HS2 and the Grand Union Canal

HS2 and the Grand Union Canal
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A walk down the Grand Union canal to take a look with what is happening on HS2 on the Longhole Viaduct and the Long Itchingwood Tunnel, a twin bore tunnel under an ancient woodland. How did they dig it? See the Tunnel boring machine and the unique way they rebuilt it to turn it around. see the conveyor that removed thousands of lorries from the road network.We also explore some of the history of the canal and see the site from above by drone in 4K, taking in staircase locks, lock, bridges and more around Bascote
All drone footage shot with a DJI mini 3 Pro.
All camera footage shot with an Insta360 RS ONE Inch with Rode Go mic and Lavalier.
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[@big-ted4065]

All for HS2 as long as it goes into central London and expands north of Birmingham. We invented railways but have fallen far behind the rest of Europe with high speed rail

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I agree with both, especially the North! We need to open our railways up and this will help with capacity so much

[@stephensaines7100]

An argument could be, and is, made both ways, but now that it's started, even if the cost is higher than promoted, it makes no sense not to complete it.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@stephensaines7100 stopping now IS a waste of money, finishing the project should be a priority not an option

[@Carlos-im3hn]

Yes well said. Also the UK, Canada, Australia and USA need to expand baseload electric power nationwide. Before large scale rail electrification we need GenIV baselad power. Cheers from across the pond !

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@Carlos-im3hn we actually have a lot of capacity here it’s just the wrong sort. We have coal fed stations which rarely get fired, I think smaller scale nuclear is the way forward, the smaller modular ones like rolls Royce are working on

[@Carlos-im3hn]

Amazing flyovers and engineering with history reviews. We are all hurtiling into the good future capacities. I am amazed at how the UK has retained and maintained their vast critical heritage lines and canals. Even in the face of Dr. Beechings difficult cutbacks and forced upgrades. Thank you for this excellent presentation and video production. We all made it here through two world wars, and now here we go forward !

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

We still need to look at all those lines and canals that were axed and put a business case to reinstating where possible

[@Carlos-im3hn]

@@CourtAboveTheCut yes. The EWR and similar rail upgrades are also moving forward in good directions !

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@Carlos-im3hn it’s good to see things like EWR which aren’t all pointing at london

[@cms9902]

Most agree today HS1 was generally a good idea . However, at the time of planning it was very very disruptive, and my parents home was on one scheme. However it's benefits today are huge.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Exactly, it doesn’t take long to forget the farce

[@cawstongreenway]

Nice to see you in my neck of the woods (Dunchurch and Cawston) south of Rugby. Personally I am for HS2 because it will reduce the congestion on the current railway line and make the whole thing function more efficiently. I work in Kenilworth, where HS2 comes very close to, and the tired old argument that it is being built so people can get from Birmingham to London 10 minutes faster is always being rolled out. It just becomes pointless talking about it because it just descends into a factless argument. I'm now going to find your Oxford Canal vlog because that is literally right on my doorstep 😄

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

It’s madness that people spout the same argument when they’ve clearly not read a single article other than a daily Mail one.

[@mikehindson-evans159]

Most informative as always, so thank you. In terms of HS2, people will come round. We know that we cannot keep expanding motorways; the West Coast main Line is stuffed full (two upgrades totalling £16billion in the 1990s provided temporary respite) AND can be used for commuter trains once the long-distance high-speed traffic has moved onto the new Spine Railway around the end of this decade. The massive costs result from having to cross every piece of previously-build infrastructure - and all the ecological remediation, health& safety and every other minority special-interest group that got involved. In 20 years, people will simply use the new railway (which, by that time, will hopefully be going further up-country).

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I do actually wonder how much it would have cost if it was built 20-30 years ago when people cared about the environment a little less

[@mikehindson-evans159]

@CourtAboveTheCut Serious shedloads less. And it would reach to Preston. Ho-hum!

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@mikehindson-evans159 we are so far behind most of the developed world with our infrastructure now, we should have started this years ago, not just HS1 but the whole project, as soon as the tunnel was through we should have been working on a direct line through the UK

[@WacoA.I.]

This is the first I've seen of HS2 tunneling. Very impressive engineering!

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Those tunnel boring machines are beasts now! Wait until Elon musk gets over here with his boring company!

[@WacoA.I.]

@@CourtAboveTheCut He's here in Texas occasionally. I'll tell him that you're looking for him. 😄

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@WacoA.I. haha, ask him if I can borrow a fiver please 😂

[@markspittle9360]

There is a section just south of Aylesbury, where they are digging a 10 miles section of tunnel, called the chilton tunnel.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@markspittle9360 yeah I’ve not explored it yet, the Chilterns have been quite an obstacle for many canals! The GU summits at Tring with the wendover following the contour as well

[@davecooper3238]

We live about a mile from the route of HS2. They are causing very little disruption. Some local roads are benefiting from tweaks they have needed to do.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

A few I know across the route have been widened and straightened which took some bad bends out.

[@davecooper3238]

@@CourtAboveTheCut Yep. Same round our neck of the woods.

[@philbeckett8620]

I have just read a book by Tom Rolt, building the railway. It documents in photos the building of the GCR extension to london. What immediately strikes me is how narrow the working strip of land that was "trashed" as they built. Look at HS2 and we can see a vast width of destruction which is surely unnecessary? I am sure that someone with a ology' will tell me how there is no way to avoid it! But surely it would help people understand it when i express my support for HS2.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

The simple answer is health and safety. Years ago people died building these projects, people were severely injured and there were absolutely no facilities for workers. Now a route is built and you need access roads, welfare sites, clear distance for moving around the site

[@QALibrary]

The scary thing is HS2 are cutting down fewer listed trees and doing less damage than the new road going under the Thames - think the project called The Silvertown Tunnel - and the environmental and tree people are saying nothing about that damage!

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I know, HS2 is better in many ways, cost, environmental impact etc. the digging and concrete isn’t great but they are avoiding many woodlands by tunnelling etc and replacing what is lost with far more habitat that was ever there. It’s because it’s trendy to get on HS2s back but nobody wants to complain about a road that’ll save them 20 minutes on the commute.

[@tomcarr1358]

What's this about trees? They tend to be the bain of canal restorers Trees are very vigorous and have transformed the countryside of the Norfolk Broads to the detriment of sailors particularly on the sailing canal , The North Walsham and Dilham Canal.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@tomcarr1358 trees in the wrong place are the Bain of anyone, trees in the right place enhance the environment on a canal, something nearly every trust try to do now

[@tomcarr1358]

@@CourtAboveTheCut Not if you are to use the wind. The Env. Agy and the Forestry Comm. sometimes work together to pile costs onto restoration schemes and condition de-silting consents. Trees proliferate naturally without any further intervention by mankind as Network Rail will arrest.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@tomcarr1358 yes I don’t actually doubt that, years ago a restoration would have got the land and cut everything down within a few weeks. Now it’s all management plans, you section it and in reach section you clear a 1/3 then leave 2/3 and do that down the line. A year later you can clear the next 3rd of each of these sections and the following year the last. Often those trees are useless, fast growing species and often invasive. You then have to replace with native more beneficial species. The cost of the tree is one thing but there’s also the cost of all of the habitat plans and inspections you need to make. I know trusts who have been dealing with the EA for decades for small sections.

[@malcolmrichardson3881]

HS2 is - or was - bold project to increase rail capacity and improve rail connectivity in the North. But, while one can marvel at some impressive engineering, I think the short-sighted termination of the northern portion, together with the messy inter-connections at the London end, have turned things upside down. In addition, the lack of a direct connection with HS1 was, in my view, a missed opportunity. There is still the potential to fulfill much of the original vision, but at present, further progress seems uncertain - putting it mildly. Meanwhile, parts of the existing network lack vital additional capacity, while others are in danger of being lost through under-utilization. Putting things right means greatly improving the performance of the existing network and making provision for any future expansion, including some new lines - starting with the rest of HS2. This will cost money and resources - but without positive government commitment the future of rail looks much like the rest of the crumbling public infrastructure.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Absolutely bang on on all points, the north needs to happen, the centre of london needs to happen, it needs to be a continuous route and tbh it needs to reach Glasgow eventually with lines off to all major cities in the north

[@dominiccottrill2387]

The controversy of HS2 cost is largely manufactured. When you compare it mile for mile to that of a motorway or bypass, it's not that expensive at all. Also, when discussing cost you have to include the cost of not building it, which is incalculable.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Exactly, the choke on our railway network is costing the economy in a massive way, until that’s fixed it’s going to keep costing us more and more

[@dominiccottrill2387]

@CourtAboveTheCut Also take into account the land btw London and Bham is some of the most expensive in the country plus all the expensive tunnelling through the Chilterns to keep the locals happy. They learned from experience of the M40.

[@01jvb]

Hi Steve. You give the impression that this canal was originally part of the Grand Junction. In fact it never was. Until 1928 this was the Warwick and Napton Canal. On 1 January 1929 it merged with the Grand Junction (and other canals) to become the Grand Union Canal. The wide locks were built 1932-1934 and replaced the narrow locks which have not been used since. If anyone wants to find out more about the history of this canal, I recommend the book 'The Warwick Canals' by Alan Faulkner.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I’m trying to think what I said but I swear I said right at the beginning it became part of the grand junction when they merged to have a chance of fighting the railways? If I didn’t then I accidentally cut it!

[@mattsandilands6380]

@@CourtAboveTheCutyou did say it.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@mattsandilands6380 thanks, I was going to watch it this evening to see!

[@philallen7626]

HS2 made sense when it was going to Manchester, presumably with an eye on taking it up to Glasgow. For the relatively short distance between London and Brum, making it high speed just feels like a waste of money.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

We don’t need a high speed network as such on this country but we do need to keep up with the rest of the world with our connections it only really makes sense for high speed between Birmingham and Glasgow, the capacity is what mattered

[@waikanaebeach]

Even more recent was the motorway network Plotinus it way through the country. Think about m1, M4 and M6 and more recently M40. They cut through farms woodlands etc without the environmental considerations of today. UK rail network is a relic of multiple private companies with very little coordination nationally. HS2 is needed. As to cost, every major infrastructure project (including those of the old rail companies) runs over. It because of risk.. it is what you don’t know. The tunnel you showed drilled through mudstone. This is easy to drill, however prone to collapse and water, test drilling may identify issues, however not all of them.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I think with the modern techniques used to drill with the machine and the way the liner is then made the risk is incredibly low, they wouldn’t be doing it if there was any real risk there but 100 years ago that tunnel wouldn’t and probably couldn’t have happened

[@markspittle9360]

That crane moves the bridge parts around,as they make all manor of concrete structures on that site.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Yeah I wasn’t sure when filming if it was static or not, when I edited the footage I noticed the rails

[@markspittle9360]

They’ve got 1 at Kingsbury, exactly the same, but that depot makes bridge deck sections.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@markspittle9360 that’s a site on my list to visit, I actually drove past it today going between locations

[@AbandonedCityCamoCrewExplorers]

Nice one buh

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Thanks!

[@BrucieNZ]

I enjoy and appreciate your videos. Just a couple of comments on this one, I'm certainly not here to be negative, just trying to be helpful. The audio is very chirpy, do you have the wind feature turned on with your camera or mic. The drone footage has some jitter, it could be mismatched frame rates between cameras or possibly be when processing final video output. Another possibility is the data card in drone is struggling to write, slow speeds, unfortunately there are many fake counterfeit cards on ebay/amazon etc. Thanks again for your videos, we're planning on visiting the UK etc next year if all goes to plan. Hi from NZ.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

It’s not the memory card, I know the issue and it’s something I should hopefully have sorted on the next recording, I’ve got about 4-5 videos already filmed and in edit though but you should start to notice an improvement soon

[@PCMenten]

Thanks!

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Thank you so much for your continued support

[@QALibrary]

This part of the canal is very impressive - talk about HS2 are you covering East West Rail and the new and rebuilding of that line

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I’m only covering HS2 where it’s cutting canals, I don’t think East West Rail is cutting anywhere on new line, it crosses the GU at Fenny lock but that’s an existing viaduct

[@ahoseason]

HS2 will be a great investment to help move freight more easily on the standard lines. A pity it is currently truncated to Birmingham so the full value will not yet be realised.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I’m hoping a change of government will see sense

[@Michael-ln7us]

Savings of 20 minutes from London to Birmingham is a waste of time a high speed rail needs to go from London to Edinburgh to make it worth it for the country as a whole.

[@terrytopliss9506]

Just because you have an opinion does make you wrong,however my opinion of HS2 is that it’s a Tory folly. When they released the cost at 52 billion I thought that was fanciful and this has been proved correct. I enjoy your videos and the information that you find. Thank you.👍👍

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

I think we all knew it would go over it always does, an honest figure at the start would have helped them long term

[@leswall3061]

It's only politicians and mayors of Greater Manchester Liverpool and I think Staffordshire that want HS2 I for one don't see the value of HS2, however, if HS2 was built to carry road freight it might have been better in favour of many

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

You are missing the point, you take the express passengers off of the west coast mainline onto HS2. Thus then frees up the existing network for more local services and more freight. You don’t put freight on the shiny new straight high speed railway, you put that on the line with all the depots. Freight would hold trains up on the new line

[@leswall3061]

@@CourtAboveTheCut Really, not from Manchester or Warrington, HS2 stops at Birmingham so maybe , you miss the point

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@leswall3061 not at all, it’s pointless as it is now, the original plan frees up the west coast mainline for freight and local passenger services. It won’t now although the connection to handsacre helps it doesn’t solve the problem

[@brickleyyard4966]

I like hss i think its just been miss handled and that If thay are just going to take people out thire home then thay could have done that to straighten out existing railways and improve them like with the gwr it can be improved to 100mph+ from penzance to London if only thay was giving the route thay whanted but i am all for hs2 this what the rest of Europe has done and thay are far better of I do agree that the costs and disruption and destruction to the landscapes have been hard one to take but that will recover and so in the long run its a good thing and people need stop jumping on the band wagon and except thats its going to happen

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

The issue with capacity isn’t on the GWR though it’s on the West Coast Mainline which is already 4 tracked and running trains constantly. If you stand by the lines and watch they go past about every 4 minutes.

[@schnauzpig]

I supported HS2 at first but I think we were missold a lie. Lets face it HS2 will blow past it's 100 billion budget and for that we could have built something that benefitted far more people, for example a world-class nationwide cycle network. It would also have been far cheaper and better for the environment to have added express lines along the existing west coast mainline corridor and used a fraction of the leftover money to have removed bottlenecks elsewhere on the rail network. It's funny, you don't need to spend nearly as much money greenwashing when you don't take a CCP inspired, environment-be-damned approach in the first place.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

How much do you think a new road would have cost covering the same area? A lot more is the answer. I agree to some extent on upgrading areas but the problem is the west coast mainline is BUSY I counted a train every 4 minutes whilst I was filming next to it recently

[@schnauzpig]

@@CourtAboveTheCut A new road, which I am not proposing btw, wouldn't need to accomodate 180mph speeds and therefore would not need to be so straight and unyielding to the natural landscape or topography of the land. This is why no motorway, even in todays money, has ever cost anything approaching, let alone exceeding, the cost of HS2. Yes the West Coast Mainline is busy, I suggested adding express track was something they could have done intead: this would be a capacity upgrade! (this was also the original plan before the High speed hype took over) Yes, this would have been expensive, but the difference between £30 billion and £120 billion is the difference between a project that could in the future be expanded to Scotland, and rolled out to the other main lines vs a project that scares the nation away from infrastructure spending for generations.

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@schnauzpig they are building 2 roads that exceed a billion at the moment, they don’t go very far at all, it’s more expensive per mile than HS2 and far more damaging to the environment both in construction and future CO2 output

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@schnauzpig I’m 100% with you on expanding capacity in other ways btw, it’s just you can’t compare the 2 projects, expansion by adding a line here or there, upgrading a junction does little compared to a whole new line across the country

[@schnauzpig]

@@CourtAboveTheCut I've just calculated the cost per mile of HS2 and the Lower Thames Crossing and even assuming HS2 only costs £100B for 140 miles, which we now know it wont, it is still more expensive per mile than the £9B project that covers 14.3 miles. Again, I'm not a big proponent of roads, I just think that at a minimum of £1666 per person, our taxes could be better spent than on saving a few hours a week for the tiny minority who will regularly use it.

[@robinkey4499]

HS 2 IS NOT WHAT WE NEED DR BEECHING MADE A MESS OF RAILWAYS BY SHUTTING THE WRONG LINES. THE GCR WAS A FAST LINE

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

Actually dr Beeching wrote a report which was largely ignored, he didn’t recommend the closure of many lines

[@robinkey4499]

@@CourtAboveTheCut have you read the Beechine report that recommended they close and axe railways 1960s

[@user-fz8ep5ey4v]

Norf to souf ?

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

We can’t all speak the perfect kings English, I’m sure you can though.

[@user-fz8ep5ey4v]

@@CourtAboveTheCut I try

[@daveoftheclanburgess]

HS2 was a good idea and even a good project but it has become pointless. It doesn't actually go anywhere of any trade or importance. The whole advantage of rail over air is that it takes people to the centres of cities... they always did! They should never have closed the Great Central, but that's a bit of a fatuous comment after 60 years. Very impressive engineering, way too expensive (caused by poor management and endless legal costs), not going where it needs. A curate's egg

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

It’s more of the shambolic decisions of the current regime, they cancelled it to win votes and it’s backfired

[@thoughtsonnarrowboatingwit3882]

All I can say is that HS2 is a huge waste of time and money, that said and rather contradictory, it’s investing money into the canals. My argument with ‘HS2’ is that we already had one and most of it is still there …

[@btudrus]

If compared to the highways HS2 costs almost nothing...

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

You do realise how cheap HS2 is compared to building an equivalent road? It’s only a thing because the tabloids dug into it. Other countries won’t bat an eyelid at the costs. The issue around Birmingham is the WCM is so over stretched it can’t take more traffic and it’s already 4 tracked. We shouldn’t have killed the railways off in the 60s but the old lines are so hard to open. I agree many could be opened with the cost of the project but you wouldn’t end up with a joined up network just branch lines everywhere that would still limit capacity at its pinch points

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@btudrus there’s a road being built that’s over £1Billion now. I think another in the pipeline that’s £1.5Billion

[@thoughtsonnarrowboatingwit3882]

@@CourtAboveTheCut I build train stations with precast units, whilst incredible brick structures rot… get the picture!

[@CourtAboveTheCut]

@@thoughtsonnarrowboatingwit3882 very much so, it’s such a shame what we do to our heritage in this country, all in the name of progress