Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "The B1M" channel.

  1. Forty years ago about one third of Liverpool's metro was cancelled by Thatcher. The city has amongst the oldest and historic railway infrastructure in the world. There is around 4 to 5 miles of tunnel and miles and miles of trackbed awaiting rails and trains. Nothing has been done. The city has suffered ever since. The people of Liverpool can empathise with the people in eastern NYC.
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  2.  @JJ-si4qh  Do you see Reds under the bed every night?
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  3. HS2 was three phases, 1, 2a and 2b. ▪ phase 1 high-speed track is London to Birmingham with a link at Handsacre north of Birmingham onto the existing West Coast Main Line taking trains to the North West of England and West Scotland. ▪ phase 2a is Handsacre to a junction at Crewe. ▪ phase 2b is Crewe to Manchester on the west coast & Birmingham to Leeds on the east coast. phases 2a and 2b have been cancelled for good.
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  4. It usually takes an outsider to highlight your own values.
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  5.  @russellgxy2905  London is nowhere as bad as NYC.
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  6.  @jamesclint2338  It was coercion by stealth that public transport in the USA disappeared for that awful car culture that emerged, making US cities some of the most unappealing you can get. GM, Firestone, Ford, etc, bought up public transport then dismantled it. GM bought the LA tram system (seen in the Keystone Cops films) then got rid of it to promote cars. The corporations rule the USA, not the people.
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  7. I recall working with a guy who worked on SF skyscrapers, in the design side. He said, this was a long time ago, that the footings had to be 49 foot deep. Not 48 or 50, 49. This meant the building would sway in any earthquake. I assume that is why the footing never went right down to the bedrock.
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  8. The section with the most advanced construction is the London to Aylesbury section. Apart from the one of the short Long Itchington Wood tunnels, the rest is enabling works. The solution to this poorly thought out railway is... ▪HS2 can be cut at Aylesbury with the rest dropped. ▪The HS2 track can run onto the Chiltern Line to Birmingham at Aylesbury, which can be be upgraded to a fast line. ▪A station can be built at Aylesbury. ▪Then it is a fast West Midlands line, which is more direct than the proposed HS2. ▪It will have similar journey times to Birmingham to HS2. ▪Also fast commuting to London through the Aylesbury corridor. ▪Then the WCML has no West Midlands trains on it, so no capacity problem on the WCML. The solution is staring us in the face. A win, win all around.
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  9.  @techduck123  Reagan and Thatcher. Now we have Don Trump and Boris Trump.
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  10. Removing bottlenecks, using faster trains and having two dedicated fast tracks on the WCML near equals HS2. For a fraction of the cost. It is now a super expensive WCML relief line.
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  11.  @skurinski  They said that in London. But they all but banned cars from the city centres with Low Emissions and Congestion zones. So you use the comprehensive metro instead.
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  12. ▪The alignments are Victorian, not the rail infrastructure. The Victorians had the sense to run lines from places people wanted to go to. ▪The is NO capacity problem in the UK that the current network, or opening closed lines, cannot solve. ▪The current network can be much faster, near HS2 times, if bottlenecks are removed and faster trains used. ▪The link to the continent for provincial cities was dropped. ▪The link to the country's leading airport, Heathrow, was dropped. ▪HS2 is SLOW. it is exactly 100 miles from Euston in London to Curzon St in Birmingham, yet this 100 miles is covered at 113mph. On a 250mph railway. The many green tunnels on the line means it will never be fast. ▪It is only 2-track from Birmingham to London, the most used section. This precludes cities like Chester using HS2. Chester currently has an inter-city service like all other cities. ▪HS2 trains running onto existing tracks run slower as they do not tilt. So they run fast on HS2 then very slow on existing classic rail. ▪HS2 serves only three cities directly. ▪London to Edinburgh on the East Coast Main Line currently is only 12 minutes slower than the proposed HS2. The ECML is scheduled for upgrading, meaning the train journey time will be about equal to HS2.
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  13.  @jamesclint2338  Put congestion and emission zones in place, then the public transport will be used.
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  14. It is a matter of changing the planning and zoning laws to reduce car dependency. Also establish emissions and congestion zones like in London. Go into the centre with a car, you pay.
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  15.  @jamesclint2338  Your knowledge of economics is about zero, compounded by strange logic.
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  16. You make larf. 🤣🤣😅😅😂
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  17. Continental link dropped. Now for the rest of this unneeded nonsense.
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  18.  @boots7859  He was a highly intelligent engineer, not a dope with an altitude problem.
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  19. HS2 is an economic sluice into London.
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  20. Local and regional rail, yes.
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  21. The Germans did not run high speed track into cities. They used it as a backbone with trains running into the cites on existing track, which makes more sense.
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  22. Nothing competes with the London-Oxford-Cambridge power triangle. If there is competition, it gets snuffed out.
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  23.  @mightyred1967  The last thing we need is a another London commuter line. It will be an economic sluice into London.
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  24. This is a waste of money. Fast trains already go between the HS2 destinations. They just need upgrading.
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  25. Suspension bridges look like , well, er, er, suspension bridges.
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  26. We need local and regional rail, urgently. Not a third line to Birmingham.
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  27. Russia in the past turned off the gas to Ukraine. Not a good bet to buy your gas from. The UK gets 3% of its gas from Russia. The UK has a the large untapped Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, which will make the country less dependent of imported gas. I can be online by the end of the year. It could have been online a year ago. Boris Trump was against tapping it. But his party is funded by Russians.
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  28.  @nataliakorshunova5909  Because there has been no problems does not mean there will not be problems. Gazprom do have form. Russia is a bully militaristic nation. Putting essential energy in their hands is not wise.
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  29.  @gteixeira  The nearer the city centre the more expensive.
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  30.  @gteixeira  With a few exceptions, homes are more expensive the nearer to the centre you are.
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  31.  @jonathanwetherell3609  To sell it off at a pittance of course.
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  32.  @jonathanwetherell3609  Correct! HS2 trains should not have windows. Dread the thought that they may see things north of Watford.
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  33.  @etbadaboum  The UK for 30 years went with the car culture, with out of town shopping malls, etc. A new town, Milton Keynes was designed completely around the car - but did incorporate cycle routes. It is still going on. But it is receding as environmental pressures take hold. Also people like high density and the vibrancy it brings. Social interaction.
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  34.  @jamesclint2338  wrote: "So by coercion. Funny. All these public transportation activists " LOL! It must be anti-American, a Commie plot.
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  35.  @jamesclint2338  That must be a poor attempt at wit.
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  36. There are lot of non-UK vids.
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  37.  @darienmiller1032  London's underground dates from 1863. The second was Liverpool in 1886. NYC is 1904. 18 years after Liverpool and 41 years after London. NYC had the experience, and mistakes of London, Liverpool, etc, top fall back on.
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  38. Detroit being a car city, shunned any rail transport. They suffered. Same with Birmingham in England.
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  39. Phase 1 is the third fast line from London to Birmingham. Chiltern Railways said if the Chiltern Line is electrified it will be 7 minutes slower than HS2.
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  40. No need for HS2 north of Crewe. Currently, the HS2 plan links to the WCML south of Crewe, as the Golborne Link has been dropped. HS2 then running north only serves Manchester. For a few miles from Crewe, north to Minshull Vernon HS2 parallels the WCML, being six tracks wide in total. Hendy, head of Network Rail, wants the WCML upgraded from Crewe to Preston. From Crewe to Weaver Junction where trains split to Liverpool and Scotland, the 2-track WCML there could be made into 4-track with two tracks being for HS2 classic compatible trains to Liverpool and Scotland – but having these tracks still on the WCML, not HS2. The Crewe North HS2 to WCML junction could remain, allowing Liverpool and Lancaster trains to access Crewe station as already planned under the Crewe Hub scheme. Non-stop trains would be at full HS2 linespeed of 360kph (223 mph) on the new WCML tracks dedicated to HS2 classic compatible services, with no existing restriction to such speeds. This way, Liverpool and Scotland get ‘fast’ services with Runcorn retaining its London service. Journey times would be similar to HS2 times. All just by making 16 miles of new WCML track 223mph. Manchester already has a dedicated line to Crewe. Upgrade this and near equal HS2 times are achieved. HS2 phase 2b will cost £32 billion and rising. Most of that is for the western leg which only runs to Manchester. This is an obscene amount of money serving only one provincial city. Upgrading the WCML north of Crewe, and the Liverpool WCML spur and Manchester WCML spur, can be done for a fraction of the cost of HS2 without needlessly tearing up countryside
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  41. Local & regional rail is where the NEED is, not in fast trains duplicating existing fast trains.
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  42.  @harry-matakios1344  Gaz is right.
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  43. The existing mainlines, with upgrading can do the same as HS2. It now, for a horrendous amount of money, serves directly only three cities. Train technology has overtaken HS2. It is 50 year old French technology. The UK is desperately short of water reservoirs, yet billions are spent on an unneeded railway. Third world mentality.
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  44.  @euan.4551  Does it carry water?
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  45.  @euan.4551  Money should be spent on vital water, not white elephants.
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  46. As soon as the Continental link was dropped, it raison d etre dissolved. Then it should have been canned.
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  47. Design is not much at all. Forgettable. The only thing that can make it stand out is the colouring. Have different colours on the various faces of the buildings.
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  48.  @euan.4551  For what?
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  49.  @euan.4551  UK does not have a capacity problem. Stop making things up.
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  50.  @euan.4551  I do not see people left on platforms all over the country because train are so full. The UK does not have a capacity problem.
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