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The construction of HS2, a high speed rail link between London and the north of England, has been approved. The announcement was made by Boris Johnson yesterday. Phase 1, due for completion in 2028 at the earliest, will be between London and Birmingham; Phase 2, due in 2035 at the earliest, will be two separate lines onwards to Manchester and Leeds.
The trains will travel at up to 250 mph. They will otherwise be conventional, and will take electrical power from overhead catenary. The line will have connections with existing ones, enabling some trains to continue at lower speeds to further destinations, such as Liverpool and Scotland.
The routes will be broadly parallel with existing ones, which are generally running at full capacity. Rail passenger travel in the UK has greatly increased in recent years and this, rather than the reduction in journey times, is the main driver for the project.
Note : It is called HS2 because it is the second high speed line in the UK, HS1 being the link from St. Pancras International railway station in central London to the Channel Tunnel.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday February 14 2020, @02:10PM
Almost everything you've written is wrong
> I can get from London to Leeds for far less than £100 by car, including parking
Parking in central london, plus congestion charge, will set you back nearly that much, unless you're parking someone miles from your destination and relying on the tube
Train from London to Leeds is 2h10 to 2h20 every 30 minutes. It used to take me 2h10 to drive 35 miles into London in the rush hour when I used to drive in daily.
> Gimme an electric car with a decent range and you could do it for pence.
Again ignoring the cost of the vehicle. Even if you had a £10k electric car that needed no maintenence at all (types, batteries, insurance, etc), and lasted 100,000 miles, that's still 10p/mile, that's a £40 round trip. At 3 miles per KWH that's about 4p/mile so another £15. You're assuming the cost of the road is £0
(You're also ignoring the cost of your time)
> oft-delayed (ironically because of things like the works for the HS2 interfering with the normal timetable for the last 10 years!),
I travel long distance every week or two, I haven't managed to claim delay repay (i.e >30 minute delay) for over a year. HS2 works haven't added any delay to any journey
> Ticket prices are far above inflation EVERY SINGLE YEAR
Ticket prices increase by RPI
> not while they're run on basically state-controlled tracks and franchises
You are literally proposing driving on state controlled roads, paid for not by the user, but by the state
> All we have at the moment is a lot of destroyed countryside, compulsory-purchased houses, and a very, very, very expensive contract for people to dig holes.
No we don't have a lot of destroyed countryside. The total amount of "destroyed countryside" is the same as that for a new 10 mile motorway belng built east of London.