What Went Wrong with the HS2 Railway Project?

[@michaelwilliams3232]

Indicative of all that is frustrating about UK major projects, is the revelation that the proposed second Thames Crossing tunnel has so far cost almost a billion pounds, at planning and consultation stage alone. On October 4th the government deferred a decision on whether to go ahead, adding more cost. HS2 phase 2a to Crewe might go ahead under propsals put forward by the Mayor of Manchester, supported by a recent report to government that warned of the dire position the west coast route faced, if no alternative was built. Capacity on the route is seriously curtailed by bottlenecks, in this case the Trent Valley.

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

The government probably deferred the decision on the Lower Thames Crossing as there are 2,000 planning documents to read through which they should do to assess the valuefor money viability of the project. . Of course they won't really do that but delaying the decision until next spring should pull the wool over the public's eyes to make an impression. Just in time for the local May elections.

[@daviano_R.T.]

Time is money, that's include a big project like this, the longer you let some project run, the more expensive it get. Example, the new extension in Hokuriku Shinkansen to tsuruga only take around 5 years to build, Indonesia high speed train also only take 5, most HST project that have minimum cost overrun often take no longer than 5 years to finish, project must anticipate cost overrun but that doesn't meant you let the cost to overruns.

[@designzip5890]

Very true

[@ClassifiedChris]

What went wrong? It came 40 years too late, the government listened to every single nimby possible, and consultants milked the whole thing for all it's worth. Every infrastructure project in the UK is massively over budget due to construction industry pisstakers, able to charge whatever they want, never deliver and repeat.

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

Couldn't be anything to do with a cost budget that was never enough then ?

[@alanrobertson9790]

Over 30 miles of tunnels, not only expensive but spoils the train journey. I hope it eventually gets built even if it takes many decades. However I hope any future legs omit non-essential tunnels.

[@timor64]

It's all as usual.After the Channel Tunnel opened, for years you noticed how slow the train became once it hit the UK. The whole thing is (like most UK infrastructure) a fiasco.

[@michaelwilliams3232]

Not true. Its design speed of 300km/h is maintained throughout, except for the tunnel section where speed is reduced to 160km/h.

[@timor64]

@@michaelwilliams3232 That's true now that HS1 is completed and the trains end at St Pancras. I can assure you that when it opened and for years afterwards, trains were not running at 300km/h anywhere along the line on their way to Waterloo

[@michaelwilliams3232]

@@timor64 From Fawkham Junction they joined the standard route into Waterloo. Some 16 years ago.

[@johnveerkamp1501]

WHAT WENT NOT WRONG IN THE UK , [ EVERYTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

[@designzip5890]

😂

[@jon99t]

no it was off money 130 billion

[@TheTwistedStone]

Absolutely nothing went wrong ! ..... for those on the receiving end of lucrative contracts !!

[@designzip5890]

😂

[@SoomNou]

A propaganda from Auto and oil industry, if whole projected was completed those industries would have been bankrupted

[@owenjones506]

What went wrong was the Tories .

[@alanrobertson9790]

Aha so now Labour are in it will get built far more cheaply. (Probably not).

[@jayjay9610]

Corruption, stupid government's and stupid annoying people objecting to the project, if the entire line was above ground, it would have been significantly cheaper