HS 2

[Zflyer]

The club I belong to (SCRCAC) is having to relocate due to the route being taken by HS 2.

Something I don't believe we need (that may cause some controversy).

Any other clubs suffering the same fate

[Scott Edwards 2]

I'm in Aylesbury, our flying site is OK, but HS2 is going through several local facilities including a rifle club and golf club I belong to. It appears that the compensation scheme is based on the previous few years rent. Therefore, landowners are asking for huge rent increases from clubs before the diggers move in.

I'm in favour of infrastructure investment, but this is a 250mph train line, 100 meters wide, with no footpaths across it or level crossings.

Through Aylesbury it's basically going to be like the Berlin Wall, dividing the whole area into two. It's going to be a decade plus of disruption, and doesn't even stop, so is of no benefit to anyone here.

I'm willing to be persuaded this is a good idea, and want to listen, particularly to the voices of people who want to travel on this new line, but where are they? Anyone?

Edited By Scott Edwards 2 on 22/02/2018 07:33:38

[Martin McIntosh]

I had heard that SCRCAC, of which I was a member for many years, had lost their fine site and assumed that it was due to encroaching development, not a white elephant.

Guess where I live now? Aylesbury!

[Peter Christy]

Before I retired and moved away from the area, I used to live in Chalfont St Peter - just down the road from Aylesbury. The local (and recently built) school has now been closed, as has the access road to it, and is likely to remain so for SEVEN YEARS, according to our former neighbours. This is so they can build a tunnel under the area!

I'm sure there are many infra-structure projects that would benefit far more people on which the money could be spent. HS2 is a vanity project, pure and simple, and of little or no benefit to most voters.

<rant/off>

--

Pete

[Martin McIntosh]

I think they have started work here at the proposed A41 crossing point just up the road from me.

The obvious route would have been alongside the M40, but of course that was David Cameron`s patch so no chance.

In my opinion they should just abandon the ill thought out thing and divert the funds to developing the hyperloop.

Fancy even thinking of travelling at 250mph on 19th century technology

[Don Fry]

I am still waiting to hear an argument as to why a new track, using existing train speeds, and a few minutes slower, is such a bad idea. I'm open to persuasion.

[Martyn K]

I live near the Powerhouse of the North - just outside Crewe which is a rail hub and will be a new HS2 hub. I can already get to London by train in about 90 minutes which I think is quite acceptable. I fail to see any benefit of HS2 except to increase the distance of a viable commute to London nearer Manchester. I don't know anyone who is in support of this. The cost of a rail ticket is already expensive and I would imagine will increase substantially with HS2 which will price out the average non business traveller from using the service.

Martyn

 

Edited By Martyn K on 22/02/2018 09:22:58

[Martin McIntosh]

It will not even go to Birmingham, you have to change to a local train.

[Zflyer]

At SCRCAC we have a four point tarmac runway and separate field for rotary so was quite a neat set up. We have recently found a new field however we may have to move from that to another location, same landowner, so not all bad as we have found somewhere.

Really not sure how we stand with any compensation as I suspect HS 2 wont tell us to leave but we wont fly if people are working on site for obvious safety reasons. That way they could argue we left of our own volition.

I suspect we still have 12 months before any work starts though they have been surveying.

[ken anderson.]

considering we are the country that invented the railway-we are now a long way behind most other countries...rolling stock 40 + years old?.... I don't think that we(UK) can afford any sort of new lines etc..... mind you the good old USA has a system that is as old as ours-its falling to bits as well...a couple of years ago up here in the sticks(Northumberland) they had to hire an old Deltc diesel from a private collection to do some freight work...al the rest were broke or not "available"....2018 I hear you say...tch tch...

ken Anderson...ne..1..... transport dept.

[Engine Doctor]

At the rate HMG do any work you could well be flying on you site for years to come ! Have they actually started building it yet ?I mean bulldozers on the ground ? They HMG still haven't committed to expanding Heathrow or Gatwick and they have been talking about it for 20 years or so. And now Carrillion have gone bust who is going to build it ! If private company or more likely a foreign government gets involved then start looking for a new site and quick. Hope your club finds a decent site.

[Cuban8]

I'm steering well clear of the politics, but it seems to me that the willingness to spend other people's money with seemingly very little real accountability is rife in our country. In my home town, a traffic scheme involving a repositioned bus lane and extensive changes to pavements etc has just been completed at considerable cost to the taxpayer. In my view and that of many others, given the responses in our local paper, it's simply a vanity project that ticks certain dubious environmental boxes but will not solve a single local traffic issue and has been rushed through before proper thought and consultation was given to it. This is allied to a hopeless park and ride scheme that very few have need of and goes mainly underused - but of course, it sounds nice to have one and looks good on the council's blurb sheets.

All very nice the new scheme might look with shiny new stone pavements (chewing gum appearing on them already) complete with tree planters and naff flower beds, yet the plague of potholes that we have to contend with goes virtually ignored, mostly unrepaired and are getting worse. No kudos and photo opportunities for the top dogs in dull potholes. Our own little HS2?

[Martin Dance 1]

I'm not sure that I would worry too much about HS2 if western region electrification is anything to go by. So far the new electric trains can make it as far as Didcot from Paddington, nothing going west towards Cornwall as yet, there are a few poles up as far as Newbury but no wires. The project is years late and very over budget. Many of the new electric trains are run using diesel engines which were retrofitted to them! Personally I think HS2 is a good idea IF they run 180 mph freight trains on the line and passenger fares are the same as the existing standard fares to the north. It just gone dark here as a flock of pigs pass overhead

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Zflyer]

The money could help with the West Coast line and fill in some of the pot holes, as motorbike rider they scare the .... out of me

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Will it go over our new Channel bridge ?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Don Fry]

But at least, in big countries, you have some distance to cover. They have to compete with the aircraft, ( if you've time to spare then go by air) as the phrase goes. But the UK is tiny. No reason to use high speed, high risk, very expensive, noisy trains. Aircraft are just complicated flying coffins in comparison to a train.

I have never seen a study of noise footprint, speed catastrophe risk, against cost.

Not done, or not published.

But the big engineering bidders are on a fat high protein feeding trough. The subbies doing the job are on old peanuts.

And Gypsy Don predicts, there will be cost over-runs, cor blimy governer, you never stipulated it rained.

[Martin McIntosh]

I lived in Texas for 13 months and their rail system was beyond belief. Very few passenger trains and these and the freight ones ran at no more than walking pace. A 30 min. wait was normal at the many level crossings. They also had to sound their bells continuously in urban areas, day and night. Advanced society?

I can see this project becoming another Greenpeace / Newbury bypass with people lying down in front of the bulldozers to stop it.

Oh, and back to model flying, your site may be next.

Glad to hear that Fradley is still going at the moment.

Edited By Martin McIntosh on 22/02/2018 20:00:23

[Martin McIntosh]

I expect then that they will have come up with a system to disperse leaves and snow from the line, also to prevent them from buckling due to heat. Wish that the PM could be copied into this thread.

[ChrisB]

If construction begins it will start in both the big smoke and the second big smoke and will meet somewhere in the middle, presumably in Oxfordshire. The question is, how far out will it be when they come to join it up? Not that it matters, as no-one will use it, as it will be so expensive for Joe public or business.

Look at the prices today. Season tickets costing £2000 plus between Rugby and London, less than an hour on the fast train with no guarantee of a seat. I think most journey times by train in this country aren't that unreasonable, especially as home/remote working, mobile phones/tablets etc mean that you don't need to be in the office every day and can have video/conference calls quite easily.

I fear it will be a waste of everyone's time and effort and will result in little more than an abandoned preservation railway funded by the Chinese.

The key issue with the current system is the lack of rolling stock.

We seem to have a very short term approach to development in this country. I work in a medium city near Birmingham and we hosted some pre-olympic football matches. Money was bid for, money was received and was spent on a new 'public realm' scheme, with new paving, shared spaces and 'artistic' bollards. Six years on and the bollards are broken, the paving is cracked, the chewing gum is spread everywhere and the roads have been patched up several times. Now the project is over, the money has been spent....the 'Legacy'.....is a c**p environment that continues to crumble and the next project is the focus. HS2, if it ever happens, will be the same.

 

Any road, glad to hear the SCRCS is still about.

Edited By ChrisB on 22/02/2018 20:49:57

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Posted by Martin McIntosh on 22/02/2018 20:09:03:

I expect then that they will have come up with a system to disperse leaves and snow from the line, also to prevent them from buckling due to heat. Wish that the PM could be copied into this thread.

A politician of any party listening....I do love an optimist.

[Martin McIntosh]

It is proposed to run these every few minutes. Anyone thought about how long it would take to load/unload a 1/4 mile long train?

[Denis Watkins]

The Hitachi high speed train assembly site is already up and running in Co Durham UK, able to complete units at a maximum 35 per month.

These trains are already being test run, they already exist in multiple sidings. This concept and idea is a reality.

[Allan Bennett]

Having been involved in the construction of HS1, I would like to point out that reducing journey times is not the only aim of HS2: Most of the UK's conventional rail network is already overcrowded, with very little scope for the addition of extra trains. To run extra trains, extra tracks will be needed, so they might as well be "HS" tracks. And while we're at it, they might as well be built to European loading gauge so they can accomodate their larger carriages.

Hence HS2's oft-unappreciated objective is to free up the West Coast Main Line (and others) so that more stopping trains can be run on them. Whether or not it's still value for money I'll leave to others to debate . . .