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

  1.  @alexrenn2479  Pleasure. BTW, I live in London.
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  2. Yes all the new towers are apartments mainly for rent. They are not part of commercial growth like offices. They are just playing catch up in accommodation.
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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. The politicians chose it for differing reasons. Public support is low. The Crewe to Manchester leg had no Manchester MPs vote for in Parliament. People in Manchester want the local rail updated.
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  5. The UK government is spending a fortune on an unneeded railway when it should have been spending the money on water reservoirs. The only use for HS2 is to use it for continuous freight water tanker trains taking water to drought areas.
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  6. Currently, the fastest London Edinburgh time on the ECML is 12 minutes slower than proposed HS2 times. Upgrade the ECML with faster trains, HS2 times will be equalled.
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  7.  @JN.0_o  Upgrade the ECML with two dedicated fast tracks, bottlenecks removed and faster trains, then no problems. The point is that the ECML approaches HS2 times in its current state. Matters can only get better, for a fraction of the cost of HS2.
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  8.  @JN.0_o  The line is mainly 4-track from London to Stoke Tunnel, south of Grantham. 2-track sections: 1) one between Digswell Jction and Woolmer Green Junction, where the line passes over the Digswell Viaduct; 2) Welwyn North station and the two Welwyn tunnels; 3) between Fletton Junction south of Peterborough and Holme Junction, south of Holme Fen. Between Holme Junction and Huntingdon is mostly 3-track. North of Grantham the line is 2-track except for 4-track sections at Retford, near Doncaster, between Colton Junction south of York, Thirsk and Northallerton, and Newcastle. Not much to do, in terms of saving billions on HS2. In November 2021 the DfT announced a major upgrade of the ECML. It includes major track improvements and digital signalling, leading to higher speeds, reduced journey times and increases in seat capacity. The power supply will also be upgraded to allow longer and more frequent trains. Maximum speeds will be increased to 140mph on some sections. If it was all 4-track to Newcastle with two dedicated fast tracks, trains that can reach 160mph the ECML may improve on HS2s time to Edinburgh and Newcastle.
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  9.  @gavinathling  It works like this. The single live in apartments near the centre, then have a family moving to the outers, then move back into apartments when older, then into care homes.
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  10.  @gteixeira  I think it is brilliant.
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  11.  @gteixeira  Look at the price of a one bedroomed apartment in Central London, NYC or Tokyo.
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  12. The so-called Luddites (those with sense) have had HS2 stripped down: 1) Continental link dropped. 2) Heathrow link dropped. 3) Eastern leg dropped. 4) Link to WCML at Wigan. 5) Money not forthcoming for Manchester airport station. Now for the rest of this unneeded nonsense.
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  13. Yes, they blew on the ugly central shopping mall, which had to be replaced.
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  14. No. It reaches Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Wigan, Preston and Glasgow using a mix of conventional tracks and high-speed track. The journey times will be much slower.
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  15.  @jetli740  As soon as London got what it wanted, a 3rd runway using a runway in Birmingham, 38 mins from London, it was cut.
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  16. A new rail line from Europe to China. Korea, etc, with multi tracks, is the better way, and just as fast. Long container trains can run right into Germany, Rotterdam, etc.
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  17. Manchester got a leg up by central government at the expense of Liverpool.
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  18.  @sebwilkins  None of the Liverpool Overhead was reused. There is a remaining half mile tunnel and underground station still intact. That's it.
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  19. Capacity? Longer trains on the existing mainlines solve that.
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  20.  @TheB1M  Your Cockney accent keep surfacing.
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  21. For the phase 2b Crewe to Manchester, not one Manchester MP voted for it in parliament.
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  22. Most work is on the London-Aylesbury section. The rest in enabling works.
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  23.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Only real progress is London-Aylesbury. Hopefully it will be cut at Aylesbury running onto an upgraded Chiltern Line.
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  24.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Again: Only real progress is London-Aylesbury. Hopefully it will be cut at Aylesbury running onto an upgraded Chiltern Line.
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  25.  @peterwilliamallen1063  The Chiltern can be upgraded to as fast as it can be. Stop at Aylesbury to appease the locals. Make it a fast West Mids line, which will five similar times to HS2, also fast with commuting to London thru the Aylesbury corridor. Then WCML has no West Mids trains so no capacity problem on the WCML. The solution is staring us in the face.
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  26.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Read and understand what I wrote.
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  27.  @peterwilliamallen1063  What else did the screaming voices tell you today?
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  28.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Drop HS2 and repurpose the alignments in advanced construction. HS2 London-Aylesbury can run onto an upgraded Chiltern Line giving similar time to HS2 as the Chiltern is a more direct route. Curzon St can be used as Chiltern tracks are very near. Taking the Birmingham and West Mids train off the WCML releases capacity from Birmingham to London.
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  29. HS2 phase 1 will be the third London to Birmingham line. Chiltern said that electrifying the Chiltern Line will be 7 minutes slower than the HS2 times. None of this makes sense.
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  30. Have you been to London?
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  31.  @muhammedAbass6519  You will see that Manchester is completely different to London. To the point comparing them is silly. Manchester's centre reminds me of Croydon.
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  32. Has B1M covered the Mersey barrage proposal at Liverpool yet?
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  33. The Chiltern is still, slow and dirty diesel.
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  34.  @jonathanwetherell3609  Of course, privatization has done wonders for the railways. All those parasitic economic rent seekers knew local & regional rail did not need upgrading or expanding at all.
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  35.  @jonathanwetherell3609  Why have rail north of Watford? No need for it.
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  36.  @jonathanwetherell3609  The benefits are accumulating.
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  37. Getting off a train, then out of the station, then on a bus, then doing the reverse, is not good interconnecting.
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  38. Factoid: John Brodie designed and built the road boulevards in the south and east of the city of Liverpool. He was then commissioned to do the same for New Deli. Brodie also invented the goalnet used in Association football. First to use the goalnet was Everton FC of Liverpool.
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  39. Are you kidding?
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  40.  @jamesclint2338  Complete nonsense! If the tram system was not viable then why did GM buy it up? They could have left it to crumble away. In fact the system was viable in that it aided in creating economic growth which does not show up on the 1700s style of balance sheets. But this sort of stuff will now be over your head.
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  41. Yes, an architectural desert.
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  42.  @peterfeltham5612  Complete nonsense.
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  43. HS2 had few benefits. Hence the mass protests.
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  44. London to Birmingham is still being built. Only because construction was so advanced.
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  45.  @weitzhandler  HS2 serves: London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan, Preston and Glasgow, on a mix of high speed and conventional track.
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  46.  @weitzhandler  HS2 runs onto the WCML at Handsacre north of Birmingham.
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  47. HS2 originally was supposed to: ▪Connect provincial cities to the continent. ▪Connect all to the country's prime airport, Heathrow. These links were dropped. The raison de etre dissolved. HS2 should have been cancelled immediately. HS2 does no more than upgrading the existing mainlines using faster trains, which can be done at a fraction of the cost.
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  48. Scotland is ignored.
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  49. High speed rail may be the future, but we already have it. The existing network can be upgraded to meet HS2 journey times.
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  50. You have it. MML and WCML.
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