Over the past few weeks I’ve been privileged to visit two of the major High Speed 2 railway construction sites. Firstly the one at Calvert, Buckinghamshire on the 23rd June where HS2 will cross the rebuilt East-West Railway, then the site at West Hyde in Hertfordshire on the 13th July where the Chiltern tunnels are being driven North whilst the Colne valley viaduct will be built Southwards. My article on the Calvert site will be appearing in a future edition of RAIL magazine but I’ll be blogging at length about my visit to West Hyde next week. Both visits demonstrate how construction of the new railway is ramping up massively now that contractors have finally been able to mobilise and begin the main civil engineering. This process will really more obvious next year when the Colne valley viaduct starts to span the lakes as you can’t see the tunneling and many cuttings that are being constructed are below peoples line of sight, so out of view – especially as they’re tucked away in the countryside. It’s the bridges and stations that are the most visible signs of progress. I’ve now got most of the pictures I’ve taken during my visits online. You can find them in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.
Over the the next few months I’ll be visiting other HS2 construction site to bring you views and in-depth news of what’s actually going on with the largest construction project in Europe. As well as the engineering I’ll be talking a look at some of the ecological and mitigation work that’s being carried out to make this the greenest project of its kind.
What you’ll be hearing less and less about is the protests against HS2, becuase they’ve collapsed.
Having reached their height last summer they’ve been gradually fizzling out ever since. The Euston Gardens tunnel eviction early this year was their most public failure, but there’s been many since. Now, even their umbrella group – HS2Rebellion – are tacitly admitting that the protests asre on the wane. Yesterday they announced that after 38 issues their weekly (no)newsletter is going from weekly to fortnightly!
Mind you, its appearence has beeb patchy for some months due to a lack of anything to report. Deserted ‘protection’ camps don’t produce anything so they’ve filled space by talking about other political campaigns. Here’s a look at their probel. These are the ‘protection’ camps they list on their website with my annotations to reflect the true picture that HS2Rebellion aren’t admitting.
Hardly what you’d call an active campaign, is it? The handful of people left at the camps are in no position to mount any coherent actions against HS2, most of their time seems to be spent getting splinters in their backsides whilst appealling for funds to keep them in food. Even their social media activity’s dropping away as the mostly young people involved lose interest and find other things to get outraged about. When you consider the summer is meant to be the height of the activist season it’s clear they’re a busted flush now.
Come the autumn when it’s clear they’ve failed to ‘protect’ anything, much less actually stop HS2 I’m expecting the last few camps on Phase 1 to pack up and the people involved either drift off to other campaigns or try to set up new camps on Phase 2a. But they have several problems. Their support up North is nowhere near as strong or well-established as it was in the Chilterns, the weather’s harsher in the winter and they’re going to be waiting until Spring 2024 before the main civils work starts on phase 2a. That’s three winters away. Care to take bets on how many people are willing or able to sit around for that length of time – even if they’re not evicted first? So, as you can see, this is going to be the final year of any organised (and I use that term very loosly) campaign against HS2, which leaves me free to write about other things. No doubt I’ll still keep a watchful eye on the rump of their campaign as it continues to sink but I’m looking forward to writing future blogs on the positive events going on with the HS2 project.
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Ugh! The alarm went off at 05:00 this morning in order for me to have a shower, an injection of caffeine and a sugar rush- thanks to Dawn’s freshly made Bakewell tart. Just to add to the excitement the cat decided to be sick and feel sorry for himself so it wasn’t the most relaxed start to the day as we had to clean Jet up before we left. Dee was up too in order to drive me to the station (thank you babe! X) but on the bright side we both enjoyed a beautiful Surrey morning as the mist caused by last nights torrential rain begain to boil away as the sun rose. By 06:00 the mercury had already hit 14 degrees.
I’m currently sat on the London train, a 12 car set from Alton to Waterloo which is pretty empty. In this neck of the woods a lot of people are still working from home. Oh, there were a few dozen people waiting for the train to arrive and it is early, but you’d expect far more than this on a normal working day. It’s upper and middle-class commuter zones like this in the South-East where the rail recovery is going to be the slowest. I’ll be interested to see what Waterloo looks like when I arrive in under an hour. Still, my train’s clean and well-presented. The interior of this Siemens Class 450 has been refreshed with the new SWRailway seat mocquette and there’s now power sockets throughout . Oh, and wifi – which is how I’m transmitting this blog.
Not exactly crowded, is it?
07:10.
Whilst Surrey may be basking in sunshine the closer I get to London the gloomier it gets. The weather along the old London and Southwestern main line feels more like a dull and dank November day not July. Only the fact that the trees are sporting their summer regalia and gardens are full of blooms gives the game away. Hopefully, by the time I get to the HS2 construction site that I’m visiting today things will have perked up.
08:17.
Hanging around Waterloo just long enough to get a few library shots (including of the new ‘green’ wooden seating -nice!) I caught a Bakerloo line tube over to Marlebone. Initially quiet, the train filled up after Charing Cross.
Aboard the venerable Bakerloo line trains, now the oldest on the Underground network.
Marylebone was equally busy with commuters coming off arrivals. Numbers here are really picking up. There’d be little room for social distancing on these trains so It’s just as well rules will be relaxed next week. The vast majority of folk are still wearing masks and I’d be surprised if that changed overnight.
18:00.
Wow! What a day..
The gloomy weather cleared by the time I got to my final destination, which was the amazing HS2 construction site at South Heath, on the edge of the M25. It’s from here that two of the biggest structures on phase 1 of HS2 are being built from. Right now there are two huge tunnel boring machines (TBMs) drilling a pair of 9.1m diameter bores Northwards. These dwarf the 7.6m bores of the channel tunnel. Meanwhile, preperations are underway to begin costruction of the 3.5km long Colne Valley viaduct which will be built Southwards from the same site. Our small group wrre given a guided tour that got us up close and personal with “Cecilia” the second of the 160 metre long TBMs which was launched last week (a week earlier than planned).
I’ll be blogging at length about our visit another time. Right now I’m downloading the pictures from my camera, but here’s a taster.
Here’s what ‘Cecilia’ looks like without me stood in the way…
This isn’t the full 160 metre length of ‘Cecilia’ either. The cutting head and shield have already disappeared into the tunnel and there’s a good few metres of the tail which I simply couldn’t capture, even with a wide-angle lens! This things are big!
And there’s more…
Up close and personal with ‘Cecilia’ (named after Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, an astronomer), the second TBM which was launched last week. This is the view from the tail of the machine, looking through the centre towards the cutting head where you can see a tunnel lining segment waiting to be put into place. This is the tunnel dug by the first TBM. It’s only when you get this close you realise just how big they are. The Channel tunnel main bores are 7.6m in diameter.These tunnels are 9.1m. Several hundred metres inside the tunnel are the tail lights of TBM ‘Florence’ which is now outside the M25 motorway and running ahead of schedule. Inside the on-site factory making the steel and concrete segments that will line both of the Chilterns tunnels. The plant will produce approximately 112,300 of these 7.5 tonne segments which come in seven different shapes.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
After 8 days of walking from Lichfield to Wigan @hs2rebellion’s ‘Truth Trail’ ended like a damp squib in Wigan this afternoon – as it was always going to. Despite getting some support from local Extinction Rebellion groups it was painfully obvious this was a tiny band of people talking to themselves. Most days the march only had a couple of dozen people on it – and the vast majority of them were the usual suspects.
A smattering of Nimbys from the HS2 Phase 1 route in Buckinghamshire, plus many faces stripped from the deserted ‘protection’ camps in the same area. They were sometimes joined by a few local Nimbys, but therein lies their problem. The old StopHs2 ‘action’ group network has collapsed, not that it was ever very strong on the Lichfield – Manchester leg of HS2 anyway. There were never more than half a dozen (all rural) groups and none in any of the towns and cities on the route like Stafford, Crewe, Wigan or Manchester. Most people gave up years ago and have moved on, metaphorically or literally – especially as the phase 2a Hybrid Bill became law and the early stages of constructing the line as far as Crewe have begun.
There’s also another problem. There’s no political appetite to stop HS2 in the North-West. Exactly the opposite. A few local MPs sometimes make noises about HS2 but no-one pretends they can stop it. Instead, the project enjoys huge support at all levels, from Parliament, the city regions elected Mayors and regional authorities. Why they chose to end up in Wigan rather than Manchester is another mystery. I doubt any of them have ever been near the place before and certainly won’t know anything about the town or its people. Still, I’m sure the posh Southern accents of the Buckinghamshire Nimbys will have carried great weight in ‘Wiggin’!
So this ‘travesty of the truth trail’ was always doomed to failure. Even the media ignored it apart from a couple of local news websites. After all, where’s the news? “A few southern Nimbys, anarchists and hippies march to the North to tell it what’s good for it” is hardly a good story, is it? The well-known Crewe based political blogger Tim Fenton (aka @zelo_street) had this to say on Twitter.
Here’s illustrations of today’s fiasco taken from the HS2rebellion Facebook page.
This is serially failed Green party Candidate for Uxbridge and former resident of Jones’ Hill Woods (where he failed to stop HS2 yet again) Mark Kier addressing the tiny crowd of Extinction Rebellion members and marchers in Wigan. Yep, the only speaker they had actually lives in West London! I’m sure the good folk of Wigan must have been impressed. Well, maybe if any of them had turned out that is…
Here’s a look at the ‘crowd’ he was addressing.
If you want to hear just how deluded and mixed-up the messaging from these people are (and you’re on Facebook) you can hear the speeches on this link. The levels of naivety and denial of political reality is weapons-grade. This is worthy of the Flat-Earth Society!
Not exactly what you’d call a cross-section of the local community either, is it? This is really just a bunch of XR supporters talking to themselves. Despite the big billing they gave this event, the almost non-existant support it gained from ordinary people says everything – as does the lack of money it’s raised. They set up a crowdfunder with the target of £3000. It’s not even managed to get half of that. Clearly, real Northerners are more careful with their brass!
If this was meant to ‘reinvigorate’ the anti HS2 campaign in the North, then someone really didn’t do their homework! Meanwhile, in the Chilterns the second of 10 HS2 tunnel boring machines started drilling this week…
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Just when I think those ‘environmentalists’ protesting against the High Speed 2 railway couldn’t get any more hypocritical or be more out of touch with reality, they say ‘hold my beer’ and come out with another absolute stunner. In the latest case it’s this weapons-grade hypocrisy from HS2Rebellion, whose ‘truth trail’ march to Wigan isn’t exactly setting the media channels alight. Hardly surprising as a couple of dozen people traipsing from Lichfield to Wigan is hardly ‘news’.
This is more Monty Python and the Holy Grail than Lord of the Rings!
So, HS2Rebellion have been desperately trying to find other stuff to fill their social media with and hit upon this, a screenshot of the new but failing right-wing ‘news’ channel GBNews (or ‘gammon news’ as it’s become known as), featuring – the Taxpayers Alliance!
Yes, HS2Rebellion are now endorsing and advertising the TPA and their low tax agenda! The secretive TPA, that refuses to admit who funds it, is one of a cabal of organisations operating out of 55 Tufton St in London. It includes the equally right wing and secretive Institute of Economic Affairs and also Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), founded by former chancellor Nigel Lawson – one of a network of organisations spreading misinformation about and denying the existance of Global Warming.
Seriously, you couldn’t get stranger bedfellows than HS2Rebellion and the TPA. I can only assume the middle-class kids behind HS2rebellion haven’t got a clue who the TPA are!
They might want to do a little research and reading, like this;
That groups like HS2Rebellion are pushing the same right-wing agenda that says we need to cut public spending is utterly bizarre. Do they honestly think tackling Climate Change can be done on the cheap? That’s a rhetorical question as I don’t see much thinking being done by them on anything serious. The sooner these faux ‘green’ groups collapse the better as they do nothing but trash (in more ways than one) the reputation of the real environmental movement. Thankfully, they’ve been utterly useless when it comes to stopping HS2 and will remain that way. I just wish some of the gullible but well-meaning people who keep funding them would realise just what they really are throwing their money away on – a dubious bunch of anarchists and hard-left political dogmatists with an agenda that has nothing to do with the environment.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
There’s so few people still actively trying to stop HS2 nowadays that there’s been thin gruel for this feature in recent months but today a particular piece of idiocy and hypocrisy caught my eye that I thought was worth sharing. This weeks award goes not to an individual but the whole of useless campaign group @hs2rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, the supposed ‘environmentalists’ who use green issues to drag people into their brand of far-left, ‘bring down capitalism’ politics.
Here’s what I spotted. ‘Environmentalists’ telling motorists to stop the building of HS2, a green railway designed to get modal shift from road to rail to cut transport Co2 emissions to tackle climate change!
Hs2Rebellion’s latest wheeze now that they’ve failed to stop Hs2 being built in the South is to roll out the same old failed tactics in the North. In this instance by trying to get people to join them on the laughably-named ‘Truth Trail’, otherwise known as a 100 mile group walk.
The obvious question that forms here is that – whilst they’re wearing out their (presumably) non-leather shoes walking 100 miles, who’s meant to be actively stopping HS2, because their ‘protection’ camps on phase 1 are almost deserted!
I have to laugh at the final sentence in this blather. “Based as closely as possible around public transport”. That would be the same public transport you’ve stuck banners up on bridges over roads encouraging motorists to stop us building then?
I can’t wait to see how many people actually turn up to waste their time on this walk. I’ve lost count of the number of times individuals or groups used the same publicity stunt on phase 1 of HS2. There were literally dozens over the years. From Lizzie, the original founder of Stop Hs2 through Joe Rukin, various artists and photographers to @hs2rebellion. They achieved the sum total of bugger all! What will this one achieve? Nothing. Hs2 Phase 2a to Crewe already has Royal Assent and work has stated on construction whilst Phase 2b to Manchester and Leeds have massive support from MPs of all parties as well as regional politicians. There’s no political appetite to stop hS2 being built, exactly the opposite.
What these publicity stunts seem to be designed for nowadays is to get mugs to cough up more money through Crowdfunders. Money that no-one knows what happens to because no accounts are ever published. I’m always amazed how willing some people are to donate money to these causes when they’ve absolutely no idea where it goes.
The funds would be better spent on clearing up the mess left in woods across the phase 1 route, where abandoned ‘protection’ camps are left to rot, rather than building more in the North. Like this example at Poors Piece. I called in there earlier this week. It was empty apart from some chickens. The last few ‘protesters’ had buggered off to Stonehenge.
“At one” with their environment? I think not! This pile of junk choking a tree is actually a tower and tree house on the edge of the woods facing the East-West railway line. I’d love to know what their Environmental Impact Assessment was for these structures. How many wasted hours were spent building these things? How were these meant to ‘stophs2’ when the nearest they are to Hs2 is 400 metres from the most Eastern edge of what will be the Calvert Infrastructure Maintenenace Depot (IMD) and over 1.5km from the main HS2 works site and trace? Did they stop part of the camp that was blocking work on the E-W railway from being evicted? Did they heck as like! Here’s some perspective. Looking along the edge of the site from the footpath.
You can see the abandoned single line of East-West rail off to the left. Trees nearest the old railway have been felled to make way for the new railway and create space for drainage and future electrification. These are the trees the protesters have supposedly been ‘protecting’. The edge of Poors Piece wood is just out of shot to the right. So, as you can see, the protesters aren’t protesting about HS2, but East-West rail rebuilding and restoring an old railway – exactly the sort of thing they tout as an ‘alternative’ to HS2! Talk about hypocrisy!
Laughably, the camp at Poors Piece is branded a ‘conservation’ camp (here’s their Facebook page, which shows how little has been going on). The only ‘conservation’ going on here seems to be the hoarding of piles of scap metal, plastic sheeting, UPVC doors and other old rubbish that would be better off being taken to a local authority recycling centre.
Some of that timber looks like it’s been taken from vandalised fencing along the public footpath adjacent to the site, as you can see in this picture. These posts should have a triple row of crosspieces between them that have mysteriously disappeared…
Vandalism and desecration of the environment these people are supposedly ‘protecting’ has been a common thread throughout the camps that’s caused friction with local people who often end up paying for the mess the protesters create to be cleared up by their local Councils.
Earlier this week, HS2 Chief Executive Mark Thurston said this to the Public Accounts Committee in relation to these protests ““We’ve spent somewhere in the region now of £75 million worth of public money in dealing with the implications of this action.” £75 million. Think of what that could have been spent on in the way of environmental mitigation and tree planting instead of being squandered on the alter of far-left politics, another irony of which is the left here are doing the right-wing and road lobby’s job for it by opposing building green public transport.
Whilst donating money to these protests may make some people feel all warm because think they’re ‘saving’ the environment, they really need to take a cold hard look at what’s really happening on the ground. The protests are futile. All they’re achieving is to damage (not save) woodland and waste enormous amounts of time and money. Money that could be far better spent on genuine environmental improvements. So, next time you hear someone tell you they’re tempted to give money to these people, tell them to give it to a genuine environmental charity, not to a bunch of self-indulgent anarchists driving up and down the country leaving abandoned and unsafe messes like this in their wake.
UPDATE:
When I began writing this blog earlier today the ‘truth trail’ hadn’t even started. Now, at the end of day 1 it already seems to be going a bit ‘Pete Tong’ for @hs2rebellion. They kicked off in Lichfield with some motivational speech from err, Larch Maxey and Carolyne Culver. Who, you may ask? Larch Maxey is a long term protester in the pay of Extinction Rebellion who has a track record of failure going back to the mid-1990s when he didn’t stop a motorway extension in Lancashire. More recently, he was flummoxed by a pair of automatic doors he failed to glue himself to. Even more recently he’s been a jailbird in Pentonville prison in London after vandalising the HQ of HS2Ltd at Euston. Only it wasn’t. Their HQ is in Birmingham and the offices Maxey vandalised were those of Network Rail (HS2 have a small satellite office in a nearby building).
Culver was Green Party Candidate in the recent Amersham and Chesham by-election who’s Nimby campaign was entirely based on opposing HS2. So much so that she never even mentioned climate change. She lost the Green party’s deposit as she halved the vote they received in the 2019 general election. With ‘inspirations’ like this, who needs failures. Oh, there’s more. Look at this screengrab!
The gardener Culver is referring to is Mark Keir, another awful failure for the Green Party who stood as a candidate in Uxbridge in the 2019 election. This is through the looking glass stuff. Far from ‘winning’ in court he suffered a humiliating defeat – as I detailed in this blog. Honestly, talk about detached from reality!
Still, I’m sure the HS2Rebellion Facebook page is full of banner-waving people joyously marching North from Lichfield, isn’t it? Err, no. All it contains is a couple of video’s from a trio of people who say they’ve ‘detoured’ from the main march (which we never see) to drive (wait a minute, drive?) to a couple of woods on the route they claim will be ‘destroyed’ by HS2.
This is ‘Comical Ali’ levels of denial and misinformation, and this is only day 1 of their laughably named ‘truth trail’. In some ways it’s rather appropriate they’re ending up in Wigan as their levels of dishonesty and misinformation rival George Orwells ‘Ministry of Truth’ from his novel 1984. I wonder if they’re going to hold their final rally on Wigan Pier? As this painful farce is meant to last for eight days I’m sure there will be plenty of other embarrassing moments en-route. That is, if the whole thing doesn’t collapse in ignominy and indifference before they even get to Wigan!
2023 update.
Dis this nonsense stop HS2? No. the travesty of truth trail’ eventually reached Wigan but the whole thing was a flop. It attracted hardly any media attention or local support (or money). Instead it just diverted attention and resources from the protest camps, although they were on their last legs anyway. Now the HS2 Phase 2b Hybrid bill is at the Committee stage in Parliament with petitions being heard, so despite Government delays in beginning construction to phase 2a the legislation will be in place to build the line to Manchester.
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My morning has started with an example of just how crap public transport can be in the UK.
I’m heading for Calvert which has no working rail links, and being environmentally conscious I use public transport whenever I can. There’s a bus route from Aylesbury that goes through the village. The No 16 is run by a company called ‘Red Rose’ and goes from this God-awful bus station buried under a multi-story car park.
I arrived in plenty of time and found the right bay by checking every one as the tiny information screens in the dingy waiting area are too small to list anything more than 30 mins later.
Some bright spark has timetabled 2 buses from the same bay at the same time, the 10 and 16. The 10 turned up and sat there for ages whilst the driver went to the toilet. The 16 never appeared. I ring ‘Traveline’ (and paid 12p a minute for the privilidge) but they’re useless as they only have timetables, not real-time info. There’s a ‘press for info’ button at the stop. I press. It says “no bus is due”. Great.
10 mins after booked departure time another Red Rose driver spotted me and asked what bus I was waiting for. When I told him he said “well, it should be running” another driver wandered over, then said “the 16? It’s gone – it pulled in over there” (pointing to an anonymous bit of tarmac at the end of the bays). There were no announcements, no information as the bus drops off the screens which aren’t real-time information anyway. Nothing. So. I now have another hour to wait. I ring the bus company after finding their number on Google. No-one answers…
Is it any wonder so many buses drive around like this? Yep, i’m the only passenger, having paid £4.40 for the honour!
13:10.
My own personal taxi – sorry – the bus passed through some places I’d never visited before which included Waddesden which has some lovely old buildings. I really enjoyed the trip, even if it it did meander. I got off at journey’s end, the village of Steeple Claydon, then set off to explore.
Getting shots of the work reactivating the old East-West railway line led me to the line where it passes Poors Piece, a tiny bit of woodland that became a stophs2 protest camp. The irony being it’s nowhere near HS2! I popped in to get a few pictures only to find the camp deserted. The few remaining occupants appear to have buggered off to Stonehenge. The only occupants of the untidy mess were a couple of chickens!
It’s a good example of how the protest campaign against HS2 never stood a chance. A handful of people in camps like this were never going to achieve anything. Now, despite the bluster you see on social media from the likes of Hs2Rebellion it’s obvious all but a handful of the protesters have given up and moved on. How any of them thought sitting in a treehouse off the route was going to stop the largest construction project in Europe is a mystery, but there you go. They didn’t – and now the project’s in full swing.
14:55.
On site and being briefed on the work.
19:15.
Well, that was a busy day! After our site briefing and presentation on what HS2 contractors are doing in the area (lots) we went out on site to see the work up close. The sheer size of the site is the first thing that impresses, but then it includes a sizeable chunk of E-W rail, HS2s Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD), passive provision for a link between E-W rail and the line to Aylesbury as well as road diversions – and that’s without HS2 itself. Plus, the site contains its own railhead which receives three trains a day of aggregates. Nearly half a million tons have already been delivered and by the end of the programme that will reach 787,000 tons. Not bad for a plan that was originally conceived to deliver 100,000 tons in total!
The third train of the day arrived when we were on site so we went out to watch the slick unloading operation. Operated by DB Cargo, the loco in charge has been converted to run on HVO (vegetable oil) not diesel. This is yet another example of HS2’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions.
22.15.
I’m now back in my hotel room in Aylesbury after a long day of wandering around the Calvert/Steeple Claydon area on what was a very warm day. With the combination of that and lugging around a full camera bag for nearly 14 miles I’m treating myself to a glass of wine and an early night. I’ll blog about my HS2 site visit in full in the next few days. There’s some great stories – including what’s probably the most expensive Jackdaw nest ever! For now, here’s a shot of where E-W rail crosses over the route of HS2. The piles for the bridge have already been sunk. Above the little digger in the far background you can see the rest of the E-W route heading East.
I’ll leave you with one last picture, which is of myself and fellow journalist and railwayman Phil Marsh. See what I mean about the camera bag?
Tomorrow I’ll be making my way back North, so I’ll be rolling blogging once more. Only this time there are no buses involved…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
My early start didn’t quite happen that way. Instead I’ve been busy sorting out some stuff at home before venturing South. No, suitably prepared I’m about to sally forth on Britain’s railways to venture into the Chilterns. I’m hoping the locals won’t be all fiery torches and pitchforks at the ready if they find out they’ve a prominent HS2 supporter in the midst – maybe the mask will fool ’em! I’ll keep you updated, but first I’ve got to walk down to the station. Stay with me to see how the day goes…
10:30.
With leaving later I’m able to sample Calder Valley rail travel at off-peak times for a change. I’m currently on a pair of 2-car Class 195s working the 10:23 to Chester and it’s far busier than the early peak services I’ve been using. Travellers are a mix of retired folk on a day out plus a few younger people on a jolly themselves. I’d guess the train’s about 40% full on leaving Sowerby. Looking at the attire, I’d surmise many folk are off rambling…
10:44.
Sure enough, when we arrived in Todmorden several people left the train to head off hiking in the hills around town. They’ve got a lovely day to do it too as the weather’s dry and warm but not insufferably so – ideal walking conditions to enjoy the landscape and views around the area. There were few replacements joing them, but our next stop is Rochdale. Pre Covid the station had a footfall of over 1.5 million people making it the 2nd busiest station on the line after Halifax. It still provides a lot of passengers and numbers are growing all the time, so I’ll be interested to see what it’s like in July when (hopefully) all Covid restrictions are lifted.
12:00.
Time to relax for a while! As usual I strolled across Manchester station to station, catching in the sights as I did. The centre was quieter than I’ve seen it but as it’s a Tuesday morning that’s hardly surprising. Even so, there’s an air of normalcy starting return, even if many people are still wearing masks whilst they walk around – which is no bad thing. I think people are starting to relax now that so many of us have been vaccinated and fears of a massive third spike are receding. That said, I’m not being complacent and carry spare masks and several hand gels with me. With swapping swapping between so many locations and transport modes It seems sensible – even though statistically the chances of contracting Covid on public transport have proved to be miniscule. Right now I’m on a Pendolino bound for London via Crewe which gives me time to catch up on some work and also indulge in a spot of window-gazing. Oh, and lunch on the hoof!
12:55.
An hour into the hourney having made our final pickup at Crewe I decided to have a wander through the train to see how busy it is and I’m glad I did as this is the best loaded Pendolino I’ve been on for a long time – and the reason is? The football is on! There’s dozens of groups of guys on here in England foorball shirts who’re obviously on their way to London, either to see England play (unlikely) or just enjoy the atmosphere. For too long the railways have been deprived of traffic like this due to events being cancelled or crowds banned. Leisure travel (contrary to what opponents of HS2 claim) is the mainstay of the long-distance railway.
20:30.
Mind the gap…
Sorry for the fact it’s taken me so long to do an update but I’ve been constantly on the move since arriving at Euston. The journey down flew and the football fans on the train were very well behaved. I was impressed to see the group of four young lads near me clear the table of all their rubbish and empty bottles as they got off, something many older people can’t be bothered to do.
I didn’t hang around in London. Instead I caught the Metropolitan line out to Baker St and strolled from there to Marylebone to catch a train up the Chiltern line and old territory. I’ve not spent much time on the outer section of the Met for years – an omission I really must correct. It’s an interesting system as Chiltern trains share the tracks with Met services as far as Amersham. It’s perhaps lost a bit of interest now the old trains are gone. But I have fond memories of coming here for the ‘Steam on the Met’ events back in the 1990s.
The stations are still photogenic anyway. Further out I stopped off at Wendover to have a look at the trace of HS2. The locals were up in arms about the new railway ‘despoiling’ their village, which always seemed a tad over the top as it would pass them in a tunnel and cutting with both the existing railway and noisy A413 road in between! I had a quick wander around Wendover, which is a pretty enough place that suffers from the same curse as most places around here – it’s choked with cars. Why anyone thinks they’re going to hear HS2 trains over the noise of a constant stream of SUVs is a mystery…
22:00.
I’m back in my hotel and catching up on the day’s events via their wifi, plus finishing this blog. Although I’ve visited Aylesbury many times in the past this is the first time I’ve stayed here. Why would I have when I lived just an hour away in London? Now it’s a little bit different. Aylesbury’s an odd place. We hear so much about the Chilterns being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) but to be perfectly honest I never understood how it managed to get thaty appelation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not unattractive. Lynn and I would take day trips out from London and come walking around here – especially West of Princes Risborough around Bledlow Ridge, but it’s not particularly special (is that the sounds of locals sharpening their scythes I can hear?) and it certainly doesn’t compete with parts of Yorkshire. Or for that matter, the South Downs or Shropshire.
Aylesbury itself is a bit of a mess. It’s got some awful modern buildings and ring roads that have turned it into a town strangled by the car. All I can hear as I sit in the window of my hotel is traffic whizzing by outside on the Tring Rd. Here’s an example. This is the ‘gateway’ to Aylesbury that you’ll see just as soon as you step outside the station. Attractive, huh?
Appropriately enough, the Ceaușescu era like building that dominates the skyline is the HQ of the local district council, the same ones who’ve granted planning permission to this aesthetic shambles.
To get into the old town (what’s left of it anyway) you walk up the road and pass the multi-storey car park to the right, cross a busy inner ring road, then walk underneath a shopping centre under which is buried a dark and claustrophobic bus station full of fumes and then (and only then) do you arrive in Aylesbury proper. There’s some lovely old buildings, but what a shame about the rest of the place. Here’s another example of the architects ‘art’ that should have been stillborn.
Yup, a Waitrose cum Travelodge cum multi storey car park! And the ‘beauty’ of it? It’s been built right next to the historic canal basin and theatre (to the right)! I’m sure the local planning officers in their ‘tower of power’ opposite must gaze down upon this lovingly and think ‘didn’t we do well!’
These are the same Councillors who are objecting to the design of HS2 vent shafts because ‘they’re not in keeping with the beauty of the area’. The expression ‘extracting the urine’ springs to mind.
Tomorrow, when I’m on walkabout I’ll get some shots of the fine old buildings in Aylesbury the Council haven’t demolished or ruined. In the meantime, I’m going to call it a day as tomorrow will be busy – and long. I’ll try a rolling blog but – like Aylesbury’s historic architecture – it may contain gaps!
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I woke up this morning to the news that the Lib-Dems had pulled off what many thought improbable if not impossible and taken the safe Tory seat of Amersham and Chesham in a by-election. Here’s a breakdown of the result c/o Wikipedia
It’s an impressive result, especially when you consider this has been a safe Tory seat since it was established in 1974.
As usual, we’re seeing all sorts of claims about why this has happened. Many are trying to blame it on purely local issues like HS2 and the proposed reform of planning regulations. Good old Nimbyism in other words! What none of these commentators can explain is – if HS2 really was the issue, why now? The project has been around since 2009 and never lost the Tories the seat, even when UKIP were around and stood on an anti HS2 platform. Take a look at the 2017 general election results, the last time UKIP stood. Despite HS2 having gained Royal Assent earlier that year, UKIP’s share of the vote collapsed. They went from 2nd place in 2015 with 7218 votes down to 1525, a fall of just under 79%. In fact, the swing that year was from the Tories to Labour (who also endorsed HS2).
Now HS2’s being built, construction’s well under way so the time to try and stop it is long gone. So *why* would it cause such a political upset now when it never has before – even when the 2nd placed party opposed it in 2015? Why would people who, if they wanted to send a political message about HS2, wait 11 years to send said message? Why wait until the project’s gone from the drawing board, all the way through Parliament via two Governments to actual construction? Talk about shutting the stable door! This is why the idea simply isn’t credible.
Also, whilst the 2021 winner (Sarah Green) may have made anti HS2 noises her party nationally backs the project – as can be seen from this – which is pretty plain.
In fact, the only party of any national standing in this by-election that actually opposed HS2 is the Green party. Their candidate (Caorlyne Culver) ran a vehemently anti HS2 campaign where it was literally all she talked about! Imagine, a ‘green’ who didn’t once mention Climate Change in her campaign and focussed exclusively on local Nimby issues. That must have worked, right? Wrong.
The Greens share of the vote dropped by 1.6%, but that doesn’t tell the full story. When Alan Booth stood for the Greens in the 2019 general election he collected 3042 votes and increased the greens share from 3% to 5.5%
Culver only managed to attract 1,480 votes, a fall of over 51% on their 2019 result. Yet HS2 is meant to be the issue that ‘swung’ it for the Lib-Dems? Of course, blaming HS2 is a convenient smokescreen for some people. It’s noticeable that so many right-wingers are doing exactly that as a ‘look over there’ tactic to avoid talking about what’s likely to be a much more important issue – Brexit and the shambolic performance of the Government on a range of of issues, including Covid and the economy. Plus, blaming HS2 fits their narrative. The right have always despised the project as it’s public infrastructure, hence the likes of the Taxpayers Alliance and IEA always banging on about it. Both big Brexit supporters, you can see why they find it convenient to use HS2 to say ‘look over there’. You can see this phenomenon most on Twitter, where anonymous ‘flag-shagger’ accounts like this one who retweet the likes of John Redwood and the ‘Guido’ website have gone into overdrive.
Also, let’s not forget the fact Chesham and Amersham voted Remain in the 2016 referendum.
There’s clearly other issues at play here other than HS2 but no-one wants to talk about them. There’s obviously been a strong ‘get the Tories out’ movement here as people are disatisfied with Boris Johnson’s government. Look at the actual turnout, which is down by nearly a quarter. Many Tories have obviously decided to stay at home. Plus, look at the collapse of the Labour vote, down by 11.2%, how many Labour voters have decided to vote tactically – and not because of HS2 either!
There’s another clue that the issue of HS2 has been exaggerated thanks to a petition on the Government website that (co-incidentally) closed after 6 months on polling day in Chesham. Started by celebrity petrolhead and car advertiser (don’t you mean ‘environmentalist’? Ed) Chris Packham and backed by the Green Party, Extinction Rebellion and a rag-bag of political interests from left and right, it managed a measly 155,000 signatures UK-wide. To put that into perspective 2.6 million live in constituencies affected by HS2. So, how many signed in Amersham? Actually, it got the best result of anywhere in the UK, but that’s nothing to crow about! Just 4.05% of C&A’s 96046 constituents signed it in 6 months. Which means 96% couldn’t be bothered. Yet (supposedly) they could be bothered to change their long held political allegiences for the very first time in yesterday’s by-election. I smell bovine excrement…
No doubt certain people will continue to try and blame HS2 as a way of ignoring the real reasons people have elected the Lib-Dems and HS2 opponents are already trying to pretend this has strengthened their campaign. Really? How? CCHQ already know there are other far more real issues at play here across the Tory Shires, hence their increasing nervousness – and HS2 only affects a small number of constituencies. In May the Independent published this well-informed article about the Lib-Dems election chaces. Written by Andrew Woodcock it never even mentions HS2 as an issue, pointing out that there are far more important things in play.
As for the Green party, this was an awful result for them. They let their candidate run an appallingly dishonest and parochial campaign (see this blog). If HS2 was such a big thing, they should have increased their vote, instead they did the opposite. Their big question now is will they learn from their mistake – doubtful as they refuse to listen to anyone but themselves. As of Friday night the Chiltern Green party still couldn’t bring itself to update their website or Facebook account to even mention the result! It’s like it never happened!
No doubt the ructions of this result will continue to echo around for days as many people try to put their spin on it. The Psephologists will be going into a frenzy of speculation over what it means for the Government, the opposition and maybe even HS2.
What won’t happen is HS2 being cancelled, despite the extravagent claims. In the meantime, go get some popcorn and enjoy the media fun!
Next week I’ll be blogging from the Calvert area as I’ll be on an HS2 site visit, showing you what’s really happening on the ground, away from the rarified atmosphere of political punditry and daft claims.
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Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly cynical about the ‘green’ credentials of the Green Party of England and Wales (please note, the Scottish Green party is a seperate entity and a very different kettle of fish, they’re actually sensible!) mainly because I had to study their policies on transport, rail privatisation and High-Speed 2 way back in 2015. Everything I’ve experienced since has made me even more cynical. Frankly, as a ‘green’ party, they’re not fit for purpose. They’re little more than a posturing protest group where dogmatism is allowed to override science and facts.
The latest example of this is the antics of their candidate for the Chesham and Amersham by-election on June 17th. The local ‘green’ party chose one Carolyne Culver who is currently the leader of the ‘Green’ group on West Berkshire council.
The by-election was called following the death of the sitting Conservative MP, Dame Cheryl Gillan, who passed away on the 4th April 2021. Gillan was a Brexit supporter and opposer of the High Speed 2 railway which passes through the constituency.
The ‘Greens’ have decided that the ‘cunning plan’ of their campaign in Amersham and Chesham will be to base it around a single issue (opposition to HS2) in the hope of attracting the ‘Nimby’ vote. To that end Culver is running one of the most cynical and opportunistic campaigns I’ve ever seen from the GPEW. Imagine, a party that’s supposedly concerned about ‘green’ issues and global climate change pandering to parochialism, nimbyism and self interest – and the truth (and science) be damned!
Here’s an example. This is Culver’s statement on the local Green party website.
Carolyne says,
“The people of Chesham and Amersham have been taken for granted for too long. The government should scrap HS2 and invest in local services and infrastructure instead. The destruction of the environment, homes and businesses must stop. HS2 tunnel boring has started, threatening the chalk aquifer and water supply. The residents of this constituency are bearing the brunt of this project but will gain nothing from it. At the same time, they have to put up with poor quality, unsafe roads and inadequate bus services.
“Spending more than £100bn on HS2 is frankly obscene. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we need to spend more on the NHS and adult social care, school students who have missed out on education, and helping people back into work and to reskill.
“I have campaigned alongside local residents and other Green Party members to protect Jones Hill Wood and the Leather Lane oaks. I have witnessed the anger, despair and disbelief of residents affected by HS2. If elected to parliament I would be a fearless advocate for local people and opponent of HS2.”
So, no mention of anything to do with anything outside of local issues and forget GLOBAL Climate Change! It’s a manifesto for Nimbys, nothing more. It’s also pure posturing. HS2’s being built, now. Even if by a miracle Culver was elected (she won’t be) it’s a dead issue as far as Parliament is concerned. She can no more stop it than fly in the air.
There’s more…
This is the “vote Culver” website which contains the following gems.
“Carolyne is the only candidate endorsed by the Stop HS2 campaign”. Well, ignoring for a moment that campaign is as dead as a Dodo now that Joe Rukin hung up his inflateable white elephant for the final time earlier this year, it’s also bizarre thing to boast about because this conflicts with the Green Party policy TR244, which says “The Green Party supports the principle of a new north-south high speed line which would reduce the number of short-haul flights within the UK.” Except when it actually comes to putting your money where your mouth is and building one, obviously! Hypocritical, much? Confused, much?
It gets worse. Culver is shown on her website holding this banner.
That’s 6 claims – and not a single one is true! Let’s go through them.
‘Biggest deforestation’? I nailed that lie here. It’s not even close…
108 Woodlands ‘destroyed’ Another lie nailed. In fact, not a single ancient woodland is destroyed (but a minority do suffer some loss of area).
‘Experts say’? No, experts (plural) don’t say. In fact, only one man has claimed this, Lord Berkeley’s sidekick Micheal Byng. It’s a figure no-one else recognises. Oh, and as for the HS2 only ‘saves’ 15 minutes, that’s complete cobblers too, as the official journey times show. Culver seems unaware (or just doesn’t care) that HS2 isn’t just a Euston to Birmingham service only running between the two stations so there are multiple journey time savings. This claim was always idiotic, it’s even more idiotic now that HS2’s being built from Birmingham to Crewe, but does Culver care? Obviously not.
No ‘local’ benefits? HS2 frees up capacity on lines running through the constituency, it also helps take lorries off the roads (cutting local pollution), can reduce domestic aviation and contribute to UK GDP (which benefits everyone) – and cut transport Co2 emissions which benefits the whole planet, not just a few local Nimbys.
The old Working From Home (WFH) and videoconferencing claim isn’t borne out by any real statistics either, least of all by the fact road traffic’s almost back to pre-Covid levels and rail traffic continues to recover. It’s middle-class wishful thinking, nothing more. The reality is the majority of people can’t work from home.
Err, no taxes are paying for HS2, like most big-ticket infrastucture projects and Government spending, the money’s borrowed on the Gilts markets where the costs of borrowing have reached historic lows.
Oh, and as for that ‘NHS not HS2’ economic illiteracy – I dealt with that here.
Still, facts eh? Carolyne clearly wouldn’t know one if it bit her.
There’s (yet) more. Here’s an interview Culver gave to the Bucks Free Press which is a rehash of all the daft claims off her website plus extra scaremongering about local water supplies.
What’s facinating and depressing about all of Culvers electioneering is the way she’s running a rabidly parochial campaign all about local issues like potholes and with an obsessive focus on HS2. You’d be forgiven for thinking she’s running for the position of Councillor, not Member of Parliament. None of the great issues of the day – like Brexit, the economy, or most bizarrely – Climate Change – even get a mention!
So, what’s her background? Could that help explain this? Her bio says;
“Ms Culver, a Green Party county councillor in West Berkshire, has spent much of her career working in communications in the charity and university sectors, including the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust and the University of Oxford. She has also been a teacher, lecturer and journalist.”
Hang on, how can someone who’s educated and worked most of her life in PR and Comms be so tone deaf and inept? Her campaign’s a PR car-crash – literally! Here’s a classic example from this week, when another ‘Green’ party car crash (Natalie Bennet of ‘brain fade’ fame) popped in. What did the two of them do? Toured HS2 worksites – in a 2014 built petrol-driven car! Here’s a Green party candidate who opposes building a green electric railway that we need to get modal shift from road/air to rail to tackle global climate change and she’s touring around the sites in a petrol driven car!
Needless to say, this Tweet soon attracted attention – and it wasn’t kind…
Sadly, like most ‘green’ candidates or members of the heirachy, Culver doesn’t like being questioned or challenged. Raise any of these issues with her or ask how someone from a party whose priority is supposedly global climate change can run such a parochial, fact-free campaign and this happens…
See what I mean about that tone-deafness?
The really dumb thing about this apparently experienced communications and PR ‘wizard’ running an anti HS2 based campaign is that Culver hasn’t bothered learning about Cheshaam and Amersham’s political history in relation to HS2, because Culver’s not the first one to optimistically think opposing HS2 will win her a safe-Tory seat. UKIP tried that one too!
Let’s delve into a bit of history…
The Chesham and Amersham seat was formed in 1974. Only two MPs have held it in all that time – both Tory. Dame Cheryl Gillan first won it in 1992 and held it until her death this year. Although she was a Brexiter, the area returned the biggest Remain vote on the UK mainland at 55%, it was second only to Gibralter. But, like many Tory MPs what mattered to Gillan wasn’t the views of her constituents, it was her local Tory party association who are the real power behind MPs and their views. Nonetheless, on the back of HS2 passing through the area and the vocal cries of a Nimby minority, UKIP were persuaded that if they stood on an anti HS2 platform they just might take the seat. Hence bombastic nonsense like this.
UKIP were to be disappointed as the local HS2 nimbys had been writing cheques they couldn’t cash by boasting of support thay didn’t have as the General election results in 2010, 2015 and 2017 demonstrate. Oh, they also show the problem Culver and the ‘Greens’ have. How on earth does she think she’s going to persuade dyed-in-the-wool Tory voters to vote ‘Green’ when they couldn’t even bring themselves to vote for a party that was so close to many Tory hearts (UKIP)?
UKIP never got close to unseating Gillan, despite HS2 and the ‘Green’ vote has been up and down like a bride’s nightie! In 2019 it was 3042, or 5.5%, only mariginally better than it was in 2015!
So, Culver doesn’t stand a hope in hell of winning. Her only achievement by running such a fact-free and parochial campaign will be to tarnish the national party’s image even further. I mean seriously, a ‘green’ candidate who campaigns on potholes and better roads, but doesn’t even mention Climate Change? It’s time the GPEW grasped the nettle that’s their mad policy on HS2 before it does them any more damage. Sadly, with the dogmatic leadership they’ have in place, I can’t see that happening, which takes us back to the theatre of the absurd. By pushing ahead with HS2, Boris Johnson and his Government have proved (with their rail policy anyway) they’re actually greener that the ‘green’ party! How absurd is that!
UPDATE: 6th June 2021.
Things haven’t got any better with the ‘green’ party. Exactly the opposite in fact. Seemingly stung by the criticisms of their campaign, the Chiltern ‘green’ party has resorted to blocking anyone on Twitter who has the temerity to question the wisdom of their campaign – including other Green party members and voters!
It’s a classic example of ‘groupthink’ and why the party is so out of touch with ordinary voters. Mind you, as this policy come right from the top and is practised by the majority of ‘green’ leaders it’s hardly any wonder it’s taken up by the grassroots. The ‘greens’ block list is beginning to resemble an old London telephone directory in size!
It’s incredibly unhealthy for a supposed democratic party but then I’ve always maintained that the ‘greens’ are no such thing, as they’re proving by their actions. This is a protest group that brooks no dissent from the party orthodoxy.
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The ‘environmentalists’ of Hs2Rebellion never cease to amaze me by their levels of cognitive dissonance, and this one is an absolute doozy! Take a look at this latest attempt to seperate fools from their money by getting them to donate via a crowdfunder.
More detail is given on the Crowdfunder page. To paraphrase “please donate money so that I can buy another old car to drive down to Cornwall from the South-East to protest about climate change”
Are you having a laugh? Drive an old banger all the way to Cornwall? Have these ‘environmentalists’ never heard of public transport? You know, like trains, the very thing they’re protesting about and trying to stop? The irony that these ‘environmentalists’ are driving between protest camps in a fleet of old gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing jalopies is completely lost on them. I wonder how many of them are diesels too? Here’s another example. I wonder what the emmissions and MPG are for this old Range Rover which is another of the clapped-out vehicles they use (they were crowdunding the repair bill for it the other week). Now, what do you reckon the carbon footprint is of a round trip of circa 300 miles to pick up an old caravan is? Plus, after achieving nothing outside the G7 meeting in Cornwall, these ‘environmentalists’ are proposing to drive all the way to Glasgow to repeat their failure outside the COP26 conference. How many miles is London – Cornwall – Glasgow – London in a gas guzzler I wonder?
Whatever these people are – ‘environmentalists’ they ain’t. They leave a trail of destruction and pollution wherever they go, be it destroying the ecology of pristine chalk streams, sullying woodlands with sewage and other detritus or driving hundreds of miles in old cars – or pulling stunts like this by burning rather than recycling timber from a camp they were being evicted from. Even one of their followers lost it with them over this!
Hopefully, now that their campaign has collapsed, the crowdfunding tap will be turned off. If those mugs who’re donating *really* want to save the environment, give the money to some charities who’re genuinely helping restore and preserve nature!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 