Sadly, we all live in a world where it seems that nowadays facts are what you make up. Nowhere summed this situation up more perfectly than America during the administration of the orange fool otherwise known as Donald Trump. Memorably, one of his spokespeople (U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway) once talked of being in possession of ‘alternative facts’ or – what’s known to the rest of us as – lies…
It seems HS2rebellion have been supping from the same teat, only this time we not only have alternative facts, we also have alternative laws!
Colluding in this parallel universe is someone I’ve introduced you to before as a ‘crazy anti HS2 campaigner of the week’. Caroline Thompson Smith – take another bow! After her last arboreal atrocity hairdresser Caroline has put on her legal wig to attempt to expound on the finer points of English law only to fail miserably as she just made stuff up. Ms Smith filmed a load of nonsense outside High Wycombe court earlier today when two anti HS2 protesters were found guilty of breaking Section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 by trying (and failing) to blockade an HS2 worksite.
Caroline tries to claim the Judge totally ignored a defense that they weren’t trespassing (so weren’t breaking the law) despite the fact no such defense exists as S241 doesn’t even mention trespass – as is made clear, here…
Still unsure? OK. Contrast the legal ‘wisdom’ and assertions of a hairdresser with this from an independent (but left leaning) legal group. They say;
Yep, you guessed it – no mention of trespass (or tools) but exactly the description of what the anti HS2 protesters were doing! Think about who and why this law was brought about in the first place. The intention was to ban secondary picketing. Remember the ‘flying pickets’? No, not the band, the real ones feared and famed from the days of the 1984-85 miners strikes! Also known as ‘secondary picketing’, this is what the legislation was intended to curb, but it also applies to protesters who’re trying to prevent people from getting to work.
So, yet again the anti Hs2 demonstrators have been led down the garden path by Thompson-Smith and HS2 ‘rebellion’ have slavishly copied her nonsense – as they always do.
Thompson-Smith talking complete spheroids, as usual…
I (almost) feel sorry for the fools who’re falling for this. The one’s who’re not bothering fact checking but who’ll probably throw away their money on yet another online fundraiser to pay for a pointless appeal which has no chance of success. I’ve said for years that the only people who’re benefitting from the anti HS2 ‘campaign’ are the legal profession. This looks like it could be another classic example.
How will any of this stop HS2? It won’t of course. What it has shown is that more of the dwindling number of protesters are having their wings clipped by the courts.
So, how are the few remaining HS2 ‘rebellion’ protection camps getting on? Badly – as this little snippet reveals. Remember this time last year when Crackley was the biggest of the ‘protection’ camps and the occupants used to boast about how they were going to stop HS2? How things change in a year! Most of those people from the camp who were so active on social media have vanished. Only a few have reappeared at other camps. So who’se left at Crackley? Here’s the answer…
Because just two people are going to stop HS2…
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/
I’m up, packed and raring to go! My PPE’s been checked along with the camera kit, so I’m all prepared for whatever the day brings. So far, it’s brought brilliant weather! This is predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far with wall to wall sunshine. Dawn’s very kindly dropping me off at the station to save the long hike carrying all my stuff which means I don’t start the day a hot, sweaty mess (always a bonus). So, stay with me and see how the day unfolds. My opening part of the trip involves getting the train from Halifax to Leeds – for the very first time this year…
09:00.
The absence of road traffic despite the easing of lockdown and return of schools meant I was at the station in time to catch an earlier (late running) train to Leeds. I’m now one of only three people in the rear of a pair of Class 195s.
That said, there are significantly more people around compared to my travels last year and the amount of vehicles in the car park tells a tale.
Whilst the crew changed ends during our reversal at Bradford Interchange I had time to grab a couple of shots before swapping sets. I was pleasently surprised to find far more folk travelling in the rear unit. Nothing like pre-pandemic levels but even so it was a good portent for the way numbers should recover as restrictions are eased. We stopped once en-route to Leeds at New Pudsey, which was deserted, hardly surprising as it’s a park and ride/shopping centre station. I can’t see traffic returning whilst retail outlets remain closed.
11:45.
At Leeds I had time to explore and get some pictures before meeting my RAIL colleague Paul Stephen ready to catch the 10:49 to Carlisle. As you can see, life’s slowly returning…
We’re now enjoying the scenery and cloudless skies in the Aire valley as our three car Class 158 trundles North.
11:58.
Uh, Oh…
It’s all gone a bit ‘Pete Tong’. We’d just passed Settle Junction and joined the Settle and Carlisle line when we came to an abrupt halt. The Conductor rushing through the train to the cab wasn’t instilling confidence. We’ve now incurred a 12 minute delay to an ‘incident’ on the line. I’m betting said incident was a sheep!*
*Afterwards, a conversation with the Conductor revealed that a signal had returned to danger just at the moment our train passed it, so the TPWS kicked in and brought us to a stand. So for once, the sheep were innocent.
18:30.
Well, that was an interesting day! Our late train didn’t delay us much and we met the other two members of our party without problem. The weather at Ribblehead was superb and ideal for exploring the structure which we did thanks to Network Rail’s engineering team who escorted us around the piers and explained the work that was almost complete. Normally, the only way you’d get to see it from this angle would be if you’re a drone!
You’ll be able to read about our explorations of the viaduct in a forthcoming print or digital edition of RAIL, so I’m not going to spoil the article by revealing any more here.
Heading back we got a lift back to Settle with one of our party who’d driven, which gave us chance to have a bite to eat and soak up the sun at the station before Mark Rand very kindly gave us a tour of his home – which is in the old railway water tower! I suppose I’m a bit of a fan of water towers (after all – Dawn works in another one!) but this is the first that I’ve seen converted into an exceptional home. You can see the water tower in the background of this picture of Settle station taken earlier. There’s a lot worse places to sit and eat a sandwich…
Taking our leave, Paul Stephen and I caught the 16:35 back to Leeds where we parted company. He returned to Nottingham whilst I hung around long enough to grab a few pictures in the wonderful evening sunlight. There’s no doubt passenger numbers are starting to pick up again but getting back to pre-Covid levels could be a slog. Even so, it’s lovely to be out and about again now that the rules are relaxing. Yes, of course I’m still working from home as often as I can, but no-one is going to bring one of the most famous railway viaducts in the UK to me – are they? Here’s one of my shots showing the lovely light at Leeds.
19:12
I’m currently on the 18:42 Leeds – Manchester Victoria which is about 30-40% full. Looking up at the information screen by the vestibule I’m informed the temperature’s hit 21 degrees C today – glorious! During our reversal at Bradford we lost a lot of commuters but picked up some younger leisure travellers as a replacement, the same happened at Low Moor and again when I left the train at Halifax where my ‘chauffeur’ was waiting to whisk me home.
I’ve had a long day but a thoroughly enjoyable one after so many ‘Groundhog days’. Here’s to many more of them as the world returns to normal – bit by bit…
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/
Sunday’s allegedly the ‘day of rest’, isn’t it? Fat chance….
I had been hoping for a lie-in today after being up at silly o’ clock yesterday but two clocks conspired against me. One was my own internal body-clock whilst the other was the advent of British Summer Time, which meant the clocks went forward an hour. I was wide awake by 7 AM so thought ‘bugger it’ and got up to start pottering around. As I did so the Pennine weather was throwing a strop with heavy winds and rain which made me realise how lucky we’d been with yesterday’s job in Bradford. The temperatures may have been positively Baltic due to freezing winds that completely took the edge of the sun – but the weather stayed dry.
In contrast, today was warm and wet with no incentive to venture out so I spent the vast part of the day pottering around indoors on various chores whilst trying to catch up on some work. Well, it’s not as if there’s much else to do! Some of the lockdown regulations on meeting up will be relaxed next week, but right now it’s not as if we’re all part of a hectic social whirl with diaries full of restaurant, theatre or holiday bookings! One of the great things about my commission yesterday was that it added variety and a change of scenery – plus the chance to catch up with an old friend – and interact with strangers (even if it was at a social distance). How we used to take these things for granted…
Everything that’s happened has left me in an introspective mood, one which has been compounded by two other events. The latest batch of old slides I’m scanning were taken in Nepal in 1992 and to pin down the dates for some of them I’m having to read through old diaries written at the time. God, talking about taking you back…
Re-reading the diaries and looking at the pictures has made me realise how much the world’s changed in the past 30 years. But then it’s not just the world, it’s my life too. So much has happened in the intervening time. When I finally finish scanning the pictures and have more opportunity I’m determined to write about those times at length. Right now I just can’t do them justice. As if the diaries and scanning weren’t enough, Facebook has thrown me a curved-ball too…
I have a love-hate relationship with social-media, including Facebook, but I do find it incredibly useful for keeping in contact with friends (old and new) who’re scattered around the globe. What threw me today was Facebook reminding me what I was doing today, 10 years ago. So, instead of the usual picture of the day plucked from one of my old slide scans – here’s ‘on this day in history’…
On the 28th March 2011 I was travelling solo around India. I’d been in Asia since the previous December for business/pleasure (long story – for another time) but returned to India to explore places new and old. I was particularly interested in the dwindling metre and narrow gauge railway systems, so I ended up touring the state of Gujarat in the North of India. This day 10 years ago I’d taken a day trip from Vadodara (formerly Baroda) to a place called Miyagam Karjan Junction which was served by one of the extensive network of narrow-gauge railways. It was a brilliant day out that kept my camera busy. On the way home I’d decided not to book a reserved seat on a train but pitch up in 3rd Class and see what happened. After all, it was only three hours (ish) back to Vadodara, which is nothing to what I was used to on Indian railways! So, here’s how it went…
I took this picture from the luggage rack above the seats that was the most spacious place to wedge myself as the train was packed with a mixture of long distance passengers from Mumbai as well as local commuters. This is exactly the same problem Intercity services suffer from in the UK – and one of the reasons we need HS2! But I digress..
Despite the crowding, it was a memorable journey as people really weren’t used to a lone Westerner pitching up on this trip – especially one who seemed at home and wielded a camera. It wasn’t long before we all became friends and had some great chats – as is often the case in India – how I miss these interactions…
If you want to see the full selection of pictures from that 2010-11 trip, you can find them in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.
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/
Today, one of the old British Rail built ‘Pacer’ trains that were retired last year was donated to and installed at its new home this morning.
Vehicle 55808 from Class 144 No 144008 was built in Derby in 1986 and spent its entire working life based at Neville Hill depot in Leeds. During its career, the carriage had covered 3,227,769 miles in passenger service.
Its final resting place is at Fagley Primary School in Bradford (a town where these trains were regular visitors). The train’s to be used as a science lab for students to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning. Fagley won the Pacer carriage in the Department for Transport (DfT) sponsored ‘Transform a Pacer’ competition, being selected for their creativity and their potential to engage with and serve the local community.
Fagley Primary School is the first of three winners of the DfT ‘Transform a Pacer’ competition to receive their carriage. The other winners are Airedale NHS Trust and Platform 1 – a Huddersfield mental health charity. They will receive their carriages in coming months.
144008 at Huddersfield in April 2017 when in service with Northern Trains. The lead vehicle of the 2-car unit is the one which arrived at Fragley school today.
Owned by Porterbrook Leasing who have generously donated the car – and paid for it to be moved to the school. The vehicle had been in store at the Harry Needle Railroad Company site at Worksop where HNRC staff donated their services to strip the vehicle of several tonnes of weight in the form of engine and drive shaft, fuel tank, coupler and assorted pipework. The train was moved to its new home on a low-loader by Reid Freight Heavy Haulage. Needless to say, maneuvering a train car through the streets of Bradford and installing it in position at a school isn’t the simplest of tasks but it was handled with aplomb by the experts from Reid who carry out jobs like this all the time.
Waiting to greet the new arrival were staff and pupils from the school, along with staff from Porterbrook who supervised the formal handover. Here’s a selection of pictures from the event.
Train ahoy! The low-loader carrying the Pacer is slowly reversed down the residential street that leads to the school.What could have been a ‘Suez canal moment’ in the narrow street outside the school was averted due to the expertise of the team from Reid. The trailers rear wheels are steerable which makes these operations much simpler. Once the low-loader was in the right place the cab unit was detached and the trailer lowered. The next stop was for Reid staff to construct a rail ramp to allow the Pacer to be lowered by winch – and gravity.When ready, the Pacer was slowly run off the trailer with its descent controlled by the winch on the back of the cab unit via a pulley wheel attached to the low-loader.A cunning plan…As the vehicle needed to be turned nearly 90 degrees to fit on the concrete plinth built for it Reid staff laid steel plates, then greased them with washing up liquid. The Pacer’s front wheels were then placed on two of these circular plates which could be slid across the plates thanks to the washing up liquid! Almost there! The low-loader and rails have been removed to allow a lorry equipped with a HIAB crane to come in and swing the cab end of the Pacer around to the right so that it fits on the plinth where it will rest on sleepers and rails donated by Network Rail. It’s thumbs up for their new Science classroom from teachers at Fradley school.
So, it’s one down, two more to go – and one of those is going to make this installation look easy peasy! I’ll be blogging about that particular event when it happens, so watch this space.
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/
*warning, blog under construction. This is going to take a couple of days to complete and it’ll undergo a couple of incarnations as I revise it to add more thoughts of a tumultuous year. After all, it’s a slice of history…*
When we started this lockdown malarky 12 months ago how many of us would have thought we’d still be at it 12 months later and who would have thought so many people would have died, or that our lives would have changed (possibly permanently) in the many ways they have? No me for a start, but then neither did our incompetent Government. Anyone remember how long it took Johnson to agree to a lockdown in the first place? Many of us could see that it had to happen just by looking at the infection rates and what was going on in the rest of the world. The financial markets had already crashed, which made pretty grim reading for people like me with investments but no salary. The world was starting to turn in on itself. It was an anxious time.
I managed to squeeze a couple of jobs in just before the country shut up shop. These made me realise how unprepared we really were for what was happening. The first job was back in London where hardly anyone but Asian tourists and a few cautious people wore masks whilst folk ate drank and made merry as if nothing much was happening. I travelled on a lot of trains across London that day and outwardly everything looked normal, as this picture of one of the new London Overground trains in Hackney, East London shows.
The next day, on the 12th March I travelled from Halifax to Birmingham for a press visit to the High Speed 2 railway construction site at Curzon St, where HS2 were keen to show us the remains of the London and Birmingham railway steam locomotive roundhouse. I wrote about the day on a rolling blog. The train from Manchester to Birmingham (which was double its normal size) was absolutely heaving with people heading down to the Cheltenham Gold cup horseraces. 10s of 1000s of people from all the UK and elsewhere, converging to mingle during a pandemic when other countries were already in lockdown seemed like madness – which it was. I was actually glad to get home that day.
My final trip out was on the 20th (the day restaurants and pubs were told to close) when I travelled to Leeds and Manchester to get magazine pictures, showing the effect Covid restrictions were already having on the railways as travel began to close down with people staying at home in the face of an announcement to avoid non-essential travel made on the 16th. Three days later, a year ago today, Johnson announced full lockdown and that was that. Despite the fact that as an accredited Journalist I was allowed to travel to cover stories I was more concerned about protecting me and mine, so I heeded to call like everyone else. After all, weren’t we assured that this would only be for a few weeks? Besides, I’d plenty to keep me occupied at home…
That first lockdown felt weird. Planes disappeared from the skies, most cars vanished off the roads and only the trains and buses kept running to get key workers to their jobs. Thankfully we had glorious weather so I could sit outside in the front garden and enjoy the slightly surreal quietness that was only disturbed by cacophonous birdsong as the creatures celebrated the arrival of the nesting season. Once a week we ventured out to Huddersfield to get the shopping for Dawn’s elderly parents which we’d leave on their doorstop before letting them know it was there.
Social activities transferred to the internet and we all learned a new meaning for a old word: Zoom. The Friday quiz that a group of us used to meet up for in our local pub transferred online as it was the only way we got to interact with each other. We’d planned a trip to Berlin in June but that was cancelled along with all the other events. A ‘social calender’ became an anachronism.
But, it wasn’t all bad. Dawn was still working full time (just from home) and wasn’t furloughed. I managed to manage with a bit of help from schemes and whilst the photographic work dried up I had my writing skills to fall bak on, penning several articles for RAIL magazine. I lot of railway memorabilia ended up on eBay, which also helped. Meanwhile, I got stuck into tackling the massive project to scan 30 years of old railway, social issues and travel slides – a mammoth task which is almost coming to an end. We both got into a routine and thanked our lucky stars that we were OK and could come through this.
Stories in the media highlighting the growing death toll made is realise how fortunate we were. Some of the stories were really heartbreaking. Then friends began to contract Covid (and thankfully survive) or die of other causes. That was one of the hardest bits – not being able to meet up and say goodbye to old friends. I did attend one small (socially-distanced) funeral but that was in August when ‘lockdown 1’ rules had begun to be relaxed. When all this come to an end there’s going to be one big wake we get together to toast the memories of and swap stories about the friends who’ve gone…
Over the summer the Covid numbers dropped and the Government relaxed the rules, just as they’d imposed them too late, they relaxed them too early. In the interregnum, I managed to complete a week travelling around the railway network for RAIL magazine. It’s a biannual trip I’ve been writing for them ever since 2004, but 2020 was exceptional because passenger numbers where a shadow of their former selves. Even so, it was a fascinating trip to be able to cover so much of the country at a unique time and see how the rules worked (or in some cases, didn’t work) in England, Scotland and Wales – all of which had their own standards. Sadly, the relaxations weren’t to last. Local lockdowns began to occur again across England, with Liverpool going into the first new lockdown of a city in mid October. It became clear the Government was losing the plot as the ‘plan’ seemed to change depending on which Government minister was being interviewed before Johnson countermanded them.
Having watched the abortive anti HS2 campaign for nearly 10 years now two words always spring to mind: Déjà vu – or in the expression made famous by the 1990s film – it’s another “Groundhog Day”…
After 11 years of failure those opposed to building our new high-speed railway haven’t learned a thing and keep repeating the same failed, stale tactics in an endless series of re-runs. Observing their campaign is like having a TV stuck on one of those cable channels that spew out endless repeats! I’ve lost count of the number of petitions launched, legal challenges threatened or boycotts demanded.
The latest ‘haven’t we been here before’? moment comes courtesy of Joe Rukin and StopHs2, the one man and his dog operation that’s been irrelevant for some time now. As Joe’s still not found a proper job after years of trying he’s desperate to try and keep the group running as it helps bring some money in.
So, Joe’s recycling the tried, tested (and failed) route of – yet another Judicial Review! You can find the full details in this rather rambling entry on the stophs2 website.
More Comical Ali than legal eagle, Joe Rukin videoed a call for help from the StopHS2 registered office and ‘nerve’ centre (his spare bedroom).
Over the years anti HS2 campaigners have tried dozens of JR’s. The late (unlamented) High Speed 2 Action Alliance launched a plethora of them, all but one failed and the one that didn’t was on a consultation that HS2 swiftly re-ran, so it was all rather pointless. It’s been the same with celebrity environmentalist Chris Packham who also tried and failed, achieving little more than parting a lot of fools from their money via Crowdfunding. Money that was then trousered by his grateful solicitors ‘Pay Day’ (you mean Leigh Day! Ed). As usual, the only people who benefit from any of these doomed legal cases are the Lawyers.
I’ve little doubt this latest attempt will result in the same outcome. Rukin is applying for permission to launch a Judicial Review, but the fact he’s appealing to others for evidence to back up his claims tell you all you need to know. The fact that he’s giving people so little time to gather this evidence doesn’t bode well either. His closing date is the 9th March (Tuesday).
Of course, what Rukin isn’t telling his supporters is what happened last time he applied for a Judicial Review. This was back in October last year – only then he didn’t bother with such a trivial thing as evidence – which is why his request was summarily thrown out at the first hurdle and he was landed with a legal bill of £4300!
I blogged about the debacle at the time, which you can find here.
For some mysterious reason you won’t find any mention of his October 2020 failure anywhere on the StopHs2 website or Facebook page. It’s been expunged from history, as if it never happened! I wonder why?
Perusing his latest request for help it looks like Rukin is trying to re-run the same failed case again, which suggests he’ll get short-shrift from the Judges who end up having to consider his request. As usual with Rukin, details of these things are scant, so there’s no information on who his legal advisors are (if he even has any) or when the hearing will be, so watch this space as I’ll report on the outcome of the judgement when it’s delivered – as I suspect Rukin will be as reticent as last time to announce another failure! Watch this space…
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/
Today, in an on-line press conference Siemens showed off the final design of the new trains they’ll be building for the Piccadilly line of London’s deep level tube network. Back in November 2018, Transport for London (TfL) commissioned Siemens Mobility to supply 94 nine-car, articulated Inspiro type trains.
In what is billed as a world first for any deep-level ‘tube’ system the trains will be fully air-conditioned, which will come as a great relief to anyone who’s ever had to use the Piccadilly line in the summer! The technical specification of the trains is impressive.
These new trains coupled with an increase in frequency of trains in peak hours from 24 to 27 trains per hour from mid-2027 (a train every 135 seconds) will provide a 23 per cent leap in peak service capacity.
The new trains feature regenerative braking capability and cutting-edge traction systems using low-loss permanent magnet motors and auxiliary electric systems that feature silicon carbide technology, as well as Lithium Ion batteries. These system will help to reduce the heat in the tunnels generated by the existing trains braking systems, despite the addition of air-conditioning. Passengers will also benefit from the wider doors and abolition of the single doors at the car ends, plus the ability to walk right through the train in the same fashion as the S-stock used on the Sub-surface lines like the Metropolitan. Siemens have released these impressions of the train interiors.
Construction of the vehicles will be split between the existing Siemens factory in Vienna, Austria and the company’s new UK factory which is under construction at Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Initial testing of the fleet will be done at the Wildenrath test track in Germany.
I’ve always been amused by how little the ‘conservationists’ who’re opposed to HS2 actually know about the environment they’re supposedly so concerned about saving. In many cases this is because they’re using ‘green’ issues as a figleaf for the fact that really, they’re just Nimbys. Even the serial protesters of Extinction Rebellion (the ones who wander from cause to cause) seem to know bugger all about the natural world they’re allegedly trying to save. I had to chuckle at the fun and games at Denham, when the protesters claimed they were trying to save an ‘ancient’ Alder tree. A tree whose age kept increasing as the stories got wilder. First it was 400 years old, then 600. People who know anything about trees will know why I was giggling at the claims.
An even better one happened a couple of years ago after one of the local Buckinghamshire rags reported the moans of a local farmer who was complaining about Ragwort growing on land owned by HS2 as the plant could spread to his fields and ‘pollute’ his land, threatening his livestock who get upset tummies if Ragwort gets into their feed. Suitably outraged, some of the local Nimbys tried to get a group together via one of their Facebook pages with the intention of going out to pull up the ragwort! It took a real environmentalist to point out that would be illegal as Ragwort is a valuable native plant that’s a source of food for insects and butterflies!
It seems these people never learn, hence this weeks award. Step forward Caroline Thompson-Smith, the determined self-publicist and serial spreader of exaggerated nonsense who can normally be found at Calvert, near where she lives. Well, unless she’s breaking the Covid lockdown to travel to other protest camps, such as her spot of gratuitous self-publicity and filming at Euston the other month.
Caroline has produced another long video diatribe which has appeared on the HS2Rebellion Facebook page and features the latest failure of the protesters at the Poors Piece eviction near Calvert (but nowhere near HS2!). Here’s a screengrab.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh, Caroline?
Her garbled story starts unravelling at 1’23” when she makes the claim that behind her contractors are felling Black Alder trees and that the Woodland Trust say the ‘Black Alder’ is one of the rarest trees in the UK with just 600 remaining, so HS2 contractors are felling 1% of the entire UK population! Wow – some claim! And a claim that rapidly unravels by 5’50” when Caroline forgets her original fairy story. Now it’s the Wildlife (not Woodland) Trust who claim the ‘Black Alder’ is rare. So rare the number has shrunk from 600 to 6 in the space of 4 minutes!
So, what’s the truth here? As usual, just a few minutes searching on Google and Caroline’s claims are in tatters. Here’s what the Woodland Trust REALLY say about the Black Alder. Yep, you’ve guessed it – the ‘black’ Alder is just another name for the Alder tree – and it’s also called the Common Alder – because it’s not rare at all! Nor is it a particularly long-lived species, which is why I was giggling last year at the claims about ‘ancient’ Alders!
There’s more on the Alder here from Wikipedia which reveals that the Alder is on the ‘least threatened’ list.
Of course some viewers of Caroline’s nonsense clearly just lap this stuff up. Gullible isn’t the word here. You could literally sell them anything. Listening to people like Caroline you’d think it was Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes sweeping across the Chilterns, raping, pillaging and laying waste to the countryside in their wake – not a company building a railway who have to abide by legally-binding environmental protocols and laws and who are subject to strict oversight by a whole host of agencies.
Still, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, eh?
2023 update.
The Poors Piece eviction wasn’t stopped by Caroline or anyone else. The trees that had grown up along the course of E-W rail (not HS2 as the wood’s nowhere near) were removed and the rest of the wood remains intact – although polluted by the remains of the abandoned protest camp which was left to rot by its occupants.
Caroline continues to rant about HS2 but on a much reduced basis as it’s painfully obvious to all but the most blinkered that construction of HS2, the maintenance depot and E-W rail is unstoppable with the work at a very advanced stage that expands as each day passes.
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I’ve been trying to get around to writing this update for weeks as the last was as long ago as November 25th last year and a huge amount has happened since. I’ve finally found the time but it’s been so long since the last one there’s going to be a lot in this blog. I’ll try and get onto a monthly basis to go forward from here on as the project is really ramping up at the moment. There’s a massive amount of positive news – and one potentially bad one – but more of that later. So, let’s catch-up with news from last year. I’m not going to be able to cover everything so I’ll be cherry-picking and focusing mostly on ‘concrete’ developments rather than some of the more socially orientated announcements.
First off was an announcement on the 16th December when HS2 began the quest for suppliers to provide switches and crossings for the 280km of new track between London, Birmingham and the connection with the existing mainline at Crewe. The contract – worth up to £156m includes the design, manufacture and delivery of around 180 switches and crossings for Phase 1 and 2a of the project, with options to extend for further equipment to cover Crewe to Manchester in phase 2b as well as the maintenance depots. More here.
Two days later HS2 released details of the first dedicated freight train to run. The train – operated by DB Cargo UK and Hanson – delivered 1,650 tonnes of aggregate that will be used in the construction of the temporary Calvert Railhead. Across the whole HS2 project, 15,000 freight trains are planned to be used to haul 10 million tonnes of aggregate to construction sites – taking the equivalent of 1.5 million HGVs off the UK’s roads.
EKFB’s Calvert site’s first freight train delivery at night, with aggregate, and then unloaded by articulated cranes. Copyright HS2 Ltd.
Moving freight for HS2 is providing a welcome boost for the rail industry over the next few years, leading to companies having to source extra traction such as the rebuilding of former Class 56 locomotives with EMD engines, the first of which is currently on test.
On the 22nd December the shortlist of bidders for Track Systems and for Tunnel and Lineside Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) systems. Both sets of contract opportunities cover design and construction between London, Birmingham and Crewe where HS2 trains will join the existing West Coast Mainline. The winners of the Track systems contracts will also take a lead role in managing and coordinating the complex interfaces between the track and other elements of the rail systems. The following were shortlisted for track systems.
Lot 1 – Phase One (Urban – London and Birmingham) – £434m
Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, ETF SAS, TSO SAS (BBVT Joint Venture)
Ferrovial Construction (UK) Ltd and BAM Nuttall Ltd (Ferrovial-BAM Joint Venture)
Colas Rail Ltd
STRABAG AG UK and Rhomberg Sersa UK (STRABAG Rhomberg Sersa Joint Venture
Lot 2 – Phase One (Open Route – Central) – £526m
Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, ETF SAS, TSO SAS (BBVT Joint Venture)
Ferrovial Construction (UK) Ltd and BAM Nuttall Ltd (Ferrovial-BAM Joint Venture)
Colas Rail Ltd
STRABAG AG UK and Rhomberg Sersa UK (STRABAG Rhomberg Sersa Joint Venture)
Lot 3 – Phase One (Open Route – North) – £566m
Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, ETF SAS, TSO SAS (BBVT Joint Venture)
Ferrovial Construction (UK) Ltd and BAM Nuttall Ltd (Ferrovial-BAM Joint Venture)
Colas Rail Ltd
Lot 4 – Phase 2a (Track) – £431m
Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, ETF SAS, TSO SAS (BBVT Joint Venture)
Ferrovial Construction (UK) Ltd and BAM Nuttall Ltd (Ferrovial-BAM Joint Venture)
Colas Rail Ltd
STRABAG AG UK and Rhomberg Sersa UK (STRABAG Rhomberg Sersa Joint Venture)
Rail, switches and crossings and pre-cast slab track will be delivered by separate suppliers – with the Track Systems contractor coordinating the design, logistics and installation. The winning bidders are set to commence work on site once the tunnels, bridges, viaducts and earthworks are complete.
The winner of the estimated £498m Tunnel and Lineside M&E package will be a Principal Contractor, delivering the design, supply, manufacture, installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance (until handover) of the Phase One and Phase 2a Tunnel and Lineside M&E systems.
This includes the tunnel services within the shafts, tunnels and cross-passages, low voltage power services and distribution in the open route. The contractor will also design, supply, install, test and commission the tunnel ventilation systems.
The following organisations are invited to tender for Tunnel and Lineside M&E:
Alstom Transport UK Ltd
Balfour Beatty Bailey Joint Venture (BBB JV) – a joint venture between Balfour Beatty Group Ltd and NG Bailey Ltd
Costain Group PLC
Contracts for Track Systems and Tunnels and Lineside M&E are expected to be awarded in 2022.
HS2 celebrated the end of a momentous year by releasing this update on the project which includes pictures such as one of the tunnel entrance at Long Itchington. Soon this will be occupied by Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs)
FIlm and photo shoot of the Long Itchington wood North Portal, with apprentice/undergraduate Shehan
2021 started with the announcement that HS2 had received the go-ahead from Birmingham City Council to begin the transformative refurbishment of the Old (Grade 1 listed) Curzon Street Station, built by the London and Birmingham railway. The old building can be seen in the foreground of this illustration which also shows how the grade 2 listed ‘Woodman’ pub will also be incorporated into the area around the station. HS2 have declared that the old station goods yard alignment (and historic roundhouse) be incorporated into the plan.
Birmingham Curzon Street visual, January 2020
On January 25th HS2 announced that preparatory work on the Victoria Road Crossover Box (West of Old Oak Common) was complete and building work would commence.
The huge underground box will house crossovers allowing trains to switch tracks up to a design speed of 62 mph. The box will be 130m in length and 24m deep complete with 1.5m thick walls constructed by diaphragm piling method, with top and intermediate levels of reinforced concrete props. The base slab of the crossover box will be supported by 77 piles installed 20m into the ground below the slab level.
The site at Victoria Road is also currently being prepared to launch the Northolt Tunnel Boring Machines which will bore 3.4 miles North West as part of the construction of HS2’s 8.4 mile Northolt Tunnel. You can learn more here.
Here’s a cross-section of what the construction of the box will look like.
On the same day HS2 released details of new designs for two viaducts near the village of Water Orton in Warwickshire, including new landscaped areas that will provide green public spaces and wildlife habitats. Here’s an artists impression of the landscaped are in between the viaducts which will contain tree planting and new wildlife habitats with an opportunity (subject to local interest) for a community orchard or area of allotments. More here.
The next day it was announced that the first of five headhouses providing ventilation and emergency access to HS2’s ten-mile long Chiltern tunnel had gained planning approval from Buckinghamshire Council. The Chalfont St Peter headhouse takes its inspiration from the style of nearby barns and other agricultural buildings.
Progress continued apace this month with the announcement on the 11th that the bill for Phase 2a to Crewe had received Royal Assent. The 58km (36miles) route will open at the same time as Phase 1 much to the chagrin of those opposed to HS2 as it destroys their claims that HS2 will only ever run to Birmingham and also their mad claim that HS2’s only an ‘airport shuttle’! Royal Assent was no surprise as the bill had sailed through both houses in Parliament, which demonstrated how weak the opposition to HS2 really is. There wasn’t even a vote on the final reading of the Bill in the Lords as it was painfully obvious the bill would pass.
On the 16th February the final design of the Euston tunnel headhouse was announced. Developed in consultation with local residents the 2-stoey building will be clad in engineering brick to enable it to blend into the existing structures. Standing next to the original 10m high retaining wall, the new headhouse structure will extend above the top of the wall, with a green roof, stone-paved courtyard and entrance facing Park Village East. More here.
Cavern Headhouse – Park Village East elevation. The images were created by the Design House team as part of the Schedule 17 application. Copyright HS2 Ltd.
There’s other progress across the route that hasn’t really hit the headlines and a great place to get a flavour of what’s happening right across the route of HS2 is to follow the ‘HS2 in your area’ website which (as the name suggests) goes into detail what’s happening are by area.
One example is the announcement of the start of work on what will be one of the most iconic and visible construction projects on the route – building the Colne Valley Viaduct. Work on piling foundations the piers starts next month. Here’s some details from the HS2 website link.
Another item that’s happening next month is the delivery of the transformers to power the Tunnel Boring Machines that will be digging the tunnels under the Chilterns. These transformers will step the incoming voltage down from 33kV down to 11kV to power the Tunnel Boring Machines at their required levels. Shipped from abroad, the transformers will arrive over the weekends of 13/13 and 27/28 March. The 33kV power supply cable is coming in along the streets of Hillingdon and won’t be ready before June, so don’t expect the TBMs to begin work before then.
To end the round up here’s one of the many people and environmental good news stories. On the 17th February HS2 announced it had taken on its 500th apprentice.
So, as you can see, there’s a huge amount going on and there’s plenty more to come over the next few months. Now that the Government have announced a plan for us leaving Covid lockdown I’m looking forward to being able to get out and about along the route of HS2 as construction ramps up, so expect more blogs over the next few months documenting the chances as HS2’s built.
Oh, I mentioned one bit of (potentially) bad news, which came through Hs2’s Mark Thurston’s comments at yesterdays National Rail Recovery Conference. RAIL’s Richard Clinnick broke the news on Twitter.
This sparked a discussion at the conference which included Jim Steer, William Barter and Prof McNaughton. I questioned Jim about the potential impact of this change. His opinion was that it wasn’t a major issue and that rebuilding Euston station in one phase rather than two was a great improvement as doing it over 20 years as had been planned was a ‘big ask’ of the residents and communities around Euston. The conference continues tomorrow and you can still register (which will allow you to catch-up on what was said).
You’ll notice that i’ve not mentioned the increasingly desperate and failing protests against HS2 in this update. I’ll be covering those next in a separate blog which you can now find here.
After enjoying some glorious sunshine yesterday I was rather surprised when Dawn said to me yesterday evening ‘oh, there’s heavy snow forecast for tonight’. I poo-poohed the idea and thought we’d probably get a smattering that would disappear within a few hours. Ha – that’ll teach me! This was the sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom blinds this morning!
I love fresh snow like like this – especially when there’s no wind so it clings to trees and telephone wires. We’ had a good 5-6 inches overnight so I changed my plans and decided to make the best of the weather whilst I could. Here’s a few images to illustrate conditions here in the Calder Valley.
The trees look beautiful, but beware! Walking down our road was very much like running the gauntlet as you never knew when a branch would release a snow-bomb and score a direct hit on you!Looking across the Calder Valley. Norland is up there somewhere, lost in the low cloud that added to the freezing conditions. It was also excellent at muffling sound, so the world really felt rather eerie.The wonderful snowy shapes to be found in Long Wood, a short walk from home.
What the snow wasn’t so good for was travelling. Many side roads and steep hills were impassable and the railways were suffering too. From early morning until early afternoon there were no train services through the Calder valley towards either Manchester or Burnley. I hiked through Halifax to Dryclough Junction in the hope of getting a few shots of trains in the snow and I was fortunate enough to get this unusual shot.
Class 195115 working ‘bang road’ (wrong line) as 1G71, the 10.10 from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds. The set should have been working through to Manchester but it was turned around at Sowerby Bridge due to the line being blocked by the snow. Most services from Leeds were being turned back at Halifax, although the hourly service to Huddersfield (which uses the lines to the right) was running most of the time. A later 195 did run as empty stock as far as Todmorden before returning, presumably to see if it was possible to get through to Manchester, Services didn’t restart until early afternoon, although many trains were still cancelled.
This evening the rain had set in and the pristine snow soon turned to slush so I was glad I got out when I did to grab some shots whilst the snow was at its best. Tomorrow the forecast is for the rain to continue so its looking like a good day for staying at home in the warm. I’ve had two very different days out with the camera, so I can’t really complain! You can find the full selection of today’s scenic snow shots in this gallery, and the railway related ones in this gallery.
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/
