Railrider

@PandaStaubball I would love to see it all built. I believe it all will be one day. But first things first. We have to advance in stages.

@RailNutter Build it to Leeds and build HS3 as well.

I know. Crying for the moon. But wouldn’t it be nice if the new government could: - build #HS2 to Crewe - produce plans for Euston - build two 400 metre platforms at Manchester Piccadilly so full length HS2 trains can run there - announce a rolling programme of electrification

@StuartFrazer @PandaStaubball Burnham of all people must understand the benefits. But he’ll have a lot of competing priorities of course…

@PandaStaubball @RailNutter Yes. The French just get on with building their High Speed Rail and reap the economic benefits.

@MatthewJDalby Very short. And no real engineering challenges. It is so frustrating.

@RailNutter It is such a short distance to Crewe...

@LJRyder16 Yes. He designed it but did not see it built. They finished it using the chains from the Hungerford suspension bridge in London which was demolished (apart from its two brick piers) to make Charing Cross railway bridge.

@RailNutter You do know Brunel died before the Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol was finished? Nothing much has changed

@Billynomates8 I agree!

@RailNutter Even one of those wishes would be a success .

@cynicalkind This comment aged well!

Can you imagine anyone crazy enough to buy an inflated ticket to attend tonight's non event between England and France. Pointless

@AndyRoden1 I am a happy iMac user: it never gives me a day of trouble. Awesomely quick - especially the latest one that has their own chips inside.

@wbarter54 @kitchentowel @mragilligan @Policy_Exchange @theipaper Do you think anyone with influence still cares what he says? That Andy Burnham’s government will be lapping up his views? Meanwhile I can remember when newspapers tried to find new angles on stories, rather than rehashing old views already published elsewhere.

Oh look. Here’s @mragilligan, head of transport for @Policy_Exchange, showing off his core capability of talking bollocks again in @theipaper

@ianvisits Ha! Good point!

More to the point, why are you hanging around the station for long enough to notice that I am also hanging around for a long time?

@kitchentowel @MarstonGareth @railnigel He also praises Spain for doing what he (wrongly) criticises HS2 supporters for doing. He says HS2 was a political vanity project built out of a desire for national aggrandisement. That was just what the Spanish network was.

@MarstonGareth @railnigel Wolmar's opinion. I disagree with two points at the end about how there was no consensus on why it was being built and that the technology doesn't exist to run trains at that speed.

Is this available free to read anywhere?

@kitchentowel @MarstonGareth @railnigel I disagree about the bats. They ARE rare and no one knew they were there until an ecological survey was done of the route. Boris and the DfT argued against any mitigation: DEFRA said it was a legal requirement. Those are the facts.

@kitchentowel @MarstonGareth @railnigel This is very interesting, thanks. It is so good to get sensible analysis from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. I have taken detailed notes for future reference!

@MarstonGareth @railnigel Was still up on my machine so took a screenshot

@kitchentowel It is behind a paywall

@RailNutter did you read this? inews.co.uk/opinion/i-help…

A super useful pie chart in the latest issue of Rail magazine. (I hope they don’t mind me using it here: please rush out and buy your own copy…). Notice that “inefficient delivery” accounts for less than a quarter of the cost increase on #HS2.

@rationalplan1 I remember something like that, yes.

@RailNutter Hmm underestimation can cover a lot, weren't the contracts written for 0 defects over decades, which had an effect how expensive the engineering ended up being

@ThatGarthGuy Christopher Wren wanted to do this after the Great Fire of London.

Honestly, with hindsight it would've been good if London was planned more like other European capitals The lack of wide boulevards and such makes a lot of possible transport improvements more difficult if not impossible to implement

@paultrowntree @Captain_Deltic Such as?

@Captain_Deltic @RailNutter Now add regulatory costs that didn't exist when HS1 was designed & built to the pie chart.

@kitchentowel I think the key point is that there were various factors. Critics imply the cost rise is because it was massively over-specified or massively mismanaged, but I don’t believe the former and I think any mismanagement is one factor among many.

@RailNutter That's not to say there aren't other issues with poor delivery, immature designs, continually changing scoep at Euston and other things.

@kitchentowel I have to bow to your greater knowledge on this. Presumably the rise in energy, labour and material costs is included under inflation.

@RailNutter The more I look at the current estimate and the decrease in spending even in nominal terms for this spending review, I think a large amount since 2020 is associated with constricted funding, plus issues globally with energy prices, labour, materials all increasing substantially

@kitchentowel You are right, the increase since 2020 - when the budget for phase 1 was £44bn or so (in 2019 pounds). But that is the relevant starting point to judge it on. That was the budget approved when the approval was given for construction to start.

@RailNutter I took it as being increases since 2020 budget, is it from original 2013 budget? I know it was to the estimate for the target cost (92bn). In 2019 prices, the target is around 75bn so it's a 30bn increase on the 2020 budget. That helps to tick known stuff off.