High Speed Rail confirmed at Meadowhall

[Clown Shoes 10]

While I would go with the idea of getting the newest technology, I think we should limit ourselves to stuff that actually exists.

 

Hyperloop itself exists in the form of a 57 page PDF outline by Elon Musk (founder of PayPal). There are no protypes, no R&D labs and an awful lot of questions based upon his assumption that the system would cost $6 billion

 

It would never work over here cause it didnt have any toilets.

 

Even if the journey is only 30mins they would still moan it has no toilets.

[Fareast 10]

Well, what 's 80 billion to our wonderful, wise politicians and civil servants......etc........? Mind you it would be a bit cheaper [ and more accurate ? ] to let them do their estimating and calculations with a biro and a beermat.

[dosxuk 10]

It will also cost far more in fares for the privilege.

 

Nobody knows how much it will cost to travel on it yet. Even so, there will still be trains running on the classic routes which will be trying to tempt people to take the slower journey.

 

It took a freedom of information request to show that capacity wise, there was no demand for this route whatsoever.

 

That's funny, because there is plenty of demand for it inside the rail industry. And the idea that there's no demand whatsoever is so wrong it's funny - just ask the commuters out of Euston heading to Birmingham every weekday evening, having to stand for two hours on the packed train whether they think the is enough capacity on the route.

 

It would never work over here cause it didnt have any toilets.

 

Even if the journey is only 30mins they would still moan it has no toilets.

 

Passengers will be strapped into their seats, so even if there was a toilet, they wouldn't be able to get to it.

[taxman 12]

 

That's funny, because there is plenty of demand for it inside the rail industry. And the idea that there's no demand whatsoever is so wrong it's funny - just ask the commuters out of Euston heading to Birmingham every weekday evening, having to stand for two hours on the packed train whether they think the is enough capacity on the route.

 

Call me wild and radical but an extra two carriages might seem an answer to that.

 

 

But if we've an odd £80bn spare to throw around....?

[Clown Shoes 10]

Just let them spend it.

 

If they dont, your not gonna get an extra £50 in your pay packet.

[dosxuk 10]

Call me wild and radical but an extra two carriages might seem an answer to that.

 

The trains on those services are already at the maximum length of 11 cars. Adding extra carriages would require platforms to be extended, signals moved and numerous track alterations. That's on top of buying the extra carriages.

 

Plus, that only solves the issues currently being experienced, it doesn't provide a solution which will work in the medium term.

Edited August 19, 2013 by dosxuk

[sparko 14]

With the proposed HS2 rail line due to have a station at Meadowhall, do you think the scheme will benefit Sheffield?

 

Could the money be better spent on improvements to local and regional services instead?

 

When the Midland Mainline is electrified, journey times to London will be faster anyway. How about extending that electrification up to Moorthorpe to join with the Leeds-Doncaster line, and move Leeds-Sheffield stopping services to electric trains, rather than the shoddy, bone shaking stock they have now?

 

Longer trains on the Sheffield-Manchester fast services wouldn't be a bad idea too.

 

That said, economically Sheffield stands to benefit from HS2 and it should bring much needed inward investment.

 

What are your views?

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

I welcome it whole heartedly. The British rail network is awfully backwards compared to the rest of Europe and certain parts of Asia.

[WallBuilder 10]

Didn't i notice on the news yesterday that the cost has doubled already, how long before it triples? So for increasing capacity for business users and speeding the journey time up by a matter of minutes I don't think it's a sensible way of spending mega bucks. Surely it'd be better to halt the idea that London is the centre of the business world, start moving government offices out of London to somewhere north of Birmingham and any business that employs white collar workers make them pay for the workers housing, I bet those same companies would soon decide that London is not the place to be.

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

Didn't i notice on the news yesterday that the cost has doubled already, how long before it triples?

It "could" double, said a think tank, which should be taken with a pinch of salt. The land-owning Middle England types are putting up a fight against the idea. They don't profit from it and they have a nuisane trainline at the bottom of their lawn.

 

Train travel in this country is decades behind a country like France, and Germany. It's time we invested in it.

[smithy266 21]

Will HS2 benefit ANYBODY?

[Fareast 10]

Of course it will benefit almost everybody ! e.g. if you're a factory worker or a retired person, living in the North, by about 2025 [ ? ] you 'll be able to get to London 30 minutes quicker---provided of course that you 've saved up a bit of cash to pay the return fare, there 's no snow on the line, the system isn 't snarled up or the rail staff aren 't on strike. Anyway, instead of having High Tea in the Ritz, you could be having a Late Lunch instead !

And think of the joys of an extra half hour in London with its multi-faceted delights---muggings, pick-pocketing, druggies and drunks, petrol fumes and a sense of excitement round every corner !

We know that only in big countries can fast trains save a lot of time and that nowadays lots of important businessmen work from home or link up from their offices ; we also know that the Channel Tunnel rail cost was originally estimated at 1 billion pounds .........but actually cost 11 billion pounds. But, so what ?? This great country of ours, full of happy, ambitious people MUST keep up with every other country in every way.

As a bonus, people from Sheffield would be whizzing past the Midlands, often in dark tunnels, and wouldn 't have to look very long at untidy back gardens or the back of ugly factories.

Rule Britannia !!