Another silly o’ clock start. I’ve been up for an hour getting ready to head South to meet up with my ‘partner in crime’ for a couple of days exploring HS2 railway construction and mitigation sites, but first I’ve got to get to Banbury. The weather’s looking bleak. The rain’s already started here in the Calder Valley so Dawn’s being a star and giving me a lift to the station so that I don’t get a soaking from the off! I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so feel free to keep popping back to see what I get up to…
Wow – the penultimate day of the month already – and spring is here. Well, I’m not too sure about that last bit as the temperature here in the Calder Valley has been up and down like a brides nightie! Plus, it’s been wet – very wet. But, the garden’s bursting into life which means the seasons really must’ve changed. Having been abroad for much of winter I get confused!
Today’s been one spent at home sorting out the logistics of the next few days. That wasn’t easy as arrangements kept changing although that was no fault of mine or my fellow explorer, Penny McGregor, whom I’ll be meeting up with in Banbury tomorrow to begin our formal visit to the largest HS2 construction site at West Hyde (where the Chiltern tunnels and the Colne Valley viaduct are built from) before free-styling it for the next couple of days. Unfortunately the weather’s not looking brilliant tomorrow which may cramp my style photographically but I’m sure I’ll manage somehow.
Apart from logistics I kept occupied with paperwork and pictures as I’ve still a backlog of images to sort out from the Community Rail Conference at the beginning of the week. The images are tweaked enough that I should be able to finish them off whilst I’m travelling tomorrow – although expect a rolling blog about the trip at the same time. I’ll be travelling Halifax- Leeds-Birmingham (change stations) – Banbury which could be interesting on a Friday…
Now it’s time to call it a day. I popped out to do some shopping and get some exercise earlier and now Dawn’s being a star and preparing the side of Salmon and assorted salad veg I returned with so we can eat heartily and have an evening together before I go away for the night tomorrow.
So, what’s the picture of the day? Good question! I’ll be visiting various HS2 construction and mitigation sites, so here’s how West Hyde looked 2021 before the 2nd TBM was launched just for comparison.
On the 13th July 2021 ‘Cecilia’ was just beginning her journey boring the 2nd of the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels. She’s now way past the half-way mark. In the background are the factories making the tunnel segments and the sections for the Colne Valley Viaduct. I’ll be here again tomorrow to see this and much more…
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It’s back after a break over over a year – the crazy anti HS2 campaigner of the week! To be honest, at this stage in the game it would be fair ro say that those left pretending they can somehow stop HS2 all fall into this category, so whilst the talent pool is more of a puddle, they all stand a chance of being featured. But this one is so deliciously bonkers as well as being a great illustration of how that’ll say anything it’s hard to beat. It’s actually Pythonesque! You’ll see why later…
A small new group has sprung up called ‘Greens against HS2’. It’s a panicked response to the success and growing influence of ‘Greens for HS2‘ who’ve done a very credible job influencing green party members by presenting them with reasoned and logical arguments. The difference between the two groups couldn’t be more marked. Those for HS2 stick to the facts and science around railways and climate change, reference their arguments and contain many experts in their fields. Those against rehash the same tired and trite disinformation and seem to be little more than individual party members with no experience or expertise in either climate science or transport or in some cases, reality!
The panic is due to the fact the Green Party is having its annual conference next week and (yet again) there’s a motion being put forward that the party ditches its hypocritical stance of supporting a new North-South high speed line ‘in principle’ but opposes it practice. That’s clearly crazy, but that’s not why I’m writing this blog. There’s something far more batshit and it’s dug up former Stop Hs2 organiser Joe Rukin to spin like a decaying top once more.
Take a look at this!
As usual, Rukin just can’t stop lying! A ‘chemical process’? What chemical process – unless you call mixing mud with water a chemical process as the slurry concerned is just that.
The leak at Ruislip was caused as a tunnel boring machine was tunnelling beneath an old borehole. Someone had forgotten to cap the borehole and a small amount of slurry foam escaped. The TBM was halted for a couple of hours whilst checks were made, then continued on its way. The borehole was sealed from the inside when the next ring of tunnel lining segments were put into place. It was a minor (if slightly embarrassing) moment. Note that the slurry escaped upwards to the surface, not outwards. The idea that this will pollute the aquifer and poison London’s drinking water is hysterical nonsense.
Here’s a link to the emergency motion, calling for “all HS2 operations around the Chiltern Aquifer to be paused”
‘StopHS2’ even tweeted out this handy little diagram pointing out where the incident allegedly occurred.
There’s one big problem they’ve neglected to mention. Guess which way these two TBMs are heading? Eastwards – away from the aquifer towards South Ruislip!In fact, by now they’re almost certain to be outside that blue coloured area! They’ve never been a credible threat to the aquifer, and now they’re even less of one! The emergency motion will be redundant before it’s even debated! Oops…!
Problem number two is that this ’emergency motion’ is nothing more than posturing. Even if the Green party accept it and even agree it, it’s nothing more than hot air. It’s as meaningful as Monty Pythons spoof ‘Popular Front for the liberation of Judea’ resolutions!
Let’s talk realpolitik for a minute. Truth be told, no-one really cares what the Green Party’s stance is on HS2 as the Green Party will never, ever hold the reins of power. They can pass as many resolutions as they like, but as long as they have no way of making them reality is it’s a waste of everyone’s time. The party has 1 MP and will never have any more. Opinion polls give them a rating of 5% nationally but that doesn’t reflect the reality of our First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system which means they don’t stand a chance of beating anyone in any other seat. Sure, they may get a few more local Councillors in the May elections, but this is way above their political pay-grade.
If the Green party do finally change their hypocritical posture on HS2 the only thing it will do is give them back some of the credibility they’ve lost (especially with transport professionals) with their mad policy – and may attract back some of the members who’ve abandoned them in frustration over it. No-one’s stopping HS2 – construction of phase 1 is well advanced and no-one’s ever abandoned a project of this magnitude at this stage of the game, so why have a policy saying you’ll stop the unstoppable when all it does is make you look incredibly stupid. The ‘green’ party is in great danger of becoming known as the anti rail party as it’s allowed its headbanging wing to morph opposition to HS2 into opposition to Northern Powerhouse Rail also (see some of the nonsense put out by greens against HS2 for evidence of that).
Meanwhile, two other HS2 TBMs are now well over half their way through boring the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels without any serious incident and with no pollution to any aquifers in the nearly 2 years they’ve been tunnelling. The other scare story HS2 antis trotted out was that sinking the piles for the Colne Valley viaduct ‘could’ have polluted an aquifer. There’s one problem there. That work’s been completed with all piles successfully sunk – without any problems. No Londoners have keeled over through drinking ‘poisoned’ water and no lakes and streams have been polluted. Soon the various Nimbys and faux ‘greens’ are going to have to cast around for new things to scaremonger about.
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I’ve not blogged about these people for quite some time for the simple reason there’s been nothing of interest to blog about. But I wanted to do a round-up and potted history as I still get asked where they went and my last blog on the subject is way out of date. So, what did happen to them?
The short answer is, in 2022 their campaign collapsed completely with the demise of the Extinction Rebellion inspired ‘HS2Rebellion’ and the last remaining protest camp. Politically, their campaign had given up the ghost several years before.
This was always going to happen. Support had been ebbing away for years as it had become clear to all but the most blinkered that pretending HS2 could be stopped when construction was well underway was a fools errand. The protest camps were always a sideshow. They were an attempt to attract publicity and raise funds but they never stood a chance of success as they were poorly supported, many were in the wrong place and the people in them were such a rag-bag of conflicting ideologies and interests. A mixture of Nimbys, part-timers who just turned up to party plus a tiny hard-core of ‘professional’ protesters who drifted from one lost cause to another. The camps also attracted their fair share of ne’er-do-wells and damaged people, hence some camps getting reputations for thievery, sexual harassment and violence. Some young idealists attracted to the cause through social media soon had their dreams shattered by the reality of life in the camps and never returned. Plus, wealthy Chiltern Nimbys and a rag-bag of anarchists and left-wing dreamers (and a few thieves) were always going to be uneasy bedfellows – as it proved. Many opponents of HS2 in the Chilterns weren’t too sad to see the back of the camps.
The kamikaze tactics of people in the camps also limited their effectiveness as once people were arrested they had bail conditions imposed which kept them away from HS2 sites. Other had injunctions taken out against them which kept them away from places like the first protest camp at Harvil Rd near London. Support also waned when the camps nearest to London were evicted as that’s where the biggest pool of weekenders and party people came from. The final camp was in rural Staffordshire, far away from the Nimby heartlands of the Chilterns and London, plus local support was lukewarm to say the least. Money began to dry up too. In the past people had donated 10s of 1000s via various crowdfunders but these became mired in controversy as no-one ever knew where the money actually went. This led to some very public spats and fallings out which I’ve documented in the past.
The final nails in the coffin were the eviction of the ‘Bluebell’ camp in Staffordshire which fell extremely quickly. Three activists retreated into a tunnel that had been dug underneath the camp and stayed their for 47 days in an attempt to attract publicity, but they received very little. No-one was really interested in three people in a hole in the ground that was so far away from the Londoncentric media. Euston Sq gardens it wasn’t!
Meanwhile, events in the High Court in Birmingham were about to hammer home the final nail…
HS2 Ltd had applied to the High Court for a route-wide injunction that would ban any further disruptive protests or trespass on HS2 land. Over the years HS2 security and bailiffs had amassed a huge amount of evidence showing the dangerous, disruptive and violent nature of the protesters and this evidence was submitted to the Judge. Ironically, evidence was also provided by the protesters themselves through some of the video recording and livestreams they’d stuck on social media in an attempt to drum up support and funds. This backfired spectacularly in court! The old adage about ‘give ’em enough rope’ couldn’t have been more apt! There are thousands and thousand of pages of court documents, which you can find here.
After months of deliberations, Mr Justice Knowles granted the route-wide injunction on the 20th September 2022.
Contrary to claims from the protesters, the injunction did not make protesting against HS2 ‘illegal’. The injunction’s very specific in its wording about what it covers, which is;
(2) PERSONS UNKNOWN ENTERING OR REMAINING WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE CLAIMANTS ON, IN OR UNDER LAND ACQUIRED OR HELD BY THE CLAIMANTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE HIGH SPEED TWO RAILWAY SCHEME SHOWN COLOURED PINK, AND GREEN ON THE HS2 LAND PLANS AT https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-route-wide-injunction-proceedings (“THE HS2 LAND”) WITH THE EFFECT OF DAMAGING AND/OR DELAYING AND/OR HINDERING THE CLAIMANTS, THEIR AGENTS, SERVANTS, CONTRACTORS, SUBCONTRACTORS, GROUP COMPANIES, LICENSEES, INVITEES AND/OR EMPLOYEES
(3) PERSONS UNKNOWN OBSTRUCTING AND/OR INTERFERING WITH ACCESS TO AND/OR EGRESS FROM THE HS2 LAND IN CONNECTION WITH THE HS2 SCHEME WITH OR WITHOUT VEHICLES, MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT, WITH THE EFFECT OF DAMAGING AND/OR DELAYING AND/OR HINDERING THE CLAIMANTS, THEIR AGENTS, SERVANTS, CONTRACTORS, SUBCONTRACTORS, GROUP COMPANIES, LICENSEES, INVITEES AND/OR EMPLOYEES WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE CLAIMANTS
(4) PERSONS UNKNOWN CUTTING, DAMAGING, MOVING, CLIMBING ON OR OVER, DIGGING BENEATH OR REMOVING ANY ITEMS AFFIXED TO ANY TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT FENCING OR GATES ON OR AT THE PERIMETER OF THE HS2 LAND, OR DAMAGING, APPLYING ANY SUBSTANCE TO OR INTERFERING WITH ANY LOCK OR ANY GATE AT THE PERIMETER OF THE HS2 LAND WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE CLAIMANTS
With the injunction in force it was game over for the protesters who’ve never attempted to set up another camp, or break the terms of the injunction. To reinforce the seriousness of their position, a couple of protesters were given jail time for contempt of court. As usual the protesters tried to spin this as being jailed for protesting. It was no such thing, but you flout the authority of the courts at your peril! One of the protesters, Elliott Cuciurean (aka ‘Jellytot) remains behind bars now.
In October 2022 one of the protesters named in the injunction (James Taylor, aka ‘Jimmy Knaggs’) started to raise money for an appeal, but his application was refused on the 9th December 2022. There will be no appeal. In typically underhand fashion, the news of the refusal of leave to appeal has been kept quiet. It’s not mentioned on any of the protest groups Facebook pages. Instead, there’s still a Crowdfunder running to raise money to fund the non-existent appeal – although no-one’s been mug enough to donate for quite some time. Here’s a screenshot from today.
No update since May 2022. No news the appeal was refused but the crowdfunder’s renewed for another 30 days every time it expires. With just 10 days left that means it was last renewed Early January – long after the appeal was refused!. Sounds like a scam to me…
So, it’s game over for the protest camps and the protesters trying to interfere with HS2. Now scattered to the four winds with many of them having simply disappeared, there’s no way back for them. HS2 ‘rebellion’ exists only as a few social media accounts which occasionally recycle the odd newspaper article critical of HS2 or try and raise more money for the lad in prison. No-one’s trying to stop HS2 anymore…
The political campaign died even earlier. Originally, there had been 2 main groups opposing HS2. The High Speed 2 Action Alliance (HS2AA) based in the Chilterns and ‘StopHs2’ based in Kenilworth in Warwickshire. HS2AA gave up in 2016 after getting the Wendover tunnel extension as that was on their doorstep. StopHS2 staggered on until 2020. They were only two people, Joe Rukin in Kenilworth and Penny Gaines in err…Bournemouth! Joe was the main mouthpiece who would do the media interviews where he’d often lie through his teeth – all to no avail! He’s left behind an interesting legacy on Social Media – a trail of lies and half-truths which really haven’t aged well.
During the injunction proceedings Rukin was named as a defendant and was forced to admit that StopHS2 had given up campaigning against HS2 in 2020!
As for the supposed ‘StopHs2 North’, it doesn’t exist. There’s no such organisation. You can’t find any trace of it anywhere. Stop HS2 have even given up posting stuff on their website now. From posting stuff daily they only managed 6 stories last year, the last of which was in June 2022. There’s been nothing in 2023 and I doubt there will be.
Political pressure was the only hope of stopping HS2 but it never stood a chance as it never had any real political support in Parliament, especially in the Lords which has always been very pro HS2. When the Phase 1 HS2 bill passed 2nd reading in 2014 only 41 MPs voted against the bill. More than half of them are no longer MPs!
The Phase 2a Bill (West Midlands to Crewe) passed 2nd reading on the 30th January 2018 with another crushing majority of 295 to 12. Interestingly enough, some of the 41 MPs who voted against Phase 1 voted FOR phase 2a whilst others abstained! I blogged about it at the time here.
Phase 2b (Crewe to Manchester) passed 2nd reading on the 20th June 2022. By this time those voting against had dwindled to just 6 whilst 206 MPs voted for. The 6 were the usual suspects, including Greg Smith the hardline Brexiter from Buckinghamshire and (equally Brexity) Bill Cash. In fact, a Venn diagram of MPs who’re rabid Brexit supporters but who also oppose HS2 would be an almost perfect circle. This would encompass the few former Labour MPs who opposed HS2, like Kate Hoey. Co-incidence? I think not. You can see the malign influence of the Tufton St cabal at work here. After the 2019 election when there was a new intake of MPs noises were made about reforming a Parliamentary group of MPs who opposed HS2 called the HS2 Review Group but it never came to anything.
The problem for these few MPs and the Tufton St cabal is there are no more Parliamentary votes on HS2 for quite some considerable time. Legislation to build HS2 all the way to Manchester has passed. 2nd reading is the only stage that really matters as that establishes the principle of the bill. 3rd reading in the Commons and the process in the Lords can’t change that. By the time the next Hybrid bill appears we’ll have a new Government. Barring a disaster the Tories will be out on their arses and Labour will be in with a huge majority – and Labour are committed to building HS2 in full.
So, there’s really nowhere for the remaining opponents of HS2 to turn. They’re a dead duck politically and the protesters are finished. All that’s left is a dwindling bunch of Nimbys, right-wing libertarians and faux ‘greens’ wasting their time ranting in their social media echo-chamber. No-one sees them as a threat to HS2.
Meanwhile, HS2 construction is speeding up unopposed. Many of the major structures on Phase 1 are already under construction (for example, the Chiltern tunnels are already 50% complete) and work will only ramp up more this year. Civils Work on Phase 2 a to Crewe will be starting shortly whilst the Petitioning Ctte for Phase 2b from Crewe to Manchester will be sitting through 2023. It will be interesting to see how many people actually petition this Ctte as there were always so few StopHS2 ‘action’ groups on this section of the line.
I suspect this will be my final blog on the anti Hs2 campaign as it’s ceased to exist in any meaningful way. Oh, there might be some mad ones to poke fun at sometime during the year, but that’s it. It really is all over now. Most of my time now will be spent reporting on progress building HS2, not on those who so spectacularly failed to stop it!
It’s a short blog from me tonight as it’s been a long old day and it’s time for bed! This morning I was at the HS2 construction site at Old Oak Common in London to see the Rail and HS2 Minister, Huw Merriman MP, start the new conveyor belt that will carry the London clay being excavated from the HS2 station box across to the former Willesden Eurotunel sidings where the spoil will be removed by rail. Eventually, the 1.7 mile long conveyor system will link three HS2 construction sites to Willesden.
Here’s Huw pressing the button to start the conveyor.
There a whole series of pictures showing construction progress in my dedicated HS2 gallery on my Zenfolio website. You can find them by following this link.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
It’s not often that I have the opportunity to fillet so much dishonest and fact-free nonsense about HS2 in the media nowadays, but I’ve been given the rare threat thanks to two people who’ve been writing trash about HS2 for years. Yesterday it was Andrew ‘transcription error’ Gilligan, one of the Tories client journalists who for many years was embedded in the heart of the Tory party as one of Boris Johnson’s coterie.
Today it’s the turn of the dyspeptic Simon Jenkins, whose penned his latest fact-free polemic in the Guardian, which you can find here. It’s up to his usual standard, loads of assertions with no facts to back it up and made-up numbers for the ‘true’ cost of HS2. I’ve examined Jenkins troubled relationship with facts before in this blog.
However, Jenkin’s goes one further than Gilligan and claims that ALL of HS2 should be cancelled immediately – even Phase 1 where construction is well advanced. To support his claim, Jenkins says this;
“A New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, famously halted a rail tunnel under the Hudson river by simply ordering the contractors to fill in the hole”.
There just one teeny problem with this claim. It’s complete and utter bollocks. Jenkins has made it up, and the reality shows Jenkins example of the ARC demonstrates that his idea is short-sighted and stupid in the extreme.
Here’s the reality. Chris Christie does exist. He was the Republican Governer of New Jersey between 2010 and 2018 when he lost to his Democrat challenger. He’d put his hat in the ring for his party’s Presidential nomination, he got nowhere, but Donald Trump did, Christie endorsed him and joined his team, and the rest, as they say, is history.
But what about this tunnel? That didn’t exist. There *were* plans to build one (there still are). Known as ‘Access to the Regions Core’ (ARC) the plan was to build two new tunnels from New Jersey to Manhattan and a new railway station next to Penn Station which was at capacity. The original cost of the project was estimated at $8.7bn. Preparations for building the tunnels began in 2009 with a completion date of 2018, but in 2010 Christie effectively cancelled the project by withdrawing his part of the funding, citing ‘concerns’ about cost overruns. By the time the project was cancelled in October 2010 all that was built was the Palisades ‘tunnel’, an underpass under Tonnelle Ave in North Bergen. Contracts *had* been let for tunnelling, Skanska had won the design and build contract for the full Palisades Tunnel on May 5, 2010, just 5 months earlier but tunnelling proper hadn’t even begun.
That wasn’t the end of the story. The decision was controversial and Christie became embroiled in a series of legal actions over where the money went – especially Federal funding towards the project. The federal government demanded repayment of funding received by New Jersey Transit for the project. After litigation, an agreement was reached where part of the funds were returned while other monies were used on transit-related projects.
That wasn’t the end of the story. Christie’s administration was later investigated and fined $400,00 for diverting funds from the project to subsidise various roads projects. Plus, some of New Jersey’s funds earmarked for ARC were eventually diverted to the state transportation trust, normally funded by a gasoline tax, one of the lowest in the United States. This was believed by many to be a cynical attempt to subsidise motoring by avoiding raising gas tax,
In March 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal agency, published a report entitled Commuter Rail Potential Impacts and Cost Estimates for the Cancelled Hudson River Tunnel Project,which concluded that Christie’s basis for cancellation was a misrepresentation and that he misstated the estimated costs, cost over-runs, and New Jersey’s obligation to pay them (see link)
So, was anything ‘filled in’ as Jenkins claims? No, because the project never really died because it was still needed. This need became ever more evident after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy caused damage to the existing 100 year old rail tunnels which led to flooding of the New York subway. It’s estimated $5bn damage was caused to the rail systems. Some of the completed design and engineering work has been used by Amtrak to develop the Gateway Programme, which will build yes – you’ve guessed it – new tunnels under the Hudson! The Gateway Project was unveiled on February 7, 2011, just 4 months after Christie cancelled ARC.
So, the project Jenkins cites isn’t dead at all. Nothing was filled in and the delays and political shenanigans have cost taxpayers dearly! The original ARC project was budgeted at $10 billion and was due to open in 2018-20. The Gateway programme’s 2022 projected cost of the tunnels and related projects is $16.1 billion.
What Jenkins completely fails to mention is cancelling a project where no main construction works and no Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) were running is a very different kettle of fish to HS2, where the Chiltern tunnels are already over 8 miles long, the Long Itchington Tunnel has one of the 1-mile-long tunnels completed and at West Rusilip there are two more TBMs already boring East into London. Oh, and that’s without the 3.5km long Colne Valley viaduct which is already well underway! Add in all the other civil engineering work along the phase 1 route and we’re talking of 10s of billions already spent or committed. To claim this can just be cancelled or ‘filled in’ is nothing more than idiocy. But then when did Jenkins ever deal in reality when it comes to HS2? The most amusing thing about Jenkins using the Hudson tunnels as an example of how you could scrap HS2 (apart from the fact it was bollocks) is it’s exactly the opposite. It’s a classic example of why you shouldn’t cancel these vital projects and how doing so comes back to bite you on the arse!
Unlike Jenkins US tunnel which was never started much less ‘filled in’. here’s one of the HS2 Chiltern tunnels under construction. This is now over 4 miles long, as is its next door neighbour. The Long Itchington tunnel is half-complete and the West Ruislip tunnels already have two TBMs running. That’s over 9 miles of tunnels bored already…
January 1st 2023 update.
I was sent this link yesterday which puts the nail in the coffin of Jenkins nonsense. The new rail tunnel under the Hudson is on its way…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Today the right-wing press and a few other media outlets are falling over themselves to report of the latest right-wing nonsense about HS2 from the secretive political lobbyists at ‘Policy Exchange’.
But who are ‘policy exchange’? none of the media bothers to ask.
Like other right-wing lobbyists, PE claim to be an educational charity. They bill themselves as “the UK’s most influential think tank”, an appellation awarded to them by the right-wing newspapers who lap up whatever they report. Yep, that’s the reason they’re ‘influential’. Their friends in the media push their agenda and the organistion has a revolving door with Tory Governments, with many of its members having been part of Tory administrations at advisory or Ministerial level!
How you can be an educational charity when it’s plain to anyone who does the slightest research that they’re actually political lobbyists is a sad indictment of the laws around charities and political lobbying. Sadly, the Charity Commission is both weak and feeble when it comes to allowing overtly political lobby groups to get away with claiming charitable status and availing themselves of the tax breaks that bestows. PE is also the opaquest of all the ‘think-tanks’ when it comes to revealing who funds it. You can read more about that here on the ‘Teacher Toolkit’ website.
PE was set up in 2002 by prominent Tories including Nicholeas Boles as its first Director. Micheal Gove as Chairman and also Francis Maude. There’s a long list of familiar names associated with the right-wing and PE, including one who wrote the latest hatchet job on HS2. Step forward, Andrew ‘transcription error’ Gilligan! Former advisor to Boris Johnson (both when he was Mayor of London and Prime Minister). Gilligan’s long had antipathy towards HS2, so his fingerprints being on this report ‘HS2: The kindest cut of all’ are hardly a surprise.
So, what does Gilligan claim? Nothing new at all, so no change there then! In fact, the report is just the usual rehash of old claims about HS2 the libertarian right have been bandying around for years. Gilligan has a long history of rehashing knocking copy about HS2, as I’ve blogged about in the past.
“By cancelling all sections of HS2 where main construction has not yet started, we can save around £3bn a year by 2027/8, and £44bn or more in total.”
And the evidence for this is? There’s none, apart from a few back of a fag-packet calculations and assumptions, each one is caveated with the phrase “likely to be an underestimate“. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? How is this meant to ‘fill’ a supposed black hole in the Government’s current budget? It can’t – obviously, this is pure spin on the part of the media who’re reporting on this. Not only would it not fill any holes in Government coffers, but Gilligan’s suggestion also to stop work at Euston would actually COST money as contracts would be cancelled and compensation paid and workers (who’re currently paying tax) would be laid off.
Whilst admitting it’s not possible to scrap phase 1 of HS2 are construction is already well underway and the costs and penalties would be astronomical he does suggest scrapping the line from Old Oak Common into Euston. What Gilligan completely ignores is the fact Old Oak Common can’t be used as a replacement for Euston station as it’s far, far too small and would hamstring any possibility of running a full service on HS2, thus rendering the project pointless. This is classic penny-pinching and either not understanding (or deliberately ignoring) why a 10-platform station at Euston is being built in the first place. Gilligan claims people can change onto the Elizabeth line and use that to get to Central London instead. In that he contradicts himself as earlier in the report he claims that to cope with the extra passenger numbers HS2 would bring to Euston we’d need Crossrail 2’s capacity. Yet Crossrail 1 (which wasn’t designed to cope with HS2 passengers) can somehow fit everyone on regardless! But then, consistency has never been Gilligan’s forte. Gilligan grudgingly admits that “Old Oak will, admittedly, be less convenient than Euston for passengers seeking to continue their journeys by taxi, car or foot, or going to the Eurostar terminal”. But he completely ignores another dimension and reason Euston was chosen as the HS2 terminus. It not only has East-West connectivity, but it also has something Old Oak doesn’t have – North-South connectivity, Euston serves the whole of London in a way Old Oak never could – even if it had the platform capacity! That a former transport advisor to the Mayor of London doesn’t understand this (or more likely, choses to ignore because it doesn’t fit his narrative) tells you a lot about Gilligan.
Building HS2 at Euston in October 2021. Gilligan completely ignores the reasons Euston was chosen as the terminus (connectivity) and the fact the railway systems are designed and developed, it’s only the oversite development where plans are in a state of flux.
We see other bald assertions such as “HS2’s real benefit-cost ratio may be somewhere between 0.4 and 0.7 – even at the official price” (note the word ‘may’ doing some very heavy lifting there’s no evidence for this claim is offered at all). Gilligan often quotes the BCR as being lower than 1, occasionally he admits this excludes the wider economic impacts (WEIs) but completely ignores the fact the WEI’s are woefully underestimated because they don’t include real environmental impacts such as tackling Climate Change. Transport is the biggest single emitter of carbon in the UK, but Gilligan hardly even mentions the environment in his ‘report’ except when he makes this evidence free assertion “Per pound spent, almost literally any other public transport project imaginable could achieve greater modal shift and CO2 reduction than HS2; that it takes vast sums away from such projects is another of its environmental harms”. Yet again we see the fabrication that HS2 is taking money “away” from other things. The truth? Cancelling HS2 wouldn’t release any money for anything else: the money just doesn’t exist until the government issues the bonds for it. Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that (just as they did with HS1) the government can make money from selling the operating concession, which you can’t do if you don’t build it, or only build a rump of HS2 that makes the whole project pointless (which is what Gilligan wants).
Gilligan makes much play about the conservative %’s the Government use for modal shift from other modes of transport to HS2. As usual, these percentages have no context, saying what they’re percentages of. 3% of 100 is tiny, 3% of (say) 100 million is a very different proposition. Plus, what are the carbon savings by moving from high carbon travel (domestic air) to high-speed rail? Gilligan ignores that as it’s inconvenient. It’s also worth noting that whilst Gillian rubbishes any official figures he doesn’t like, the takes the governments modal shift numbers as holy writ, yet the Government’s forecast method is known to be weak. It specifically excludes any factors that favour rail over car or air. Plus, mainland Europe high-speed rail has much higher from-air percentage than the UK Governments figures All the UK modal shift claims are ridiculously low compared to what has actually happened with high-speed rail elsewhere – for which empirical evidence exists.
Reading the report it’s clear that Gilligan’s ignored the most important reasons for building HS2 (rail capacity and the environment) in order to focus solely on what always drives these libertarians. Money and ideology. He offers no alternatives to HS2 because that would mean admitting the central reasons for building it. Instead, he dismisses it purely on the grounds of cost with the spurious arguments that we ‘can’t afford’ HS2 and that the money can be used to fill holes elsewhere – even though that money doesn’t actually exist until it’s borrowed. There isn’t and never has been a big pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘for HS2’ just waiting to be rebadged and spent on other things.
No doubt the usual suspects will fawn over Gilligan and his recycled report, despite it being the usual rehash he’s made a career out of. Will it stop HS2? Of course not. He never has. Because even this Government is starting to realise that it’s these ‘think-tanks’ and their loony libertarian thinking that doomed Truss and got the Tories into the mess they’re in now. If a ‘black hole’ does exist, it’s because of the ‘think tanks’ that Truss listened to! Cancelling HS2 would add another nail in the coffin of their reputation of economic competence and leave the UK looking even more like a laughing stock, unable to build infrastructure because the swivel-eyed loons on the right want small government (and tax cuts).
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Welcome to November folks! Apologies for the sparseness of blogging during October. That was due to two things. The first was our fortnight long holiday in Greece where I made the conscious decision to step back from social media and have a bit of a detox. However, the last few days absence has been due to the fact that I’ve been down with some sort of lurgi. It wasn’t Covid (I did a test) but some of the symptoms were similar and I felt like death warmed up! I’ve been confined to bed since Sunday and now seem to be making a recovery. The aches, pains, sore throat have eased but my energy levels still aren’t back to normal, so I’ll be taking it easy at home for the rest of the week. Not that that’s a problem as I’ve plenty to do at Bigland Towers. Whilst I’ve spent most of my time sleeping, I have been editing pictures during some of my waking hours in an effort to clear the massive backlog of images I have going back as far as September. Tonight, I managed to get all the shots from our Greek trip onto my Zenfolio website. You can find those ones here. I’ve also been wading my way through images of my visit to the HS2 construction sites at West Ruislip, Denham and Calvert on Thursday. I’ve added them to this gallery. Now all I’ve got to do is complete editing pictures from September’s trip to Germany, which are beginning to appear here. The other major bit of work I have to do is finish writing the 3rd part of my round Britain trip for RAIL magazine. I’d hoped to have had it done by now but being ill has rather got in the way. Once that’s done I’m free to start thinking about other things – and catch up with writing some blogs on my various HS2 site visits.
November promises to be another busy month with various jobs in the pipeline and places to visit, but I’m determined to get back to blogging too. I’ve missed it – and I hope some of you have done too!
In the meantime, here’s a return of the picture of the day. This one’s from Thursday’s trip to attend the launch of the 2nd HS2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to begin its journey under London – and the 5th HS2 TBM all told. That makes 5 of the 10 machines launched now. It was quite a privilege to be aboard ‘Caroline’ when the button was pressed to start her up – and to have a tour of the machine whilst she was running. Here’s what she looks like from just behind the cutting head.
Mike Lyons, HS2’s Civils Director (left) and Michael Greiner, Head of Tunnelling for Skanksa JV discuss the intricacies of ‘Caroline’ as she begins her 5 mile long journey under London. The pistons you see above them push the TBM forward off the first ring of segments. The plate in the foreground lifts the 8 tonne segments into place after they’re delivered into the bowels of the machine. This happens every 2 meters. Individual pistons are retracted to create space for a segment, then pushed back into place before the next segment is added. Seven segments make up each ring.
If you want to learn more about how a TBM works HS2 Ltd have produced this excellent video graphic.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’m on the last leg of my trip home after what’s turned out to be a fun-filled day – although it didn’t initially feel like that when my alarm went off at 06:30!
However, as I made my weary way from my friends flat to Clapham Junction station, I was treated to one of those spectacular sunrises that literally brightens your day. Sadly, I didn’t have time to grab more than a camera phone shot from the station as I had an appointment to keep. Making my way across central London via the ‘tube’ I pitched up at Marylebone station for the short train trip out to West Ruislip, the location of today’s press event. HS2 Ltd are launching two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) from a site adjacent to the railway. The TBMs will spend the next 2 years tunnelling South to bore 5 miles of tunnels. The first machine (Sushila) was launched a couple of weeks ago and is already 70 meters underground. We were here to see the launch of the second machine, named ‘Caroline’. I’ll blog about this in detail later, but for now, here’s a few pictures from the event.
Looking down on ‘Caroline’ (nearest the camera) and ‘Sushila’, who’s already 70 meters into her journey. Behind the fence in the background id the Chiltern railway line to Birmingham. The HS2 site is rail connected as the tunnel lining segments will be brought in by train from a factory at the Isle of Grain in Kent.Suited and booted for the job. Not a bad way to spend my birthday as very few people get to see the inside of a TBM.Here’swhat’s behind me. The tail of ‘Caroline’ with a ring of 7 tunnel segments already loaded.Inside ‘Caroline’ just behind the cutting head. A ring is already in place and the TBM’s pistons are pushing the machine forward off them. The machine in the foreground is a rotating drum that picks up the individual 8 tonne segments and puts them in place once the individual rams blocking the way are retracted. Each ring is 2 meters wide and consists of 7 segments.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Well, it took up some time but I managed to get all of the last few days pictures edited, titled and filed on my Zenfolio website. Follow this link to see which galleries they’ve been added to. Of course the ‘big’ one is the gallery of High-Speed 2 (HS2) construction pictures. If that’s your bag, you can find ’em here.
The rest of the day’s flown. Dawn’s been out for the day to spend time with her folks whilst I’ve been chained to a computer but we’ve both had good times in out own way. I managed to escape later in the afternoon to enjoy a long walk before meeting up with friends in our local pub for a few games of pool. I’m slowly rediscovering the old skills but sometimes my shots are shocking! I blame the fact my glasses have got smaller over the years. Remember Dennis Taylor, the snooker player and the fact he looked like he wore his upside down? That’s what I need! Still, none of us take it seriously. It’s merely an opportunity to have a few beers whilst laughing, joking and doing something other than just propping up a bar. Now the pair of us are back at home for a quiet night in with some home-cooked food and a movie. Not exactly the ‘rock and roll’ lifestyle but it suits us as we’ve got some busy weeks ahead of us.
As it’s nearly showtime I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is one from my trips out earlier in the week. This HS2 environmental mitigation site at Ladbroke in Northants hit the headlines in 2008 when the national media latched on to a story from HS2 opponents that mitigation work was ‘greenwash’. Why? because many of the newly planted trees died in the 2018 heatwave as it simply wasn’t practical or economic to water them. What made more sense was to replace them with new saplings, which is what happened. But, contrary to the anti HS2 hype, not all of them did die. Plus, you don’t know what’s in many of those plastic tubes (used to stop deer eating everything) until you peer into it or the tree makes it to the top.
I visited the Ladbroke site on Thursday. Dead it ain’t…
Oh, and if you’re still unsure, here’s what you see when you peer into some of those ’empty’ tubes…
Unlike the anti HS2 protesters I’ll be visiting sites like this on a regular basis over the next few years in order to document the reality on the ground. Watch this space…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 