Mike_P
New Member
An clear example of the London and the south focus on development. Leeds and Sheffield are 29 miles apart but the train currently takes on average 67 minutes.
Ditch HS2?
- Thread starter classic33
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mjr
Active Member
What use is stating the average time? That misleads by emphasising the more frequent (3 per hour) stopping service (approx 75mins) over the hourly semi-fast regionals (55 minutes) and CrossCountry intercity services (42 minutes).
For Birmingham to London, that is an average of 110 minutes for 100 miles. Never mind you can do it in 95, eh? Let the three 120ish min services each hour outweigh the two expresses.
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classic33
Senior Member
The service, HS2, won't be stopping in Sheffield as that would slow it down.
Bazzer
Active Member
Personally I'd be happy to see it binned. Several reasons, in no particular order:
IIRC it is anticipated to save around 15 minutes off my fastest journey from the North West to London but the environmental damage of the construction is concerning. I don't see how that can be justified.
Communities seem to be being divided by the line. A chap who I was dealing with through my work spoke of his village being cut in half by the line. We discovered a couple of years ago that our village will be cut off from the nearest settlement, which contains doctors, dentists, opticians, high school etc. None of which are available where I live. To use those facilities, will after the line is constructed, require a detour of around 3 miles. And if you don't have a car tough luck. The bus service which links settlements will disappear. If you walk, a long section of the detour is on a high hedged winding road without a footpath. - A road which will be busier because of HS2! Where I live cannot be unique. Amazingly, an industrial park, which relies on road transport for everything and which was due to be severed in two, was subject to some last minute changes of route
Journey times North West to East are poor with appalling operators. I would much prefer to see the money spent on those routes.
IIRC it is anticipated to save around 15 minutes off my fastest journey from the North West to London but the environmental damage of the construction is concerning. I don't see how that can be justified.
Communities seem to be being divided by the line. A chap who I was dealing with through my work spoke of his village being cut in half by the line. We discovered a couple of years ago that our village will be cut off from the nearest settlement, which contains doctors, dentists, opticians, high school etc. None of which are available where I live. To use those facilities, will after the line is constructed, require a detour of around 3 miles. And if you don't have a car tough luck. The bus service which links settlements will disappear. If you walk, a long section of the detour is on a high hedged winding road without a footpath. - A road which will be busier because of HS2! Where I live cannot be unique. Amazingly, an industrial park, which relies on road transport for everything and which was due to be severed in two, was subject to some last minute changes of route
Journey times North West to East are poor with appalling operators. I would much prefer to see the money spent on those routes.
mjr
Active Member
Delays can happen anywhere. "Recent Train Times" makes me think they're not that common on the fasts.... indeed, it looks like about half as many delays as my local service to London (and we have almost no choice of service on that).
I'm sure it could be better, but it's already better than most.
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classic33
Senior Member
On the "fasts" there's a pre-booking requirement, not shown online, at present. Services are delayed/cancelled to allow these "fasts" to run. Incidentally, these "fasts" aren't as busy as they were two years ago. They're also subject to the same speed restrictions as the newer local services rolling stock due to the track.
Delays may be no worse than elsewhere, but that doesn't help/is of cold comfort for the person waiting on an hourly service if they've a connection to be made.
mjr
Active Member
The health crisis will pass, and with it the booking requirement.
Indeed, it could and should be improved.
But it does rather contradict the meme of hard-done-by Yorkshire getting a worse deal than the southeast.
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classic33
Senior Member
You can say that for certain. Many of those that work on them, want the pre-booking to remain.
At present it isn't, and doesn't look as though it will be now that signalling(traffic management) is now done from outside the county.
I based my response on your "it looks like about half as many delays as my local service to London". However you appear to have taken that out of context. Local services were what was meant, not services to London. Given that local services are delayed/cancelled in favour of the "fasts", as mentioned but not quoted by yourself, probably because it doesn't suit your narrative.
Archie_tect
Active Member
The HS2 extension to Leeds requires boring a tunnel underneath Woodlesford following the southern escarpment to the Aire Valley which involves closing the existing rail line from Wakefield to Leeds while the tunnel is sunk below the existing tracks... it will cause years of disruption and may never actually operate as intended.
lazybloke
Regular
Sounds like a tricky challenge. I wonder what approaches the engineers have considered.
One of the Crossrail tunnels was bored inches below an existing live underground line, without closure. (Think it was at Liverpool St). All good.
And going back a few years, the Jubilee Line Extension required two tunnels and a 7 storey deep underground station to be dug in the clay next to the shallow foundations of Big Ben (which was already leaning). All good.
But not so good when a Heathrow Express tunnel collapsed in 1994 during construction. This happened between the runways, close to a fuel pipeline and two Piccadilly Line tunnels, and underneath buildings. That project was delayed by years, and repair costs were multiples of the original budget for that excavation.
Bromptonaut
Rohan Man
- Location
- Bugbrooke, Northants
Can kicked down the road for the next government.
