Yes.
HS2 high-speed London-Birmingham route rail project - discussion
- Thread starter Oswaldtwistle
- Start date
Yes.
London is the hub it's the capital.
Nope. Perhaps counter-intuitively, TGV-style high-speed trains - including the Eurostar and Thalys - have shorter carriages than normal trains, so can (other things being equal) go round tighter corners.
They do need straighter track to go full speed.
Some French services that use TGV carriages spend most of the journey time trundling along normal tracks at a mere 150 kilometers per hour, or much less in the bendy mountainous bits.
free spirit
more tea vicar?
Not really. Birmingham, or more precisely Birmingham Airport looks like being the actual hub of the network, though it's probably still true that most of the journeys will still be too and from London.
Looking at the way this is connecting up Manchester, Brum, Nottingham and Heathrow airports, IMO this ought to mean there's no need for an additional runway anywhere, and with those connection times from scotland to London it ought to cut demand for those internal flights - unless they overprice it of course.
tbtommyb
Well-Known Member
I guess it could if you moved all domestic flights out of Heathrow, but there would still be pressure on it as a hub.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Well, I know cost of living, wages, etc are lower in Spain, but for comparison the high speed line Between Madrid and Girona (about 400 miles), ended up costing around 9bn euros. Cost of living or not, the difference is staggering.
The completion time is also astonishing. Despite having its share of problems and glitches, the first phase between Madrid and Zaragoza was completed in about three years, and phase 2 to Barcelona four years later. We're talking 20 fucking years before they complete it here ffs...
The completion time is also astonishing. Despite having its share of problems and glitches, the first phase between Madrid and Zaragoza was completed in about three years, and phase 2 to Barcelona four years later. We're talking 20 fucking years before they complete it here ffs...
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Most of those issues were also a factor in Spain. Though I will concede the one area that is different is the dealing with consultaton, legislation, complaints and compulsory purchases. In Spain the incumbent government more or less steamrolls over such matters in litle time.
The budgetary difference is still inexplicable IMO>
The budgetary difference is still inexplicable IMO>
mauvais
on reddit or something
Interesting idea. The cost would surely go down if they nuked the Midlands.
davesgcr
Reading books
Or even the BA path hogging empty flights to Cardiff....
davesgcr
Reading books
All rolling stock in the UK is designed to go round bends of 22 chains radius .....at 5 mph ! (useless fact of the day)
tbtommyb
Well-Known Member
Isn't that a PSO?
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Can you translate 22 chains into something a layperson could understand?
bi0boy
Power User
I thought everyone knew a chain was 22 yards. I was taught metric in school but was still taught this. One chain is the length of a cricket pitch.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Do you mean a cricket wicket? or the whole pitch?
No matter, you say 22 yards, so 22 chains of 22 yards .. that is not a very steep bend no?
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
bi0boy
Power User
Say 1000 people a day fly between Manchester and London and you taxed those flights so as to increase fares by 10%. Let's say an extra £10 per passenger. That would give you £3.65 million a year which isn't even a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of HS2.
editor
hiraethified
I meant tax *all* airline fuel and put the money to more environmentally friendly forms of transport. Why the fuck shouldn't they pay tax anyway?
bi0boy
Power User
They do. Instead of tax on fuel we have APD.
editor
hiraethified
deadringer
meat pie sausage roll
Planes would just fill up where it is cheaper.
free spirit
more tea vicar?
which is why there needs to be a renogotiation of the 1947 agreement to force all countries to apply a fuel duty on aviation fuel.
it could even go to an international subsidise low carbon transport alternatives.
deadringer
meat pie sausage roll
Flying somewhere different is one of the few affordable pleasures for people to get away for a bit, it's bad enough with APD going up slowly without more taxes being added.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Affordable, maybe, but hardly sustainable.
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
coley
Well-Known Member
To many noses in the trough, even if it never went ahead, the consultations, reviews, studies etc will put billions into the right pockets.
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
If the few remaining Keynesians can no longer prime the pumps because an alliance of nimbys and wildlife obsessives have declared that the pumps are home to the lesser-crested corncrake, we're all very fucked indeed.
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