I co-wrote an article about trains - and why the Green Party changed its policy to be in favour of HS2.

If we hope to decarbonise transport - we’ve got to build railways

Meanwhile Labour are (so far as anyone can tell) sticking with the hobbled plan of only doing London to Birmingham.

#greens4HS2 #HS2

https://northwestbylines.co.uk/business/transport/real-hope-real-trains-green-party-hs2/

Hell yes!

It looks like Sunak's axing of phase 2a will be reversed, with #HS2 running from Euston right through to Crewe!

Usual drivel from the lunatic-right Taxpayers' Alliance opposing it in the commentary, but this sounds firm.

#UKPolitics #UKPol

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/hs2-london-euston-to-crewe-labour/

The Govt, is launching a review into HS2, with the express intent of gauging whether the problems in the large (but slowly shrinking) infrastructure project might be better resolved under direct ministerial control....

While you can draw your own conclusions about the ability of Whitehall to manage & deliver such a project.... many will be hoping that a review might re-install the Northern reaches of the project.... while others may hope a review will close it down

#railways #HS2
h/t FT

Richard Bilton (as an aside, I remember him when he was a cub reporter on local/regional TV) sets out the debacle of HS2 in a summary narrative that still has the capacity (no pun intended -see conclusion of piece) to shock when it comes to the monumental waste of money, which could have been spent on a better/more pragmatic upgrade of the relevant railway lines....

Once again (as I posted a while ago) delays for review raised costs...

#HS2 #railways #politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98486dzxnzo

Finally! The England and Wales #Green Party decide in favour of #HS2 after all. But possibly the damage has already been done to the prospect of high speed #rail in the #UK
https://greenparty.org.uk/2024/09/08/the-north-must-benefit-from-hs2-say-greens/

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-rail-minister-peter-hendy-fired-gareth-dennis-engineer-safety-concerns-trains-london-euston-station/

UK rail minister decides to make a legitimate safety concern that Euston Station could be the next Hillsborough "go away" by ensuring the person raising the concern was fired!

#ukpol #rail #euston #HS2 #engineering #ethics #Hillsborough
@jon

What is your favourite @harrystyles album right now?

From 2019:-

'A scrapped “emerald necklace” cycleway up the spine of the country alongside HS2 would have delivered a return on investment of up to five times greater than the rail project itself, an FoI request has revealed – but neither the government nor HS2 Ltd will fund it.'

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2019/feb/01/scrapped-hs2-bike-path-could-have-reaped-five-times-more-than-hs2-itself

'economic benefits of between £3 and £8 per £1 spent.'

@keefeglise

Coventry Pool Meadow and Birmingham New Street?

You can entertain yourself by counting how many times you cross some #HS2 works. (-:

Awww, we'd like to trust you on that but you've not really earned that trust, what will all the pledges you break.
Do you see how that works lads, how 'Trust' works? It doesn't come from insulting critics and talking over them.

#UK #aviation #emissions are -
Equal to those of 9 #coal plants, Deliver #NOx & PM2.5 #pollution equivalent to 4.6m cars...
of which 5.8k tonnes NOx is from Heathrow
& a staggering roughly 20% is from short haul flights.

airporttracker.org
Build #HS2 to Scotland please

Quite apart from anything else, #HS2 seems to be a case of looking glass #economics.... every time the project's extent is reduced (in length & scope), the budget rises.... perhaps if they agreed to build the whole original thing it would become much cheaper??

When the #northern stretch of #HS2 was canned last year, there was a widely held view that a swift sell-off of compulsory purchased land on route would make reviving the #rail project impossible & the sales would hand handy profits to the 'friends of Rishi'.

However, it now seems (as always) things have moved much more slowly, and no land sales are likely before the election, leaving Labour (if elected) the option to reviving HS2 North.

Whether that's a good or bad thing is another matter!

How do you inflame #Northern #voters (again)?

By announcing that the money that has been saved by binning large elements of #HS2 & replacing it with the hodgepodge of fragmented projects in the (so-called) Network North is now going to be spent on filling potholes in #London.

Wrong on (the claimed strategy of) #LevllingUp;

Wrong on #publictransport for a #greentrnasition, and

surly a miscalculation if trying to keep 'new' Northern Tories on side.

But would we have expected anything else?