Archive for October 2018
Most transparent shortcomings
According to West Midlands mayor Andy Street’s “Renewal Plan“, he aims, or aimed, to be the ‘most transparent mayor’ in Britain.
But at the time of writing, the “Mayor’s Expenses” page on the website of the West Midlands Combined Authority gives no information about mayoral expenditure. Nor does there seem to be any diary of Andy’s past or future meetings, etc, on the site.
Unfortunately, these transparency shortcomings extend well beyond the mayor’s office, to the Combined Authority itself.
HS2 benchmarking mysteries
For a variety of reasons, Britain’s HS2 high-speed rail line ‘will cost taxpayers 25 per cent more than similar schemes in other countries’, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, focused on phase 2 of the project, that has been kept secret from Lord Berkeley and the public for the past two years (source: Financial Times, 18 October).
[From the FT article, by Jim Pickard and Gill Plimmer]
HS2 will have 25 stations — far more than equivalent schemes abroad — and they are more likely to be in city centres.
Moreover, the 10-year hiatus between the UK’s first high-speed line and HS2 meant that the UK did not have the “base, industry and knowledge”, according to one person who has seen the report, to deliver the project easily.
The FT story is a bit baffling.
According to HS2 Ltd’s David Higgins, HS2 was expected to cost 15 per cent more than HS1 (which itself was far more expensive than other high speed lines).
£24 billion is not enough
Transport for the North ‘today released its latest research into the boost Northern powerhouse rail could give local economies’, the Liverpool Echo reported.
[Liverpool Echo, 17 Oct 2018]
[Tim Wood, programme director at Transport for the North,] said the National Infrastructure Commission had positively assessed the plans.
He said: £24bn is their estimate [of the cost of Northern powerhouse rail]. We know it will cost a little bit more than that.
Leonie du bois abattu
On 11 October, HS2 Ltd published the working draft environmental statement and equality impact assessment for phase 2b of its proposed high speed railway.
Responding to the publication of the draft environmental statement for phase 2b, Woodland Trust ecologist Luci Ryan said: “We were braced for bad news but this is far worse than we were expecting. At least 19 ancient woods will be lost, almost double our estimate. This is significant permanent loss and the figure is only going to go up as HS2’s review of woods not listed on the Ancient Woodland Inventory progresses.”
Even before the publication of the environmental draft, it was clear that the negative impacts of building phase 2b would be far-reaching and wide-ranging.
[HS2: Jobs, wildlife and mental health will all suffer, says report, West Bridgford Wire, 11 Oct 2018]
A report by HS2 has found:
1,000 jobs would be lost or displaced
91 percent of the wildlife on the Toton Sidings site would be completely destroyed by the construction of high speed line.
A52 would need to be moved 25 metres to the south, with roadwork taking two years, it was also revealed.
In Ratcliffe on Soar, Toton, Stapleford and Long Eaton, 183 houses, 52 commercial properties and 18 other buildings would have to be demolished.
The scale of the construction could adversely affect the health and wellbeing of residents, and people’s mental health in the area, the report found.
[…]
Leonie Dubois, HS2’s head of consultation and engagement, said: “HS2 is coming to the East Midlands and the region will reap significant benefits as a result.”
[…]
Councillor Jon Collins, leader of Nottingham City Council and chairman of the East Midlands HS2 Strategic Board, said: “The public consultation launched by HS2 Ltd today (October 11) is an important stage in the development of the project, and we want to make sure that the concerns of local people are heard.”
HS2 Birmingham stations ‘to open in 2026’
The latest official visualisations for the proposed HS2 stations in Birmingham and Middle Bickenhill were launched at the Library of Birmingham on 9 October. According to HS2 Ltd, the two stations will open in 2026, ‘along with the rest of Phase One’.
The company says it is ‘seeking feedback’ from the public about the designs, but has public opinion ever played much of a role in the development of megaprojects in Britain?
A few years ago, when Network Rail ‘consulted’ before the £600 million revamp of New Street station, the faults in their design were pointed out to them. Of course, Network Rail took not a blind bit of notice, and lo and behold, the redeveloped station is a complete mess. It’s so bad, that Cross Country Trains advise people to avoid changing trains there, if they can.
Anyway, the HS2 Curzon terminus, designed by WSP and Grimshaw Architects, would be ‘Britain’s first new intercity station since the nineteenth century’.
Apart from, Bristol Parkway, Birmingham International, East Midlands Parkway, and Ebbsfleet (?).
The old Curzon Street station closed in 1966 (HS2 Ltd tweeted on 17 September).
Actually, Curzon Street was retained by British Rail into the 1970s. At the time of writing, the Getty Images site has a picture of the interior, ‘dated’ 21 October 1967, a year after it “closed”.
In its well-balanced report on the new stations, ITV Central News asked Mike Lyons of HS2 Ltd about the cost of Curzon Street. He declined to give any figure.
And Liam Byrne MP tweeted he would be ‘campaigning for the station to include the greatest science museum in Britain’ (?).
It’s important to remember that HS2 is a hugely expensive, environmentally damaging, and entirely unnecessary project. The existing West Coast and Chiltern railways can meet all foreseeable capacity requirements, including the Department for Transport’s “Higher Growth” scenario.
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
‘Midlands Connect’, whose honcho principal is a Spanish lady called Maria Machancoses, is ‘supporting’ a bid for a Talgo [HS2] train plant in Chesterfield, which (it claimed) would create ‘thousands of jobs’.
More details (it claimed) were available at https://bit.ly/2OcKtic, but at the time of writing, that link was just a login page for Midlands Connect’s content management.
Should Midlands Connect be getting involved in things like this? How is it part of its remit?
Is no-one willing, or able, to rein in Maria?
