The Battle To Build Britain's $90BN HS2 Railway

A mega project under heavy controversy in Britain right now is the H2S Railway, one of the largest railway projects in Europe. What is the insane engineering behind the high speed 2 railway project from Birmingham to London, with additional routes to Leeds and Manchester, how fast will this train travel and why is it being built?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
► OTHER INTERESTING VIDEOS:
Hinkley Point C - Britain's Most Controversial Nuclear Project
• Hinkley Point C - Brit...

[@TheImpossibleBuild]

Will this project ever see the light of day?

[@alancobbin]

Sadly no,our politicians lied to us again!

[@MikeWillSee]

not under the current government, but most opposition parties seem to be in favour so there is hope there

[@stevencutts6314]

Yes the current government is funding stage 1 a in spite of everything and u have to acknowledge that. They are also funding Hinckley C and the Dogger Bank wind farm and have completed the Elizabeth line which is now simply accepted as a huge success.

[@Kiltskills]

Yes, what an incredible project it is. London to... somewhere in the North of England. And it will shave approx 15 minutes of current times. Why do Scots, Northern Irish and Welsh have to pay £1500 per head for this ill considered project when we'll not see the 'benefit'?

[@jonhelmer8591]

Who cares?

[@xbx.trains2192]

It's very much needed. Similar to the Elizabeth Line, it costed a lot and everyone hated it when it was being made, but once it's was finished, everyone loved it. That's how it's going to be.

[@leematthews6812]

...but will it provide a good ROI? No, it will cost an absolute fortune and will be deeply in the red forever.

Well... I take the Elizabeth line on a daily basis and it is not a love story. There are so many technical problems! Mainly with those platforms doors! And the way some stations were designed, allowing flows of people from different directions to converge to a single entry/exit of the platform is surprising. Basically, trains are great, but the station part is lagging behind.

[@apripper5317]

just not true is it @@leematthews6812

[@xbx.trains2192]

There are many exists at most of the stations that are just smaller and more people don't use. The simple solution being to just make people aware of them and with more signage. Also as for the technical problems, it's very tricky to predict. Problems with the platform edge doors is people trying to get on the train while the doors are closing or unpredictable problems. @

[@brianfretwell3886]

Similar to the Elizabeth Line (or Crossrail as it was originately proposed) it was started too late (crossrail should have been running by 1999 under the original proposals) it was started late and suffered too many changes. The original Greengauge 21 proposal was to run from st Pancras HS1 terminus with links to HS1 so Ashford and Stratford could be used to terminate trains, serve Heathrow Airport and run to the disused Biirmingham New Street platforms for a limited Birmingham service with mmost going on to Manchester etc. It was costed (excluding rolling stock at £5 billion, just after HS1 completion. Bloating of the scheme by the government under "levelling up" and changs of route to need massive tunnelling (pandering to protests?) has lead th the current overspend.

[@John_259]

Meanwhile, China has over 26,000 miles of high speed railway lines in full operation. BTW, "Ruislip" is pronounced "Rise-lip".

[@MegaWilderness]

Even rice-lip

[@alancobbin]

The pronunciation was kind of funny though lol

[@backacheache]

I would have said rye-slip

[@LoremIpsum1970]

Yes, but I wouldn't travel on that myself.

[@pbworld7858]

@@LoremIpsum1970 Why, do you prefer riding on the Sour Grape Express?

[@michaelbuntine362]

Welcome to Britain the people that invented the railway can't even decide nowadays to build one

[@timhanser1943]

We have a useless government in the uk . Terrible.

[@Kiltskills]

That's because little England keeps voting in the conservative party.

[@BIGV710]

@@Kiltskills Labour is the same we need a new party to get this country moving

[@willhemmings]

HS2 derailed long ago with a little piece of missing track between the HS1 and HS2 railway lines, just outside the existing terminal stations of St. Pancras and Euston. The difference between including that little bit of missing rail and leaving it out is the difference between the imaginations of politicians who conceived this 'Colossus of Rails' - those who think in terms of Great (connected, continental), Britain and those who think Little (insular, regional), Britain

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Why does a purely domestic line like HS2 have to connect to an International line to Europe HS1, for a start there is no capacity for HS2 trains in St Pancaras International station

[@willhemmings]

I never thought of HS2 as a 'purely domestic line'. That you call it such betrays a problem - a purely domestic line has no need to be high speed. A conventional railway would have sufficed. The biggest problem with HS2 is the littlest mindset of its progenitors in not thinking internationally - the arrogance of politicians to assume that Britain is self sufficient@@peterwilliamallen1063

[@ds1868]

​@peterwilliamallen1063 The proposed link would not involve St Pancras. It would have linked HS2 and HS1 north of Kings Cross, the idea being passengers from the North would bypass London and go straight to Paris. It was originally costed at £1.2 billion. Small change now.

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

@@ds1868 It was tried years ago with special night sleeper coaches from Manchester to Paris and failed, these Coaches were exported to Canada and are now used on the Canadian VIA Rail service across the Rockies, there is no call for trains from HS2 or passengers to travel to Europe via the Channel Tunnel when there are quicker routes via Birmingham and Manchester Airports plus as Avanti West Coast Trains/ Trenitalia will be running HS2 services they would not with out specially built trains be able to run through the Channel Tunnel, that is why there is only one operator, Eurostar that have the correct trains

[@browse4all]

Ive just come from a trip from the mid east. The equivalent of 50 HS2 mega projects are going on in saudi/dubai/qatar. The Uk is struggling to make 120 mile train line from London to Birmingham-utterly shsmeful

[@ds1868]

The middle east has the money. Its called oil.

[@romansanders]

There is nothing being build for high speed rail in Dubai or UAE. The rail line currently being built has a max speed of 160km (100mph) and is freight only. They speak of planning passenger services but nothing has been built that would enable them.

[@jasperhunter8386]

yeah but we don't use slave labour and kill off all our workers in unsafe working conditions, and have next to no tax to encourage scummy people to move there.

[@erelpc]

Quite easy to build on an open land desert with nothing in your way such as people, wildlife, ancient trees and scenery.

[@KyrilPG]

No need to go far to the middle East. The UK's immediate neighbors have built and are currently building mega infrastructures for a fraction of the cost of HS2.

[@rufdymond]

This country was built by some of the greatest and most innovative engineers in the history of mankind and it’s a testament to their genius that many of their creations are still in everyday use today…..I am of course talking about the victorians. When you look back at that great heritage it is truly sad to see how far we have fallen behind the cutting edge when it comes to infrastructure projects (and I’m saying this as a former engineer). The fact that large parts of our country, especially in the North are still relying on infrastructure that is well over 100 years old is a disgrace. HS2 would help improve capacity for north south rail travel and reduce the burden on the West Coast mainline which is now 186 years old. It’s looking like it might be on its own for another 186 years!

[@devamjani8041]

Nothing's wrong with engineers or engineering, as mentioned in the video, it's about the mismanagement done by politicians and all. Also, this has ALWAYS been the case, and especially in UK. Even in the Victorian era, when the London underground was being built, politicians accused the company of trying to break into the hell. They also bigoted the project to their voter base. But still, the London underground was completed and became loved by everyone. Here in this case however, the funds are coming from the government, so the politics is obviously gonna affect it.

[@smitus_hell7564]

i wish we could just stop pickering and get it fully complete all the way upto scotland too. the uk trains service is way out off date

[@jasonhesson1030]

To get to Scotland though we need financial guarantees though by the Scottish Parliament. If they vote for independence they reimburse the UK taxpayer for the costs of the line. Seems fair to me.

[@cameroncook2048]

It's going to Scotland on day 1

[@jasonhesson1030]

@@cameroncook2048 Not at 180+ mph its not. Hope the Jocks enjoy their bog-standard service Up the SNP!!!! (sarc)

[@cameroncook2048]

@@jasonhesson1030 Not at 225mph the whole way, but there will be a saving of 40 mins on day 1. I'd love to see the high speed track go to Glasgow one day

[@domtweed7323]

​@@jasonhesson1030Or the Scottish government could fund the line from the Scottish boarder onwards. Like the channel tunnel: we built up to the boarder, and the French built up to their boarder.

[@georgeroybooth3335]

Perfect example of what the UK has become. I am ashamed of my country.

[@VDVBuilds]

True

[@rufdymond]

This country was built by some of the greatest and most innovative engineers in the history of mankind and it’s a testament to their genius that many of their creations are still in everyday use today…..I am of course talking about the victorians. When you look back at that great heritage it is truly sad to see how far we have fallen behind the cutting edge when it comes to infrastructure projects. The fact that large parts of our country, especially in the North are still relying on infrastructure that is well over 100 years old is a disgrace. HS2 would help improve capacity for north south rail travel and reduce the burden on the West Coast mainline which is now 186 years old. It’s looking like it might be on its own for another 186 years!

[@jackchen7003]

Then you clearly haven’t see the US. We can’t get our high speed rail in California done either. We have to rely on private companies such as Brightline to bring us high speed rail

[@Bond047]

​@@rufdymond Built by the most innovative engineers using Stolen Wealth from other countries....😂 This is the reason why UK cannot build anything now because they can't Steal anymore.

[@loco4loco]

We were once Greta builders of railways

[@stevencutts6314]

HS2 is basic and essential national infra structure and must be completed. I accept that the government has been unlucky with the covid crisis and the war in the Ukraine stretching their finances and the solution is to continue to complete the link between London and Birmingham. This will be finished towards the end of the next parliament and as that happens we can then decide whether to extend it to Crewe once the first phase is finished. It remains a success in my view at this stage and the passion with which our own people have attempted to undermine this project is genuinely disturbing.

[@1DontNoclip]

The problem with hs2 is that it was proposed as one big project, which caused much more criticism, if they did the project in stages (like building a station or a bridge) like everyone else does it, it would probably be much more successful

[@24pavlo]

**in Ukraine*

[@jettjones9889]

Soon to be the province of the Ukraine

[@91Durktheturk]

It is just too expensive. The project needs to be ditched, as it is eating away the funding for the existing railway network. Without HS2, the Midland Mainline would have been fully electrified by now. And other important upgrades would not have been scaled back. The only reason to build HS2 is capacity, which could also have been achieved with building a cheap dedicated freight railway line to remove conflicts between slow and faster moving trains. Sunak is making the only sensible decision by scrapping the project

[@24pavlo]

@@jettjones9889 💩

[@gan247]

Nobody in the establishment seems to understand out that while it is very expensive to build, it almost certainly will never going to be cheaper in the future. If this new line/capacity is really needed, as everyone has agreed, building it now will certainly be cheaper than building it later.

[@lesfawcett5245]

It won't be needed for a long time because Work from Home has cut passenger numbers dramatically. It may be decades before passenger growth recovers. OK, so delay the expenditure.

[@KyrilPG]

"The cheapest day to build is today" is usually true. But with HS2 the cost is so inflated that tomorrow can and should be cheaper. Elsewhere in Europe, infrastructure costs way less and builds faster. Maybe because they think of infrastructure as a public good to serve the public, not as a way to line the pockets of every private interest involved. One of France's latest HSL, more than 300 kilometers long, extreme environmental mitigation features, 360 standards = 7.7 billions. Paris humongous metro expansion equivalent to the length of HS2 between London and Birmingham. 90% in deep tunnels and with about 70 new grandiose stations : less than half of HS2's cost... Madrid's cross center tunnel for high-speed trains, don't remember the cost but it's a mere speck compared to HS2. Fix the spending, the project process and laws. Then and only then try to finish the line. HS2's current cost is completely abnormal and unjustified. It's way overpriced. Even if they halt the project for a couple years while they investigate and fix the cost issue of infrastructure in the UK, it will still be cheaper than today.

[@marcustrevor1883]

@@lesfawcett5245 It hasn't, passenger numbers have recovered surprisingly quickly and are forecasted to continue to grow.

[@lesfawcett5245]

@@marcustrevor1883 what hasn't what? Passenger numbers are about 70% of pre-covid, not surprising when there are less trains. Numbers will increase but work from home will have a long term effect.

[@pbworld7858]

In Britain, these sort of railways are known as pipe dreams.

[@lg_believe333]

It saddens me because Britain has some of the greatest engineers and scientists in this country but is held back from excessive bureaucracy, so we lag behind the rest of the industrialised world, and our economy suffers for it. Just like Rolls Royce, Small Modular Reactors, SMR’s, which are ready to be built in the U.K. for the 2030’s, but instead of being given the green light, when RR is ahead of the competition, in the last minute the government decides to pull the plug, and put it out to tender and invite Hitachi and other foreign manufacturers to submit their designs for the U.K. energy needs which means RR will probably lose out. The british government has always been the enemy of the state when it comes to Britains progress, in terms of giving the go ahead for mega projects and supporting them. If our government can’t support homegrown companies like RR, our country is truly finished in the world stage. For once, the british government needs to get out of the way and allow our greatest minds to rebuild Britain and put it back on the map where it belongs.

[@cuibono6872]

Hear hear, a sane voice in the wilderness.

[@somax1259]

I genuinely believe that when it opens people will stop complaining and will use and enjoy it, you could hear complaints about the Elizabeth line when it was being built, now I haven't seen a single complaint about it, so if you just let HS2 cook, the food gonna be good

[@omarlittle-hales8237]

Salam, Shlomo, Shalom, Peace. Even Indonesia Has Just Completed Their First High Speed Rail.

[@miker3298]

Built by China

[@apangel100]

Take a look at the HS2 KZbin monthly update videos and it will give you a glimpse of the engineering marvel that is going into this. As said in other comments, like the Elizabeth Line - build it and people will use it. The Elizabeth line is now the busiest train like in the U.K. - HS2 could be too

[@manliber6499]

After 7 years of building high-speed rail, Indonesians are now whooshing 85 miles between Jakarta and Bandung for £7.5. The whole project cost $7.2 billions, less than the UK spent on the feasibility studies of HS2. So I doubt if HS2 will ever see the daylight.

[@killernat1234]

Meanwhile the Leeds part has been cancelled and the Manchester part is looking bleak at best, the entire point of this railway was to link the country but Birmingham and London are already very well connected

[@HarryRowlesss]

Manchester got cancelled 😢

[@passatboi]

I didn't know Britain had such lush south-Asian jungles....

[@devamjani8041]

Nothing's wrong with engineers or engineering, as mentioned in the video, it's about the mismanagement done by politicians and all. Also, this has ALWAYS been the case, and especially in UK. Even in the Victorian era, when the London underground was being built, politicians accused the company of trying to break into the hell. They also bigoted the project to their voter base. But still, the London underground was completed and became loved by everyone. Here in this case however, the funds are coming from the government, so the politics is obviously gonna affect it.

[@BIGV710]

the funds are comming from the taxpayers and we who pay taxes as nothing to do with it

[@lance31415]

More detail would be welcome.

[@NothingToDismay]

I'm always so embarrassed by my country. Well... the inconsistency of government. It's pathetic.

[@danwiddon3854]

It was never about speed or time-saving, but a response to climate-forcing car-dependence and capacity-issues across our Victorian transport network. Kudos for getting your video out before the ink is dry on cancellation of the Euston link and the full value of HS2 running to Manchester, let alone Leeds. East Midlands Parkway is Grant Shapps' fist climb-down as a London-based Conservative politicians. Leeds was the original destination of the Eastern leg. "Roo-eee-slip" is West Ryeslip bud! p.s. With the exception of the Brown government in 2009, as Labour's last hurrah drew to a close, the mis-management is by successive Tory government ministers.

[@disposabull]

China builds 350kmph rail at a cost of under $30 million per Km. The UK is building 300kmph rail at a cost estimate of over £1 billion per mile. An utterly absurd cost.

[@jasonhesson1030]

China is a One Party State though with the ability to just take land off people for the common good. The UK has to abide by different rules . . . and the law.

[@MikeWillSee]

1. HS2 is being built with a top speed of 360km/h, not 300. 2. A quick google says that the full length of HS2 is 530km. If we divide the cost (as stated in this video) of £106bn by that length of 530km, that leads to a cost per kilometre of £200m. That's still a lot of money but nowhere near £1bn! It's also important to remember that that cost includes not just a railway through open countryside, but also complex city centre approaches, massive new stations, and significant tunnelling. So if you're going to leave comments criticising the cost of the project, at least do some research first and get your facts right!

[@LoremIpsum1970]

@@jasonhesson1030we've just found someone who believes figures stated by the CCP! there's always one...probably hasn't heard of Chinese tofu-dreg construction.

[@disposabull]

@@MikeWillSee The 530km length would be the total length including the 2 Northern legs that will never get built. The actual distance, as the crow flies from the centre of London to centre of Birmingham is exactly 100 miles, go and check a map. Top speed does not mean average speed or safe operating speed. The actual operating speed will be around 300kmph. You pulled your stats off wikipedia didn't you? The current estimates for completing the two northern legs are in excess of £150 billion. The £106 billion figure is only the phase 1 expenses, which is the London - Birmingham bit, so effectively a billion per mile, as the crow flies.

[@MikeWillSee]

@@disposabull wrong again. The £106bn figure *is and always has been* for the full route. The first phase between London and Birmingham is (last I checked) estimated at between £40bn and £50bn. Furthermore, the actual operating speed is also planned to be higher than 300km/h, with trains regularly running at at least 320 - 330km/h, with the ability to increase to 360km/h if they are running late or need to speed up for some other reason. Most of the line is also futureproofed for 400km/h even if it won't initially operate at those speeds.

[@doddymj20]

Wow, with that HS2 Cost, Indonesia can build HSR in every single Island we have... 😁😁👍👍💪💪🇮🇩🇮🇩🙏🙏🙏

[@johnstuart8511]

The New HS2: Rather finish the line between London and Birmingham. Get some money in. Then continue with the rest of the line. The future is looking bright 🌞. Safety First.

[@ishmael4489]

I feel like videos like this one need to be broadcast on popular TV channels in the UK so that the British public has a better idea about HS2 and the benefits it can bring. With public (and therefore political) support, this project would no doubt be completed in it's entirety, quicker and at a lower cost.

[@iancook2036]

Should have just reopened existing lines that worked and reversed Breechings legacy of destruction to small towns and communities.

[@thorley1969]

Problem with that is much of the old track beds have been built on so that would involve much more disruption to people's properties.

[@iancook2036]

@@thorley1969 Very true but the likes of the Colne to Skipton line still has a lot of the railway built on but without permission in Earby and I'm sure there is many more that have done the same with houses that have stretched there gardens on to a disused railway.

[@EQQI_TOLE]

Conventional trains are better in England, don't follow the example of Indonesia which now has fast trains. only a country with a good economy and stable politics can do it. Indonesia is one step ahead. lol

[@simonnaylor7983]

I am of the opinion it is definitely needed. I'm sure they can find a way to finance this if they really wanted to. It would bring great benefit to the UK on an economic scale of this were completed. Other countries can do this so why can't we?

[@yutakago1736]

I have studied why some high speed rail are a success and why some are a failure. If the country treat High speed rail as public transport company. They will fail. If they treat High speed rail as a real estate company, they will be a success. Why ? Train station can be a giant shopping mall, owner of high speed rail can get huge revenue from renting out the shops in the shopping mall. Train are also a good source of advertisement revenue. Train company can get more revenue from ads and rental than train ticket.

[@gwilsonia1]

FYI Ruislip is pronounced ryslip

[@RWL2012]

rye-slip

[@mattwidermann4806]

😂Rooeeeslip!

[@rppacademic]

Scrapping HS2 means scrapping the future.

[@RobertDaveyD1022]

Can’t believe the whole project is in limbo. No real answers, when the country needs the railway to be completed to Manchester to increase capacity for intermodal freight on the west coast mainline, the original thought process from 2001!

[@patmackenney9786]

Crazy thing is, the way it's been cooked up, it will be slower to get from Birmingham to central London than it is now. So much for high speed.

[@saibotyurico]

Spain makes a new line pretty much every year... should probably seek advice.

[@goelnuma6527]

Should have given it to the Chinese, could have delivered faster and cheaper

[@jetli740]

actually they did invite china which quote at £13-£17B but politic get in the way same as the Hinckley point c nuclear station ... both could have build at massive less than they do now

[@goelnuma6527]

I am from Bangladesh, Chinese companies doing great job in delivering river rail bridges, underground sea road tunnel and eletric grid upgrades @@jetli740

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

Was that a fixed price actual cost quote and did it include for all the services diversions highway alterations, planning requirements, dealing with unforeseen ground conditions, design fees, security, delays to the programme, converting a quote into an offer ?

[@MrTsmith22]

"West Ruislip"

[@ncubesays]

Roo-wee-slip

[@roberthindle5146]

For TIB's benefit, "Rise lip"

[@mythicalmyriad]

Indonesia did it with $7 B lol

[@linesided]

cheap labour.

[@Berxy]

Nobody going to talk about how small delays and being stuck behind trains is the biggest issue. I've got on a train that is scheduled to travel 32 minutes and I take it daily. It was 10 minutes late and somehow we arrived on time as the train ahead was stopped. The next day same situation but we were stuck behind a train that stopped at every stop so it took 52 minutes. I think just adding overtaking rails would be amazing.

[@rppacademic]

In Germany rail-project Stuttgart21 will become a disaster, because there will be only 8 tracks while Hannover the capital of Lower Saxony has already 14 tracks and DB is going to build two more tracks.

[@teodorghiorghita9534]

At this price tag nothing should ever be built, unless you invent teleportation, or at least make a railway to the Moon. Even if you consider the lower value of £106bn, at 530Km of length in total, that still means £200m/Km. THAT IS MENTAL! In the UK everybody loves to use expressions like "world beating" or "state of the art", whereas at the end of the day, HS2 is just a railway. Ok, high-speed, but just a railway. Don't tell me about tunnels, and bridges, and viaducts, these are common things for almost all railways and motorways. If the UK is really "world beating" at something, that is wasting money. It is absolutely undesputed world champion at this. And that is because the vast majority of the money (probably more than 80%, just like in case of many other major projects) is spent on things that have very little to do with the actual construction, i.e. entire armies of consultants, advisors, analysts, lawyers, accountants, project managers (people with laptops in general) paid with £1000/day. It was the same with Elizabeth Line, and the result isn't even that good. Closures for maintenance works just months after opening. Faulty signals out of the blue, and 20 mins spent in Canary Wharf before announcing that the train won't go anywhere any time soon... Absolute disaster!

[@nw5835]

Well done UK, penny wise and pound foolish, you will regret not building this in it's entirety and history will prove this.

[@simonbaxter8001]

HS2 Ltd and the government need to be held accountable for being over ambitious, over budget and late. If this was a private business project, serious questions and answers would have been asked way before it even got to this stage. Where has the money gone? Who signed it off? Why are HS2 Ltd not being given penalties? Why is the CEO of HS2 Ltd sill taking over a £million a year salary/dividends from HS2 Ltd? Who else is milking money out of this project just because it can be viewed as a bottomless handout from the British taxpayer? No government backed/run project in the UK has ever been delivered on budget/on time. Most get cancelled ... the British aircraft industry is testament to that!

[@Andrewjg_89]

HS2 is a controversial high speed rail link that would provide good connections with the North of England and to make journeys lot more easier and quicker. But it’s still costing a lot of money and most people want it scrapped but others don’t want it scrapped.

[@MarkPitsmoorOwl]

It was also going to Englands 4th largest city of Sheffield but now they have pulled that

[@expojam1473]

Well uh, looks like it’s cancelled since Rishi made his announcement earlier 😭

[@corrigenda70]

But you have missed the point!! HS2 is only and wholly about capacity. It uses higher speed technology simply because that is current technology world wide and which is in use in over 40 nations with which the UK needs to compete. In the UK we have a disastrous relic in rail engineering such that much line maintenance currently requires London stations to be closed. We have an urgent need to expand all UK port facilities and this is now nearly complete with (for example) stations like Southampton and much E-W freight being expanded to accommodate greater freight capacity. If that is to operate sensibly and be expandable in the future there is a need to further separate freight and passenger traffic. THAT is the purpose behind HS2". That is the reason a start was made in the South. That is why Manchester and the North of the UK were considered less essential at the outset. To abandon HS2 is to risk beggaring the UK economy - especially in the North. Those who advocate abandonment are really voting to put a limit on the UK economy, to perpetuate the North South divide and worse, by the absence of any alternative for the North, to making Scottish businesses increasingly unviable. Really good thinking that.

[@silverfox2358]

This project is being built I've driven past it everyday on the M6 M42 M40 and other roads aroad lichfield

[@Music5362]

Ruislip is pronounced Ry-Slip like High Slip, but with an R. Not Rooo slip

[@tonosan4696]

Mega infrastructure project may require mega budget. Estimation gap at starting is, to be blamed but project should be completed. All UK government have to have is GUT. WILL TO GET THE THINGS DONE.

[@leejohnson3209]

What happened to the idea of people working locally to where they live? I've long thought that building more capacity to a main employment hub such as London as HS2 is designed to do is outdated and looking at the problem from completely the wrong angle. People need more local jobs and better local connections. It's better for the environment, better for peoples work life balance and better for the UK economy. The British people were sold another dud. One that was never a solution to anything, but just another cash cow vanity project. Thirteen years of Tory 'austerity' has funneled taxes into rich pockets. The missed opportunities to build vibrant communities during historically low inflation really depresses me.

[@carolinecleaveley]

will be aconvenional railway from paddington to curson street with junction at saltley

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Do you actually know what you are talking about or live in Birmingham like I do, the HS2 line is an upgrade of the WCML route from Birmingham New Street and as the route runs fro Birmingham Curzon Street towards Birmingham Airport it runs through SALTLEY actually passing the site of the old Saltley Loco Depot and as London Paddington is no where near the run of the route and is full to capacity with First GWR trains that is out of the question and these trains will not for fill the speed potential on a conventional line

[@carolinecleaveley]

nio but speculating on what has happened before with HS1 which opened initially to waterloo and then later to St Pancras. with the esculating costs not suprised to see this happen and be finished off later in the century.

[@sutterpark]

Big Crying Big Babys NEEDS to Grow Up! Those people couldn't do their job if their own life is in steak! They cry wofe on bunch of BS!

[@conistonoldman]

Their life is in steak! And they’re crying wofe! No wonder this country is going to the doogs!

[@Domdeone1]

When Britain built the railway infrastructure-correct me if l am wrong but was it not procured by private ventures at home & abroad when we had a manufactoring & an Empire to invest in? Then we short-sightedly cut our bridges dismantling the railway infrastructure, like the Great Central Railway. We had a high speed train! Now we have to rely on public money which l don't think is accountable. There is more than the tunnels being screwed here

[@ielee1765]

Most UK high profile project is a scandal, most of the tax payer money will had to be spend in consultations after consultations before it is complete or not.

[@jacklav1]

I don’t share your love of megaprojects. By the time you have gained expertise and created a construction and supply chain, you’ve finished the project. HS2 should have been done in phases, with gate and cost reviews, maybe from the north going southwards.

[@doddymj20]

Meanwhile in Indonesia......... 😁😁👍👍💪💪🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩

[@alpioozen]

Never heard anyone pronounce Ruislip that way before. 😮

[@everTriumph]

Base a project around London and the budgetary pit becomes infinite. It should have headed toward the 'Tunnel'. Instead it was aimed to a Euston dead end. It should also have started in 'The North' where its benefits could have been realised quickly. Instead the country ends up with a massive building site which can not even be used as a cycle path, and will cost billions to make safe before it can be abandoned.

[@user-ln8hp4vt5z]

We call this Incompetence with No Accountability. How Pathetic.

[@srspower]

The problem was entirely political. If they had planned it properly from the start it would be done by now. Most of the cost is nimbyism, forcing them to dig tunnels when a normal rail line would have worked fine.

[@jamesedwards7241]

It is not a battle at all.HS2 was designed from the outset to be a feast in exactly the same manner as the WCML upgrade was. Elastic contracts where overcharging is the norm are responsible for this and Tory MPs were fully aware of what they were doing and what it would mean. The plans for the project were also designed to accommodate this politically. The irony is none of this would have been possible if the lessons of the WCML and HS1 had been learned and adhered to but by the time HS2 was launched Tory policies had ripped the heart out of the Uk heavy manufacturing industry leaving it almost incapable of providing what was required and opening the doors to predatory foreign companies knowing they were the only choices left to come in and feast on taxpayer money again.

[@NR23derek]

Ruislip = Rus-lip. English pronunciation, innit.

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Give it a rest, get fed up with this rubbish about how to pronounce Birmingham, just live with it mate, init

[@RWL2012]

rye-slip

[@casey7057]

Congratulations to Nigel Farage for Brexit. Job well done. There's no looking back!

[@johnchristmas7522]

$90 BILLION? WHERE DID THOSE FIGURES COME FROM? ACTUAL COST SO FAR (100 MILES) $243BILLION IN 10 YEARS AND THEY WANT ANOTHER 15 YEARS TO COMPLETE! CHINA BUILT 25,000 MILES OF HIGH SPEED RAIL OVER 22YEARS AT A COST OF £21 MILLION PER KILOMETER. INCLUDING BRIDGES, VIADUCTS AND TUNNELS.

[@stevencutts6314]

Ok so one issue here is that the path of the train was changed to avoid annoying the public. This is true and it’s true also that the original plan was for a six mile tunnel under the chilterns which became a ten mile tunnel as part of a plan to placate the public. Many of these people vote conservative and the critics have tried to link the cost increase to a general contempt for people who vote conservative. But if these people vote plaid or Labour they’d still be entitled to ask for reduced environmental impact esp for a project the twill work for a hundred years. Allowing for inflation the original budget would have been fifty billion and it bloated to one hundred but again for a projct with this scale and ambition this is by no means unpredictabe.

[@eldios831]

One thing is for sure 100 billion is too much even for 1000km....Get the chinese to build it for 25billion...but i can bet the politicians and elites are rubbing there hands over their change to the cayman islands

[@ShrunkedDude]

If the railways weren't privatised then it would be much easier like the rest of Europe and Asia.

[@usmansheikh-z7y]

lol seeing these videos after the cancellation of the line is just embarrassing 😂😂

[@johnburns4017]

The problem wit HS2 is that the alignment was utterly wrong. High Speed UK got it right. Have an expanded East Coast Main Line as the spine. Then it can peel into the Channel tunnel or London. Add a Liverpool to Hull line that branches into the spine.

[@threesixnine369six]

Ideally both coasts deserve equal treatment but if we try to cover as many of the largest population centres as possible on one main line I think a snakier main line would be it. A bit of an inverted S. Glasgow Edinburgh Newcastle Leeds Manchester (obvious branch to Liverpool) Birmingham London

[@johnburns4017]

@@threesixnine369six Your S can be directly thru Liverpool, then thru North Wales or Chester then onto B'ham. Yes, North Wales that invisible part of the UK.

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Why is the HS2 alignment utterly wrong considering from the outset it has been a Birmingham based project.

[@johnburns4017]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 Birmingham based? please!

[@threesixnine369six]

@@johnburns4017 I would very much prefer for it to somehow go or loop directly through Liverpool, but I think even my hypothetical branch is still better than the real life situation lol

[@Jake_5693]

It should have been started years ago when borrowing money was basically free due to stupidly low interest rates. Now it’s in a state of limbo, all the land has been purchased and it’s being chipped away at. No doubt years down the line it’ll be started again and that’ll cost even more money. The constant stopping and starting is costing billions. It’s also extremely environmentally friendly with miles and miles of tunnels. It should arguably be built in full all the way up to Edinburgh/Glasgow with a branch stretching into Cardiff in Wales and another branch going down to Cornwall/Devon. That with HS3/NPR would have been revolutionary for public transport in this country. But, no one in this country has any vision. It’s all talk, bluster, arguing, cancellations. From the country that invaded the railway we have this….

[@stvdmc2011]

Yet people bitch about Indonesia $7 billion price tag.

[@CurvedGD]

5:50 makes me want to die

[@turboguy99]

Who allowed an American to comment on british politics to then pronounce Ruislip as ruis lip🤣🤣

[@_JohnDoe]

It's not an American commenting on British politics, it's speech synthesis. The channel's country is stated as United Arab Emirates.

[@RWL2012]

no way is the voiceover synthesized or AI. it's a real man speaking. and it's rye-slip.

[@_JohnDoe]

@@RWL2012, obviously it is rye-slip. Why do you not think it is speech synthesis, though? There are even UK channels who use it, such as @UrbanStories.

[@billybunter5575]

if they have run out of money well at least finnish the rail connections to the nearset point open a station there and in the near future carry on with extending it. makes scence.

[@lesfawcett5245]

Thanks for your interesting view of HS2. There's one comment I must challenge: you said "There's nothing wrong with HS2 but.......". Please understand that HS2 could never have been successful because it was ill-conceived from the start. The project brief was itself deeply flawed. It asked the designers to plan a railway from London to Birmingham, and to think about where to go next. That isn't the way to design anything; you have to start with your overall plan then fill in the details. If we really need a new railway (that seemed inevitable in the noughties, but Work from Home has delayed the growth of passengers numbers by at least a decade) then it should have served much more of the British population than HS2 possibly could. It's a tragedy that we have wasted several years and multi £bn before realising that we have got it wrong. There is an alternative and I'll be pleased to elucidate if anyone wants me to.

[@qasimmir7117]

What alternative plan?

[@sanatanihindu383]

seriously ? 140billion $ for 500km HSR, indian bullet train project is almost same as british HS2 but it cost only 16billion $ also we are going to use japanese shinkansen bullet train which is more advanced then british HS2,

[@Brass-and-Bullets]

From someone that works on hs2, far too many people being paid to do nothing. Too much time is wasted on waiting for permits and other nonsense. Quite common for plant operators to be sitting for a month not doing anything whilst being paid.

[@neilduran3586]

HS2 should never have been started. All that was needed was improvements in track and additional capacity at key points between London and Manchester. Double deck train and improvements in bridge height were also needed. The cost would of been better managed and too many people have made a nice living out of incompetence.

[@qasimmir7117]

Those improvements can only go so far.

[@JulianShagworthy]

If they don't complete it in full, it will be up there with the biggest wastes of money this country has ever committed. The WCML between London and Birmingham doesn't need more capacity, so all it'll achieve is about 15 minutes off the current time. The whole point was London to the NORTH.

[@CreatorPolar]

The WCML is one of the busiest mainlines in the world, it definitely needs relief and HS2 will bring that. That was the entire point of the project, to relieve stress off the WCML and speed up the journeys while we’re at it

[@johnburns4017]

The point of HS2 was provincial cities to have _direct_ services to continental cities. Once the continental link was cut, its raison d'etre dissolved.

[@keithwesley2471]

HS2 is 40-50 years too late. We can travel around, albeit virtually, at the speed of light using the internet not just for business orders but conferences and meetings.

[@LoremIpsum1970]

The embarrassment to the UK of not completing HS2 outweighs the financial cost. We're looking at a 1-3T GBP cost to get to Net Zero by 2050 (for a little over 1% global CO2e)...but that's ok... Why wasn't it built from either end simultaneously like the French do? The millions spent in design and planning are chicken feed compared to the construction costs. I'm not seeing any reported indication of any value engineering and standardisation going on... HS1, a lot shorter, was a success although it was partly designed and underwritten by Bechtel...like a lot of the UK rail infrastructure that was privately built for profit...and I haven't even mentioned CrossRail.

[@AndrewLumsden]

Ruislip: pronounced, Rye-slip. The usual germanic rule of where there are 2 vowels together, the first is silent, applies. Birmingham: pronounced Birming-um. There is no emphasis on the ham. 🙄😖

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

what is there to be political about..... this is a no brainer and should be built to its best design because it will go a long way to unlocking economic potential in England and may be the catylist for a tunnel to Ireland. If you ask me it goes too far west (if this is there plan) and the later phases should have a direct northern route to cut time to Scotland even further.

[@chairmakerPete]

Surely to God it's possible to purchase an existing design from one of the many countries with high speed rail? Why are we re-inventing the wheel? The rail industry is a catastrophe.

[@jb-r9717]

160 it's just say,cause when its end I'm sure it's cost will be around 200, like the Elizabeth line

[@johnlim1920]

Even the Indonesian with its current Jakarta - Bandung HSRb@350km/hr is doing better than England 😂

[@paulroberts7561]

Needs to be scrapped now. It is not needed, it will be years late, grossly over budget. Far to expensive to travel on. It will not help with ' levelling up'. Just the opposite, it will mean more London commuters moving futher outside to live. The money saved by scrapping it could be used to inprove cross country rail services. HS2 was just a Johnson vanity project.

[@PaddingtonBear4]

You did not mention that the HS2 project was overly ambitious and unreasonable to start with, and this is the main reason why all phases except Phase 1 (London-Birmingham) were cancelled. They planned too many high-speed branches, and did not properly address the local needs in the north of England, and in Scotland. The following map-plan should self-explain the reasons for this failure: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_2#/media/File:HS2_vector_map.jpg It was more logical to plan a complementary Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds line to run at near high-speed to be fully designed now, but constructed at a different date. Had they done so, Phase 1 could have gone all the way to Manchester Interchange, and be finished by 2030. And then a future Phase 2 from Manchester Interchange to Carlisle would have been feasible in the future. But unfortunately, the plan was too London-centric, too branched out, and therefore it failed. The same lack of simplicity and straightforwardness has plagued HS2 in London, too, which led to immense cost overruns.

[@qasimmir7117]

Ambitious? Spain and China built theirs overnight and we’re pissing our pants over one railway.🤦🏻

[@PaddingtonBear4]

@@qasimmir7117Let me summarize again the problems with the original HS2 plan: too London-centric, too branched out, insufficiently simple. Hence it won't be build as complicated as the original plan. But you will have HS trains to Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. Next you should build HS3 between Liverpool and Leeds. These lines have perfect economic sense. And they would modify people's travel patterns. Further lines might make sense after you have analysed the former's effects, so wait at least until HS2 and HS3 are finished. Spain built its network over a 30 years period, they did not have to built through a city like London, and they still do not have a line to Lisbon. In fact, only a few years ago they managed to connect to France. Moreover, Spain's old network had a different gauge (the new HS network has standard gauge), so they cannot run regular trains on the two networks, something you very often do and will be doing in Britain. Therefore, Spain had to build this crazy many stations: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Spain#/media/File:Spain_High_Speed_Rail.svg to reach as much population as possible with the new network. China's old rail network was in such bad shape that they simply had to build a completely new one. Your old network, by contrast, has all the security and amenities of the new lines, except speed. You already have trains running a decent time in comfortable conditions. Moreover, China had to spend billions to avoid a recession in 2008-2012. That money would have been spent anyway, and would have been essentially wasted w/o the HS network project. Last, but not least, the current new HS lines in China are in need of more maintenance work than the lines built in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. Some of the lines they are building have zero economic sense: not only the original investment has to be totally written off, but income from current operations does not even cover the costs of maintenance. BTW, have you seen inside the Chinese HS train stations and trainsets? Note the 2+3 and even 3+3 seat configurations: www.alamy.com/stock-photo/china-high-speed-train-interior.html?sortBy=relevant

[@cchui01]

Over budget and too big to abandon. This sounds familar in the US. It took over 30 years to build a new subway branch with only about 3 stops.

[@immortallvulture]

This project has shown everything wrong with how the uk builds infrastructure, from the staggering incompetence and beuracracy in the dft, the greed and inefficiency of the contractors, meddling and lobbying by mp’s and the incredibly restrictive net zero targets for the build caused costs to just explode. Nobody has come out of this debacle looking good and as ever it’s the people of the north who suffer with the northern legs of hs2 axed to try and save money.

[@manliber6499]

If only UK would use existing technology, such as the Spanish high speed rail Talgo, then UK might have a HS2 at the end of the day. Now, telling everyone that UK will have the latest HS technology, almost like a pie in the sky. UK might have no HS2 at the end of the century.

[@MICHALMALACHOVSKY]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW VIDEOOO

[@martincday007]

If the reason things don't get built is cost, then delaying something, will never make it cheaper. It is a shame that the general public do not get behind large scale infrastructure, until they have been born kicking and screaming. Cross rail, over budget and late, but once completed the pain is soon forgotten as 3.5-4 million people a week benefit from its construction; the super sewer a £billion over budget but desperately needed to divert millions of tonnes of raw sewage from the Thames. The M25 that now carries 15 percent of the UK's motorway traffic. It is always an easy decision not to do something, and while the benefit of some infrastructure projects is questionable, most once built, few become white elephants. What would be good is if the UK became world leaders in drone mass transportation, eliminating the need for expensive intercity infrastructure. A fleet of drones each carrying 40+ people, even if they were to follow the existing rail track might be a more modern and cost effective solution alternative to high speed rail. No doubt another country though will take up the challenge and lead the way.

[@monkeysausageclub]

Yeah don't be fooled. All this does is allow those that work in London to live a little further out where house prices aren't so inflated. It does not benefit the rest of the country.

[@haydonditchburn2194]

So much for the Capitalistic environment that we strive to live in. In the meantime, China has developed and is using thousands of miles of HSR.

[@29brendus]

Stop the scaremongering, the project will be completed. Nothing is being cancelled, only modified as in all big projects.

[@jetli740]

yes only modified and reduce to a 1/4 off the original project🤣🤣

[@PlasmodiumV]

Why a TBM was given Indian name 'Sushila' ? Is the area of construction dominated by Indian immigrants ?