My day’s travels are having a later start than normal as I’m currently waiting for a check-up at the Royal Calderdale hospital’s Dematology department. After forty-odd years of backpacking and beach-bumming around the world in exotic, sunny places you’ll find more moles on me than on the average golf course! So far, all have proved to be benign but recently a new one’s appeared on my cheek below my left eye. My GP reckons is OK but has sent me to get it checked out by experts – just in case. Once this is done I’ll be on my way, heading North. Of course, the problem with hospitals (especially ‘cos of Covid) is that you’ve no idea how long things will take. I’m not a great fan of hanging around hospitals (after all, they’re full of sick people!) but I really can’t complain about the Royal Calderdale. Whenever I’ve been here in the past the staff have been excellent.
It’s my first visit since the pandemic broke and it’s odd to see the place quieter than usual and waiting areas stripped to the bare minimum to enable social distancing. This is a big hospital with a large catchment area so it’s normally buzzing.
11:40.
Everything’s A-OK. The Dermatology nurse who examined me was a chippy and cheerful Yorkshire lass. After quizzing whsre I was going with such a large bag she waxed lyrical about a trip she’d taken along the Settle-Carlisle railway with her husband! In examining me she told me what I had under my eye was a seborrhoeic keratoses (a name that doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue!) and the good news? They’re harmless!
As my visit was mercifully short I managed to catch an earlier train. I’m now on a busy 3-car Class 195 working the 11:32 Halifax – Blackpool North. Leisure travel’s returned with a vengance. I was nearly mown down by a fleet of women with prams who were leaving the train to head the ths towns ‘Eureka’ childrens museum. Even with them disembarking the train remains busy.
12:30.
We’ve just left Blackburn and the train’s packed. We’ve lots of families aboard who’re on their way to Blackpool for a holiday. I feel rather sorry for them as the weather’s not looking very promising over the next few days, but then that’s why budget holidays to Spain became so popular!
14:30.
I’m now on the final leg to Carlisle after changing trains at Preston and Lancaster. All the services I’ve used today have been busy. It’s true that Preston station was quieter than I’d usually expect this time of year, but then there’s rather a dearth of foreign tourists – for obvious reasons! From Preston I caught a TPE Class 397 working a Manchester Airport – Edinburgh service, which was well loaded. If it had been on one of the old 3-car Class 185s used on the route it would have been rammed. I’ve not travelled on a 397 on the WCML before so I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the ride at linespeed – especially as I was stood over a bogie on the trailing vehicle!
I had half an hour at Lancaster, long enough to grab a couple of pictures, notice that all the station’s catering outlets had reopened (bar the WH Smiths by the ticket office) and have a quick word with an old friend who was on dispatch duty before catching Avanti West Coast’s 13:55 Northwards. Station announcements warned that it would be busy and advised those on flexible tickets to get a later train. 390104 rolled in to do the honours and it was indeed busy. I was lucky, a family of four were detraining so I managed to blag their table which is where I’m sat typing this. Having flown through a gloomy Lune Gorge we’ve hit mist and rain at Shap summit, so I’ve no idea what to expect in Carlisle…
15:15.
In fact, the weather in Carlisle is changeable, but OK. The sun put in an appearence for this beastie anyway. Rail Charter Services green HST working the 15:09 to Skipton via the Settle and Carlise line.
Epilogue!
After meeting up with Hassard at Carlisle the lair of us headed off to territory he’s never explored before – the Cumbrian Coast line as far as Whitehaven. We’d planned to walk along an old tramway from there to Parton but the rain lashed our train as it made its way to the coast, so we dicided to be flexible. The 2-car 156 we were on was really busy with a mix of locals on their way home from work and tourists. Two young couples opposite were heading to Whitehaven with their bikes to begin the popular coast to coast cycle route.
Fortunately for us (and the cyclists) the weather broke en-route. As we headed South the rain headed North so our plan came together after all. The old tramway runs parallel to and above the railway, giving excellent views of line, rocky beaches and out to sea. The route’s tarmac’d as it’s part of the national cycle network, so it’s an easy walk.
Not a bad day here in Bigland Towers even if I didn’t get through 3/4 of the things I’d hoped to – as is often the case as life just seems to keep getting in the way! At least the weather’s improved, which lifts the mood. I managed to tear Dawn away from her computer at lunchtime and the two of us had an amble through the local woods which was lovely. The recent rains have encouraged a real growth spurt in some plants so it looks like we’ll be having a bumper crop of Blackberries this year. The only downside is the brambles are throwing out so many tendrils they’re making some of the woodland walks awkward to navigate – especially if you’re wearing shorts! If the brambles don’t get you, the Nettles will!
Back at home I’ve been ploughing through various work projects and organising the diary which (thankfully) is looking a lot fuller than this time last year. Admittedly, there’s no plans for getting abroad right now, but I’ll be ‘on tour’ in the UK again for the next couple of days, so expect a rolling blog or two. Tomorrow I make my way to Carlisle to meet up with an old friend from London who’s on a business trip to the area. Having company on one of these jaunts will be fun as Covid’s meant I’ve normally been flying solo. We’ll be taking a photographic trip down the Cumbrian coast. I’m I’m hoping the weather Gods will smile upon us. I’ve not had the opportunity to visit the area for a couple of years so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be making my way back to Yorkshire on Thursday and I’ve a couple of places I could do to visit to get shots for a client so I’ll be watching the weather forecast and hoping it performs to expectations. But hey, this is Britain after all, I could end up with floods or blizzards!
Whilst I’ve been slaving away back in the office I discovered a stash of old slides from my 1991-92 world trip that I’d never got around to cataloguing as the emulsion on some of them had been attacked by fungus before I could post them back to the UK. Now, with the wonders of modern technology – and a lot of patience in Photoshop, most of them can be restored, so here’s the picture of the day…
I took this shot in the old loco shed at the Amberawa Railway museum in Java, Indonesia on the 11th July 1992.
I was staying in nearby Yogyakarta in Central Java and was determined to fit in a visit, even though it meant catching a packed local bus to get there as the operational railway between the two towns had closed back in the 1970s. It was well worth the trip as the museum houses a fascinating collection of old Indonesian steam locomotives of all shapes and sizes, including a few British built examples. This one was (and is) still operational. B2503 was built by Esslingen of Germany (Works number 3244 of 1902). It’s a rack and adhesion type of engine, which means that on the steep gradients around Amberawa the locomotive gripped a rack rail between the two conventional rails, pulling itself and its train along on the rack via a powered cog-wheel rather than relying on simple adhesion. This 0-4-2 wheel arrangement tank locomotive looks small, but it weighs in at 31 tons! Sadly, on the day I visited, none of the engines were in steam. Nowadays the museum’s and its locomotives are a lot better kept so I’m determined to get back there again once the present pandemic has subsided. I really enjoyed travelling in Java, both then and during my last visit in 2017. It’s a beautiful island rich in history and with some great food too. Oh, and the odd railway gem like this!
I’ll eventually get around to restoring all these old pictures when time permits. Maybe that’s a job for those long dark winter nights. Right now there’s too many contemporary shots on my list to keep me occupied.
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/
Every so often Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins bile duct overflows and he releases a torrent of vituperative and bombastic nonsense about the HS2 rail project. He’s been doing this on a regular basis for years now. The fact he’s always proved spectacularly wrong and fact-free never stops him as the man clearly believes his own myths and is unashamed by the fact his fictional tirades never age well.
Crewe based blogger Tim Fenton has punctured Jenkins hot air balloon several times in the past. Notably here in 2014 and here in 2015. Sadly, the fact nowadays he’s in the fairy story business rather than real Journalism hasn’t stopped the Guardian publishing him. I’m assuming their Editor no longer cares about trivial things like facts and the truth as clicks are more important. The rubbish Jenkins writes are good enough to generate those as his rants against HS2 are guaranteed to be shared by the projects opponents – even ones whom aren’t natural Guardian readers! It’s a win for the Grauniad and a loss for those who like decent, factual journalism, analysis – and the truth.
Let’s have a look at Jenkins latest fact-free farrago shall we? I’d suggest wearing a peg on your nose whilst doing it as the smell of bullshit is overpowering. It’s entitled “Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on as Johnson’s £100bn vanity project” – which is a good start as that’s three untruths in the headline and we haven’t even got to the article yet! The first paragraph is no better…
“Britain’s new high-speed railway will not – repeat: not – get to the north of England. It will go back and forth from London to the Midlands and its chief beneficiaries will be London commuters. All else is political spin”
Really? Jenkins seems unaware that contracts for building HS2 Phase 2a from Birmingham to Crewe have already been let. Contractors have already started on preparatory work as Phase 2a gained Royal Assent on the 11th February 2021 after flying through both Houses of Parliament with a huge majority – just as Phase 1 did. Now, what was that about “unwanted”? HS2 has always commanded huge-cross party political support. So much so that the handful of opponents in the Lords didn’t even bother calling for a vote on the Phase 2a bill as they knew they were completely outnumbered.
Oh, and “London Commuters”? Hs2 is a long-distance railway. Like all other long-distance railways that means the vast majority of passengers will be leisure travellers, NOT commuters. The HS2 business case is based on 70% of travellers doing so for leisure. How can that be predicted? Easy, because we know who uses the existing Long-Distance services.
Meanwhile, Jenkins continues to dig a hole…
“This became certain last week as the government’s internal major projects authority declared phase two of the HS2 project, to Manchester and Leeds, effectively dead. While the already-started London-to-Birmingham stretch is still marked at “amber/red” for “successful delivery in doubt”, anything north of Crewe has been designated “unachievable”.
This is complete cobblers of course and will come as real news to people on the leg from Crewe to Manchester (and HS2 Ltd themselves) as the Government announced the timetable for the Phase 2b leg in the Queens Speech at the state opening of Parliament. The bill will be deposited in Parliament next year.
As for this amber/red and ‘unachievable’ nonsense, this is Jenkins failing to understand what the ratings (given by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority) actually mean. For example, we have two ‘unachievable’ Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers floating around right now that the IPA rated red. Oh, and the new Intercity Express Programme (IEP) trains built by Hitachi that are ploughing up and down the East Coast and Great Western main lines? They were rated ‘unachievable’ as well.
What’s next? Oh yes,
“Since HS2 has always been politics-driven – no rail strategy ever gave it priority”
This is more complete bollocks. The origins of HS2 are in several studies looking at the needs for future rail capacity that were carried out by the likes of Network Rail. In fact, it was this study. “Meeting the capacity challenge: The case for new lines” which was published by NR in 2009 that was the basis for HS2. It was the rail industry who established the need for HS2, not politicians.
Next?
“The only way of conveying the scale of Johnson’s vanity in this vanity project is to convey its opportunity cost, a projected £106bn (and rising) over 20 years.”
More cobblers. The cost of HS2 is not a ‘projected’ £106bn. Yet again Jenkins resorts to fiction as he’s just too idle and sure of himself to fact check but he’s not alone in filching figures from others without checking so I’ll cut him some slack. This number has been bandied around an awful lot in the media. That’s because the media is so incestuous as well as lazy. Nicking other people’s copy is endemic. It’s like Chinese whispers and ‘send three and fourpence, the General’s going to a dance’, an error’s circulated, magnified and becomes a ‘fact’. It’s claimed the £106bn is an ‘official’ figure because it was in the Oakervee Review of HS2. There’s just one teeny problem – the actual figure (£106.6bn) was mentioned in the review so that Oakervee could specifically dismiss it! Here’s a link to the Oakervee review. Here’s what Oakervee actually said.
Here’s what Oakervee ‘really’ said about the costs (there’s a range, not a single figure).
So, £80.7 – 87-7bn. Not figures you’ll see the press using as it’s not a single number that’s scary enough!
Jenkins then goes into the standard economic illiteracy about what spending funds for HS2 could do for the NHS, neatly showing he doesn’t understand the fact there’s no pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘For HS2’ that’s waiting to rebadged, that he doesn’t know the difference between operational expenditure and capital expenditure, and thirdly, that Hs2’s funded by borrowing, not taxation. I’ve covered all those points in this blog in the past.
Continuing with his nonsensical claims, Jenkins than says;
“This one train line will consume the equivalent of Britain’s entire projected railway investment budget during its two decades of construction. Even the initial phase to Birmingham, at roughly £70bn, is twice the £40bn cost of the “northern powerhouse” rail system”
Firstly, Phase 1 is budgeted at £40-43bn (see above) £70bn is a number Jenkins has invented. Secondly, No-one knows that the UKs projected rail budget is for the next 20 years as it’s not set that far in advance. Network Rail’s budget is set in 5 year periods, known as ‘Control Periods’. The current one (CP6) runs from 2019-2024. That was set at 47bn. Of course the line between maintenance and ‘investment’ is blurred. For example, is replacing life-expired signalling with an upgraded system maintenance or investment? Here’s a link to the Department of transport’s budget 2019-2020. It makes it clear that the amount spent on Hs2 is dwarfed by what’s spent on the existing national rail network.
Oh, and that doesn’t include what others (like the Welsh and Scottish Governments, or train builders) invest in the railways either. Jenkin’s claim is simply more spherical objects..
Jenkin’s diatribe of nonsense continues with this tosh.
“Meanwhile arguments continue over the trains themselves. They are not planned to tilt, which means that any time saved on a new track to Birmingham will be lost on winding track further north. A re-signalled King’s Cross line could even get to Scotland faster. HS2 is more a taxpayer-funded theme park ride”.
*Sigh*. Where to start on this rubbish? 1. HS2’s already being built North of Birmingham to Crewe. 2. The trains don’t need to tilt to keep time as the new Hitachi Class 802s operated by Transpennine Express have already proved, (technology has moved on) plus Network Rail are proposing some track upgrades on the route to Scotland anyway. 3. Re-signalling The East Coast won’t speed it up in any meaningful way as you’d need to close all the level and foot crossings which would cost a fortune and you still wouldn’t get HS2 speed – plus – you’d devastate capacity on the route by running faster trains! This crucial factor is missed by armchair experts like Jenkins. Speed up trains on the existing main lines which are already overflowing with services and you reduce capacity as slower trains have to be ditched from the timetable to leave room for the faster ones. It’s the raison d’être for HS2, by removing those non-stop high-speed services you free up large chunks of capacity on the existing network. Jenkins ignores that crucial point because it doesn’t fit his narrative. As for the final tosh about ‘taxpayer funded’ – we’ve been over this until we’re blue in the face. HS2 is funded by borrowing against future GDP increases, not taxation!
Jenkin’s continues with his ‘vanity project’ tosh with this statement;
“What is intriguing is how HS2 has mutated from from a transport project to political machismo – “infrastructure” that is good in itself.”
Trying to label HS2 as a ‘Johnson’ project simply won’t wash – because by the time HS2 opens Johnson (hopefully) will be long gone. HS2’s been in development for over 11 years. In that time we’ve had Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Teresa May and Boris Johnson premierships. The project was kicked off by a Labour Government, taken forward by a Coalition Government and now construction’s started under a Tory Government. It’s hard to think of many schemes as apolitical as HS2. By the time the whole project’s completed that will be nearer 25 years. Who know who’ll be the Prime Minister cutting the tape when the first phase opens in 2029!
Jenkin’s final canard is this, the old “Hs2 is stealing your investment money”
“(Andy Burnham) will now find Birmingham blessed with cash that might have renovated his dire northern powerhouse rail network three times over – money he may now never see”
Playing regional mayors off against each other I see. It won’t wash. That money comes from Whitehall anyway. They make the investment choices as funding powers and budgets haven’t been devolved by the Government – much to the North’s annoyance – and that’s not exclusively to do with Burnham either. The Government set up Transport for the North but didn’t give it control of its budget. This is a Government decision but it’s nothing to do with HS2 which has a separate funding stream. Still, facts eh? You’ll never get ’em from Jenkins!
No doubt Jenkins latest pile of cobblers will keep the Grauniad happy as it’s done it’s job creating clicks and comments. It won’t stop HS2 in the slightest of course, the only effect it will have in the long term is to continue the downwards trajectory of the reputation of English journalism. Next time you see a Jenkins article on HS2, save yourself some time and file it straight in the bin…
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’ve had a rather unplanned break from the office today and taken the camera exploring instead. Dawn had to pop into the Community Rail Network offices in Huddersfield so suggested that I tag along so that I could help carry some boxes, meet her new Boss, then get out for a while whilst she worked. It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss for several reasons. One being that due to the major engineering blockade on the railway into Manchester Victoria at Miles Platting several freight services are being diverted from the Calder to the Colne valley. Due to capacity constraints and the intensive passenger services along the Colne valley freight is normally rare, so it was a good chance to capture something unusual before the day comes when the overhead wires that will inevitably arrive change the route completely.
My donkey work done I caught a train West along the valley to Marsden. The 3-car local stopping was busier than I’ve seen it for ages as folk return to the railways
13:45.
I’m now playing cat and mouse with the sun, clouds and odd freight train, leavened with a selection of Trans-Pennine and Northern services, including some unusual empty stock moves. I’ll add a selection of camera shots later, right now you’ll have to settle for some phone pix…
For those of you who don’t know Marsden it’s a lovely little village surrounded by high Pennine hills. The last railway village in West Yorkshire and location of the famous Standedge tunnels (two rail, one canal). Here’s a flavour..
15:00.
As well as the railway Marsden hosts the Huddersfield narrow canal a popular inland waterway that’s busy with boats in the summer. The village was also a popular (perhaps too popular) stop for people on the trans-Pennine ‘Rail Ale Trail’ although Covid has killed much of that and the popular Riverhead pub in Marsden remains closed. Despite that, there’s still plenty of pubs, cafes and resturants to tempt visitors.
21:30.
That was a busy day! I stayed in Marsden for several hours until the skies began to close in and I had many of the pictures that I wanted. Despite me visiting some new locations there’s only so many shots that you can take before they become repetitive. Heading back to Huddersfield I spent an hour wandering around the town centre trying to get a feel for the place as it comes out of lockdown. I have to day, it feels sad. There’s clearly a lot of shops that are never going to open and the claims of Brexiters that being in the EU was what was holding us back have foundered on the rocks of reality – as you notice when you visit the supermarkets and gaze upon the empty shelves. Brexit hasn’t swept the streets of rogues and vagabonds (as promised) either as the vast majority of them are (of course) indigenous.
Once Dawn finished work we headed home to enjoy a quick drink in the garden watching the sun set on a glorious evening as the clouds had melted away here in the Calder Valley, leaving us with a perfect sky. We couldn’t linger long as we both had food duties to perform. Dee wanted to have another practice run with wedding cakes so whilst she did that I prepared a massive chick pea, tuna and veggie cheese salad with lots of trimmings that’ll keep us going for the next couple of days. Now, whilst Dee’s perfecting her baking I’m editing pictures.
First up is a shot from Marsden featuring an empty stock move from Newcastle’s Heaton depot to Manchester’s Newton Heath shed. Renumbered 150003 this is Northern’s newly converted 2-car Class 150116 which has been modified to run as a 3-car by the insertion of a 150/2 vehicle (57209). Three more of these units are to be converted, bringing the total to 6. This isn’t a new idea. Several trains ran in this formation when they worked for Central trains in the Birmingham area back in the 2000s.
Trans-Pennine Express unit 802202 speeds past Marsden whilst working 9M26, the 12:43 Newcastle to Manchester Piccadilly.802210 rounds the long curve from Marsden station (which is just out of shot around the corner) whilst working 1P29, the 1438 Manchester Piccadilly to Newcastle. The loop here is seldom used now that the former Northern stopping service from Huddersfield to Manchester is worked by TPE Class 185s. The fact this was once a four-track main line is evident from the width of the formation.
DB Cargo’s 66152 heads West with 6M16, the Monday’s only Tees Yard to Knowsley (Liverpool ) empty ‘binliner’. These waste trains were once a regular sight in the Colne Valley but changes in the locations served and the fact this trans-Pennine route no longer has the capacity to cope means the trains now normally run via the Calder Valley.
I’ll be adding these shots and many more to my Zenfolio website later in the week. But for now, it’s goodnight!
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/
In the past few years there’s been widespread dissatisfaction with ‘traditional’ media outlets, both print and broadcast. It’s not an unreasonable feeling as most newspapers have been bought up or are owned by media barons who use them to push their own particular world view to further their own interests. The Broadcast media such as the BBC have also come under fire as their obsession with ‘balance’ has led then to give undue weight and prominence to people and groups selling snake-oil on subjects like the economy, politics or climate change. Then there’s the mystery of why right-wingers like Nigel Farage always featured on programmes like Question Time, despite him failing multiple times to ever get elected…
This dissatisfaction has fuelled the rise of the ‘alternative’ media. Sadly, much of that has been just as bad as many of the outlets are exactly the same as the print media. They’re exist solely to push one political view or ideology and damn the truth! Their function is to reinforce peoples prejudices and tell them what they want to hear. It’s not just the right-wing either, you have several left-wing outlets too. As always, the first casualty is the truth.
So, it felt like a new hope when Byline Media was established by one Peter Jukes back in 2019. The aims were laudable. It was to be impartial, report the truth and be a platform where ‘facts matter’. You can read more about its aims here in its manifesto.
Sadly, the reality has proved to be a real disappointment as the project has some major flaws. Here’s one. In it’s manifesto it says “Byline is a platform, not a paper. This means we don’t edit our journalists”. The reality is – this leaves them free to publish some complete crap! They also claim “Though we accept absolute truth isn’t reachable, aspiring to accuracy is still important” Really? How, when they don’t ‘edit’ their Journalists, or check their facts – or correct their errors? This smells like a cop-out. Then there’s the fact that Jukes himself isn’t averse to leaping in on social media to throw in fact-free assertions backed-up by nothing other than his own prejudices. Jukes talks of “holding power to account”, but who holds Byline to account?
Let me give you some examples. Regular readers will know I often write about railways and HS2, the new High-Speed railway in particular. Because of the fact I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade I’ve come to know a lot about it, which means I can tell fact from fiction – and there’s plenty of the latter around masquerading as the former!
Sadly, Byline have chosen to publish an awful lot of the latter too, which is ironic as in April they celebrated their second birthday and tweeted this.
Two years of ‘exposing lies’ eh? But what about the ones you’ve helped spread?
Here’s a recent article on HS2 entitled “the runaway train”. It was written by Sam Bright and billed as an ‘exclusive’.
It hits the buffers straight away as there’s nothing ‘exclusive’ about it. It’s a rehash of old accusations made by two ex HS2Ltd employees (Andrew Bruce and Doug Thornton) dating from the mid 2010s and investigated by the Public Accounts Committee in 2018, which dismissed the claims. Despite Bright’s claims, there’s no new evidence in the article. Bright does say,
“Byline Times has seen a signed affidavit given by Bruce in August 2019, detailing his experiences working for HS2 Limited – the Government-funded private company that is tasked with delivering the railway.”
So, what’s the new revelations in this affidavit then? Bruce doesn’t say, probably because there aren’t any. But we do get this tidbit.
““I was advised that I had not passed my probation due to poor performance and that I was to leave the building immediately,” he states in the affidavit”
So, Bruce wasn’t ‘sacked’, he simply didn’t pass his probationary period. Hardly unique…
So, no new revelations in the article, but plenty of muddled conspiracies and factual errors – like this.
“The phase one HS2 hybrid bill was introduced for its third reading in the House of Commons in March 2016 and Royal Assent was granted in February 2017.”
“Nine months before the hybrid bill was put before Parliament for Royal Assent, HS2 – and therefore one would reasonably assume the DfT – knew the true cost, but I was fired and the true cost was concealed until after Royal Assent was granted”…
Eh? Royal Assent is a formality. The Queen cannot refuse it. Third reading of a Hybrid Bill is also a formality that just rubber stamps any amendments made during the petitioning process. The bill is regarded as being ‘established’ (ie passed) after its 2nd reading, which was in April 2014. So any extra costs there were on land purchases are a total Red Herring. The Hybrid Bill petitioning Ctte added 100s of millions to the cost of HS2 by agreeing to extra tunnels but that wasn’t an issue either as Parliament had agreed to build HS2 back in April 2014. It doesn’t then go back and say ‘hang on a minute – recall Parliament – we want to scrap this now the costs have changed’ so the idea that anyone was fired to conceal something that would have no impact is just stuff and nonsense. Oh, there’s also the small matter that the property costs of HS2 were reported every year (there’s now a report to Parliament every six months).
It’s worth noting that the land and properties acquired for the construction and operation of HS2 are purchased by HS2 Ltd as agent for the Secretary of State and are recognised as assets in the DfT’s financial statements. They are not included in HS2 Ltd’s financial statements. The DfT accounts are published annually and presented to Parliament annually, so any HS2 property figures would be known annually. They’re also scrutinized by the National Audit Office (NAO). Here’s their latest look at HS2. The idea that anything was being ‘hidden’ when HS2 has so much public and Parliamentary scrutiny is far-fetched to say the least – and it was dismissed by the NAO in this report in 2018 which specifically deals with the ‘whistleblowers’ claims.
“The National Audit Office received correspondence concerned about HS2 Ltd’s land and property programme. They raised concerns with us that:
• HS2 Ltd had understated the property cost estimate, including in information provided to Parliament with deposit of the hybrid Bill for Phase One”
Their conclusion?
No ‘conspiracy, no smoking gun – and still within budget…
So, what’s the point of Byline’s ‘exclusive’ other than to rehash old ground? There’s nothing new at all. It’s throwing old mud around in the hope it’ll stick second time around. The only interesting revelation is that Thornton (one of the two embittered ex-employees) is now driving delivery vans for Tesco!
But then Bright really goes off the factual rails, writing that
“A 2019 review of HS2 by the project’s former chairman Douglas Oakervee suggested that the total cost could amount to £106.6 billion – while others have claimed that it could cost as much as £170 billion.”
Eh? Oakervee never said any such thing! The only time the £106.6bn number was mentioned was to specifically REJECT it – as anyone who’s actually read the Oakervee review would know. Here it is in in black and white on page on page 60.
How Bright’s managed to claim this says “Oakervee suggested that the total cost could amount to £106.6 billion” is a mystery. Here’s what Oakervee actually says about the cost of HS2.
£62-69bn. Oakervee notes that 2015 prices are ‘problematic’ so on page 56 of the report he updates them to 2019 prices.
So, £62-69bn becomes £80.7 – £87.7bn. Not £106.6bn as Bright inexplicably claims! But where did that other £170 billion figure come from Bright mentions? It’s made up by a chap called Michael Byng. No-one but Byng recognises it, but it’s a nice big scary number, so Bright gives it an airing.
When Byline published this and Jukes promoted it on Twitter, the reaction from HS2 supporters was ‘oh, no – not that old rubbish again’? Jukes took a bit of a hammering. Instead of looking at the (valid criticisms) he doubled down with this tweet which put the made-up number on a par with official figures.
Doubling down again in the face of further criticism, he came out with this Linking HS2 to Tory cronyism on the basis of absolutely no evidence whatsoever – and yet again giving credibility to inaccurate and made up numbers!
Peter clearly forgets he’s meant to be ‘exposing lies’ not telling porkies…
A friend described Byline to me as “skwawkbox for centrist dads’. I’m beginning to see what he meant.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, one of Byline’s regional branches (East Anglia Bylines) also launched a hatchet job on HS2, and this one’s a doozy! Take a look at this!
No wonder the author (Wheeltapper) wanted to be anonymous! It’s utter rubbish. How about this ‘revelation’?
“So, the reason the NtP initially referred only to Phase 1 is that Phase 1 isn’t going to integrate: it’s all completely new. Larger, faster trains will need different track; they are being purchased from the continent, where the track gauge is wider, necessary to achieve the higher speeds.”
Wait? What? HS2 is going to be built to a different gauge? The ‘continent’ doesn’t use standard gauge? That’ll come as a shocker to Eurostar then, they’ve been running through services using standard gauge trains between London, Paris and Brussels since 1994 and now run to Amsterdam too – not to mention across France with ski specials and to Eurodisney!
The whole article is appalling there’s so many howlers and untruths I could spend a whole day blogging factual corrections but can’t be bothered. Any real media outlet with any semblance of quality control or standards would have binned this rubbish straight away. I tweeted East Anglia Bylines and pointed out some of these howlers but never received as much as an acknowledgement. This load of crap is still on their website (see update). But remember, according to Jukes and Byline “the truth matters”. Except when it doesn’t, obviously.
It’s a huge shame to see that Byline – despite all their claims – are just as bad as the media outlets that pander to people’s prejudices, because I have to ask, if they’re printing dishonest stuff like this I’ve spotted because I know about the subject, what else are they putting out? I’m not the only once to spot this conundrum.
Other well-known bloggers have spotted the problems too…
So, remember as a well-known TV series once said, “the truth is out there” – just don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’ll fall into your lap on Byline media…
UPDATE.
I’ve been told via back-channels that the awful East Anglia Bylines piece has been ‘pulled for review and correction’. Personally, I think the best thing they could do with it is file it in the bin, but we shall see….
UPDATE No2.
Sadly, Byline have continued their trend of publishing fact-free, poorly researched and just plain wrong articles about HS2 and Peter Jukes continues to get very sniffy when people then criticize him for it – even when those people are Byline subscribers. The latest daft piece is this, titled “HS2 doesn’t know how many Oak trees it’s destroyed”. No-one seemed to have had the gumption to ask “well, why would it? Why does it need to know every single tree by species, what’s the point”? HS2 has responded with how many hectares of oerdinary and also ancient woodland have been felled, but count every single tree? Oh, please!
The article contains another classic snide remark that’s rather backfired. The author, one Jake Tacchi sniffily says
“It also involves the construction of four new stations, including the ill-thought-out name of Old Oak Common in West London”. The lad is clearly unaware that HS2 didn’t invent the name Old Oak Common, it’s a long established name of an area of London that’s been in use for centuries. You might as well complain there’s no Pachyderms or Battlements to be found at the Elephant and Castle!
The article trots out all the old trite claims about HS2 that feature on everyone’s Bingo Cards when it comes to canards. The Woodland Trusts supposed 108 woodlands ‘destroyed’? Check. HS2 not ‘carbon neutral for 120 years’? Tick. Then there’s another gem. Apparently, “Despite the felling of such ancient trees, the project first being proposed in 2009, and costs for the railway soaring, not a single mile of track has yet to be laid”. Really? Has no-one told this young man that HS2 only got Notice To Proceed in early 2020 and that before you lay any tracks you need to build tunnels, bridges, cuttings and embankments first (which the contractors, now mobilising, are doing at a rate of knots? Not exactly what you’d call a killer argument, is it? Here’s the reality this young man doesn’t seem to have noticed…
Oi! Get a shift on will yer? I know you’ve only been boring these 10 mile long tunnels for a couple of months and it’ll take 2 years to do it, but Jake Tacchi’s moaning that you’ve not laid any tracks yet…
My criticisms of Bylines poor standards of Journalism and complete absence of fact-checking have met with this reaction. Frank and fearless journalism, or touchy and unable to accept and respond to criticism? You decide….
Needless to say, this silly act of pique won’t stop me critiquing any other nonsense Byline publish about HS2 as they can’t block me from their website! It’s entirely counter-productive and hasn’t done their reputation any favors either all it shows it they’re rather thin-skinned when it comes to valid criticisms of their content.
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With the collapse of the anti HS2 ‘protection’ camps and protest on the ground, the shambolic remnants of their campaign (and I use that word loosely) spend more and more of the little time they have trying to shore-up their social media efforts to oppose HS2. Like the folks on the ground, this has mostly evaporated as the young people recruited via Extinction Rebellion who made up the bulk of it have (like many young people) short attention-spans. Most have already moved on to whatever lost cause is the latest ‘thing’. What’s left are retreating into an increasingly out of touch world which makes me wonder what some of them have been smoking/ingesting. Here’s an absolute classic of that genre!
Step forward ‘Tellheed Green’, yet another anonymous person supposedly based in London who’s just churned out this rebranded poster and posted it on the Facebook page of the Bluebell woods ‘protection’ camp. I’ve no idea who did the original artwork or where it’s been pinched from, but ‘Green’ has stuck a ‘stop HS2’ logo on it to turn it into something that’s truly ‘through the looking glass’!
Oil companies want HS2? HS2 is a carbon-neutral, electrically powered railway that will get people out of planes and cars to provide a real alternative to fossil fuel use and allow us to wean ourselves off them. Oil companies hate it! It’s the antithesis of everything Shell, Exxon and the others want! This is so bonkers it’s beyond words, yet it’s lapped up by some stophs2 supporters who’ve shared it dozens of times, or left comments like this:
Of course, the fossil fuel companies and their supporters like the Taxpayers Alliance and others must be absolutely p*ssing themselves laughing at this weapons-grade stupidity. The UK ‘green’ movement has swallowed their propaganda hook, line and sinker in order to oppose a carbon-neutral, green railway. The irony? Not one of these supposed ‘environmentalists’ has stopped, looked at this, engaged a brain cell and spoke up to say “Hey, guys? Just stop and think about this for a minute”? Their campaign is so intellectually bereft and bankrupt this stuff gets shared without any thought or question. You genuinely couldn’t make this stuff up. Well, unless you’re the likes of @hs2rebellion and it’s supporters, obviously.
And you wonder why I argue that the UK ‘green’ movement’s completely unfit for purpose? I wonder what madness they’ll come up with next?
UPDATE.
Thanks to a tip-off from Pete Johnson (@pedrojuk) on Twitter I now have the source of the original artwork which was stolen for this. Needless to say the original by Namaya Productions carried a very different message.
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Earlier today the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Ed Anderson presented the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to the members of the Mytholmroyd Station Partnershipat a ceremony in the restored station building which the group has put so much time and effort into bringing back into use.
The award was presented to Sue and Geoff Mitchell who received it on behalf of all the members of the groups, many of whom were able to attend – along with representatives of the rail industry and local councillors. As friends of the friends, Dawn and I went along to celebrate their outstanding achievement. Needless to say, I took my camera along, so here’s a few pictures from the day
The Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Ed Anderson greets Geoff Mitchell in traditional Covid ‘arm bump’ fashion… The Lord Lieutenant meeting local Councillors and community representativesAddressing the stations friends and their guests inside the restored station building. The Lord Lieutenant presenting Sue Mitchell from the station friends with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service The Lord Lieutenant presenting Sue Mitchell from the Friends of Mytholmroyd station with the engraved award and the certificate signed by the Queen. Everyone came together outside the building for the obligatory group photograph to celebrate the (well earned) award.
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/
Having spent most of yesterday in the office on what was one of the sunniest (and certainly hottest) days of the year, i’m venturing out today. Sod’s Law being what it is, the weather’s nowhere near as good as we have low cloud instead of wall-to-wall sunshine. Hopefully, if the Met Office have got it right the cloud will disappear later.
That suits me as right now I’m on the 08:50 train from Halifax to Huddersfield. Why? I’m off to Specsavers! Having had my usual eye test deferred by Covid it’s time to get my ‘mince pies’ checked out and choose a new pair of glasses. My preaent ones are four years old now. Photographer’s glasses take a beating due to costantly coming into contact with cameras. The lens coatings get worn away and the glass scratched and scored, so it’s time these ones were retired. Besides, it’ll be a week or so before the new ones are ready…
After the Opticians (and if the weather’s right) I plan to spend a few hours at the lineside getting some pictures. I’m not sure where yet, that depends on the sun – so let’s see what happens.
My service to Huddersfield’s being worked by 150274, a unit that’s worked in Yorkshire all its life. It’s been refurbished and had USB sockets and PIS screens fitted, so it’s in good nick. It’s also empty. The handful of people who got on with me at Halifax detrained at Brighouse, leaving me on my lonesome!
09:30.
As train times and available appointment times were out of sync I’ve time to hang around at the station getting a few shots. Until recently the stabling sidings were always full of surplus Nothern units that weren’t needed due to the Covid downturn. Today the yard’s empty, which augurs well. All there is to admire is the massive, multi-storey bulk of the old goods warehouse in the background.
Watching the procession of Trans-Pennine Express services as they arrive and depart it’s plain passenger numbers are picking up. Some of them are busy and it’s noticable that 1st Class (which suffered the biggest collapse in numbers) is seeing people return as business travel returns.
11:45.
My eye-test revealed that my eyes are perfectly healthy, which is always good news. They didn’t pick up any other underlying health problems either. As an extra precaution I paid to have my Retinas scanned and mapped which provides a health template for the future. As usual, the Specsavers staff were both professional and friendly with no pressure put on me to buy expensive frames or extras. I chose an new lightweight frame to house the thin lenses I’d ordered. They don’t look very different to my old ones really, they’re simply a slightly different shape.
Back at the station I spotted that the famous station cafe on the East end of the island platform had reopened, so I couldn’t resist popping in for one of their delicious, freshly cooked bacon rolls. The lovely couple who run it were both there so we swapped stories as we’ve not seen each other since the start of the pandemic. It’s great to see them back. The cafe was always one of the station’s hubs with a regular throughput of passengers and railstaff passing through. They reopened just 9 weeks ago and are finding it hard to build back the business. Passengers are returning but many have changed their routines, bypassing businesses that relied on them. Getting them back is a challenge. So, if you do pass through Huddersfield remember they’re there and pop in for a drink and a snack and enjoy one of the few remaining traditional family run station cafe’s left on the network.
17:15.
Apologies for the gap in blogging but I’ve been on the move non-stop since leaving Huddersfield. Looking at the weather I decided tp bolt across the border into Lancashire for a few hours and recce the forthcoming Trans-Pennine route upgrade engineering work that will be taking place on the route to Stalybridge, so I caught a train to Manchester Victoria then retraced my steps towards Ashton-Under-Lyne by tram just for the sheer variety! I’ve not spent much time on Metrolink for some time, so it was a good opportunity to update the library with images of street-running trams and their place in the pecking order. Frankly, I could have done with some air-conditioning on the vehicles, most of which were very busy. Unlike the national rail network the number of people who’re still wearing masks is much lower. Despite the weather, I maintained mine. One thing that struck me as we pootled along the streets of Droylesden was how many shops remained closed. There were all sorts, fast-food joints, nail bars, restaurants – small businesses of all kinds. I’m assuming more than a few have been put out of business by the pandemic and will never reopen. It was a very sad sight.
Once out at Ashton I walked over to the nearby Ashton Moss North Junction where a road overbridge offers decent views and a new housing estate right next to the line adds perspective. Sadly, by this time the clouds were rolling in and I lucked out on a few shots. The weather felt like it could thunder any time, so I kept an eye out on the skies to make sure I didn’t get caught out. There’s no signs of electrification mast bases on this section yet, but there’s a large compound next to the railway on Richmond St which contractors have established and stocked with equipment – including mast piles. I expect progress will be made during the blockade when the line will be under a possession with trains diverted. Here’s a Northern Class 150 working from Southport – Stalybridge past Ashton Moss North Junction with the compound seen to the right, next to the trackside access.
Here’s a view looking the other way from the bridge. TPE’s 802206 is passing the new housing estate (barely 4 years old) with a service from Liverpool Lime St to Newcastle. This was the site of Old Ashton and Guide Bridge Junction, where the line to Guide Bridge trailed off to the right towards the camera. The Junction was closed in 1991. The site beyond the Junction (also on the right) was the site of the LNWR Oldham Rd goods depot which closed much earlier in 1966. It’s now the site of a Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets. The new housing makes me crack a wry smile when I think of those opposed to HS2 saying ‘no-one wants to hear the noise of a railway’! No doubt I’ll be popping back here on a regular basis now to document the march of the electrification masts.
Moving on to Ashton itself I caught a train through to Stalybridge where I resisted the temptation to visit the station buffet (believe me – that was a struggle on a hot day like today!). Staying just long enough to get a few pictures I made my way back into Manchester before heading back home. I’m currently on the 16:58 Victoria to Leeds which is very busy indeed.
22:30.
Time to bring the day to a close. I’ve spent part of the evening editing today’s pictures, so here’s a sample. A Manchester Metrolink tram approaches Ashton West with IKEA dominating the skyline beyond. I’ll add a few more pictures and some text to this blog tomorrow. Right now I’m going to try and get some sleep on what’s another hot and humid night…
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/
It’s another silly o’ clock start for me this me this morning as I’m travelling down to Wolverton to a memorial service for a friend, Major John Poyntz, who died last year. Due to Covid those of us who knew John have never had the chance to get together to celebrate his life and swap memories, but today we will.
Of course, today’s also the day the Government have relaxed all the Covid restrictions in England, so it may be an interesting day to be travelling. I’ll be blogging throughout the day, seeing how it pans out…
07:00
Walking to Halifax station was lovely this morning. There was barely a cloud in the sky. It’s obviously going to be a glorious day but there was still enough coolness in the air that I made it to the station without becoming a sweaty mess. I’m now on my first train of the day, the 06:44 to Manchester Victoria, which is made up from a pair of two-car Class 195s. It’s a quiet train with just half a dozen other passengers in the front car besides me so I’d no problem getting a table seat where I could set up the laptop to type this. I like the amenities on the 195, working air-con (great on a day like today), decent-sized tables that don’t trap your legs like the ones on the old Class 158s, plus power sockets and wifi. On the bulkhead in front of me is a Passenger Information Screen that tells me what the next stop is as well as the trains final destination. It even tells me the temperature (16 degrees), which is more than the old Calder Valley Class 155s ever could!
195s pass at Halifax with 195003 on the right working today’s 06:44 to Manchester Victoria.
My train never really filled up – even after calling at Rochdale, making it a very relaxing journey. The vast majority of passengers were still adhering to wearing masks which also helped. As we descended the bank from Miles Platting to Victoria I checked the progress on wiring the line to Stalybridge. After years of delay the work’s finally progressing. I noted several new piles for overhead masts that had been sunk, whilst several pallets of new cable trunking sat in the cess.
As my train was quiet there was no melee at the gateline so I made a speedy departure. The walk from Piccadilly to Victoria was also a breeze. One thing I did notice that really stood out was the absence of rough-sleepers. Normally I’d pass dozens. Today I only saw one on a bench near Piccadilly. Have Manchester finally got hold of the problem?
08:30.
I’m now on a 9-car Avanti Pendolino speeding South. This is the busiest I’ve seen these services for a while. It’s certainly not pre-Covid levels but it’s plain that passengers are returning to the rails. I’ll be interested to see what the loadings are like after Stoke as the next stop then isn’t until we reach Milton Keynes. A welcome change to this set (390043) is it’s the first I’ve been on where the table power socket has been changed to include two USB ports as well as mains – a welcome addition as I can now recharge some of my other gizmos as well as power the laptop!
09:55.
I made it to Milton Keynes without a hitch. The sun’s really cracking the flags here so I’m glad I packed the suntan lotion. My train from Manchester has a lot of slack time here in order to let non-stop services past, this gave me time to nip across the footbridge and get pictures and a cheery wave from the driver!
From Milton Keynes I’m doubling back to Wolverton on a LondonNortwestern service which is worked by a single 4-car Class 350 so it’s busy.
10:50.
What I and many others in the congregation hadn’t known (until the Vicar mentioned it) was that the church we were in was the very first church built by a railway company. Built in 1844, it was paid for by the London and Birmingham railway.
20:50.
Well, that was quite a day! John’s memorial was a great event in so many ways. It was chance for all of us to celebrate his life and achievements. It was also an opportunity for his family to meet some of his railway and military friends, and it was chance for us sll to swap stories – and stories there were aplenty! Lord Snape, who served with John on the Longmoor Military Railway when the “Great St Trinians train robbery” film was being made had some great stories to tell. One of his fellow Railway Inspectors (David Keay) also had a few tales to tell..
After the event we all adjourned to a nearby pub where a buffet had been laid on and we could enjoy a few jars in John’s memory. After all – it’s what he would have wanted!
We spent a glorious few hours reminiscing before breaking up and heading off in different directions. Two of us were heading North so Mervyn Allcock and I couldn’t resist a little ‘pit-stop’ in Derby. Railway aficianados will recognise the background and know exactly where we were.
21:45.
I’m now on the final leg home, having caught a train from Leeds to Halifax before the final walk home – happy that the weather’s cooling down and that I can have the next few days staying local. I might not be going far but there’s going to be plenty to blog about…
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/
Over the past few weeks I’ve been privileged to visit two of the major High Speed 2 railway construction sites. Firstly the one at Calvert, Buckinghamshire on the 23rd June where HS2 will cross the rebuilt East-West Railway, then the site at West Hyde in Hertfordshire on the 13th July where the Chiltern tunnels are being driven North whilst the Colne valley viaduct will be built Southwards. My article on the Calvert site will be appearing in a future edition of RAIL magazine but I’ll be blogging at length about my visit to West Hyde next week. Both visits demonstrate how construction of the new railway is ramping up massively now that contractors have finally been able to mobilise and begin the main civil engineering. This process will really more obvious next year when the Colne valley viaduct starts to span the lakes as you can’t see the tunneling and many cuttings that are being constructed are below peoples line of sight, so out of view – especially as they’re tucked away in the countryside. It’s the bridges and stations that are the most visible signs of progress. I’ve now got most of the pictures I’ve taken during my visits online. You can find them in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.
Over the the next few months I’ll be visiting other HS2 construction site to bring you views and in-depth news of what’s actually going on with the largest construction project in Europe. As well as the engineering I’ll be talking a look at some of the ecological and mitigation work that’s being carried out to make this the greenest project of its kind.
What you’ll be hearing less and less about is the protests against HS2, becuase they’ve collapsed.
Having reached their height last summer they’ve been gradually fizzling out ever since. The Euston Gardens tunnel eviction early this year was their most public failure, but there’s been many since. Now, even their umbrella group – HS2Rebellion – are tacitly admitting that the protests asre on the wane. Yesterday they announced that after 38 issues their weekly (no)newsletter is going from weekly to fortnightly!
Mind you, its appearence has beeb patchy for some months due to a lack of anything to report. Deserted ‘protection’ camps don’t produce anything so they’ve filled space by talking about other political campaigns. Here’s a look at their probel. These are the ‘protection’ camps they list on their website with my annotations to reflect the true picture that HS2Rebellion aren’t admitting.
Hardly what you’d call an active campaign, is it? The handful of people left at the camps are in no position to mount any coherent actions against HS2, most of their time seems to be spent getting splinters in their backsides whilst appealling for funds to keep them in food. Even their social media activity’s dropping away as the mostly young people involved lose interest and find other things to get outraged about. When you consider the summer is meant to be the height of the activist season it’s clear they’re a busted flush now.
Come the autumn when it’s clear they’ve failed to ‘protect’ anything, much less actually stop HS2 I’m expecting the last few camps on Phase 1 to pack up and the people involved either drift off to other campaigns or try to set up new camps on Phase 2a. But they have several problems. Their support up North is nowhere near as strong or well-established as it was in the Chilterns, the weather’s harsher in the winter and they’re going to be waiting until Spring 2024 before the main civils work starts on phase 2a. That’s three winters away. Care to take bets on how many people are willing or able to sit around for that length of time – even if they’re not evicted first? So, as you can see, this is going to be the final year of any organised (and I use that term very loosly) campaign against HS2, which leaves me free to write about other things. No doubt I’ll still keep a watchful eye on the rump of their campaign as it continues to sink but I’m looking forward to writing future blogs on the positive events going on with the HS2 project.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 