I think hourly 9/10-car IET diversions into Waterloo, in addition to the Euston ones, would make more sense but were ruled out, this Christmas at least, for a few reasons.   As well as the Westbury blockade there's nothing running between Woking and Basingstoke until 5th January so diversions from Exeter via Yeovil/Salisbury weren't possible.

What real difference would a short DMU running a handful of services a day through to Waterloo actually make in the grand scheme of things?  Not much I would suspect.

What real difference would a short DMU running a handful of services a day through to Waterloo actually make in the grand scheme of things?  Not much I would suspect.

Indeed, and seven-days-a-week well-timed through trains between Bristol and Waterloo would give some passengers the alternative that's needed.

Mark

Passengers heading in and out of Paddington face more than 180 days of disruption due to HS2 works – including 43 days when the station is shut entirely, MPs have been told.

This includes a three-day shutdown immediately after Christmas when the Great Western main line is closed for three days between December 27-29 to enable work to be carried out at Old Oak Common station.

The full extent of the likely disruption to journeys in and out of Paddington emerged during a parliamentary debate.

Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem MP for Cheltenham, said there would be five years of “widespread disruption” – followed by “every train between the west and south Wales and London” being slower once Old Oak Common station opens around 2030.

He said there would be 29 days of disruption in 2024/25, 30 in 2025-26, 41 in 2026-27, including 14 days when no trains run at all, 34 days in 2027-28, including 11 days when no trains run at all, and 47 days of disruption in 2028-29, including 18 days when no trains run at all.

This totals 181 days of disruption – including 43 days of full closures – and excludes any disruption in 2029/30, as the impact of works that year is not yet known.

Mr Wilkinson told a Westminster Hall debate that most of the disruption would fall “on Sundays and at Christmas”.

He said: “The number of constituencies that will be impacted by the work is absolutely huge. It will be every constituency in Cornwall and Devon, most of Somerset, Bristol, parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, south Wales, Gloucestershire—my own area of the country—Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

“That is a lot of people whose journeys will be slower for a long time, and a lot of people who will have to make alternative arrangements when trains are cancelled.”

Tessa Munt, the Lib-Dem MP for Wells and Mendip Hills, said the closures could have a huge impact on the Glastonbury festival.

“The Glastonbury festival finishes on a Sunday, and many people travel in and out of Glastonbury on a Sunday, so this will be incredibly damaging to that event,” she said.

Mr Wilkinson said that it was “no exaggeration to say that weekends are a nightmare” and demanded improvements to Great Western Railway services on Sundays.

The 14-platform Old Oak Common station, which is costing about £2bn to build, will be used as HS2’s southern terminus until the new HS2 station at Euston is built. There is no opening date but it is likely to be around 2040.

Old Oak Common will also act as an interchange with HS2 for the Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway services and the Heathrow Express.

Mainline trains that stop at Old Oak Common will have four to seven minutes added to their journey times.

Even “fast” trains that run through the new station without stopping – the exact stopping pattern is yet to be determined - will have up to 90 seconds added to their journey times because the mainline track is being realigned and will curve through the new station.

During the Paddington closures, some Great Western Railway services will divert to Euston.

Transport minister Lilian Greenwood said it was impossible to build Old Oak Common “without some disruption to existing services”.

She told MPs: “The next significant blockade had been due to take place in December 2026, but this is now being re-planned to a later date by HS2 Ltd. Further detail on the future works plan will be shared as soon as it is available in the spring.”

Rail minister Lord Hendy is in discussions with HS2, Network Rail and the train operating companies in a bid to reduce the impact of the work at Old Oak Common.

He said in a written parliamentary answer: “Old Oak Common is estimated to be operational between 2029-2033.

“The large Christmas possessions that enable services to run on the new track layout, through Old Oak Common station, are currently being re-planned and further information will be available from Spring 2025.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Most of the work will take place without customers noticing, at weekends or overnight.

“However, where this isn’t possible, the industry is working together to comprehensively plan the work to reduce the impact to passengers as much as possible, as well as include any changes into timetables well in advance so customers can still travel by train.”

HS2 chairman quits in wake of £100m ‘bat shed’ comments

The chairman of HS2 is to step down after the Government said that the estimated £66 billion cost of the rail project was not an “accurate or reliable” figure.

Sir Jon Thompson, who said last month that a “bat shed” covering 900 metres of HS2 tracks near Aylesbury would cost £100 million to build, announced he will leave his role in the spring.

It came as Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said in a progress report published on Tuesday that there was doubt over forecasts that the cost had spiralled to between £54 billion and £66 billion – up to double the original estimate of £33 billion.

The report warned that the estimate included parts of the since-cancelled Euston station project. It added: “As it doesn’t take into account this work, or factor in private financing for Euston – which this government is committed to securing – we do not think these figures are accurate or reliable.

“It remains highly uncertain and subject to further assurance and has not been approved by the HS2 Ltd Board or [The Department for Transport] ... but has been included here for transparency.”

The £66 billion estimate, which does not take inflation into account, is based on costings from 2019.

The report said the project’s spiralling budget had been caused by factors including “environmental and planning compliance, as well as the disruption caused by external factors, primarily Covid and the Ukraine conflict.”

So far, £32.8 billion has been spent on HS2 since it was approved in 2012, and the latest estimates come following years of warnings that its spending was out of control.

In 2020 the Public Accounts Committee said the Department for Transport (DfT) had “failed to provide Parliament with clear warning that the programme was going off-course and value for money was at risk”.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, said in October that HS2 would be built to Euston, ending uncertainty brought about by Rishi Sunak axing public funding for the line’s final 4.5-mile stretch into central London.

Instead, both the required tunnels and the extension to Euston station necessary to serve HS2 would have to be privately funded, the Conservative former prime minister said last year.

Sir Jon’s departure from HS2 comes after a new chief executive was appointed to the beleaguered rail project in May.

Mark Wild, a former boss of Crossrail, took up the post this month. The report said: “We have made it the number one priority of the new chief executive, after safety, to drive costs down.”

Sir Jon is expected to become the new chairman of the company behind Sports Direct, businessman Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, Sky News reported in November.

A spokesman for HS2 Ltd said that “clearly changes in delivery are needed” for the project to “realise its full potential”.

They added: “Mark Wild joined as our new chief executive this month and clearly recognises the programme’s serious cost challenges.

“He is now leading a comprehensive review of HS2’s cost and schedule which will report into government next year and lead to a full reset of the project.”

A DfT spokesman said of the £66 billion costings: “These estimates are out of date and don’t take into account the urgent measures this government took to get the project back under control or the previous government’s decision to cancel Phase 2 and attempt to secure private funding for Euston.

“The Transport Secretary has asked HS2 to urgently provide updated and clearer estimates of the project as soon as possible and we have made it the number one priority of the new chief executive to drive costs down.”

Euston HS2 station: New twist in saga as Government says £5bn terminus will only have six platforms

The new HS2 station at Euston will have just six platforms, the Government has confirmed.

Rail commentators fear this could result in a lack of capacity should HS2 ever be extended north of Birmingham.

Details about the Labour government’s plans emerged on Tuesday via a parliamentary written answer from rail minister Lord Hendy.

He had been asked by Lord Berkeley, a Labour peer who has taken a close interest in the cost of HS2, how many HS2 trains per hour were planned at Euston, and how many station platforms they were expected to occupy.

Lord Hendy replied: “The new HS2 station will consist of six platforms, which can support up to 10 HS2 trains per hour.

“No decisions have been made on the train services that will run when HS2 opens, and this will be subject to future consultation.”

Gareth Dennis, the rail engineer, author and commentator, told The Standard: “Unless there is a clear plan that integrates both station sites into one shared station with appropriate adjustments, this will kneecap the GB rail network for a generation or more.

“The idea that a future high speed rail network of 17 trains per hour or more is not being planned for is extremely worrying.

“To lose the opportunity to build a large, spacious and resilient station in London will have massive impacts on the ability to run local services in the Midlands and the North for decades.”

William Barter, a rail consultant, said that having only six platforms at Euston would mean that HS2 would never be able to fulfil its full potential. He described the situation as “lunacy”.

Steve Coe, a former assistant general secretary at the rail union TSSA, said building only six platforms was “incredibly shortsighted”.

He added: “Unless Euston is rebuilt with 11 platforms, HS2 will never be able to provide the increased capacity that our railways desperately need. A huge amount of money spent for relatively little gain.”

There will also be six HS2 platforms at Old Oak Common station in north-west London, which will be used as the line’s southern terminus when HS2 trains start running around 2030.

However the Old Oak Common HS2 platforms will be 400m long - meaning each can accommodate two HS2 trains at a time.

There is no opening date for the HS2 station at Euston.

Lord Hendy recently told the transport select committee that his aim was for the HS2 station at Euston to share a concourse with a renovated mainline station.

The original 2015 plan was for the HS2 station at Euston to be built in two phases, adjacent to the mainline station, and have 11 platforms.

But following the Oakervee review in 2020, the Department for Transport switched in 2021 to a “simpler design” for Euston, of 10 platforms that were all to be built in a single phase.

Then in 2023, as HS2’s costs continued to escalate, the Tory government switched to a six-platform design then ordered the work at Euston to be mothballed for two years.

Several months later, in October 2023, the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Tory party conference that he had decided to axe HS2’s northern leg.

Mr Sunak also confirmed that private sector investment would be needed to deliver the HS2 station at Euston.

It was also reported on Tuesday that the cost of completing the first phase of HS2 between London and Birmingham had increased by £9bn, to £80bn at current prices.

When work at Euston was paused in 2023, the cost of the HS2 station was estimated to have increased from its original £2.6bn budget to £4.8bn (both at 2019 prices).

In a 2022/23 report, the public accounts committee said the £2.6bn budget for Euston was “completely unrealistic” and said that, eight years after the scheme was devised, the DfT “still does not know what it is trying to achieve with the station and what sort of regeneration it will support”.

Switching from an 11-platform to a 10-platform design meant that £106m of work was wasted, according to the National Audit Office.

The maps.nls site has an early 1:500 OS map from those times - it's a series of sheets covering London and they're selective in what they shows (and gives the impression that the surveyers were more than a little overwhelmed at the rate of the changes they saw.)

The map  catches both main lines and the West London line in course of construction. It's a map that (eventually) made my scalp prickle as I imagined what the surveyors saw as they went about their work. Here's the place where the two lines (almost) converge.

Is it the case that in the very early days, Euston was to be the terminus for the GWR and then there was a change of plan, and it's that that brings the two lines relatively close?

Mark

Off to Acton, round the North London Line until it reaches the line into Euston

Bat safety shed will cost £100m, says HS2 chairman

A special barrier that will be built to protect rare bats will cost £100m, according to the chairman of HS2 Ltd.

Sir Jon Thompson told a rail industry conference the bat protection structure in Buckinghamshire was needed to appease Natural England, as bats are legally protected in the UK.

The 1km (0.6 mile) curved barrier will cover the tracks alongside Sheephouse Wood near Calvert in Buckinghamshire, to prevent bats being disturbed by high-speed trains.

Sir Jon said there was "no evidence that high-speed trains interfere with bats".

"We call it a shed," he said. "This shed, you're not going to believe this, cost more than £100m to protect the bats in this wood."

Natural England said it had not required HS2 to "adopt this structure", but its role had been to "comment on whether the proposed mitigations will work".

Other more expensive options, including a bored tunnel and re-routing the railway, were considered.

After receiving the green light from Natural England for the design, HS2 Ltd was forced to spend "hundreds of thousands of pounds" on lawyers and environmental specialists because the local council did not approve the work, Sir Jon said.

"In the end, I won the planning permission by going above Buckinghamshire Council's head," he explained.

Buckinghamshire Council opposes HS2 and has previously criticised the project, external for "unnecessarily damaging Sheephouse Wood".

The deputy cabinet member for HS2, Peter Martin, said: "Whilst the council wishes to protect species such as Bechstein's bats, one of the country’s rarest species, it was never supportive of what seemed like extremely excessive costs for a single structure.

"HS2 Ltd has always been adamant that the bat tunnel structure, which has been designed and built by HS2 Ltd’s own contractor, and the associated costs, were necessary, but it is not something we insisted on."

'Trite'

Sir Jon claimed the issue was an example of the UK's "genuine problem" with completing major infrastructure projects.

He told the Rail Industry Association's annual conference that HS2 Ltd had been required to obtain 8,276 consents from other public bodies in order to build phase one of the railway between London and Birmingham.

He said: "People say you've gone over the budget, but did people think about the bats [when setting the budget]?

"I'm being trite about it, but I'm trying to illustrate one example of the 8,276 of these [consents]."

Natural England Chief Operating Officer Oliver Harmar said: "Development and nature must go hand in hand".

"HS2 Ltd is required by legislation to avoid harm to the environment, and it is for them to make choices, consider risks, and factor in costs when deciding how to do this, whether by avoiding species and sites protected for nature or by investing in mitigation to limit harm where the route passes through sensitive sites."

Sir Jon, who has led the project since Mark Thurston left his role as chief executive in September 2023, warned in January that the estimated cost for phase one had soared to as much as £66.6bn - compared to the £37.5bn forecast in 2013

Mark, thank you for the long response. Might we both agree that one of HS2's weaknesses is its poor integration with the "classic" network?

Transport

£2 cap on single bus fares in England to rise to £3 from January

5p cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel, due to end in April 2025, kept for another year

Commitment to fund tunnelling work to take HS2 high-speed rail line to Euston station in central London

Commitment to deliver upgrade to trans-Pennine rail line between York and Manchester, running via Leeds and Huddersfield

Under normal circumstances, I might sniff at Mr Gilligan's pedigree, but on the four flaws, I feel he may have some good points. As for "Green Signals"...

Mark, thank you for the long response. Might we both agree that one of HS2's weaknesses is its poor integration with the "classic" network?

This may be my first post on HS2; a subject I have previously chosen to avoid.


Under normal circumstances, I might sniff at Mr Gilligan's pedigree, but on the four flaws, I feel he may have some good points. As for "Green Signals"... could we have some more objective commentary, please?

Mr Gilligan, a former advisor to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, blamed four “foundational flaws” – the wrong route, wrong speed, bad connections and “ratchet” project management – for the current state of the line.

Gilligan again....

Gilligan again....

HS2 ‘will run from London Euston to Crewe’ as Government prepares to reverse cut

The Department for Transport has pushed back on reports that the Government is preparing to announce that HS2 will run from London Euston to Crewe.

Rishi Sunak’s government cancelled the northern leg of the line to Crewe and Manchester last year, meaning that trains are currently expected to stop at Birmingham. However, LBC reported today that the Government was considering reviving Phase 2A of the project, which would extend the line from Birmingham to Crewe.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We have always said we won’t be taking plans for HS2 Phase 2 [between Birmingham and Manchester] back off the shelf after the Conservatives took a wrecking ball to the project and allowed costs to spiral completely out of control.

“But we are committed to delivering better rail connectivity across the north, as set out in our manifesto.

“Transport is an essential part of the Government’s mission to rebuild Britain and grow our economy.”

later
Department for Transport dismisses reports of plans for Birmingham-Crewe HS2 link

The Department for Transport has pushed back on reports that the Government is preparing to announce that HS2 will run from London Euston to Crewe.

Rishi Sunak’s government cancelled the northern leg of the line to Crewe and Manchester last year, meaning that trains are currently expected to stop at Birmingham.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We have always said we won’t be taking plans for HS2 Phase 2 [between Birmingham and Manchester] back off the shelf after the Conservatives took a wrecking ball to the project and allowed costs to spiral completely out of control.

“But we are committed to delivering better rail connectivity across the north, as set out in our manifesto.

“Transport is an essential part of the Government’s mission to rebuild Britain and grow our economy.”

No announcement on a link between Birmingham to Crewe is being planned, the department has said.

If as UK PLC we look at HS2 as a 100 to 120 year investment over that time it will more than pay for itself.

A comparison is Crossrail all the naysayers said leading up to and during its construction that no one would ever use it ant would be a white elephant.

In the UK we worry too much about the cost of something and not the value of it

Was any indication given as to how much it'll cost and.........Oooooooooo's gonna pay for it?

Privately funded or taxpayer?

It could all be covered by our Prime Minister's personal wardrobe budget. 

Was any indication given as to how much it'll cost and.........Oooooooooo's gonna pay for it?

Privately funded or taxpayer?

No indication given.

Building HS2 to Euston and Crewe could pay for itself, analysis finds

Extending high-speed line at both ends would let government charge more for rights to run it, rail leaders say

Building HS2 all the way to London Euston and Crewe could save the government money by enabling it to lease the line out for much more, rail industry leaders have told ministers, as the Treasury weighs up whether to fund tunnels to central London.

The High Speed Rail Group proposes selling the rights to run the line as a long-term concession – on a similar basis to the HS1 rail route linking the capital to the Channel tunnel.

Such a concession would be worth about £20bn if fully developed from central London and joining lines to northern cities, but just a fraction of that under current plans to terminate at Old Oak Common and Birmingham, according to an analysis for HSRG.

The coalition of rail and engineering companies, whose members include Hitachi, Alstom, Siemens and Avanti West Coast, argues that spending billions more now to reach Euston and Crewe would still save the Treasury £3.5bn in the long run.

The claims come as the government decides whether to reinstate tunnelling work to Euston, at a critical juncture in construction. Two giant tunnel-boring machines from Germany are still being installed at Old Oak Common despite the last government suspending wider works, after construction contractors warned that it would be hugely more costly and difficult to contemplate tunnelling once the west London station was completed.

While the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has indicated the government wants to ensure HS2 reaches into central London, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has also asked ministers to draw up billions of pounds’ worth of infrastructure cuts.

According to some reports, Reeves is nonetheless planning to announce guarantees for HS2 to Euston in the 30 October budget. However, the funding mechanism is not clear, with Labour having said it would not overturn Rishi Sunak’s shock axing of HS2’s construction into central London and north of Birmingham last October.

Although Labour has pledged to nationalise train operating companies, it has also wooed private investors to potentially build more infrastructure.

HS1 was sold by the government in 2010 for £2.1bn as a 30-year concession to two Canadian pension funds, which resold the rights to other private equity investors in 2017 for £3bn. Concession owners recoup the investment through track access charges to operators such as Eurostar and income from St Pancras station.

In the analysis by HSRG and the policy group Greengauge 21, the current line from Old Oak Common to Birmingham Curzon Street will cost £47bn, but its limitations mean the railway would have a potential concession value of only £5bn. However, building on to Euston and Crewe, while costing another £11.5bn, could make it worth £20bn.

The National Audit Office, among others, has warned that the truncated HS2 risks worsening current services north of Birmingham owing to a lack of capacity when high-speed trains join the overcrowded west coast line.

Dyan Perry, the chair of HSRG and a former chief executive of HS1, said she “appreciates that the forthcoming budget will involve ministers making tough choices. However, short-term decisions to cut investment into infrastructure would be deeply damaging to the UK, creating uncertainty and jeopardising investor confidence.

“We strongly urge Treasury officials to carefully consider our recommendations and take action to ensure the UK can fully realise the benefits of a connected rail network.”

The wider fate of Euston station is still to be decided, with uncertainty over HS2 putting full rebuilding on hold. The Department for Transport and Network Rail last week announced a short-term plan to urgently improve the overcrowded and unappealing terminus, including immediately turning off the much-criticised enormous advertising screen.

Slightly off topic but I've heard go ahead will be given for a new bakerloo line fleet

HS2 "could go to Euston" HMG announce
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm2843glmjo
Sensible IMHO.

Slightly off topic but I've heard go ahead will be given for a new bakerloo line fleet

HS2 "could go to Euston" HMG announce
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm2843glmjo
Sensible IMHO.

That ICE report is ICE Briefing Paper: The cancellation of HS2’s northern leg – learning lessons

I didn't get a clear idea from it of what might or could have been possible if the whole project had been better done from the start. Maybe that's too much to ask for! This commentary has no named author, so presumably it is an institutional opinion.

Two other ICE reports are relevant here. Civil engineering insights on HS2 and alternative proposals is a narrative of the project's evolution to 2022, with limited discussion of some of the cost-reducing alternatives proposed. And Reducing the gap between cost estimates and outturns for major infrastructure projects and programmes does pretty much what its title says. It has rather more about managing risk, unforeseen changes, and expectations than getting estimates that predict outturns.

Not sure if this is covered elsewhere but a report in The Times today (12/09/24). Probably sounds familiar to anyone who's worked in Project Management.

"The absence of a guiding mind, a single accountable individual in Westminster or Whitehall taking ownership of HS2, led to runaway costs and ultimately the cancellation of the second leg of the high-speed railway project north of ­Birmingham to Manchester.

That is a key conclusion of a report by the Institution of Civil Engineers into one of the great national debacles of recent times, which says that the lack of ­a multi-decade commitment to such a large-scale infrastructure scheme left HS2 open to cancellation by a prime minister able to overturn predecessors’ decisions without recourse to parliament."

It is not just about shaving time off of passenger journey time to Manchester and even Glasgow, the key thing it will do is leverage the capacity for freight that phase 1 of HS2 will creates South of Midlands

Analysis of this on the WNXX forum if anyone is interested - https://wnxxforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37546&start=425

In short, it's almost exactly the same route, a little more expensive in the long-run with ballasted track, a bit slower but still 85 minutes Euston to Manchester which seems pretty reasonable to me. 

I based my use of the phrase "U Turn" on this from Starmer......

BBC News - HS2 northern leg not possible to revive - Starmer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67924577

And the quote within it......."Sir Keir Starmer says his party will not revive the northern leg of HS2 if they win the next general election" - which I think most reasonable people would consider pretty unequivocal?

It could only be regarded as a U-turn if the Conservative's had won the GE, whilst I agree Labour had stated they would not automatically reveres the previous Government decision to cancel HS2 phase 2, it would have been foolhardy not have carried out a review of the section North of Handsacre Jcn, the CEO of Network Rail, Andrew Haines, raised concerns and impact the decision by the previous PM would have on the WCML with the DfT.

The capacity release for virtually the whole WCML is to build a Stafford avoiding line, Stafford is where the real bottleneck is currently.  The new line may not be build to the full HS2 spec but even a modern 125 - 150 mph route will give a vast improvement

Could be a U turn approaching?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/22/labour-to-reconsider-building-scrapped-hs2-route/

Could be a U turn approaching?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/22/labour-to-reconsider-building-scrapped-hs2-route/

I am quite sure the empty platforms will soon become an urban jungle with lots of Buddleia. The ajacent areas between the tracks at Proof house and Grand Junctions are completely overgrown and it will soon spred.

Article on HS2's current predicament from New Civil Engineer magazine. Apologies if this suddenly becomes paywalled.

Mark

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/transport-secretary-working-at-pace-on-plan-for-hs2-euston-station-22-07-2024/

Birmingham HS2 station to be completed with four unused platforms
More than half of Curzon Street’s high-speed platforms will be redundant, but it would cost more to pare back the scheme than to finish it
Ben Clatworthy, Transport Correspondent
Friday July 26 2024, 7.45pm, The Times


Birmingham will be left with a vast “white elephant” station after Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap large swathes of the HS2 project.

Sunak announced in October that the second phase of the project, connecting Birmingham and the north of England, would be axed.

However, work on the new seven-platform Birmingham Curzon Street station was so far progressed by the time the decision was made that it will be cheaper to continue as originally planned than to pare back the scheme.

No HS2 northern leg properties sold - minister

No properties bought up for the northern leg of HS2 have been sold since the project was scrapped, the Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed.

Phase two of the high-speed rail line linking the West Midlands to Manchester was cancelled by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in October, amid rising costs.

Transport minister Lord Peter Hendy of Richmond Hill told the House of Lords he understood no sales had been made.

It came in response to concerns about rail capacity between Handsacre in Staffordshire, where HS2 joins the West Coast Main Line, and Crewe.

Speaking on Tuesday, Lord Hendy said: "The prioritisation of the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill is recognition that east-west connectivity is immediately necessary for growth, jobs and housing."

He added that the government would "bear in mind" the issue of connectivity north of Handsacre.

[...continues]

Job cuts and further questions over Euston..............

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/hs2-back-in-the-spotlight-amid-job-cuts-and-euston-woes/ar-BB1qmLlq?ocid=BingNewsVerp

Using the ex-Hs2 Bill to provide East-West connectivity around Crewe instead

Any incoming new government is going to hold a review of HS2 - as of all big spending programmes. Mostly this is done invisibly, but for HS2 I expect something more formal and announced. Its remit is pretty obvious: what's left of HS2 does not make a lot of sense - consider the options for continuing northwards, so as to give most of the benefits of the planned phase 2 at an affordable cost.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill CBE holds a PSV licence .............he will not be the same as Lord Adonis, in regards building new High Speed railways.

He is unlikely to price people off of rail services, it will be more where does the Government investment go, more importantly what investment can the Metro Mayors and County / Local Authorities bring to rail

Our new Minister of State for Rail (no mention of HS2 in the title unlike his predecessor) is none other than Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill CBE, currently chair of Network Rail. Unlike some earlier holders of the post, he has form (I nearly said track record) in public transport over a lot of years, most prominently in London with TfL, then as  Commissioner of Transport, appointed by Ken Livingston and kept on by Boris Johnson. Our new PM seems to have gone for experience and pragmatism, choosing someone who has already worked across party lines. One could be forgiven for thinking that there is a wish for an end to the games of political football over railways in general and HS2 in particular.

Rachel Reeves must surely know where the money for a resurrected northern bit of HS2 would come from, as it would be the same borrowing against future fares as before. A lot of money has already been spent acquiring land and in planning, and whilst that doesn't mean it can't be written off along with compensation for any cancelled contracts, it does mean the cost is likely to be lower per mile. Lord Hendy will be in a better position to lobby for the support if he thinks it is worthwhile putting the whole northern route back on the map, or to identify key areas to improve to get some of the same results if he decides it isn't. Otherwise, he is probably going to have to be the one who decides whether to price passengers off the WCML, or freight, like a sort of pre-emptive Beeching. The extra capacity so badly needed won't happen unless somebody builds it.

I hear there are plans for a plantation of magic money trees.

I'm wondering what the new Chancellor intends to do with all the land north of Birmingham that was purchased for HS2 which the previous administration intended to sell off after that phase was cancelled.  Surely there wasn't time to sell any of it before the election?

I'm wondering what the new Chancellor intends to do with all the land north of Birmingham ...

They have only promised 1.5 million houses

I'm wondering what the new Chancellor intends to do with all the land north of Birmingham ...

I wondered where the 2.5million houses were going to go!

The final questioner in Rachel Reeves' presser this morning (8 July) asked whether HS2 will get to Leeds. Reeves replied that she will not make any commitments until she knows where the money would come from...

Final breakthrough for HS2’s longest tunnel
Published on    21 Mar 2024

    Second tunnel boring machine (TBM), Cecilia, reaches northern portal of 10 mile high-speed rail tunnel under Chiltern Hills.

• Arrival marks completion of mammoth drive taking two years and nine months.
• 2,000 tonne Cecilia joins twin sister machine, Florence, following her arrival last month.
• Download high resolution images of the breakthrough.
• View and embed footage of the spectacular breakthrough moment.

The second giant boring machine (TBM) building HS2 under the Chiltern Hills broke through at the tunnel’s northern portal late this afternoon, completing a journey that began in June 2021.

Named Cecilia, the TBM has driven for 10 miles underground to join twin sister machine – Florence. She arrived at the site near the Buckinghamshire town of Wendover on 27 February, after completing her adjacent tunnel drive.

Between them, the two 2,000 tonne machines have built the twin bore tunnel at depths of up to 80 metres and excavated three million cubic metres of chalk. Each machine operates like an underground factory, able to excavate the tunnels and line them with 56,000 pre-cast concrete tunnel segments, grouting them into place and moving forward at an average speed of 16 metres per day...

I doubt that any power cuts would have resulted. ALL major grid lines are duplicated, with at least one alternative route available in case of fault or failure.
All but the smallest villages have at least two different routes by which power may be supplied.

4.6 The minimum transmission capacity of the MITS shall also be planned such that for the conditions described in paragraph 4.4 and for the secured event of a fault outage of any of the following:
4.6.1 a single transmission circuit, a reactive compensator or other reactive power provider;
4.6.2 a single generation circuit, a single generating unit (or several generating units sharing a common circuit breaker), a single power park module, or a single DC converter;
4.6.3 a double circuit overhead line on the supergrid;
4.6.4 a double circuit overhead line where any part of either circuit is in NGET’s transmission system or SHET’S transmission system;
4.6.5 a section of busbar or mesh corner; or
...
4.6.7 loss of supply capacity (except as permitted by the demand connection criteria detailed in Section 3 and Section ;
4.6.8 unacceptable overloading of any primary transmission equipment;
4.6.9 unacceptable voltage conditions or insufficient voltage performance margins;
4.6.10 system instability; or
4.6.11 Unacceptable Sub-Synchronous Oscillations

That overhead power-carrying pylon is a tad close for comfort. Imagine the power cuts if that had been on top of one of the sinkholes

HS2 have now said Florence will break through today (heard on BBC South Today at lunchtime). If you look on the video, the cutterhead is just short of actually emerging from the face of the retaining wall. So I guess the wall broke up prematurely, perhaps because Florence braked too late.

So how do they get a video of the breakthrough event? Build a new wall quickly? Fake it using footage from their previous videos (they have lots)?

If that was the plan, no-one told Florence. Seen in a drone video having emerged by yesterday, minister or no minister.

BBC (Paul Clifton) reporting that Tuesday’s media visit to film the tunnelling ‘breakthrough’ beneath the Chilterns a short distance from the sinkholes has been postponed.

A coincidence I'm sure!