks wide with a load of local stopping points, a top speed if the line is clear of between 90 MPH to 100 MPH with fast intercity trains on a regular interval timetable vying for trackspace with 3 local fast train companies, one other long distance train company plus numerous freight trains, where as HS2 will only have one kind of train operating on it operated by one company using hi speed electric trains with in cab signalling, another question is why does like London this money need to be diverted up North for, there are enough rail projects up there, it is the west and East Midlands that need rail work done and when HS2 was conceived it was always going to be built Birmingham To London, the North Extension was an add on, and Yes these trains will be going around bends, but not so many as on the WCML, this is the reason that this line is so slow and can not be upgraded to take trains travelling at 240 MPH, hence why Virgin Trains purchased Pendolino tilting trains and they can only travel on the WCML at 125 MPH even though they were designed to travel at 140 MPH. So let's get real and stop forever moaning about progress and get on with building HS2 as what has already started and stop going on about the money could of been spent on A,B or Z projects, even with this money going on HS2, other projects will still get money from the Government and would all this moaning be going on if it was a new Motorway being built, NO I DON'T THINK SO.
I think it will be made obsolete by electric planes. Battery capacity to weight ratio is constantly improving.
Planes can only travel to a minute amount of places.
@Bill Whittaker these sort of transportation vehicles have the same problem that Hyperloop has - a severe lack of capacity compared to HS2.
@Bill Whittaker most people do, but sadly that's not possible with any sort of modern sized population in the multi millions. You need a mass transport network that is capable of carrying hundreds, if not thousands at a time to move all these people around efficiently, cost effectively and productively. HS2 provides this service and boosts capacity on the rest of the network. If cars were such a efficient mode, the commuter/intercity rail network would not have been made, expanded on and be so popular as it is.
@@Alto53 It's the cars being self-driving that makes the difference
@@chuckschumer7783 No, it isnt, self driving cars will never happen and if they do, will have literally all the problems of cars and then some
Great idea. Build up the econamy in the north by making another main line to london.
No the West Midlands my friend,
@@peterwilliamallen1063 yeah it doesnt even go to the north they are thinking of scrapping phase 2.
@@LukeAlfordUKsteam I Doubt it as in building phase 1 of HS2 just past Water Orton in Warwickshire and just North of the New Birmingham Interchange Station they are plotting the landout for the diamond Junction and I believe it will be built in with phase 1 to cut time down when time comes to start building HS2's phase 2 section from Bickenhill upto Manchester, I live nearby and as you drive in the Kingsbury area you can see earth works being prepared for that section of line to be built, plus the Aston Villa Training Ground at Bodymoor Heath has been vacated ready for HS2 works, but this section is a long way off as they have only just started officially to construct phase 1 from Birmingham to London.
22,000 jobs really? I'll be the judge of that...and btw 30min reduced travel time is not going to change anything...and the price for a return ticket on HS2 London to Birmingham £200? 7:55 to get me out of my car improve 'local transport'. 11:55 people in construction travel on the road not rail because of the fragmented projects unless you can't drive.
HS2 is 3 lines for the price of 1. That's the argument.
Id say that in this "new covid and no-deal Brexit world" an investment towards a new economy seems more logical. As 100.000's of workers need to re-educate we really need to think about where to best spend this money. Large government projects are in essence a good thing in crisis time, but spending so much money on something that might prove to be completely useless in the future is not the way.
What new economy? Even now, the vast majority of jobs in the UK are location specific, and not that many people can actually work from home at all. Plus, people don't just use trains to get to and from work. They do it for leisure, going on holidays, local tourism etc, and all the people who use current intercity trains to do that will just be moved onto HS2, freeing up immense amounts of space on existing lines to attract people away from cars and onto commuter trains, while reducing journey times on intercity routes and making rail a more attractive alternative to domestic flights. Every single forecast predicts that UK rail demand will increase vastly over the next 30 years, and put simply, current railways can't cope with that, not while dealing with intercity, regional, commuter and freight traffic. The pressure has to be relieved somewhere, and HS2 will do that, by moving intercity traffic - the trains preventing stopping trains from stopping at stations along mainlines - onto their own set of tracks.
@@josephharrison8354 Sure I love trains and I really believe in their added value. I really dont understand why the US for example isnt investing in a high speed network. However with the Corona situation and the massive unemployed right around the corner you have to consider investments with a more immediate impact.
@@ageoflove1980 Yup, and they'll happen too. HS2 is being funded by borrowing against future capital gains, meaning that it's pretty much set apart from government revenue. With the incredibly cheap loans going right now, it's easy to raise money for that sort of investment, and it's likely the government will do exactly that.
@@josephharrison8354 Im glad that you are saying that, but id rather see the government backing that up. With Corona really becoming a long term issue and the possible impact of a no-deal Brexit around the corner.... you really want to see a general "road map" that sets out plans on how to proceed. What will be the future cornerstone of the UK economy? And how is this new high speed connection going to contribute to that plan? All im getting now is a simple : "fast train good!"
@@ageoflove1980 Well, it is simple. Fast trains on their own tracks means more room for the trains commuters want to use, which means fewer cars on the road, which means lower carbon emissions. Also, it's a huge job creator while it's being built.
Nobody wants to travel to work and wear a mask
The office is dead.
Scrap it now. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
Sorry to late to be scrapped, everything is being built now.
Miss appropriation of funds
For less than a tenth of the price they could build something like the new apple building just south of Birmingham say, and it can be the new multi functional nhs building.
Infrastructure is funded using loans backed by future investment, the money going to HS2 literally cant be put into anything other than HS2
So boring...meh
It won’t be carbon neutral for over a century. The construction of the whole scheme (both phases) releases the same amount of carbon as only one month of road traffic in the Uk
You don’t understand what carbon neutral means then
Just make the railways state owned
they already are
@@MrSouter2 Only because the fat cats can't make any profits on them for now. When the world gets back to normal we will have them back sucking up the profits instead of investing in the services or paying the workers well.
Finners McSpeed re investing in rail is literally how network rail works. Do you know how the franchise system works in the uk? Do you know who the ‘fat cats’ are that own the franchises?
End the BBC licence fee, the BBC should be obsolete.
Thought experiment: All comments welcome:
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Commuter trains typically cost £1/mile for a return = 50p/mile per person.
Lets say a self-driving car takes 4 people (it could easily be more).
That gives an aggregate cost of £2/mile for 4 people to commute by train as a comparison
The Inland revenue has a mileage rate of 20p/mile for cars.
Let's assume that's more or less what it costs as a WORST case (electric cars are MUCH cheaper to run).
(For an electric car the energy cost is around 5p/mile. But you have to factor in wear&tear and depreciation).
Now let's give 30p/mile to the car hire company (Uber, Lyft etc.)
The car is going to cost 50p/mile vs the train cost of £2/mile
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That's a QUARTER of the price.
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Worked examples:
A typical commuter goes about 30 miles each way at a cost of £30/ticket/day
The car cost spread across 4 people is going to charge each person £7.50
Bear in mind that this is also door-to-door and saves another £5 - £10/day on parking.
No more standing around on chilly platforms in the rain waiting for the train.
No more sharing your space with 40 other people.
No more fighting over the limited seats available.
If you want to spend the money you can choose to pay the SAME as the train and get the car entirely to yourself.
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HS2 (first phase) is due to come online around 2030 and the final phase by 2040.
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NOBODY is going to be going ANYWHERE by train by 2030, let alone 2040.
HS2 will be obsolete before it's finished.
HS2 is designed to link relatively distant cities together, not for commuting from suburbs into city centres. You're comparing apples with oranges. High speed trains are much faster, more comfortable and don't suffer from things like traffic. By your same logic, domestic flights are also made obsolete by cars, which clearly is not the case -they're not the same thing and have different use cases and cost-benefit propositions.
@Raw Engineer source for prices?
@Bill Whittaker HS2 will be able to get people from London to Birmingham in 37 minutes, no car will be able to even come close to that. That's why people will use HS2.
@Raw Engineer So fly from Paris to Nice. Those aren't the only two stops on the line; you can travel between any two stations. It exists to link all the cities that have stations on it.
@Bill Whittaker I don't know what stock they're planning to use but if you've ever travelled via high speed rail in a country like Japan you'll know that it's far more comfortable and spacious than a car, with the ability to go to the bathroom, buy food and drinks, charge devices and store several suitcases. A car doesn't compare.
How useless and disastrous for the environment this thing is
HS2 will take high speed off existing rail freeing up so much capacity for commuter services.
@Bill Whittaker Roads don't have capacity for all those self driving cars and many people won't be able to afford them. Also, faster trains. Higher population. Freight capacity is moving onto rail now away from roads.
Bill Whittaker when no one can afford a car they will
@Bill Whittaker Roads per km are usually twice the price of hs2
Bill Whittaker who exactly is buying these cars then? 😂
Bill Whittaker wow thats very specific, you seem to have every answer. Are you from the future great one?