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  1. Tbh, im not as annoyed about this as i might have been mainly because I think the Eastern Leg Route that was decided on was a load of shite.

  2. Acceptable-Pin2939 on

    Bought at insane cost and then dithered about with by our previous all genius overlords and probably sold off for cheap v

    Thanks Tories.

  3. cosmic_monsters_inc on

    And the other day they on about a train to Berlin. They can barely get one up north.

  4. winkwinknudge_nudge on

    But I was told by people here how much better Labour would be with HS2 and handling the North…

  5. To be completely honest, I think HS2 east was dead after the IRP of 2021 & i don’t think there’s much will to bring it back unlike the leg to Manchester & Crewe. Although there will be some provision for some form of spur east from HS2 remaining at Delta Junction, so i suspect that a tiny spur towards Tamworth might be built from HS2 just to at least allow some MML services to switch to HS2, but that is also unlikely.

  6. CrushingPride on

    Let’s do a quick comparison to Japan’s high speed rail:

    **Tokaido Line:**

    Building time: 1959-1964

    Length: 515.5km

    Top Speed: Initially 130 mph, later 177 mph

    Cost per km (in 2025 £): £26.8 million

    **Kyushu Line:**

    Building time: 1991-2004

    Length: 127km in 2004, later extended

    Top Speed: Currently 160 mph

    Cost per km (in 2025 £): £44 million

    **HS2 Phase 1:**

    Building time: 2019 – currently expected after 2033

    Length: 225 km

    Top Speed: Planned 225 mph

    Cost per km (in 2025 £): **£257 to £300 million** based on different recent estimates

    Note that approximately £2.5 billion has been spent on parts of HS2 that have since been scrapped.
    Also The HS2 line *does* have more underground sections than the two Japanese lines mentioned.

    Sources: The wikipedia pages of each line, Full Fact, and “Shinkansen: From bullet train to symbol of modern Japan” by Christopher Hood.

  7. Insanely short sighted. The tories legacy of failure will haunt the country for decades to come.

  8. Slight_Art_6121 on

    What a waste of money. And some people on these pages want that the UK government to become the owner of infrastructure such as water and sole operational manager of rail.

    Is there anymore evidence needed that government is by its nature incompetent on this scale (and on top of that very much driven by political rather than economic forces).

  9. Suspicious-Half2593 on

    Guarantee they sell it for cheaper than they brought it to their mates

  10. Small-External4419 on

    Brexit

    HS2

    Covid corruption loans

    Trussonomics

    The Tories can never again say they are the fiscally responsible party

  11. teacozyheadedwarrior on

    They should have started building from the north down. More chance of quicker wins, relatively cheaper to make more progress (miles of track) than in London and the time savings would have been greater, relatively speaking.

  12. ihavenocluehelp999 on

    Why not use the properties for social housing, seems extremely short sighted to flog it. I might be missing something here.

  13. Fucking criminal how HS2 has been mishandled. The bureaucracy is insane, personally just involved in some survey work but the amount of people / effort required to dig a few holes in a field is just stupid.

  14. Minimum_Area3 on

    I never want to hear the opinions of leftist on government projects again.

    Used to work at a heavy rail specialist engineering company (German) and they saw this was fkn a fail for miles off and wanted nothing to do with it.

  15. Absolute insanity, this is the leg that should have been built first as there is no good rail line at all in this direction at present.