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Well, the NIC have reported, and whilst I am sure there are some good bits and pieces in amongst it, my overriding thought is this:
What a dispiritingly pitiful abandonment of the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hs2-eastern-leg-midlands-yorkshire-rail-b1774238.html
What a dispiritingly pitiful abandonment of the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hs2-eastern-leg-midlands-yorkshire-rail-b1774238.html
They've basically said "descope both the Eastern Leg of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail into a mixture of short new bits and mostly upgraded existing bits".
Which exhibits zero understanding of the problems that these new lines set out to solve: https://twitter.com/PermanentRail/status/1095442761501851648
Which exhibits zero understanding of the problems that these new lines set out to solve: https://twitter.com/PermanentRail/status/1095442761501851648
They also repeatedly talk about costs, despite these being basically irrelevant. What a hugely damaging and disappointing waste of everyone's time. Government now has its scapegoat to abandon the railways outside of London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Time to start shouting.
Time to start shouting.
As expected, the government's "levelling up" agenda (which never existed in any form other than those words) has been dropped before it even kicked off. Dismal. https://twitter.com/LilianGreenwood/status/1338816992036401152
Furthermore, HS2 *doesn't work* without the Eastern Leg. It just becomes a bypass for the WCML, massively undermining the benefits of the line and making the disruption and environmental impact far lass worthwhile: https://twitter.com/PermanentRail/status/1158040889736015872
And no, East Midlands Parkway isn't even close to being a good idea as an alternative to the new transport hub at Toton. Please don't bother trying to suggest otherwise: you are wrong.
Spoiler alert: it won't. Money not spent on HS2 or trans-Pennine high speed rail means money not spent on the railways at all. https://twitter.com/GRALISTAIR/status/1338822050320969729
Oh, I've missed off one of the city regions that gets dumped/abandoned: Merseyside.
Even in the best case scenario, the NIC have proposed dropping the new link into Liverpool (pink is "upgrades only") which kills off all of the suburban capacity release on the Liv-Man corridor:
Even in the best case scenario, the NIC have proposed dropping the new link into Liverpool (pink is "upgrades only") which kills off all of the suburban capacity release on the Liv-Man corridor:
So, a game: these are the members of the National Infrastructure Commission... How many points do I get if there are ten points available for every additional fifty miles outside of the M25 these people are based? #LevellingDown
A powerful response from @MariaPMachan and @MidsConnect, whose plans are essentially shredded by the NIC's damaging proposals (not to mention the fact that the new plans would REDUCE overall rail capacity nationally): https://twitter.com/MidsConnect/status/1338806521187201024
The commissioners might be impressive people, but this report shows a lack of railway operations knowledge, a lack of understanding of the challenges the current railway network faces, and a general contempt of the potential for growth of the UK outside of the M25.
In any case, Simon has noted that players of the game a few tweets up will win zero points. Not a single person on the NIC is based outside of London. #LevellingDown https://twitter.com/SimonZev/status/1338829188678234114?s=20
The @NatInfraCom have done a video, and unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, they appear to have made precisely the same basic error that everyone* flipping well does when it comes to HS2... https://twitter.com/NatInfraCom/status/1338812235234291713
...namely, pitching long-distance high speed improvements as being in opposition to regional or local upgrades, rather than being critical to enabling them: https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1214275177099546629
In any case, this thread won't stop till I've vented my rage.
Incidentally, I wrote about this happening years ago: https://medium.com/@garethdennis/hs2-will-fail-without-joined-up-thinking-and-a-long-term-plan-28ff0dd8fbf7
Incidentally, I wrote about this happening years ago: https://medium.com/@garethdennis/hs2-will-fail-without-joined-up-thinking-and-a-long-term-plan-28ff0dd8fbf7
Seriously, there is no pleasure in predicting the future (give or take a crisis or two):
Going back to the NIC report - there's only one mention of "released capacity" (in the "Areas for further work" section) and "capacity release" only pops up twice, in passing.
I don't have any confidence in their understanding of how HS2 fits into the wider rail network.
I don't have any confidence in their understanding of how HS2 fits into the wider rail network.
