Tag Archives: Hs2

The show’s back on the road…

22 Monday Jun 2015

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After a rare three day break back at home I’m on the move again with this week’s activities firmly focussed on rail investment in the existing network (that’s the stuff the anti Hs2 mob constantly call for, then ignore when it’s happening because it destroys their argument). I’m currently relaxing on Grand Central’s 1038 to Kings Cross from Halifax. For folks like me in West Yorkshire, Grand Centrals trains are a godsend as they provide fast, direct access to London, and from there – the rest of the South-East. The only problem is the lack of paths on the east coast main line to develop the service further. I’m looking forward to the day Hs2 will help solve those capacity constraints. At the moment the 2018 East Coast timetable is a bunfight with competing interests between the VTEC franchise & existing open access operators, plus Alliance Rail and First Group.

Once in London I’ll be heading out to Kent on HS1 domestic services which will allow me to make the Journey to Rochester in just 36 mins. When I lived in London & had to take the train from Charing Cross it took an absolute age in comparison. The benefits Hs1 has brought to both London & Kent are undeniable – as is the further investment going into the Kent coast line. I’m visiting Rochester because the town is getting a brand new station costing £26m. Not only will this be closer to the centre of the town by 500m – it’ll also allow the operation of 12 car trains. Rochester is only one part of the east Kent resignalling scheme – a £145m investment that also encompasses work at Rainham & Strood stations.

On Wednesday I’ll be in Staffordshire to look at an even more ambitious project, the £250m Staffordshire area improvement programme (SAIP). The irony of this scheme is that it’s building a new railway through Staffs – just as Hs2 will, but protests have been minimal. Yet there’s little difference (apart from the line speed) between the two. Work that one out…

Thursday sees me back in London to catch upon developments in the capital, plus meet up with an old friend from Irish Railways (& probably a few other chums too).

On Friday it looks like I’ll be in Derby to have a look at another new project, so there’ll be plenty of new pictures for you to have a look at this week.

The anti Hs2 mob & social media. June’s ‘scores on the doors’

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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Here’s the latest social media monitor of the anti hs2 campaigns ‘scores on the doors’. The picture remains unchanged – their campaign’s a disaster that’s failing to reach more than a handful of people. Their best result is Stophs2 managing a *cough* massive 215 extra Twitter followers in 4 months. What’s telling is that Facebook (which reaches the most people) has the lowest increase or is even going backwards. Whichever way you look at it, these numbers are tiny compared to the population of the country or the size of the electorate. Their woes are compounded by the fact the mainstream media are pretty much ignoring them since the election.

june scores

The usual caveats apply. Not everyone following is actually a supporter..

The continuing disappointment in trying to appear like a national campaign come hot on the heels of last month’s election disaster when Hs2aa suffered another humiliation with their superbly ill-thought out social media ‘thunderclap’. This turned out to be little more than a wet fart. You can read about it here.

Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week – No 6

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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As the anti Hs2 mobs social media campaign descends into farce its getting harder to single out one Tweeter as their whole campaign is reliant on the mad, bad and er,’eccentric’ who think ranting on Twitter actually changes anything.

But one Peter Deeley has managed to impress with his splenetic ranting & ability to live on another planet to ordinary people. Here’s a selection of his tweets;

Deely 1

In three tweets he manages to use just about every anti Hs2 campaign cliche (cost, corruption the NHS & polls). But there’s more…

Deely 3

Like most of the dwindling band of anti Hs2 folks, he can’t get his head around the fact they’ve got nowhere, so he clings onto their cherished belief they’re somehow a ‘majority’ & wraps himself in their Linus blanket, the opinion poll. His problem is, opinion polls don’t elect Governments, voters do – and the majority of voters aren’t really bothered about Hs2.

So, let’s have a look at the facts which Mr Deeley doesn’t mention.

He’s the Chair of a defunct anti Hs2 ‘action’ group who called themselves SNAG (South Northants Against Hs2). His problem is, South Northants is anything but against Hs2 & his group has effectively ceased to exist! Here’s a link to their website.

A browse through it reveals that they’ve not published meetings of any minutes since the 3rd March 2011. Nor have they held any events (or have any planned). Their ‘latest news’ is over a year old. They haven’t exactly got their finger on the pulse of the political scene either..

SNAG politics

Philip Hammond left Transport way back in October 2011 & Theresa Villiers became the Minister for Northern Ireland in September 2012!

SNAG as an ‘action’ group has sunk without trace leaving Mr Deeley clinging to the lifebelt that Twitter offers him as a way of keeping his moribund campaign afloat. He’s had his day in front of Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee (for all the good he did – see here).

With this level of opposition to Hs2, is it any wonder the Transport Minister has been able to assert that the argument has been won? It’s more and more obvious that the campaign against Hs2 is all over – bar the tweeting..

2023 Update.

Poor Deeley has learned nothing in 8 years. He’s one of a tiny handful of Nimbys still tweeting about HS2 and still recycling the same straw-grasping he did in 2015 about opinion polls. But, since then there have been THREE general elections that have shown the futility of his claims as in each one voters have chosen to elect a party committed to building HS2 – and now it’s being built past Boddington. Construction of Phase 1 in Northants is in fill swing. Deeley never stopped a thing – and never will…

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UK light rail conference 2015.

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Hs2, LRT, Nottingham, Trams

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It’s lunch break so I’ve a little time to start a blog from the event, which, so far, has proved to be very interesting. My difficulty has been in deciding which of the many different sessions to attend.

The day started with a presentation from Nottingham Cllr Jean Urquhart (who has lead responsibility for NET) who spoke about some of the successes of a system which will carry 20m passengers a year. I’ll talk about these in detail when I’ve time to flesh this out.

After her introduction we headed off to two other lecture rooms where we could choose from a variety of presentations. I plumped for the session on ‘low impact light rail’ which contained briefings from Paul Griffiths of Centro & Ian Jordan of Trelleborg. The brief centered on the opportunity to reduce the costs of building tramways by the use of modular track panels. These reduce the depth of excavations to lay tram tracks & prevent underground services needing to be disturbed or moved. (more later).

The second session was a panel debate on driving down costs, although there were no easy solutions presented & the panel were quite pessimistic about the way decentralisation (& the new LEPs) are adding costs, not removing them.

In between sessions we had chance to browse the dozens of stands & chat to the companies represented. Take a look;

Colas rail are at UKLRT15

Colas rail are at UKLRT15

Just some of the stands at UKLRT15

Just some of the stands at UKLRT15

The event’s certainly well run & there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ll update you all later, now it’s time for the next sessions. I’m looking forward to the off wire operations seminar…

Update. 18:38.

Well, I wasn’t disappointed. There were some excellent afternoon sessions!

Mariana Kajen, MD (Middle East) of North Star gave a fact filled presentation on the rail market in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries & the prospects for UK firms to do business there. One fact that really stuck in my mind was that Saudi Arabia are currently spending a whopping $44.8bn on light & heavy rail systems! I’ll include a couple of shots of her presentation later.

Later, Hervé Mazzoni, SYSTRA’s Director of Systems Integration & RAMS gave a fascinating presentation on off-wire operation & energy recovery systems that manged to be both incredibly informative – and funny. When his presentation cut out he demonstrated that the old engineers trick of giving something a kick still works in the computer age. I had a chat with him afterwards & I was very impressed with his incisive knowledge. Here he is just before kicking off (literally) his presentation!

DG216122. Herve Mazzoni presentation. UKLRC15. Nottingham. 17.6.15

The afternoon ended with NET laying on a special tram to take delegates on a trip along the phase 2 route as far as Beeston, where we had chance for a few photo’s. Again, I’ll write more about this later.

Our special tram sits at the single platform stop at Beeston.

Our special tram sits at the single platform stop at Beeston.

DAY 2 UPDATE.

Phew! I’ve had to leave the conference early as I’m on an assignment in London later today. So, here’s an update on this mornings proceedings sent from the comfort of mt East Midlands Train to London…

The first session I attended was a presentation from David Keay – HM Deputy Chief Inspector of Railways at the ORR. He gave a fascinating talk about the history of the railways inspectorate (which dates back to 1840).  The ORR archives have a wonderful collection of old documents, one of which is a letter written by railway engineer George Stephenson to the Board of Trade, strongly supporting the establishment of a railways inspectorate. David related the fact that whilst Stephenson was a great supporter of the need for an inspectorate, fellow engineer I.K Brunel was vehemently opposed to the idea!

David went on to tell the tale of some of the early Inspectors (all of whom came from the Army) and how the principle that the railway companies are ultimately responsible for safety was first established in 1879 following the terrible Tay bridge disaster.

History dispensed with, David went on to describe how the current inspectorate operates & the establishment of ROGS, aka, Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 which established Safety Management Systems (SMS).

Next up for me was a panel debate on ‘High speed rail and multi-modal integration’ which primarily focused on how to maximise the benefits from Hs2. Paul Buchanan from Volterra set the financial scene  whilst former Transport Minister Norman Baker dealt with political aspects. David Ralph, Chief Exec of D2N2 talked abot the Midlands perspective & the opportunities of Hs2 at Toton. Martha Grekos, a Partner at Irwin Mitchell left people in no doubt Hs2 was happening. She also talked about the momentum behind the project and the importance of planning ahead.

The final session before we broke for lunch & I had to leave was a plenary debate on tram-train with Colin Walton, Metrolink MD Peter Cushing, Simon Coulthard, Network Rail’s project head, Tim Kendall (formerly of the DfT) and Dave Haskins, project Director from Metro (Yorks).

This was the most frustrating session of the event. Whilst Simon gave us an update on progress (the first Vossloh vehicle will arrive in November) and some of the factors that have dragged to project out, we were left with no clear insight into why this project has been bogged down for so many years. It was clear the operators want to see results & are keen to adapt the technology, but I was left with a feeling what was unsaid was far more important. For example, why is the project costing 4 times more than the Karlsruhe system in Germany & why are we insisting on vehicle standards that aren’t mandatory?

Despite those frustrations the conference has, to my eyes, been an excellent event that’s been well run, informative and entertaining. I hope I’ll be able to attend next year.

 

 

 

 

Richard Wellings caught out making it up again…

12 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Richard Wellings

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Those opposed to hs2 form the usual right wing rag-bag of folks who are opposed to public spending, so it’s no surprise to find both the Taxpayers Alliance and the Institute of Economic Affairs amongst their numbers.

Prominent amongst them is Richard Wellings, the Deputy Editorial Director of the IEA. Wellings likes to pass himself off as a transport expert (solely on the basis of the fact he got a PhD in transport, his practical experience is zilch). Wellings also likes making things up – especially numbers. It was he who invented the ‘Hs2 will cost £80bn’ claim. He did this out by totting up costs of projects that have nothing to do with Hs2 (like Crossrail 2) and inventing railway projects no-one is actually planning to build (Hs2 to Liverpool).

These nonsensical figures play well in sections of the media but anyone with genuine analytical skills & transport knowledge (or even economics) knows what a load of old tosh they really are.

But Wellings has a problem. He has form for making up ridiculous claims for the cost of rail projects – and one of those claims is coming back to haunt him, which is making him very sensitive.

Back in 2008 he wrote a blog for the IEA in which he claimed Crossrail would cost between £20-30bn. Like his hs2 figure it’s a complete fantasy. Even a fag packet would resent having such calculations written on it. You can find it here

Here’s a copy of the claim;

Wellings

It’s worth noting that this blog shows how crap Wellings is at predicting anything. Look at his comment about an interest rate rise!

Wellings big problem is that not only was Crossrail not cancelled, its also stayed well within the budget set for it. The project is 65% complete and all the (risky) tunneling is over. The bill is expected to remain well within the projected £14.8bn. That makes Wellings out by between £5.2bn to £15.2bn. That’s some fag packet!

So Welllings is starting to sweat. His credibility (never high) is on the line here.

He still insists on jumping in with both feet to the Hs2 debate on Twitter and today I challenged him on these figures. His response? He pretended he’d never made any such cost projections!

Wellings costs

Not only is the man no good with figures, he’s no good with the truth either…

Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week – No 5…

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

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Well, not so much crazy as an outrageous liar really. Meet ‘Outoftweet123’;

Out of tweet

Yes, like most of his ilk, he prefers anonymity. He claims that Trans-Pennine electrification has been ‘scrapped’ to pay for Hs2 & uses a MEN article as ‘proof’. Here’s a link to the MEN article. Note that it doesn’t claim the work is cancelled, merely delayed. How anyone can claim its been ‘cancelled’ & expect anyone with even half a brain to fall for it is beyond me but the anti Hs2 mobs media campaign is increasingly losing the plot as more & more folk are seeing the light & abandoning them. All they have left is the serial ranters & ravers which only damages their credibility even further.

Needless to say, this abject nonsense gets retweeted by some of their other anonymous fruitloops (although there is one person in the list who really should know better).

Will any of this Stop Hs2? Of course not. But it does provide more evidence of how far out of touch with reality their campaign has become. If they had a theme tune, perhaps it should be this..

And yes – the muppets do seem very appropriate!

2023 Update.

Like most anti HS2 tweets, this one really hasn’t aged well. In 2023 the Trans-Pennine route upgrade (TRU) is in full-swing. Now (3rd April) work to upgrade and electrify the route at Stalybridge is in its last few days after a long blockade. Meanwhile, work continues on the line from Huddersfield to Leeds with work compounds established and even whole stations being moved (such as the one at Morley). Cancelled my arse!

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Hs2 Ltd respond to the Petitioning Committees first report

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

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On the 26th March the Hs2 Petitioning Bill Committee published its first interim report which contained a series of requests & observations generated by the petitioning process. You can find their report here.

Yesterday Hs2 Ltd published their response, which you can read here.

Both make interesting as they give an insight into the issues raised & the vast amount of detailed work that’s gone into progress so far. One thing in particular caught my eye, which was these comments regarding ‘template’ petitions;

Petitions

Cut & paste petitions were a centrepiece of the anti Hs2 mobs tactics. They hoped that, if they swamped the Committee with petitions they could bog down the whole process & delay Hs2 long enough that a new Government would decide to cancel the project due to delays & costs. Like all the other anti Hs2 tactics, it’s failed. The Petitioning Committee have made it clear they aren’t going to let themselves get bogged down this way & neither are Hs2 Ltd.

Another interesting aspect of the Petitioning Committee’s report is that they are looking to make recommendations on the conduct & process of future Hybrid Bills (such as the Phase 2 bill). What’s the bet that one of those recommendations will be to close the loophole of ‘template’ petitions & prevent the threat of future bills getting bogged down in this fashion?

This week’s most bonkers anti Hs2 mob message- No 4.

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Crazy kippers, Hs2, UKIP

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The combination of Hs2 and crazy UKIP supporters has always been a powerful one but the parties abject humiliation in the general election has meant most crazy kippers have crawled back under their rocks. However, today one has thrown their tinfoil hat away and tweeted this gem!

Bonkers

As this one shows, Kippers have never let facts get in the way of their crazy EU paranoia. The ability to deliberately misunderstand what an EU Directive really is isn’t unusual in their world. Unluckily for them the UK electorate saw through them & halved the number of MPs they have.

Hopefully, the party will have disappeared through a combination of internecine warfare and the attentions of the Grim Reaper* by the next election.

*The Grim Reaper should be the party’s logo due to the fact their age demographic is mostly on the wrong side of 65…

My reply to a question from Surveyor Magazine

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

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Yesterday, Surveyor magazine asked if Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin was right in his assertion that the argument over Hs2 had been won. This was my reply.

He’s absolutely right – and here’s why..

Let’s deal with a few political realities, shall we? The general election exposed the anti hs2 camp as toothless. They have no political clout & their ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign failed to deliver them any political influence whatsoever – even in their supposed heartlands of the Chilterns & Warks. The cold, hard fact is – when it comes to voting for their MP, people have far wider concerns than HS2. The anti Hs2 campaign is in complete denial of this political reality & takes refuge in opinion polls. Their problem is – opinion polls don’t elect politicians, voters do!

In the context of real political power, opinion polls are meaningless. The antis can claim 88% (or whatever) ‘oppose’ Hs2 because they grumble about it in an opinion poll, but if that doesn’t translate into votes – it’s worthless.

Back in the real world, we’ve had a party that made it crystal clear that it was going to press ahead with Hs2 if it was returned to Government. Complaints that there was no ‘real debate’ about Hs2 are simply sour grapes from supporters of a campaign that was never going to win. The anti Hs2 campaign hoped UKIP would be the cavalry that would ride to their rescue but that was never going to happen.

So, McLoughlin is right. The argument has been won. There’s no credible opposition to Hs2, there’s simply a dwindling number of folks who complain about it but who can’t stop it.

In the next 18 months this number will shrink even more as the Hs2 petitioning process is settled and more people are compensated for genuine losses. By the end of 2016 the Hs2 Hybrid Bill will receive Royal Assent & construction will start in 2017 (although enabling works will start in 2016). That means, by the time of the next election, Phase 1 will have been under construction for nearly 4 years & the phase 2 Hybrid Bill will have begun its course through Parliament.

With that in mind, does anyone seriously believe that UKIP (if they haven’t disappeared in internecine warfare) will still oppose Hs2? Or even the Greens – bearing in mind there’s many Greens who are unhappy with the parties stance on hs2 & want to change it?

Labour remain staunchly behind hs2 & will continue that way as it brings undeniable benefits to their remaining heartlands – the major cities & the old industrial areas of the Midlands, NW & NE.

So, who will stop hs2? There’s no-one. The argument is over. Now it’s time to get on with the job of building it – just as McLoughlin has said…

Anti campaigners claims that Hs2 won’t ‘rebalance the North’ are dealt another body blow.

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Manchester Airport, Northern Powerhouse

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The anti Hs2 campaign’s claims that Hs2 will do nothing to help rebalance the economy & help the North were dealt another serious blow today when Manchester airport announced a £1bn expansion plan that is expected to more than double the number of passengers from 23m to 55m by 2050 and create an extra 20,000 jobs at the airport.

Construction Enquirer reports on the plans here:

Manchester Airport rolls out £1bn expansion plan

Plus, there’s more from the Manchester Evening News here:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-airport-expansion-plan-security-9370929

CE reports that “The dramatic expansion scheme has been prompted by the second phase of HS2 and the Government’s plan to improve east-west rail connections of HS3 as part of the development of a Northern Powerhouse.”

This is good news for the North. It also weakens the case for a third runway in the South-East at either Gatwick or Heathrow as Hs2 will provide a fast connection between Manchester airport and many cities (including London). For example:

Manchester Airport – Birmingham will be cut from 1hr 44 to just 32mins

Manchester Airport – London will be cut from 2hr 24 to just 1hr 03 (quicker than getting to Heathrow on the tube!)

Manchester Airport – Heathrow will be cut from 3hr 24 to just 1hr 18.

In addition, the plans for Hs3 should bring many of the North’s cities within 30mins travelling time from Manchester airport, creating a true regional hub. At the moment many folks (like me) still find it more convenient to travel to Heathrow to catch certain flights. Manchester’s expansion plans should cut this need and also reduce the number of internal connecting flights to/from Heathrow.