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We have had a complete village moved cut in half for a depot Norton bridge near Stafford completely re routed for a train service I hope that covid has pointed out that zoom meeting can be done from.london to Birmingham rather than travelling unesesery on a train

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Had a HS2 crew near me take down some 100 plus year old trees and wondered why everyone passing was swearing at them and throwing all sorts of nasty things, coke cans full of urine being the nicer ones.   Yes, no doubt there are a few back handers being creamed off the top.  Of what use will it be?  I have to drive 30 miles into a City with little or no parking and if there is crazy parking fees just to get on and then it does not stop where I want to go, so have to catch another slower train to get back to my destination.

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18 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Had a HS2 crew near me take down some 100 plus year old trees and wondered why everyone passing was swearing at them and throwing all sorts of nasty things, coke cans full of urine being the nicer ones.   Yes, no doubt there are a few back handers being creamed off the top.  Of what use will it be?  I have to drive 30 miles into a City with little or no parking and if there is crazy parking fees just to get on and then it does not stop where I want to go, so have to catch another slower train to get back to my destination.

This is very true. My wife said from the start that the issue isn’t the mainline train but travelling to and from the mainline train stations up north. 

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Before I embarked on my aerospace apprenticeship I was doing a college course on building engineering and one of our modules was town planning and development....all around planning etc. We were being taught then...20 years ago...that most big business deals and planning deals at local government level are still sorted out on the 18th hole of a golf course or in the clubhouse/bar after with a brown envelope under a table. You will get the bigger boys telling local town councils to look the other way, and this goes across party lines, one side will pay the other off, or will concede some other minor thing to the other side just to get their own way.

For something so unnecessary HS2 will be riddled with corruption guaranteed 

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2 hours ago, lampro said:

Carnt wait to see what back handers dominic Cummings has received from un challenged tenders over covid it will all come out in the wash in the end back handers brown envelopes ect all corrupt 

Hello, remember the MP getting cash for questions ? this is cash for friends 

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I've said all along they should have copied what they do in Holland,  an efficient tram service between three or four stations then the big trains make less stops , rather than stopping to pick up one or two passengers. 

And does a few minutes off a trip to London matter? Not one bit.

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On a slightly different track - we have the East West line being built closeby at the moment and I often walk past one of their yards on my dog walk, NOT a racist comment but not one white man on site and never seen any of the 10-15 guys doing a single thing other than standing around chatting and smoking or asleep in their cars, somebody is paying through the nose for this.

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4 hours ago, WalkedUp said:

I am yet to meet someone who believes it is a good idea. Too much money changing hands somewhere. 

The Tories? In bed with the construction company bosses? Nah! You're having a laff?

Labour? In bed with the construction industry trades union bosses? Nah! You having a laff?

And the reality is as above. The Tories mates in the City and on the construction companies get fat. Labour's mates in the Trades Union Congress see it as jobs for "the brothers". A perfect storm. And obsolete before a single sleeper is laid. The Great Central Railway all over again. Fast, modern, latest innovation. And made a loss from start to closure as (like HS2) it simply duplicated existing capacity but did it slightly faster. We need East to West rail not rebirthing a North to South concept we closed as obsolete fifty years ago..

Edited by enfieldspares
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I could see some sense in investing in local freight lines to get HGV traffic down.

I could see some sense in upgrading existing passenger capacity (post Covid!).  

What I cannot see is the sense in destroying the irreplaceable.   

There must be a thousand ways to invest in skilled jobs.   One in ten nursing posts is unfilled for starters.  25% of children's services jobs unfilled.   What do we need more, skilled well paid, motivated carers for the young, the sick and the old, or a few minutes off a rail journey through a desecrated landscape?  

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6 hours ago, Mice! said:

And does a few minutes off a trip to London matter? Not one bit.

For 4 years I traveled from Perth to Glasgow twice a week, took 80 minutes and there were lots of commuters from Perth and Dundee, many more from sterling.

Perhaps the idea is to get more people into the city, but living further out, rather than more people in London? I'm sure most commuters would give their right one for an extra 20 minutes in bed

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23 minutes ago, henry d said:

For 4 years I traveled from Perth to Glasgow twice a week, took 80 minutes and there were lots of commuters from Perth and Dundee, many more from sterling.

Perhaps the idea is to get more people into the city, but living further out, rather than more people in London? I'm sure most commuters would give their right one for an extra 20 minutes in bed

I've always said the train is a great way to travel,  if it doesn't matter what time you arrive,  that extra twenty minutes will likely be spent trying to get parked at a train station car park somewhere,  any I drive past are always chock full. 

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I have twice commuted daily into London from North Wales. I could get on the train at Chester and be asleep by Crewe. With HS2, that journey would mean that same journey would then require a change at Crewe to get a faster train. With the shenanigans that gets played I can bet that the waiting time at Crewe will be longer than the time saved by the faster train.

The first time I done it I could catch the 18:15 from Euston, needing to change at Crewe for a train to Chester. The Chester train was timed to leave a couple of minutes before the London Train arrived  so it wouldn't be classed as a connecting service. On the odd occasion the (London) train would be early and I would save 25 minutes on the journey.

The second time I done it there were trains every hour from London that went directly to Chester (diesel train all the way).

So - any time saved by HS2 will be more than lost by the other transport infrastructure

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While house shopping, we've seen a massive surge in Southerners coming up north, mainly because of COVID and working from home, but many because of HS2. One estate agent warned us against trying to buy a house within a few miles of an HS2 station as we couldn't compete with the money those from the south were bringing, usually mortgage free.

One colleague reckons it's a form of wealth redistribution, but only for the statistics; move a bunch of fantastically-well-paid southerners up North, then claim the average wage has risen. He's pretty cynical though :)

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I’ve lost 4-5 farms of shooting permission in Tamworth alone . These farms were owned by the grandparents and great grandparents etc for 100 years. 
the track passes over my friends ashes under a certain tree . It’s pretty heartbreaking.

 

@Walker570 the splash has sold already as it goes straight through it all 

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17 hours ago, WalkedUp said:

I am yet to meet someone who believes it is a good idea. Too much money changing hands somewhere. 

I am heartily sick of HS2, total devastation of ancient woods etc, to save 5 minutes on something that will run empty as people ordinaire won't be able to afford the fares? Forgot to say I haven't met anyone that wants it and is willing to travel 50 miles to get to a station?

Hey ho never mind, their mates are screwing the public purse for all it's worth? I bet the off shore accounts are filling nicely?

So it's a bargain?

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Not forgetting that the post Covid world isn't going into the office any more.  Companies are realising that they don't need big expensive city centre offices, many work from home employees are not going to willingly transition back into being office based with the wasted and expensive (time and money) commutes.

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