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UK Green Lights HS2 High Speed Rail Line

Posted by samzenpus on from the rollin-all-night-long dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The United Kingdom has given the green light to the first phase of its proposed High Speed Two train line. In response to environmental concerns, the route for HS2 will now include extra tunneling in the first 90 miles, so not to disrupt the natural beauty of the English countryside. The first phase will connect London to Birmingham and could be functional by 2026."

7 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. A good start, but... by anyanka · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...any chance they'll ever fix the horrible mess they've made of the non-high speed lucky-if-you-get-there-alive train service in the UK?

    1. Re:A good start, but... by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Blame that on John Major, breaking up the rail system and selling all the money-making parts off for pennies on the pound to private industry, then rolling up all the complex and expensive stuff into Railtrack.

      An ideal way to privatise profit and nationalise risk.

      BR needed modernisation badly, but privatisation was not it the answer there - at least not the way it was done.

  2. Yes lots, also lots of rich city types by fantomas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lots of beautiful English countryside south of Manchester. Also lots of stockbrokers / rich city types who don't want their countryside fantasy shattered by noisy development work. A bit like the rich lords and ladies 150 years ago who complained about their views being ruined the first time they put railway lines across the land.

    Though to be fair there are ecological concerns to be taken into account this time round seeing as we've got less countryside left.

    1. Re:Yes lots, also lots of rich city types by delinear · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Generous? Homes will be affected along the entire length, but it's not the Birmingham end of the line that's getting concessions with underground tunnels etc. Imagine you've put everything you have into an even more modest home that backs onto some farmland, and take great pleasure in having your breakfast looking out over the grazing sheep and the thicket of trees on the horizon. Then one day you're told that your view is going to be of a grey concrete wall, behind which there will be a train line. Then you find out that the people with comparatively far less modest homes in a comparatively far richer part of the country had their piece of line buried to preserve their views (partially at your expense as a tax payer). And do you think they'll do this in Manchester or Leeds? You'll be lucky to have even the concrete wall to look at, probably a rusty chainlink fence. This is nothing to do with general pleasantness, it's to do with the Conservatives looking after their own as usual. According to them the public sector is a horrible drain on society, but they have no qualms about raiding it to make their own lives easier at the expense of the rest of the country. They should be leading by example and refusing to let the public pay extra for something that benefits so few.

  3. Re:14 years?? by Totenglocke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can thank the exponential growth of bureaucracy over the last 70 years for that. It's the same reason why it took 7 years to build the original World Trade Center and now more than a decade after 9/11, they're "hoping" that it will be almost done by 2020 (19 years after).

    --
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
  4. Re:Not just railway lines by shilly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As someone else has said, it's 40 minutes, not 20. And obviously, that's far from the only benefit of HS2 -- self-evidently, it's a huge increase in capacity. Capacity is much more important than speed.

  5. Re:This has nothing to do with rail by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, really, it's purpose is to spend 32 billion+.

    The stretch to bitmingham will cost 15bn and save 40 (not 20) minutes, not to mention increasing capacity. The Full cost is for the full plan is for the extension to Manchester and Leeds which will cost 32bn and save considerably more time and also add capacity.

    The mainline is running close to capacity, and only the government has the foresight and funds to spend money on large infrastructure projects.

    Since you're likely to troll me with the same assertion as before, what do you propose should be done to increase capacity?

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.