HS2 Interchange (Birmingham)
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- In today's video I'll provide some information about Interchange, the new HS2 station being constructed to the East of Birmingham, and take a look at some of the new road infrastructure that has already been constructed.
Interchange further information 4:30
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In Brisbane Qld rather than build high speed rail to The Gold and Sunshine Coast, The LNP at previous state level decided to build congestion increasing road tunnels and now at Brisbane Council level decided to build a amusement park ride the Metro.
Came past that area around Christmas and it's fascinating to see how much work is taking place. Looking forward to updates
Will be good to see progress being made on the station itself.
38 mins to London , incredible,thanks.
Only it’s not going to london now is it? Stopping at Old Oak Common. So any planned time savings are shot to pieces. Get off at old oak and transfer to Elizabeth line.
I don’t expect it’ll be fully in service even from euston to birmingham in my lifetime.
It is going to London, Euston has not been cancelled.
@@Rail_Focus ok hunt said it would be done. But before the end of this year it will be delayed. How do I know? We’ll hunt said it was definitely going to happen. So clearly the opposite is the truth.
@@mcgoverg1 pathetic Tory government really don’t care anymore. I know I should be grateful to live in a developed country as the Uk is but it is always so frustrating when it comes to the uk and infrastructure.
@@normhanson981 *meanwhile in the US*: SURELY ADDING MORE LANES WILL SOLVE TRAFFIC
I'm based just 5 min away from this location and i'm impressed how quickly all the roadworks were done and with very little disruption for the locals. I hope this new station will boost the traffic to NEC and surrounding malls and stadiums as it's half empty at the moment. I honestly think even a link to the West London for now would be beneficial as 2 hr train to Euston is just ridiculous and we have to take it as Avanti charges sometimes up to £100 per ticket so some competition won't hurt. And I'm excited with 38 min away from London we are going to be essentially the outskirts of London with lots of people moving here for cheaper housing with an easy commute.
Thank you. That has at last given me an understanding of all the road changes in that area.
If it wasn’t for politicians and nimby tree huggers hs2 would be well on it’s way to completion. Great video and update.
I'd much rather see money spent on the NHS and schools and reducing tax
Thanks for the vid. I visited Interchange myself back in October. I don't know if you saw it but just outside the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel on the side of the road going towards the Interchange site, there is a sign for the roundabout with the Interchange Station writing painted over. It's interesting that they've future-proofed the road signage so far in advance but it was pretty cool to see.
Didn't see much of the signage tbh, but it's strange to think the signs and link roads will be finished long before the station opens.
Looking like work is well underway with the road infrastructure (which looks pretty complicated!) I don’t think I’d clocked that it will only be 38mins to Birmingham - to put that in perspective - it’s about 30 minutes from Redhill (just south of the m25) to London Bridge!
When you put it like that it seems crazy (in a good way) will certainly be transformational
@@Rail_Focus Not really. It's 38 minutes from somewhere no one wants to start from to somewhere no one wants to go to! A major problem for all public transport. Where's me car?
It's called "Interchange" for a reason and claiming no one wants to go to London is just absurd 🤷.
@@Rail_Focus Did you deliberately miss the point? Of course people want to go to both London and Birmingham...just not Old Oak Common and Bickenhill. So the 38 minutes time is irrelevant.
As it stands Euston will still be the terminus. Call the initial plan to serve OOC a trial service if you will.
As soon as you get on the LGV in France, the difference in scale and population density between the two countries is immediately obvious. If this had been perused as part of a through trans-European network it would have made some sense holistically, but as things stand it’s not looking like an appropriate use of funds at all. How many miles of electrification could have been completed on the existing network? Pretty much most of the important gaps could have been filled. In times when electric transport is the favoured way forward, surely a copper wire beats any other storage/transmission solution and we could have really benefitted large swathes of the country with this level of investment spent differently.
As for freeing up lower speed freight paths on the WCML southern end - surely this would need major investment in signalling infrastructure to give tighter stopping distances and block lengths, otherwise your just running slower trains in great big spaces intended for faster ones (horses for courses)?
The West Coast Main Line was electrified in 1967 and now it is essentially full up. Trying to squeeze more trains onto it just causes chaos and everything falls apart when just one delay happens. The MML will soon be electrified to Leicester and the ECML was electrified in 1990. So your attempt to claim electrification would be better than HS2 is shown to be nonsense because the three main lines to the north ARE electrified already. And don't try to say that electrifying the Chiltern line would add much capacity. The major constraint there is six platforms at Marylebone, one of which is very short. We can't keep trying to get a little bit more from 19th century railway lines - the ONLY solution is to build another line, but built to modern standards - 400m long trains seating 1,100 passengers every 180 seconds provides a step change in capacity.
@@chris8405 I’m not just talking about the lines northwards out of London, but the whole network to benefit the whole country.
If you indeed believe there is a genuine case to always prioritise London and get significantly increased capacity between London and the Midlands and then the North, there are loads of options for spending money on the resilience and capacity of the existing lines. The ECML suffers significant double track sections plus the cheapo electrification being short of amps and therefore limiting loads from that issue. Increased platform lengths, higher current availability, in cab signalling on all routes, provision of slow lines on whole routes, flyovers, high speed turnouts, avoiding lines etc. Not just talking about electrification, but investment over the whole network and there are a multitude of ways to bring longer trains running more frequently and faster everywhere, not just between London and Birmingham.
HS2 is a vanity project of little benefit to the whole country and will be constricted to being an isolated rump of it’s initial envisaged raison d’etre - that is part of a trans European high speed network. It won’t even benefit from being able to take advantage of it’s enhanced loading gauge (if running through trains beyond it’s length) just like the original buggers muddle Eurostars. Unfortunately to be of use, railways need to be part of a network and we are a long way from being able to build a high speed one with through compatibility and to the European loading gauge. What we need is a network that works and the most effective way to get that is by investing in the one we have. And don’t even get me started on rolling stock standardisation and procurement….
@@jhuc2869 , you really don't understand much about railways do you? The WCML is full up, any more enhancements are not cost effective. The major factor now limiting ECML capacity is the limited length platforms at Kings Cross and the need to put the long-distance 125 mph expresses and the Cambridge/Peterborough/KIngs Lynn 100 mph regional services onto one pair of tracks for the first 23.5 miles. Flyovers at Hitchin and the Werrington diveunder for freight has sorted out the two major bottlenecks. As for rebuilding our 19th century tracks to European gauge, it is known to be so expensive and disruptive that you might as well build new tracks on a different alignment. Which is exactly what HS2 does, don't you realise?
@@chris8405 You’re quite right, I don’t understand much about railways because not a lot of what I’m seeing these days makes much sense. An isolated stretch of passenger only, high energy demand, high carbon footprint, low profitability higher then required speed line will make little or no impact in releasing pathing capacity for freight or other services across the national network. Yes a full trunk high speed network would be a game changer in relieving pressure on the classic routes - we’re not going to get one.
Regarding the loading gauge point - you need to read my post properly. What I am saying is that building HS2 to the Berne gauge is a waste of expense when the services will have to run on the British composite gauge to reach destinations beyond the limited length of HS2. The stock will have to be British profile and therefore the larger HS2 structures will have been a waste of money.
The whole classic network is crying out for investment of the level thrown at HS2 not just in terms of infrastructure but also in ways of alleviating the errors of privatisation such as the creation of a national drivers academy and more support for procurement and rolling stock development by indigenous manufacturing with a view to a return to a degree of standardisation and interoperability.
The whole notion of building HS2 to release capacity on other routes is flawed. If the argument for building it is based on capacity well why does it have to be high speed. If it really is about capacity you could have had the whole GCR rebuilt (including Woodhead) for freight. Something I’ve always considered daft but in the light of the argument of a no expense spared high speed line being built with the only viable reason being that it will release a bit of capacity - it doesn’t sound that daft..
@@jhuc2869 That doesn't solve the capacity problem between London and Birmingham. An there already a massive electrification program going on across the network.
Boom, new video!
Hope you enjoyed it 😁
The train between coventry and newstreet is already stretched to maximum capacity. Will be interesting to see how this works. Most the time I can't even get in a carriage so this is going to be q nightmare for commutors to and from Birmingham and Coventry.
Eh, that makes no sense? HS2 will make all those passengers who travel between Birmingham and London vanish from the trains serving Coventry. So far from being a nightmare, the future will see far more seats available for West Midlands commuters. HS2 is essentially the bypass of this busy route.
@@chris8405 do you honestly think that locals getting the train from Birmingham to Coventry use the Avanti flier ? No, they use the slow local train. HS2 will NOT have anything to do with removing that sort of traffic therefore. No it will be a far more expensive alternative to the Avanti. All the rubbish on this site about anything north of Birmingham is just rubbish as it will NEVER be built. And if you think commuters from Birmingham want to end up in Old Oak Common, then you are dafter than the siller bugger who put this stuff together.
@@beecee2205 On what planet do intelligent rail commuters decide to ignore the frequent fast trains and demand to travel on the all-stations slow locals instead? And as for north of Birmingham, you need to familiarise yourself with a map and find where Handsacre Junction is - somewhat north of Birmingham you'll find and it is being built as we speak. Down south we have something called the Elizabeth Line - an amazing service that will provide 20 trains an hour from Old Oak. So while very few people are ending their journey there, they can very quickly and easily go into central London. Just like HS1, this railway will be well used and if you are around to see it you'll realise you were wrong on every point.
@@chris8405 you aint the sharpest tool in the box are you. The frequent fast trains that you think local commuters are going to take will be much much more expensive. thats why locals will always take the s,ower ones. You dont take many tains I guess. As for the elizabeth line. You are the sort of maroon that thinks a business man is going to be happy with walking from Birmingham City to Curzon Street, then HS2, then changing to Elizabeth, then taking elizabeth to TC Road, then changing for the City. Course he is. Muppet. He's gonna stay in Brum. And call someone. On the phone. Or maybe even use that new fangled internet thing
@@chris8405 Please will love it once it built, just like every other infrastructure project. People cry and bitch about it for years and once it built people come to love it and realise how neccessary it is.
All its done is increase my journey on the A452 to stonebridge island past melbricks.
🤷
Annoyingly, it will have a MASSIVE surface car park, which is dumb. It really needs a multistorey car park to reduce its footprint.
It was supposed to be a multi storey carpark, but will now be a surface carpark with the same or lesser footprint. From Birmingham Mail "The council’s administration has hailed this as a major victory, having consistently opposed a parkway station at Arden Cross. It believes the smaller car park will free up even more of the 346-acre Arden Cross site and that 4,500 spaces would be sufficient for the Interchange station when the entire HS2 line is complete - a view shared by the Department for Transport."
Apparently HS2 is being delayed but still construction is continuing especially in Birmingham.
Frustratingly so, let's hope there's a change of government next year so they can reverse the cuts and delays 🤞
@@Rail_Focus I agree. 👍
Its not being delayed as such, its a political down-sizing of what will be completed under the first Phase, Birmingham to London. The London termination will now be at Old Oak Common instead of the "city centre" (might as well have built mag-lev then lol). It's expensive breadcrumbs for those irony-unaware low-tax/low-spend Tory MPs to say look we have saved xxxx from the HS2 budget today (but therefore it will cost more in x years time as back in the real world the economic case to build HS2 all the way to Euston Station in London will be huge and unavoidable).
@@suburbia2050 They're probably just juggling with deliverables and with what constitues Phase 1. Construction at Euston is already well underway so they will eventually build that.
@@Rail_Focus In an ideal world, a change of government should lead to a revue of the whole shower-of-sh**e project. Better spent elsewhere, not too late to can it & save us tens of billions
TIL Sunbelt rentals is international and intercontinental
That the final stretch from Old Oak Common to Euston won't be ready when the first finished section opens, is a farce in itself. It beggars belief. Can the Tories do nothing right? ...... evidently, yes it seems. As for the section to Leeds being scrapped altogether - that says it all. Disgraceful ineptitude.
Although it was always planned that there would be a sort of "soft launch" to OOC only, these further delays are incredibly frustrating. The idea that delaying the project will save money is just ridiculous 🤦
It's even been mooted that the section from Crewe to Manchester may be mothballed at a future review, which would make it even more pathetic, so effectively reducing the line's usefulness to extending the London commuter belt to Birmingham and Solihull.
Then, what was once mooted at HS3, later morphing into Northern Powerhouse Rail, now looks to be mainly upgrades of existing track with a couple of small new bits, rather than a fully fledged brand new cross-Pennine route.
@@mittfh ....the entire project will have been a total waste of time and money if it only runs from Birmingham Curzon Street to Old Oak Common - I mean what good is that in all honesty? You may aswell get the regular fast train from Euston to New Street.
How embarrassing is it that we cannot do large infrastructure projects properly? Yes, Crossrail was finally completed, but it took 15 years to complete. HS1 has been mired in corruption and dodgy deals almost from the off.
HS1 has been mismanaged financially from the start. There should be an independent enquiry into what's gone so badly wrong. With the government (and wider Tory party) not in charge of its steering or conclusions. It should feature non Tory politicians, respected journalists who aren't close to the Tory party, Land owners such as the Wildlife Trusts, a plethora of Local Authorities along the route, and the construction firms involved.
Certain politicians need to be held accountable for the project's failings. If need be, even a jail sentence in or two for the worst offenders in this charade.
@@robtyman4281 From another UA-cam video, part of the problem is that we view big infrastructure projects as single, isolated, projects rather than as part of the regular programme of maintenance and upgrades, so we don't build up the necessary skills and experience. Then, the project is contracted to a private company, who subcontract sections to other companies, who subcontract various work packages to other companies and so on. Even worse, all these companies prefer using their own design + project management software rather than the one they're supposed to use, which then adds time and money when the next contractor arrives and finds the work done to date doesn't match what's on their system.
With HS2, there's also additional costs due to purchasing the land required (undervalued in the initial back-of-the-envelope calculation), redesigns (e.g. bored tunnels rather than cut and cover - plus dealing with different ground conditions along the bore), additional environmental mitigation, station redesigns (apparently their initial vision for the Birmingham interchange was essentially a giant park and ride - extensive lobbying by Solihull Council forced a rethink; while Euston has undergone several revisions), archaeology (such as working out whether they can avoid the remains of the turntable at Curzon Street) and other route / design changes (such as omitting the link to HS1 - allegedly not just due to cost grounds but predicted low demand for the through route and how to separate domestic and international passengers (Erm, couldn't that have been done at Stratford Not-International?)
@@Rail_Focus I can tell you that delaying a project will cause more expense. The underlying issue is the much higher rate of inflation than originally budgeted. If you set up an excel spreadsheet and use an inflation indicator over the time periods suggested you will see a staggering increase in costs, and that's just using a mean inflation rate of 5%. Cumulative inflation is the killer. Honestly we have absolutely no idea how to protect manage in the UK and our politicians are completely useless.
Anyone remember when China built a train station in 9 hours? UK is hopeless.
I'm sceptical they built a 400m long mainline station from start to finish in 9 hours, but yes it is frustrating how long things take to build in this country.
What the hardline communist country china? Where if you don’t work you die? Great aren’t they
Only a lego one.
@@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg Yeah lol. It was actually a prefab platform and a new track connecting three lines on a refurbished station. It was misrepresented by channels like b1m, CNN, SCMP, and the independent. Funnily enough, it was fact checked just by translating the Chinese captions on the video. Sorry to misinform a bunch of people.
When this project is completed at a cost to us the tax payer, who will run the trains, look after the track and the infrastructure. Will it be private companies who will generate profits for themselves, or will the cost be reimbursed to the tax payer via the travelling g public, ie the tax payer.
Good question. If like HS1 a concession may be sold to a private company to operate the line itself, that would provide a direct cash injection to the Government. But it's more likely services will be operated by the government, or by a private TOC who will be paid a fee to operate services, with profits going directly to the Treasury as is the case now.
2 years ago. The Chinese would have finished the whole railway in that time. The UK really is pathetic. Whatever, thanks for the post.
Sorry to say this but if this was China we would be talking about HS4 not 2 😊
That’s true . The Chinese said that they could have built HS2 much sooner than the current opening date . When you see what their high speed rail network has overcome in terms of topography it’s hard to argue .
United Kingdom Of Great Britain 🇬🇧 London, Birmingham, Manchester is the best city in the world, The first railroad built in Great Britain to use steam locomotives was the Stockton and Darlington, opened in 1825. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson and was practical only for hauling minerals. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was the first modern railroad
“Manchester the best city in the world “ that’s funny but it will be a shitty 💩without HS2
It's not too late to can the whole thing & save us a lot of money, think of the improved healthcare & education we & our kids could benefit from. Do it now. Who wants to get to Birmingham half an hour sooner ? Who wants to use Old Oak Common & Curzon Street ?
It's not too late to cancel, who wants to go from Curzon St to Old Oak Common are 2 contradictory statements at this point. Cancelling HS2 now won't mean we spend billions demolishing the structures already built and returning the land to the way it was, cancelling HS2 now means it would only ever go to Old Oak Common, when we need it to go to Euston, Crewe, Manchester and beyond to serve places like Liverpool, Warrington, Preston, Glasgow and build the eastern section to Leeds so it can serve the North East also. Serving tens of millions of passenger journeys annually.
@@Rail_Focus Such a Utopian, naive view. To think that the UK will ever afford the extensions to Mcr, Scotland, Leeds or anywhere meaningful (Crewe doesn't count) or even Euston ... the Old Oak Common thing should have been squashed at birth even if you're wedded to the idea of a pointless HS2. Impoverished by Brexit, the cost of climate change fixes for expensive energy, higher defence spending re: Putin, health spending on the avalanche of sick expected in the years to come ... you really think this extra £100s of billions will be justifiable ?
One horrible ugly precast unit, no style and zero grace!
🤷
Just more lost green space within Birmingham and elsewhere and too expensive...should have been scrapped
A triangular section of land sandwiched in between motorways that is of no recreational benefit 🤔.
@@Rail_Focus still lost green space...I'm sure wildlife don't see it as of little benefit anx there's a lot of green space loss elsewhere....money would be better spent on health and schools
But that's not how government spending works, cancelling HS2 would not mean more money for the NHS or Schools, that's just what the Tories want you to think.