HS2 Construction Chipping Warden Jan 24

[@longfordlongstone8057]

There's an interesting point of comparison a few miles to the north of this attempt- the Catesby Tunnel, 8m wide, 2.7km long and completed in 1897 after just under two years' work by Victorian navvies and steam shovels!

[@theboy-uk]

Exactly!

[@KingFinnch]

with no labour regulations and during a time when building railways was considered one of the most sound investments possible

[@theboy-uk]

@@KingFinnch I'm not sure how much labour has been employed on this short stretch, but one thing you'll notice if you watch any of the series over the last 4 years, you rarely see anyone working. That said, every independent report on HS2 categorically states it does not offer value for money, and thus wouldn't be built in bygone eras.

[@glynnwright1699]

From what I can determine, it will only be marginally faster to travel to Birmingham using HS2 from much of South East England, than the existing route via Clapham junction and Watford. The Elizabeth line to Old Oak Common via the rail network is only accessible from Farringdon, which has many slow commuter trains on those lines. Otherwise, you will be obliged to use the underground system, which is just plain nasty. From where I live (Horsham) it looks like being potentially around 15 minutes faster.

[@theboy-uk]

@@glynnwright1699 Pretty much. Its a lot of money and disruption for nothing more than a small decrease in journey time...

[@inkfunk]

The construction workers are so fortunate to have three swimming pools to relax in at the end of a busy day

[@theboy-uk]

Given the lack of progress, maybe they are swimming during the day :)

[@davecooper3238]

Not sure how many are going to swim in the runoff from a construction site.

[@theboy-uk]

@@davecooper3238 If they are not swimming, I guess they are always in the portacabins playing poker ;)

[@davidharle952]

slowly taking shape, just as they are laying the last lines it will be cancelled.

[@theboy-uk]

Its inevitable it will get cancelled at some point, lets hope its before they pour more good money after bad....

[@PhilBrown-ik1dk]

Apart from a few businessmen and a few MPs what travellers will be keen to go via HS2 when half the journey time is spent in a tunnel? There are 65 miles of tunnel on the route - out of a journey total of 117 miles

[@theboy-uk]

Taking pre-pandemic figures (as rail use hasn't got back to the same levels, as the pandemic has shown a different way of working for a lot of people), Chiltern Railways and Avanti West Coast (the 2 other operators running trains between London and Birmingham) were carrying 120,000 passengers a day across their entire networks (not necessarily on the London to Birmingham route). Added to that, as a regular user of both existing lines, I can absolutely assure you that the vast majority of passengers alight en-route, with very, very few passengers travelling all the way from central London to central Birmingham. So the question should be, irrespective of the tunnels, who is actually going to use this line?

[@extrude22]

HS2 will not be a premium service in addition to the existing services. It will replace almost all of the long distance express services which currently run into Euston. So it will not be just businessmen using it but anybody who currently gets the train from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow etc.

[@theboy-uk]

@@extrude22 And that is where the business plan for HS2 falls flat on its face, and why after attending the roadshows some 15yrs ago I went from being pro HS2 to seeing it for what it is, nothing more than an expensive white elephant purely for the benefit of those involved. As somebody who regularly travels between London and Birmingham on WMCL and CML, there isn't the demand. Never has been, never will be. Avanti run few non stop express trains, because there isn't the demand because everybody wants to get on and off at stations along the route. Chiltern run no non stop express trains because, well, you guessed it, there isn't the demand. So quite where HS2 are going to get the required almost 600,000 passengers a day to only need 50-60% ftaxpayer fare subsidies is anyone's guess. And, no, it won't free up any track time for freight. How can it?

[@extrude22]

@@theboy-uk You are thinking about it wrong. The main problem HS2 is attempting to solve is the fact that there are too many trains using the WCML. The most logical solution to that problem is to move the express trains to their own line which means freight and commuter services can run more services on the old line. HS2 will provide so much capacity on the express services they should be more competitively priced which should drive demand. And HS2 will create more freight capacity on the existing WCML by removing most of the express trains which currently run on the line, how can it not? I frequently travel between Manchester and London and the majority of passengers stay on for the whole journey. Making this journey 1 hour quicker would have been a great benefit but unfortunately it doesn’t look like the direct link to Manchester will ever be built

[@theboy-uk]

@@extrude22 There aren't that many express trains between London and Birmingham. And given freight trains are significantly slower, moving the few express trains will not free up space for freight. The reason why there are so few express trains between London and Birmingham is that virtually all the passenger demand is to alight at places along the route. These trains have significant capacity on them, outside of London bound morning rush hour. If there was demand, Chiltern would also run express trains, but they can't even fill 2 car DMUs that run once or twice an hour and stop at most stations. There simply is no demand. HS2's proposal clearly states they need 576,000 passengers a day to only beg for 50-60% subsidy per fare. If they get just 1% of that it would be miraculous, and 1% means a 10,000% increase in taxpayer subsidy. The public, rightly, won't stand for that, so the line will quickly close, or become yet another (and unneeded) London commuter line.

[@carguyuk7525]

Why a green tunnel. Surely a cutting would be cheaper. It's a rural location so land is relatively cheap. Great video.

[@theboy-uk]

Most of it is in tree lined cuttings (though given the number of landslides in the last couple of years onto the railways, maybe not a great idea!), but there was something in their plans about if it ran too close to a property (close enough to have a very detrimental impact), either they have to prevent the impact or compulsory purchase the property. As this runs very close to the village of Chipping Warden, it was deemed cheaper to bury the line.

[@paulyoung-td4zx]

It's because of the environmental issues that has impacted on the costs as well as many other things. It's expensive because it's been over engineered and because the government wanted to make sure they were seen to be "friendly " to all the different potential complaining groups!!

[@theboy-uk]

@@paulyoung-td4zx From my dealings with HS2, I believe its been over engineered and as much done by HS2 (and their subbies) in order to feather their own nests. And the last few governments have been daft enough to allow the wool to be pulled over their eyes.

[@simonbaxter8001]

What ever happened to good old fashioned cuttings? No wonder the cost is so high, they are doing 3x the amount of work they need to!

[@theboy-uk]

A decision was made early on that residential properties that would be adversely impacted by the noise (200mph trains are incredibly loud, even at distances of 200 or 300m) would have to be compulsory purchased. By running this in a tunnel, the noise problem past the village of Chipping Warden goes away, thus deemed the cheaper option.

[@RitaFarrow]

not alot added is there,does not look like it is moving along at all

[@theboy-uk]

Last video of the same area I filmed in August, and I can see little difference to be honest.

[@briantwigger9364]

Something for the urbex folks to walk through when it’s abandoned in a few years 😮

[@theboy-uk]

LOL, goo point! Worth every penny then!!

[@Dinoteddi]

Nice to see HS2 cracking on, though this is a prime example of why HS2 has cost so much, rather pointless tunnels where a cutting could have been done along with noise barriers, in order to appease NIMBYs

[@theboy-uk]

This "green tunnel" was in the plans from near the start, due to the proximity of Chipping Warden, so was in the original budget. It appears the reasons of the massive budget ballooning is due to poor (or non existent) initial costings and horrific mis-management of the project.

[@MrMasterJones]

Thanks. Progress sure is slow with those concrete tunnels sections

[@theboy-uk]

Slow is an understatement! But when you're milking the taxpayer, no need to rush, is there? What a colossal waste of money :(

[@davecooper3238]

The Italians are using the same method on the line that our guide said is being built between Milan & Venice. Something to do with retaining farmland.

[@theboy-uk]

@@davecooper3238 Are they building it faster than HS2?

[@davecooper3238]

@@theboy-uk From I the length running beside the motorway it’s construction looked to progressing much more slowly than HS2 is 10 miles either side of me.

[@theboy-uk]

@@davecooper3238 I certainly recall the M40 extension near where I lived at the time taking about 2 years for that section. The section of HS2 I'm nearest to now is starting its 5th year of construction, and is still years off completion.

[@SimonHowes]

Why are they doing this? Countryside doesn't look any significant importance nor is near urban areas. Why hide the trains?

[@theboy-uk]

It goes close to the village of Chipping Warden, and the choices to reduce long term impact to nearby residences along the route were to reduce noise to a defined level or to buy the properties. A tunnel for this section was deemed the most suitable.

[@gorgu08]

@@theboy-ukutter shit, should have been a cutting nothing else, ffs

[@IrishMac093]

Jezyuz boi you must have some battery on yr rig. Craicing drone footage. Them H2 boiz must have been on their lunch break. lol ☘

[@theboy-uk]

In 5 years of capturing HS2 build progress, it's very rare I actually catch them working! Which would explain the glacial progress!

[@keithwesley2471]

Where are the emergency escape tunnels? I hope that this possible eventuality has been risk assessed?

[@theboy-uk]

Good point, well presented. Maybe they accept they will have no passengers, because nobody wants to travel from central London to central Birmingham ;)

[@thorley1969]

Emergency escape routes are from one tunnel bore to the other much like on the many motorway tunnels in the UK. You just are not able to see them from this above view.

[@theboy-uk]

@@thorley1969 Given that the original plan was to run a train every 3 minutes at over 200mph, is that a wise choice?

[@davecooper3238]

@@theboy-ukThat level of traffic would never have been allowed on Health & Safety grounds.

[@thorley1969]

@@theboy-uk pretty sure in the event of an emergency, trains would be halted in quick order to facilitate any evacuation.

[@davedave6404]

So many comments here about time taken, costs and construction methods. All have clearly forgotten that all this extra cost and time was the result of our political systems and the stranglehold that the construction sector has on central and local government. Our system is corrupt, some say, BUT the people along this route have impressed on their political representatives that if this or that is not done then out of office you go. It's our type of democracy in action with a view to massive legal, inquiry based , revision and final over complicated designs from the civil engineers, then further revisions, more consultants and so it goes on. Just look at the tunneling near Euston. A MP and then Prime Minister (Johnson) pushed and was pushed in a direction which we all see now made that part of the route outside budget and so not done so far, if ever, making the whole scheme ridiculous. If the Department of Transport was independent, national infrastructure projects would be better for it. A positive point though, the monies trickle down to provide employment for the masses, also the top 10% earners will be paying higher rate tax. In the end the taxpayer does not loose out really. But what a way to run a mature democracy hey. Keeps you chums from school and university on side as well, once the MPs leave office, further plum jobs will be the reward. Its our system and it works for most in power. Change our political system if you can. Good luck with that.

[@theboy-uk]

Very valid points - although at the initial consultation phase, the entity now known as HS2 were a shambles with no idea of costs, and they openly admitted that they would present the plan with the costs they thought were palatable to the government, already knowing it was unfeasible. As somebody who was pro HS2 attending the meetings, I was staggered by their attitude and incompetence!

[@robodrone5662]

What a nice and lazy project. Still no progress. Hard to believe.

[@theboy-uk]

Crazy, isn't it? I wonder if I could get a nice, easy job there!

[@robodrone5662]

@@theboy-uk A dream job only for chosen lucky guys.

[@AndrewRoberts11]

Not a lot of change from your July 2022 video, apart from the video's music.

[@theboy-uk]

Yes, I reckon I could have saved myself a trip out there, and used the old video, LOL. Progress does appear to have stalled.

[@harriergr7728]

Now that the Manchester section has been cancelled, they’ll go even slower to milk more money out of the existing one as they won’t be able to exploit the next phase. Plus they’ll try and make even more money on the last 5 miles into London.

[@davidrichards3116]

Now you know why the price tag is so high. You’re not building a railway, you’re building a new ecosystem.

[@theboy-uk]

Building an ecosystem for who? The public paying for it? HS2 Ltd? The contractors building it? It does seem this expensive ecosystem is costing an awful lot, causing a lot of delays, and not really serving any useful purpose... ...much like the rest of Phase 1!

[@davecooper3238]

It’s about stopping doing damage to the ecosystem.

[@Adam-nb6im]

@@theboy-ukBecause everyone complained about how bad the visual impact of the railway was, so they spent billions more putting the railway in tunnels.

[@theboy-uk]

@@davecooper3238 What ecosystem? HS2's ecosystem? The UK Rail industry's ecosystem?

[@davecooper3238]

@@theboy-uk THE Ecosystem.

[@chairmakerPete]

This project has been dreamed up by a raving lunatic with a mission to waste the maximum possible amount of taxpayers' money. In the days when railways were built by companies that had to control costs, they dug cuttings and used the spoil to make embankments nearby. Temporary track was laid along the alignment, and the spoil moved along it, all within the narrow footprint of the railway. Almost all the effort went into building the railway, not constructing a bunch of motorway service areas alongside surfaced to a higher standard than the M1. No opportunity has been lost to waste money on an industrial scale. There HAS to be deep corruption behind this, and doubtless is will come out in the future. Lots of people in the right club have made life-changing amounts of money out of this scam.

[@theboy-uk]

Precisely!

[@johnfrancis4401]

It would be much cheaper to use tunnels, despite the extra construction costs. Lawyers fees, court cases, delays, disruption caused when crossing rivers, roads, bridges. Tunnels are much more predictable. Resistance from residents and farmers and businesses would be minimised. In such a densely populated country, especially the Manchester, Birmingham and London corridor it makes financial sense as well as environmental sense.

[@theboy-uk]

Tunnels give other issues during service though, and increase energy usage, so I can see why they wanted to minimise their use. Though I will always dispute that "HS2", "Financial sense" and "environmental sense" are words that can ever be used in the same sentence!

[@Adam-nb6im]

Tunnels are definitely NOT cheaper….probably best to actually research this sort of thing lol

[@johnfrancis4401]

@@Adam-nb6im Exactly to construct the bulk of the track. But taking into account court cases, delays, and bridges causing disruption.....it works out much cheaper in a densely populated country like England. Of course in totalitarian countries where the government ignores the people tunnels would be ridiculous.

[@theboy-uk]

@@Adam-nb6im This cut&cover tunnel was cheaper than the alternative - compulsory purchasing significant parts of the village, which in itself would make the village unviable.

[@ScottishDroner]

Hiding the trains away when completed

[@theboy-uk]

The last estimate I heard was we are still over 15 years away before trains will run from central London to central Birmingham - and the link from Wormwood Scrubs to central London is in jeopardy of being cancelled. It is all an embarrassing joke, and how not to run an engineering project.

[@ScottishDroner]

@@theboy-uk agreed

[@mrglide7078]

Loving the expert analysis being offered by the author here, on what 'appears' to be glacially slow progress. Perhaps he/she would be kind enough to share with all of us their professional credentials. It doesn't matter what in particular. Y'know, maybe an engineering degree, or large infrastructure project management skills. Something that adds some 'weight' to the views expressed on here. It's all good. Thanks muchly.

[@theboy-uk]

My background (which is related, but not in civil engineering) is irrelevant. The (pre pandemic, to be kind, as the commuting world has now changed forever) usage figures speak for themselves, and the business plan put before the government is clear. HS2 provides nothing more than a 10 minute improvement in journey times between London and Birmingham. It will not, as promised, free up freight capacity on the WCML (as the same number of passenger services still need to run, or the public have to accept a reduction in service, which is completely unrelated to HS2). It will not carry the passenger numbers needed to "only" need 50-60% taxpayer subsidy per fare, and is likely to carry around 1% of the required passengers, which will clearly translate into a 100,000% increase in taxpayer subsidy needed - clearly unviable. Yet taxpayers are expected to stump up £100bn for this white elephant that will have to close or be radically rethought as soon as it opens due to the taxpayer burden. As to progress, you don't even need the most basic project management skills to see that this construction project has not been managed at all, and its just drifted. I point you to the previous video from Aug 2023, and invite you to point out the progress. Looking at the size of the compound they have built, clearly they have hundreds of construction workers working on this short section, yet the one thing you never, ever see is anybody actually doing anything. And that goes not just for this short section, but the entire section I have done a video diary of. And please don't me started on the money wasted on the temporary haulage road bridges, yet they have still left all the traffic lights in place. Its almost as if they are going out of their way to wind people up. Additionally, please note, I purposely do not commentate on the video itself, or add any overlays to the video beyond a title and where necessary some labels to assist with locating the area. It was always intended to be an historical documentation of the construction, and was originally intended to be done monthly with the view of trying to timelapse over the construction period. But where I have timelapsed it over the period of a year, the comments back were that nobody could tell the difference over the year! Hence, now aiming for 6 monthly videos, but even that leaves it difficult to spot even minor progress. The comments section, though, well, that seems to be a free for all, with the train spotters on one side, and those that scoff at the costs and destruction for what they perceive as an unneeded project on the other, and seemingly no middle ground.

[@mrglide7078]

@@theboy-uk 10 minute improvement? 100bn? I gave up reading after the 100bn bit. 2/10 for actually replying; less 1 each for these gems of nonsense = 0/10 Byee

[@theboy-uk]

@@mrglide7078Ah, another who won't accept what all the independent reviews are saying for cost. Travel times are easy. Pre HS2, fastest trains between Central London and Central Birmingham were 1hr10m for Euston to New Street and 1hr14m for Marylebone to Moor Street. HS2 promises 1hr.

[@jaimiepotts]

@@theboy-uk you're being very selective with your statistics considering HS2 as originally designed was meant to take all existing long distance intercity traffic from the Midlands, Northern England and Scotland to London onto it. Saying "Birmingham to London doesn't have the numbers" is misleading.

[@theboy-uk]

@@jaimiepotts Even HS2 knew it was never. ever going to be anything more than a London to Birmingham route, and were quite open about that during the roadshows at the start. The figures I have stated are purely for Phase 1, as those are the figures presented by the entity now know as HS2 purely for Phase 1 and based on the assumption that no government would be hoodwinked enough (their words) to build further phases.... But even so, as HS2 was intending to go through Birmingham, then its just common sense to investigate passenger numbers on all available viable routes between London and Birmingham, and use that to check the viability of this new line.

[@robertbate5790]

I think i must be missing something somewhere. Wasn't a tunnel supposed to save the landscape???? How many acres have been destroyed to make an 'invisible railway' ??? In 1850s the bucket and spade brigades were far more eco friendly, and a damn site quicker.

[@mikehindson-evans159]

It will grow back; Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. Looking forward to seeing the finished fields. with a high-capacity new railway running beneath (low risk of "wrong type of leaves).

[@robertbate5790]

@@mikehindson-evans159 Whilst I don't disagree, it's shameful that so much was needlessly torn up in the first place.

[@Pesmog]

I agree the construction footprint for many parts of this project seems excessive. I know it will all be remediated eventually, but it sure looks an eyesore for now.

[@theboy-uk]

How true, sadly :(.

[@theboy-uk]

Look at any existing UK railway, and see what a blight it is on the landscape. Believing this will look like some kind of utopia 5 years after completion is "optimistic"

[@kindnessyet2159]

If the Chinese was on this project it would of been finished by now.

[@theboy-uk]

How true. Though in fairness, if neither the civil service or the UK rail industry was involved, it would have been done by now. As a comparison, look how quickly the M40 extension was built.

[@tonyollier7098]

It would be Tofu Dreg construction though!

[@theboy-uk]

@@tonyollier7098 🤣🤣! Mind you, is this construction any better 🤣

[@OzyWizard1973]

But if it was part of the Belt and Road Initiative it fall would apart before they could finish it. Chinese worker deaths on Indonesia rail site raise fresh safety concerns of belt and road project. Latest safety lapse to hit construction of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, which has suffered delays, massive cost overruns and series of accidents Even China's Tufo train system don't last long. June 2022 High-speed train derails in China, killing driver, injuring 8 others after hitting mudslide According to state broadcaster CCTV, a train travelling on route to the coastal business centre of Guangzhou has derailed after running into debris that had fallen onto the tracks near the tunnel. The Wenzhou train collision was a railway accident that occurred on 23 July 2011, when a high-speed train travelling on the Yong-Tai-Wen railway line collided into the rear of another stationary train on a viaduct in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

[@theboy-uk]

@@OzyWizard1973Well, the UK rail industry doesn't have a great record either, despite making stuff cost 1000 times more, and taking 10 times longer to complete....

[@EWAScotland]

What’s that noise…billions of pounds being flushed into the hands of Tory backers…for a railway no one will be able to afford to use

[@theboy-uk]

Whatever your political preferences, the blame here has to be laid at multiple (Westminster) governments, all 3 of them. It was originally conceived and presented by New Labour.

[@gorgu08]

@@theboy-ukit was proposed by labour they were not the one’s that approved it, designed it and screwed up the building of it….

[@theboy-uk]

@@gorgu08 Labour fully backed it when it went through the Commons into law....