There’s a short blog from me I’ve been up to my neck in archive pictures for most of the day. Not because I’d planned it that way but because I had a rather unusual request which involved digging through various hard-drives to find pictures of a particular event going back 20 years, which took a fair bit of digging. I haven’t looked at one of the hard drives for several years so I was relieved to find what I was looking for – and more! I rediscovered some pictures I’d filed away and thought were lost which would have been frustrating as they’re of historic interest now. To be honest, it was a good day for being stuck in the office as we had another morning of torrential rain. I had to walk into Sowerby Bridge for an appointment and ended up wearing my full set of waterproofs to do so – not something I expected to be doing at the end of August!
I’ll be spending much of tomorrow to complete the exercise and also to add some more of the pictures I’ve discovered to my Zenfolio website, starting with images from what’s now the new East-West rail link. I visited the line in 2011 when the idea was still being considered and long before construction actually started. Here’s one such shot taken at a location that’s unrecognisable today – and not just because of E-W rail, but also HS2.
This is Calvert in Buckinghamshire. Looking West towards L&NE junction and the single line to Bicester beyond. A spur runs off to the left towards Calvert and the old Great Central line. Only one thing in this shot remains intact (but not for long) which is the road overbridge in the distance. This picture was taken on the 11th August 2011 from the Addison Rd overbridge, which has also disappeared although it’s replacement has yet to open.
Here’s the same view almost exactly a decade later on the 23rd June 2021
The tall piling rig is standing where High Speed 2 will pass from Left to Right, underneath the reopened E-W rail link, the trackbed of which is being raised to almost the level of the old overbridge beyond. Meanwhile, the land to the right of the picture is being transformed as it’s the site of the HS2 Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD) and sidings.
Here’s a more recent picture. I can’t do an exact comparison as Addison Rd is still closed. But here’s how the area looked on the 1st August this year.
Taken from further East, this is the new Addison Rd bridge under construction. The E-W trackbed has been widened on the Northern side to accomodate the tracks which will lead into the IMD.
How things change in 12 years! You can find more E-W rail construction pictures here. It’s the place you’ll be able to find the 2011 pictures too when I’ve had chance to add them tomorrow.
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I’ve been far too busy today to do a rolling blog and besides, many of the places I’ve been phone reception wasn’t of the best. So, here’s a rundown of events as I head home from Leamington for a night at home.
I stayed in London last night but my sleep quotient was less than a few hours as most of the time I was on the move, exploring and enjoying my old home town at night. I pitched up at Marylebone station before the first train left and caught it out to Denham to update some of my HS2 construction pictures as building the Colne Valley Viaduct is really cracking on. Now the viaduct’s bridging the second of the two roads it’s crossing and the weather conditions couldn’t have been better with low sun and blue skies – as you’ll see in the full set of pictures pictures later.
I had all the time in the world to chat to the people building the viaduct or wandering with the camera. After all, it’s not every day one sees a 120 tonne viaduct segment maneuvered into position like this.
A 120 tonne segment is craned into place on the Colne Valley Viaduct where it crosses Moorfield Rd. Denham. This section of road is closed for three weeks whilst the work takes place. The viaduct marches onwards to the South…One of the viaduct’s V shaped pillars next to Moorfield Rd.Meanwhile, at Calvert.. Track is being laid on the East-West rail line. Here’s the switches will will allow access to the HS2 Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD).Here’s the bridge which will carry E-W rail over HS2.The site of Calvert station on the old Great Central line has become a very busy haul road. Eventually, It will be site of HS2 tracks.
I managed to get to Calvert thanks to my friend Chris Howe, who provided the transport. Chris has a Youtube channel which contains some excellent explainers on construction, railways and also HS2. You can find his Youtube channel here.
I’ve plenty more pictures to add but I haven’t got the time right now. I need to get some sleep! Tomorrow I’m up early again as I’m travelling to Newcastle to carry out a job for RAIL magazine. I’ll blog about some of what I get up to during the day…
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What a great start to the week! I’m (slowly) heading down to London today ready to be in place to meet up with a friend as the pair of us will be looking at some of the “unachievable” HS2 construction works.
Not being in any rush I got some work done at home first, hoping the grim weather here in the Calder Valley would pick up and save me a soaking on the walk to the station. It didn’t. As I was engrossed in a phone call en-route I hadn’t checked how trains were running. The answer is – badly – which I only found out when I got to the station and checked the PIS. Apparently, there’s an obstruction on the line West of Todmorden that’s blocked both tracks. Most trains are cancelled with a few running to Hebden Bridge or Todmorden where buses will take us the rest of the way. The obstruction (whatever it is) is predicted to disrupt services until 17:30. Ho hum!
I’ll let you know how I get on and where I get to. This is going to be a long day…
13:00.
Hmm, plan B…
Having arrived at Hebden Bridge I had the option of waiting for the replacement bus service which wasn’t leaving for another 20 mins, or leaping onto a rammed York- Blackpool North service as far as Preston although I’d originally planned to get on the WCML at Warrington using the direct service to Chester. The train won.
I’m now wedged in a vestibule along with suitcases, prams and parents with offspring all heading for the seaside. I don’t envy them – the forecast for this week is crap!
Passing through Accrington. It’s grim up North…
14:40.
I’m finally heading in the right direction! I left my Northern service at Preston – as did many others which surprised me as I assumed the majority of folks were heading for Blackpool. Services on the West Coast seem to be in some disarray but I’ve no idea why at the moment. This time I’m unaffected and after getting a few shots in torrential rain joined the 14:18 Avanti Pendolino to Euston via Birmingham. It’s packed! So much for ‘no-one’s travelling by train anymore’. I’m perched on a tip-up seat by the toilets in coach D, although the friendly crew have told me the train’s due to empty after Crewe.
Approaching Wigan North Western.
15:50.
We’re just pulling out of Wolverhampton en-route to Birmingham. The weather’s will improved insomuch that it’s stopped raining and cloud level’s gained a few hundred feet, but that’s it. I’ll be changing trains and lines at New Street with the optimistic hope of getting some pictures. Let’s see.
18:50.
Apologies for the gap in blogging but I’ve been wandering around Birmingham getting pictures and soaking up the atmosphere. I’ve confessed this before but I really like the city. Its multiculturalism makes it a fascinating place to shop or just people-watch. Of course I was there for another reason too – which was to cast my eye over the ‘unachievable’ (according to much of the lazy UK media) HS2 work where progress looks anything other than unachievable! I’ll add a pic later. The weather was crap and I got a right soaking wating for the right moment but my patience was rewarded.
Now I’m chasing the storm that soaked me, heading South on a Chiltern Railways service as far as an old haunt – Leamington Spa. I can’t go all the way to Marylebone as the line’s closed due to engineering works. Instead I’ll be travelling via Oxford and Reading through to Paddington.
19:30.
The observant amongst you may have spotted the slight flaw in my plan. There are no trains running South of Leamington Spa at all – not just Chiltern ones. The line’s closed all week, which means I haven’t escaped the dreaded bustitution. Instead, I’m kicking my heels on a coach which will be leaving for Didcot in 15 mins. It’ll take just over an hour to get there. Ho ho hum…
To be fair, it’s an interesting experience. The staff (both rail and coach) have been excellent and everyone’s trying to make it as painless an experince as they can.
The Didcot coach is in pole position…
20:15.
So, here we are. Eight of us from Leamington rattling around on a coach to Didcot. Trying to put a gloss on it – at least I’m seeing parts of Leamington and the M40 I wouldn’t normally! To be honest it’s a relaxed journey. I’m in no hurry yo get anywhere. The rain’s cleared, leaving a lovely evening (although not great light for photography right now) so I’ll see how things turn out later.
21:15.
That was painless! Our driver’s estimate of 1hr 15m proved to be conservative, traffic was lighter than expected so we made it to Didcot in just over an hour. I didn’t hang around, much as I’d liked to have done as I have fond memories of the place – but it’s the wrong time of the day. Instead, I boarded GWR’s 21:04 stopping service to Paddington, just to enjoy the views and reminisce. I used to spend a lot of time on this route when I lived in London, but it’s not so easy when you live in West Yorkshire.
As you can see, this time of day my shuttle train isn’t exactly busy. The annoying thing? These electric trains should have been working to Oxford, not terminating at Didcot, but a certain Tory transport Minister (Chris Grayling) cancelled the project mid-stream.
21:45.
I’m now on one of GWRs express services to Paddington worked by another of those ‘unachievable’ schemes – the IEP project (see yesterday’s blog). I was tempted to jump on a slower Crossrail train (wasn’t that also ranked as ‘unachievable’? Ed) but getting there earlier allows me leeway to get some pictures at a station I don’t visit often enough nowadays. Paddington was always one of my favourites but then I’m old enough to remember it in the days of Wester region diesel-hydraulic locos like the ‘Hymek’ and ‘Western’ classes hauling old composite coach sets with buffet cars. It’s not quite the same anymore.
00:30.
Time to draw this blog to a close. There’s lots to talk about but it’s late and today’s another day. I’ll leave you with three ‘unachievable’ things. I’ve done today. Well. if you believe the mainstream media!
Here’s the ‘unachievable’ HS2 station at Birmingham Curzon Street earlier today.Oh, this is the ‘unachievable’ Hitachi Class 800 that carried me from Reading to Paddington earlier. I also took a trip on the ‘unachievable’ Crossrail (aka ‘Lizzy line) from Paddington to Farringdon earlier.
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This morning social media’s in a froth because of some crap journalism from the mainstream media, including the BBC. It seems they’ve finally caught up with some old news that on the 20th July the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published its annual report into progress on major government schemes and infrastructure projects – like HS2. The media’s making great play of the fact HS2’s currently rated RED and the fact this includes the word ‘unachievable’ – leaving a lot of people horribly misinformed and thinking HS2 can’t/won’t be built.
It’s worth noting that (contrary to impressions given by the media reports) this is not an investigation into HS2. It’s the IPA’s annual report and HS2 is only mentioned in passing. There’s no discussion of HS2 in the main body of the report – only in the traffic light ratings.
The IPA uses a colour-coded system to gauge how scheme are doing progress wise, they go from green to red. The ‘red’ rating is described thus;
Note the caveats. ‘appears’ – ‘at this stage’ – ‘do not appear’ – ‘may need’, absolutist this is not. Of course, you’re not going to get the lazy journalists at the Beeb or other media outlets to explain all this – or the fact many projects that have been given red ratings from time to time go on to be completed successfully. Here’s another project mentioned in the same report. Crossrail!
Yep, Crossrail was also rated as unachievable at one time! Would anyone dare argue it’s unachievable now? No. Despite difficulties in delivery the project’s been a roaring success and already exceeded expectations.
A train pauses at Custom House in East London on the ‘unachievable’ Crossrail line on the official opening day May 2022.
There’s another rail project that was rated Red at one time too – the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) which was the design, build and delivery of the new Hitachi train fleets known as the Class 800-802 (or ‘Azuma’ if you’re on LNER). Here’s this from page 24 of their 2018 annual report.
An ‘Unachievable’ Class 800 approaches Paddington in November 2022.
The irony? The first IEP went into service in 2017! These trains are now in nationwide service and have been for over 6 years years on the East Coast Main Line, Great Western Main Line and Trans-Pennine express routes across the Pennines and to Scotland. More have been built for Hull Trains, Lumo and now East Midlands Railway and Avanti West Coast. So much for ‘unachievable’.
Oh, I could mention that the Royal Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers were also rated ‘unachievable’ too! Here’s page 21 of the 2017 report listing red ratings in 2013-2014.
Admittedly, there’s still problems with them, but now they’re delivered and afloat they’re off the IPAs ratings. The point is, these ratings are a guide, not gospel. Nor is the Infrastructure and Projects Authority there to cancel projects. Its remit is to aid successful delivery.
Sadly, the mainstream media won’t give you this analysis and background. Partly through laziness but also because there’s very few specialised journalists worth their salt anymore who know the background on these things. Which means the public is more misinformed than informed. Let’s face it. what did any of you actually learn from the media reports in the way of perspective – until I blogged this?
There’s a reason why HS2 is getting these red ratings – and it’s nothing to do with the actual construction of HS2 – which is going well. It’s due to the Governments meddling, dither and constantly changing their minds that’s increasing costs, causing delays and altering the scope of the project leading to uncertainties. But the mainstream media don’t mention that either.
Lord Reith must be spinning in his grave…
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This morning I woke up to some good news. The Tories had been routed in 2 of the three seats that were up for election yesterday. In the third (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) they had their majority slashed from 7,210 to just 495 votes. In Selby and Ainsty, where Labour won convincingly, they overturned a Tory majority of 21,357, the largest majority ever overturned by the Labour party in a by-election. In Somerton and Frome the winning Lib-Dem candidate overturned a Tory majority of 19,213 to win by 11,008 votes.
In both Selby and Frome the Green party (who came 3rd) did well. Especially in Somerton and Frome where the Greens Martin Dimery managed 3,944 votes or 10.2%, an increase of 5.1% on a reduced turnout out of 44.23% (down on the general election by 31.4%). This is double what the Greens poll nationally in opinion polls.
In Selby and Ansty the Greens Arnold Warneken received 1,838 votes, an increase of 1.9% to take them to 5.1% of the vote – consistent with the national average on a turnout that was down by 27.2% on the 2019 election.
In both elections the Greens held on to their deposits, another unusual outcome for the party.
Meanwhile, what happened to the Greens in Uxbridge, where their candidate (Sarah Green) stood on an anti HS2 ticket which was almost the sole focus of the Greens campaign? Here’s a look at the full Uxbridge results, taken from Wikipedia.
Interesting. There are several things worthy of note here. Firstly, the number of candidates. As this was a celebrity seat – being the one hastily abandoned by former PM Boris Johnson when he ran away before being censure by Parliament it was always going to attract the mad, bad and sad, from the Raving Looney’s, the failed actor and odious right-winger Laurence Fox, to Piers Corbyn and a rag bag of other no-hope independents, all of whom would attract a few votes. However, the turnout (whilst down) was nowhere near as low as in the other two byelections – only 17.3% compared to 27.2% and 31.4%.
As in the other byelections, the Greens came 3rd, but with a very different look – just 2.9%, well below the national polling average and and with a tiny increase of just 0.7% Yet Sarah Green was standing on what is meant to be a sure-fire ticket – an anti HS2 platform in a Nimby constituency that supposedly is in wholesale opposition to HS2. Unless, of course – it isn’t – and people have other fish to fry?
Green attracted 893 votes (and lost her deposit). The Lib-Dems vote dropped by 4.6% from 3026 in 2019 to 526 – solid evidence of tactical voting to oust the Tories as Labour’s vote increased by 6%. Labour ascribe their failure to capture the seat to London’s ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) which is hitting motorists pockets. In a breathtaking example of their hypocrisy, the Tories are saying their win is a referendum on ULEZ, neatly forgetting that it was brought in by a previous Mayor of London and former Uxbridge MP – one Boris Johnson! It’s also Tory party policy. In fact, in 2020 then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wanted London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan to extend the capital’s congestion charge zone as far as the ULEZ boundary (link). Still, what does the truth matter when there’s a crucial byelection to win? T’was ever thus with the Tories.
Another thing to to note is that there were two candidates standing on an anti ULEZ ticket. Between them they garnered 394 votes. It’s reasonable to assume most of these would have been Tory votes in the past.
Meanwhile, back at the Green party…
It’s clear Sarah Green didn’t stand a chance but then Hillingdon green party has a history of fielding no-hope candidates on anti HS2 tickets who do nothing to enhance the party’s reputation (see Mark Keir). But, just imagine what would have happened if the Greens had decided not to run a candidate this time? How many of those 894 votes would have gone to Labour and potentially swung the election? This would have fulfilled the wider green party agenda as it’s clear the Tories are anything but climate-friendly!
Here’s why the GPEW aren’t fit for purpose. They’re not a coherent political party but a rag-bag of local groups with no party discipline and no strategy. They’re little more than incoherent protest groups, campaigning on whatever bee’s in their bonnets, or blowing in the wind to local Nimby issues like opposing wind-farms. Actually tackling climate change takes a backseat.
It’s clear from recent local election results that Greens standing on an anti HS2 ticket isn’t doing the party any good (see this blog). Let’s face it – a ‘green’ party actively opposing us building low-carbon public transport whilst saying they support building a new high-speed N-S railway ‘in principle’ just makes them look like a bunch of hypocrites – and voters see that. But the party’s structured in such a way it’s impossible for the ‘leaders’ to lead, so the party’s stuck – and some of the grassroots like it that way. In the meantime, we’ve just seen Hillingdon ‘green’ party enable a Tory victory in Uxbridge and embolden the right-wing opposition to clean air in London. Oh, the irony! I’m not the only one who’s noticed that either. Joss Garman, Executive Director of the European Climate Foundation tweeted this earlier…
The really dumb thing? The ‘greens’ never stood any chance of winning nor of stopping HS2. This was yet another wasted opportunity to actually do something positive to help change politics in the UK that would further their supposed real aim of tackling climate change. But as I’ve been saying for a long time, they literally can’t see the woods for the trees…
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Today’s the day voters go to the polls in three by-elections in different parts of England. Selby and Ansty, Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Somerton & Frome, all very different constituencies – apart from the fact they’d elected Tory MPs. Now it’s looking extremely likely that’ despite the fact two of them were Tory ‘safe seats’ held with huge majorities, all three will change hands. The first two are expected to fall to Labour whilst the Lib-Dems will gain the third.
Most eyes will be focused on Uxbridge, the former seat of Boris Johnson until he ran away after being censured by Parliament for telling porkies. Johnson? Lying? Colour me shocked. The man’s made a career out of lying, but for once they’ve caught up with him and hopefully ended his time in politics.
There’s a diverse range of candidates standing in Uxbridge one of whom I’ve mentioned before. Anti HS2 obsessive Sarah Green has managed to secure the Green Party nomination. Despite her failing to get elected to roles as a local Councillor in the past the local Green party are daft enough to put her forward in an important by-election. She doesn’t stand a chance of course (I’ll be reporting back on the actual results tomorrow) but her nomination made me look at how some other Greens who’ve stood on anti HS2 tickets have fared in the May 2023 local elections. I hadn’t realised until now but former StopHs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin has joined the GPEW. Well, he does have a lot of free time on his hands nowadays! He was one of 11 Green party candidates in the Kenilworth Town council elections, and guess what? He was the only one who wasn’t elected! You can find the results here.
Meanwhile, over on Erewash Borough Council, another area which HS2 will run through, serial ‘wannabee’ and regular moaner about HS2, Brent Poland, stood in Breaston ward where 2 seats were up for grabs. The party put up 6 candidates across Erewash with Poland the ‘spokesperson’ for the group.
Of the two Breaston seats the Tories won one and the Greens the other, but not Poland, another Green candidate – Ann Marie Mills – was the one elected. As for poor Poland – he even less votes than the 2nd Tory candidate! You can find the full EBC results here.
There’s a message here that the Green party would do well to listen to. Opposition to HS2 – no matter how strident – is not a vote winner, even in constituencies HS2 affects where you hope to pick up the Nimby vote. In fact, the previous high-profile antics and car-crash history of candidates like Rukin and Poland might have proved to work against them, hence the results.
We’ve seen this in election after election. The most recent being another high-profile by-election in Chesham and Amersham where GPEW candidate Carolyne Culver ran an appalling anti Hs2 campaign – to the exclusion of almost all else – including Climate Change!
Sadly, this is a message much of the Green party ignores. Despite the fact the core part of HS2 is almost halfway to completion they still pretend they can somehow stop it and that doing so is somehow ‘green’. It’s baffling, but then so much about GPEW politics is. You do have to wonder if they’re really serious about politics or getting into Government and holding real power and influence. The evidence suggests not…
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Yes – it’s back! It’s been increasingly difficult to find candidates for this feature as there’s so few people left pretending they can stop HS2 and the ones that are would all (in one way or another) qualify for this title. But one does stand head and shoulders above the others at the moment, and helps illustrate a wider political problem. Step forward Sarah Green, long-time anti HS2 timewaster and fantasist and the new Green party candidate for the forthcoming Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. This is the seat vacated by that narcissistic sack of custard, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who abandoned it in a hurry when his lies caught up with him.
In their ‘wisdom’ the local Green Party chose Green as their candidate, replacing another no-hoper and anti HS2 fantasist Mark Keir (blogs passim), who failed to get anywhere in the 2019 election. He came 4th with just 2.2% of the vote way behind Johnson who won with 52.6%. Both Keir and Green have stood (and been rejected) for the Council several times in the past. I’ve no doubt this record will be maintained.
This time the election’s an even more crowded field as this candidate list from Wikipedia shows.
The favourite to win is the Labour candidate, Danny Beales, a local lad who’s currently Camden Counciller. Labour have always come second in the constituency and with the levels of disgust at both the Tory party and Johnson the predictions are they’ll win (albeit narrowly) this time.
Sarah Green will get nowhere, just like the greens candidate (Carolyne Culver) in the Amersham and Chesham by-election in 2021. Culver managed to decrease the green party’s vote in Amersham and I have a suspicion Green may well do the same in Uxbridge. Why?
Green is running a hopeless single-issue campaign that’s entirely focussed on her personal opposition to HS2. It’s a horribly ‘nimby’ and parochial campaign (just like the one Culver ran) based on nothing but scaremongering and exaggerations on the supposed damage HS2 just might do to the area’s rivers and pollution to the Chiltern aquifer that supplies some of London’s drinking water. There’s just one teeny, tiny problem here. None of this scaremongering has ever come true. No streams have been polluted by HS2 and London’s drinking water remains unaffected. A few minor spills of Bentonite (inert drilling mud) and several sinkholes (embarassing, but with no real impact on anything) do not a pollution incident make. Meanwhile, the piles for the Colne valley viaduct (something else Green spread scare stories about) were all sunk without incident and the two tunnel boring machines launched from the South Ruislip portal continue to bore their way Eastwards – away from the aquifer! Of course, none of these inconvenient facts have stopped Green spreading her scare stories, but like the boy who cried wolf, people are getting increasingly bored of hearing them. Even dragging out Jenny Jones from the House of Lords to join in the scaremongering – sorry – ‘campaigning’ hasn’t had the desired effect as the replies to Jones’s Twitter posts have been anything but supportive. As usual, that led the notoriously touchy Jones reaching for the block button even more. Jones really doesn’t like being challenged by anyone – especially people in possession of facts! She is so infamous Greens4HS2 used to sell a T-shirt which said ‘blocked by Jenny Jones’! Here’s a recent bit of nonsense they’ve put out on Facebook. Note the £100m a week figure, which has been plucked from thin air. Also note that they’re protesting about building a green electric railway – outside a green electric railway station that Jones used to get to there from the Lords! Ironic, eh? – only these people don’t do irony (or self-awareness).
Needless to say, people locally and elsewhere seem to be less than impressed, hence Green’s crowdfunder bombing. With only two days left to go it’s stuck on 25% of its modest £2500 target.
5th July funding update. Greens crowdfunder closed on the 29th of June, having raised no more than the £630 (or 25%) shown here. Way short of the £2,500 they wanted.
Whilst Green doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell, there is a wider issue here – which is the Green party’s inability to put forward credible candidates due to their structure. Why aren’t the Greens (unlike their EU counterparts) seen as little more than a repository for protest votes?
Probably because the Green party of England and Wales (the Scots are much more sensible – and independent of GPEW) are not a credible political party. At best they’re a semi-anarchic protest movement who’ve had the luck to get a single MP elected – although that luck may not hold now that Caroline Lucas has announced she’s standing down from her Brighton seat at the next election. Her personal popularity has helped her get elected but if the local party put forward someone of the caliber of their usual candidates, that could change…
Green party members don’t like being told what to do. They’re an undisciplined and contradictory bunch and that’s how they like it. Their problem is – voters don’t, which is why GPEW have never broken through on the national stage and never will. Oh, it’s OK to have some local councillor posturing and prancing around with a placard but people (in general) expect their MPs to have more credibility. Yes, I know some of the Tories 2019 intake have proved to be a bunch of clowns (especially in ‘red wall’ seats) but they’re heading for extinction at the next election. Does anyone in Uxbridge really look at Sarah Green and see someone who they think can represent their best interests in Parliament (never mind Government)?
Greens aren’t bothered by that. Because most of them would never want to be in power anyway as it would mean putting their money where their mouth is. In that respect they’re like a lot of people on the left, they value ideological purity more than making compromises to actually get anything done.
There’s another problem that’s prevalent within the GPEW. Nimbyism. The BBC recently carried an article illustrating how many ‘green’ Cllrs oppose things like solar farms – often on the flimsiest of pretexts. The irony (and hypocrisy) of a party that’s always telling us we’re in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’ but that constantly opposes ways of tackling it (HS2, solar and wind farms) isn’t lost on a lot of people. This is a classic case of Greens ignoring the science by suggesting solar panels should be on roofs not in fields, ignoring the fact that you can’t build the utility scale of solar we need on rooftops. But hey ho – what do experts know compared to green party members? It’s HS2 all over again.
I’m not alone in being frustrated with GPEW, there’s quite a few decent party members who see the problem too, but the way the party is constituted means there’s no way to change things without root and branch reform and there’s no way the majority of the membership would countenance such a thing – which is why – if you really want to see a green future, it’s a waste of time voting green. There’s more chance of stopping climate change than there is getting GPEW to reform.
I’ll watch the result of the Uxbridge by-election with interest. Still, there’s on bright spot on the horizon. Unlike last time, voters will be spared the pantomime sight of former @stophs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin dressing up as a tree!
5th July update.
More analysis has come out about the campaign which shows why the Green and the greens are barking up the wrong tree as usual. Ben Walker from ‘Britain elects’ has written this very interesting piece in the New Statesman which suggests local issues may well mean it’s not the cakewalk that Labour are anticipating. But that local issue isn’t HS2 – it’s London’s ULEZ (the Ultra Low Emission Zone) proposed by Boris Johnson but enacted by Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan. This offers no help to the Green as she’s entirely focused on HS2 and if pressed would support the ULEZ.
The bookies aren’t impressed by her either. Here’s recent odds on the various parties.
Green and the greens are 300/1 – behind the Reclaim Party, which is the vehicle for failed actor and right-wing bandwagon-jumper Laurence Fox!
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On Monday the Public Accounts Committee of MPs took oral evidence on the pause of HS2 construction at Euston station. Anyone expecting any real answers as to how we got to this sorry state will have been sadly disappointed at the session as it was more the ‘dunno’ show than generating any real insights. It was also curious for what was not said or discussed as much as what was.
For some reason the Committee decided to focus exclusively on Euston station itself and ignore another vital piece of that jigsaw. The Euston tunnels, which are essentially separate to the station but they’ve been paused too – as has construction of phase 2a from Handsacre Junction North of Birmingham as far as Crewe.
Now, Euston station is undoubtedly a mess but that’s no reason to postpone building the Euston approach tunnels. Plus, the tunnels are ‘critical path’ work. Without the TBMs for the Euston tunnels being launched from the Old Oak Common station box you can kiss goodbye to opening the HS2 station at Old Oak that’s now being talked about as a ‘temporary terminus’ for HS2 in London. Plus, if you don’t build the tunnels you won’t be running any HS2 trains into Euston – whatever final design’s cooked up!
The PAC session was billed as asking “how the risks to value for money are being managed” yet the session was all about the money and not about the value. We got bogged down in the minutiae of how much it would cost to secure the Euston site (even talking about hoardings) but nothing about the REAL value of money questions – such as how much the delays to building Euston would affect railway capacity and passenger usage of the truncated HS2 line to Old Oak Common. Nor was anything asked about the environmental costs of delaying HS2 – which are also financial – or the economic impact on ‘levelling up’.
Instead, what we heard from Dame Bernadette Kelly (Perm Sec at DfT), Alan Over (DG of High Speed Rail Group and SRO for HS2 at DfT) and Mark Thurston (Chief Exec at HS2 Ltd) was a sorry tale of government delay and dither and what happens when you let a Committee design something. Think of the problems with the Great Western Main Line electrification where everyone sticks their ‘pennorth’ into the specification so the costs keep rising.
Reading between the lines of what was being said at the Committee, this is what happened at Euston. Costs kept rising as Government changed its mind on the size of the oversite development (which impacted on the rail design), a new ‘partnership’ was established which added other priorities and considerations and the whole thing grew so that the agreed 2019 budget hopelessly was unrealistic when the wish-list was presented to the construction team who were meant to wrap it all up into a final, costed design that they could build.
I suppose you could describe it like this. You want your dream kitchen so you and all your family set an unrealistic budget, then you pore over an out of date catalogue whilst accepting suggestions from your neighbors and relatives on what’s needed. Then you call the builder. The builder weighs everything up, itemises it, sucks his teeth and tells you exactly how much that little lot will cost in the real world today.
Now, I have sympathy with the idea that Euston had to be paused. It’s clear the existing wish list (I won’t grace it with the name of ‘plan’) was far too expensive and that the dither and delays had added to the costs. Remember, Euston was originally expected to open at the end of 2026 with the rest of phase – despite what Kelly and Merriman have previously claimed, which I dealt with here. Plus, in the original plan we were going to get more (11 platforms) for less money. As we’re now 1/3 of the way through 2023 and there’s still no viable plan and in the intervening time we’ve seen rampant inflation, cost pressures due to Covid, the Ukraine war and Brexit so it’s hardly surprising costs have increased.
Some of this was touched on at the hearing, some of it wasn’t. Was was studiously ignored was the Government’s involvement in this expensive fiasco. Obviously, the witnesses were going to have to tread carefully (if you’re a civil servant criticising this Government can be very bad for your career) but not all the PAC members were Tories and could have asked awkward questions. The bizarre thing is none did. The nearest we got was Labour’s Nick Smith MP, who did ask some direct open questions and didn’t take fuzzy replies as an answer. But otherwise, it was a very poor show. Many questions were asked about ‘exactly’ how much the shutdown was going to cost and all three witnesses gave the same answer – ‘dunno’ – because no-one’s worked it out yet! The decision was only taken around 4 weeks ago and no-one’s looked at all the implications and crunched the numbers – which makes the Transport Minister Mark Harper’s initial claim that this was being done to ‘save’ money look even more ridiculous.
Mark Thurston did shed some light on what happens next. £2bn has been spent on the Euston area since the project began in what he describes as ‘no regrets’ investment (meaning its needed whatever the new station plans are). This includes all the preparatory and enabling work, all the works in the surrounding areas (like building new homes) and the work to the London Underground. A further £220 million will be spent on completing the TfL vent shaft and substation, the new construction skills centre and the station facilities block. This work will run to the autumn when the Euston station site will be secured and shut down. Ctte Chair Dame Meg Hillier questioned how long this would mean the site would be shut down as the timescale Thurston was suggesting was less than 2 years, or was it? Thurston explained that he expected the site to reopen in Spring 2025.
Alan Over did make two things clear in response to questions. One was that there’s no way the savings being asked for can be made without cutting the ‘wish list’ that’s been included in the final Euston design that the builders costed (which came in at £4.8bn) . the other was that, depending on what final ‘wish list’ is agreed by all parties, the Government may need to cough up some more money.
After 2 hours of being none the wiser on costs or timetables and with not having asked any of the really big question on value (never mind costs) the Ctte wound up. I can only hope they return to these matters having thought about the ‘big picture’ stuff and the real implications of the delays to HS2 and don’t get bogged down in the minutiae of mothballing building sites, but I won’t hold my breath…
Looking down on the Euston HS2 construction site in October 2021 at the bit no-one at the PAC talked about. The Euston tunnels…
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Today’s been an odd start to the week. I was full of determination to hit the ground running after a lovely weekend and the day started well as I hit all my targets for exercise, then spent several hours working in the office getting paperwork and pictures organised. I even managed to tear Dawn away from her computer so that the two of us could go for a walk together. Then, all of a sudden my batteries drained, leaving me completely out of energy. It happens to me maybe once or twice a year and I’m assuming it’s down to doing too much whilst running on a nearly empty stomach (although I’d have thought a gut full of porridge would have kept me going). Poor Dee was quite concerned as it’s never happened when we’ve been together before.
As a supermarket shop was part of the plan I had a short sit-down whilst Dee stocked up on various bits which included cereal bars – one of which I soon scoffed in order to give me the boost I needed to get home. It seemed to work although it was a couple of hours before I felt energised enough to get my last couple of thousand steps in to hit my daily target.
Now I’m having a relaxing evening at home. Dawn’s been fabulous and sorted out jacket potatoes with tuna, mayo and a side-salad whilst I’ve been ‘busy’ watching the Public Accounts Committee hearing on the debacle of the HS2 station at Euston which has been ‘paused’ for a couple of years whilst the Govt and DfT work out what to do. I’ll blog at greater length about this when the transcript is published. I took copious notes but there’s nothing like having it verbatim.
My take from the hearing is that this really is just a pause and HS2 will make it to Euston. The railway’s an expensive white elephant without Euston as Old Oak Common simply doesn’t have the capacity to be the London terminus. Mark Thurston made it clear that whilst contractors are being stood down, the contracts haven’t been ended, there’s merely an agreement to pause them. Plus, some work at Euston (to the tune of £200-220m) will continue until the autumn as the TfL substation, skills centre and Euston station facilities block will be completed whilst the station site is made secure. So, in theory, the ‘pause’ could be as little as 18 months – if people can come up with a viable new station design in that time, although the depressing thing seems to be the focus on cost, rather than anything else – like what we need the station to actually do.
Interestingly, what wasn’t mentioned at all was Bernadette Kelly’s claim at the Transport Select Ctte hearing that opening Euston later was the plan all along.
Right, onto the picture of the day and another sign that spring is here – seen in our local woods earlier…
Hopefully my batteries will be recharged by the morrow as I’ve lots I want to do this week…
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OK, no-one actually expects the Tories tell the truth anymore. Let’s face it, they’ve spent years blatantly lying to Parliament and the public and it’s been from top to bottom. MPs, Junior Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and even Prime Ministers no longer feel the need to tell the truth and will tell the most awful whoppers if they think they can get away with it (and they often do). That’s what happens when you elect as Prime Minister a man twice sacked for lying during his career. Yes you Boris Johnson.
Johnson may have gone but the culture remains only now it seems that culture of rewriting history has spread to senior members of the civil service who really should know better.
On Wednesday 19th April the Transport Select Committee had an oral session where they heard evidence on transport matters (including HS2) from Rt Hon. Mark Harper MP, Secretary of State for Transport and Dame Bernadette Kelly DCB, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport. You can read the transcript of the session here.
It was an awkward session for Harper as he had to admit that delaying sections of HS2 wouldn’t save money as claimed, the whole raison d’être the government had given for the decision. Embarrassingly, it was the rabidly anti HS2 MP and fellow Tory MP Greg Smith (MP for Nimby Bucks) who made Harper squirm on this point!
But it’s the answer to Question 556 when Bernadette Kelly interjects that things get very odd. Here’s what she said;
“The last thing I would say is to the point you made at the beginning about pressure on other parts of the network. It was always anticipated that Old Oak Common would open in advance of Euston and that there would be a gap between the two stations being operational. That’s always been a factor in the planning for HS2″.
Eh? This is blatantly untrue!
Anyone familiar with the history of HS2 from the beginning will know that Euston was planned to accept HS2 trains from day 1 of phase 1 opening. It was a given in all the business cases, environmental statements and plans right up to the Oakervee review published in February 2020. Oakervee’s report addressed the mess Euston had become and suggested Old Oak Common as a temporary terminus whilst Euston was sorted out. Kelly must know this as the Oakervee review happened on her watch!
Piecing together the evidence for the truth is difficult as some of the original HS2 documents have ‘disappeared’ – especially appendices to larger documents which contained timelines, but plenty still exist to prove that Euston was always meant to open from Day 1. Here’s a selection.
In 2014 the then Chairman of HS2, Sir David Higgins gave an interview to the magazine Transport Intelligence. It makes interesting reading, not least because it contains some graphs, including one of the original timeline for building HS2’s Euston station.
Meanwhile, here’s a link to the 2013 strategic case for HS2. Where does it mention Euston is to open ‘later’ than Old Oak Common? It doesn’t. Exactly the opposite in fact. Look at the first sentence here.
And there’s more. Here’s a link to a February 2018 Government press release that also confirms Euston was expected to open at the same time as the other 3 phase 1 stations (Old Oak Common, Solihull and Curzon St).
Now, I’m sure if I spend another day digging I can find lots more evidence of the fact Euston station was planned to open as part of phase 1 from day 1, but there’s already enough here to establish that. But, if anyone would like to help by forwarding links to reports or charts I’ll be happy in include them and expand this blog.
So, what’s Kelly playing at? Kelly has been permanent secretary for the Department for Transport since 18 April 2017. It’s inconceivable that she wasn’t aware that Euston was always planned to open the same time as the rest of phase 1, so how can she justify misleading the Transport Select Committee on this matter?
If if Kelly’s misinformation wasn’t bad enough, on the 17th April Shadow Transport Minister Louise Hague tabled a written question of the secretary of state for transport, Hugh Merriman MP.
“To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent changes to the construction schedule for High Speed Rail 2 on passenger demand for Elizabeth Line services; and whether his Department plans to take steps to address potential changes in demand”.
Merriman’s reply repeated the misinformation about Euston.
“As has always been planned, Old Oak Common will act as HS2’s temporary London terminus prior to the opening of the High Speed station at Euston”
As has been shown, this is blatantly untrue and now we have Ministers indulging in rewriting the facts. As this was a written question I’m unclear if this can be classed as misleading Parliament. That used to be a serious offense, a resigning matter before this Tory government came along. Now, to be fair to Merriman, he’s only been in post for a short time, so could be forgiven for not knowing the full history of HS2. So, who fed him this line?
What are Ministers and civil servants playing at here? The shambles that the Government has made of Euston is clearly an embarrassment and one that makes the UK look pathetic on the world stage. ‘World – beating’? Oh, please, we can’t even build a bloody railway in one piece!
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 