Yeah if it’s meant to help get people from Midlands to London in 45 mins rather than 80 mins. But with remote work, is there a need for that? Isn’t it just turning Birmingham into a commuter town? For £74 billion? Almost twice the budgeted cost in 2009?! Might not be ready until 2033?! - ThreadSky

drownedinsound.bsky.social • 78 days ago

Yeah if it’s meant to help get people from Midlands to London in 45 mins rather than 80 mins.

But with remote work, is there a need for that?

Isn’t it just turning Birmingham into a commuter town? For £74 billion? Almost twice the budgeted cost in 2009?! Might not be ready until 2033?!

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sinemac.bsky.social•78 days ago

I've been travelling on the West Coast line a fair bit recently. This isn't just about speed, but about capacity. The trains are always full.

jamesbottomley.bsky.social•78 days ago

They could have given Birmingham and Manchester £35bn each to spend as they wished. It would have made a lot more sense.

grovester.bsky.social•78 days ago

I presume you haven’t ever read what either city did with the funds for Commonwealth Games.

jamesbottomley.bsky.social•78 days ago

Well yeah, fair point, but all of these big global sport jamborees are a license to burn taxpayer funds in every country.

grovester.bsky.social•78 days ago

I would argue that a major infrastructure project involving many major cities and a chunk of the countryside should be managed centrally, but done properly.

The ‘done properly’ bit is key here. HS2 has been managed extremely poorly, in all sorts of fun ways.

joecooluk.bsky.social•78 days ago

As I understand it, it's actually mostly about freight & getting lorries off the roads. The increased capacity will both improve things for commuters but also help clear the road network somewhat (& hopefully reduce the assoc pollution too). But that's just what I've picked up from brief readings.

rkemb.bsky.social•78 days ago

It frees up capacity on other lines to allow more local services as well; in fact that's the bigger benefit of the whole project.

drownedinsound.bsky.social•78 days ago

Ah I didn’t know that about other lines. Odd comms message to be buried.

I know a few people who live in Birmingham and never hear them grumble about the trains compared to people from Manchester or friends in Westcountry where it’s half a day to get anywhere.

grovester.bsky.social•78 days ago

Might be wrong on this, but think Birmingham proper has some proper commuter/express separation, but the East Midlands is a bit of a mare (have experienced myself) and the North is…yeesh.

@garethdennis.bsky.social is a great follow for more detail (he has a book out too)

garethdennis.bsky.social•78 days ago

I've written a couple of detailed pieces in the Sheffield Tribune and the Birmingham Dispatch about it... Worth looking up!

grovester.bsky.social•78 days ago

And it was incredibly badly sold. All this guff about cutting journey times to Birmingham by 30 minutes or whatever.

But still, the need remains and at this rate, the North will never get the train network it needs

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