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

  1. I never read it as your caps lock is stuck.
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  2. Why?
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  3. Yes, Land Value Tax will sort it all out.
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  4. The UK network is not overloaded.
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  5. There will be no direct HS2 link to Manchester.
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  6. So we all get sick and die. We are desperate for water reservoirs, yet we spend a fortune on an unneeded choo-choo line.
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  7. As HS2 is only 2-tracks from London to Birmingham, the main spine. It is substandard as a high speed line. It was to take all provincial cities to the Continent and between each other. It cannot do any such thing. Its raison d'etre dissolved a long time ago.
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  8.  @anthonyholroyd5359  HS2 is so full, with no Continental access, that the cities of Chester and Stoke were bumped off. If there was Continental access, only a few cities could use HS2 to the Continent.
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  9. The UK does not need HS2. Upgrading the existing lines is all that is needed. The UK needs is a fast east-west line from Liverpool to Hull that runs under the Pennines using a Swiss type of base tunnel.
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  10. The London-Birmingham Chiltern Line is slow diesel. It can be upgraded to give journey times of around one hour. The 100 miles between London Euston and Curzon St is covered at 113mph by HS2.
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  11.  @perrydebell1352  HS2 can be canned north of Aylesbury. The advanced in construction London-Aylesbury section of HS2 can run onto an upgraded Chiltern Line, giving near enough HS2 times.
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  12. But cannot pronounce his t's.
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  13. HS2 not needed.
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  14. Just upgrading what it there keeps the status quo. It needs a huge rethink. That is ensure new developments are people friendly, the car is pushed back over quality public transport, etc. And also an ongoing maintenance fund.
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  15. I prefer to have water. The money needs to be spent on reservoirs.
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  16. 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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  17. Land Value Tax will solve it for sure. Land Value Tax at a high rate can reduce punative income tax, or even eliminate it. It eliminates harmful land speculation - you know, that thing that created the 2008 world-wide financial crash. Look up American economist Henry George for a deeper explanation.
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  18. 50 year old French technology.
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  19. None. No spill over.
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  20. The cities being served by HS2 already have high speed lines to them, that can be faster by upgrading with faster trains. That is why it is contentious. In the Victorian time they ran rail between towns that never had railways.
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  21. HS2 was a bad design. It went to places which already have high speed rail. It solved nothing with few benefits for an amazing amount of money. Liverpool was left off entirely. Bad plan.
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  22.  @david65219  HS2 is just a bad design. It ignored the Liverpool City region of over 2 million people. The city needs extra rail lines as the port is expanding, so they ignored the city. No kidding! A prime aim was connect British cites to the continent. That would mean the spine running down the east of the country then branching into the Channel tunnel or London. It in via the west - no kidding. As soon as the continental link was dropped the raison d'etere dissolved. The plan then should have been dropped.
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  23.  @david65219  HS2 was before HS3. London to currently Liverpool/Manchester is about the same time. Liverpool would have been 35 minutes slower to London under full HS2 than Manchester, and was even bumped off HS2 to Birmingham. Runcorn in the Liverpool City Region lost its London service. When HS2 was announced, the Liverpool delegation was talking to the HS2 team, wanting to know why the city was screwed big time. They said it was clear the HS2 team never knew the city was to have a second large container terminal built in a few years, needing an extra line. The port serves all the North, so it is their port. It is in the interests of all the North of England to have it efficient. Yet Manchester was having a 10 mile gold plated tunnel into the city. We connect to the continent right now.
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  24.  @david65219  Liverpool City Region indirectly gains by this cancellation of phase 2 - parity with HMGs blue eyed boy Manchester and retains the London-Runcorn service.
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  25. The Mersey tunnel at Liverpool has the under-river tunnel branch off at two points at each end. Each of the two branches had traffic lights. As the traffic volume increased they were removed becoming slip tunnels.
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