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  1. Phil you'd do yourself a favour if you didn't call people who don't happen to agree with you names. Quite honestly I find posts like your last one both childish and insulting. As that seems to be the lie of the land for anyone who disagrees with hs2 in its current overblown and over expensive state I will back out. I find slanging matches both pathetic and pointless.
  2. Flittersnoop and i have said several times that we are in favour of a new line but for some reason people have ignored those comments... But We want a better integrated system than HS2 will give us. I suppose that's too much to ask though as with most decissions with rail these days joined up thinking doesn't come into it. Looking at the car park Sandwell and Dudley which serves the black country cans be added to Wolves.
  3. But I thought they will be keeping the existing trains as the new line is to take the extra travellers we are assured the existing network cannot cope with. So capacity on WCML will not change... Or is Avanti or whoever takes over going to lose many of their services and income?
  4. As one of those who did suggest that I will await the opening and ticket prices with interest. I'd be surprised if there is not a premium to use it as there currently is when comparing Avanti/LNW/Chiltern. No doubt there will be cheaper advance tickets for those who can plan ahead. Season ticket prices compared with the existing lines will be interesting, though, also if they are able to be used on the "old" network... Birmingham City Council are currently doing all they can to prevent the private motorist driving into the City Centre, so in future driving in, parking and then walking to the station will not be a viable option. There is even some doubt how rail staff who provide the service will be a ffected as our car park is within the boundaries. So access by foot/public transport to Curzon Street is vital, especially for those with limited mobility.
  5. My understanding is that HS2 is in addition to the existing trains as we supposibly need that extra capacity. In reply to your comment to Flitersnoop about signalling or other technology none is suggesting a return to old methods of signalling or other old technologies and I feel you are being a bit unfair with that comment! I do not believe his comments suggested that. But what is needed is an integrated network but this, certainly as far as Brum, is a stand alone line with no onward connections to other parts of the West Midlands without station and train transfers... That is a big backward step.
  6. It's notreally about platform space, though, the issue is the approach lines, especially from the south where the CC trains come in on the Derby lines. Take out 6 trains an hour each way and you free up an awful lot of paths. Putting in a new junction from the Stour to the Derby lines where the up/down Camphill line is now would allow the Euston terminators use of that half of the station as well. Someone mentioned the 4-tracking of the BHM-COV corridor earlier which was another scheme that disappeared without trace, another would be the re-instatement of the 4-track section out to Solihull as well... It's all academic though as the real money will be spent on a self contained line from Brum to London! It will be interesting to see, when it's finally built, if it really does relieve pressure on the current Midlands to London lines or just turns out a white elephant used only by those who can afford it...
  7. The original idea was to take the Crosscity lines under the existing station. There is no reason it couldn't be done and has been done elsewhere. Somewhere in the USA I think. Cost is the major issue but it would free up a lot of capacity. If you do a search you will find plenty about the proposal.
  8. They tried that already in the 60s! Again I'd point out that most people don't live in town and city centres. In Stourbridge they commute by car to the Junction which has two very large car parks (one recently extended). Doing the same for Birmingham centre is a non-starter on so many levels! I hope not, but I do hope that it is changed so that it integrates better into the existing network rather than the stand alone line that is being proposed.
  9. Nowhere near the same distances they will have to walk to get to HS2. Why would you imagine that? I suspect that is the argument given by the promoters of HS2 but it clashes with the "capacity" reasons given to build the line in the first place. I suspect that if you did a survey of all passengers currently using Avanti, LNW and Chiltern to get into London from the Midlands you'd find that they don't live in the city centre but have to commute in, or catch the train either before or after the train runs through Birmingham. For them, as I've said, there is little incentive to change trains/stations in Birmingham, the time saving isn't worth the hassle. If you were carrying on to mainland Europe using Eurostar then there is a valid reason, but that's not why we are told the line is needed. Let me just clarify something, I am NOT against the new line, I agree it's needed. What i don't agree with is the way it's being designed and built. What we need is an extra line that compliments and can be used by existing trains not a stand alone line that is of very little benefit for most people who want to travel from the Midlands to London.
  10. So that means it's OK then.This is not an airport, Many people complain about changing trains, often citing New Street as an example of why it's a bad thing, yet New Street is actually quite compact. Here we have a railway where people are not only being encouraged to change trains, but also change stations! Promotors of HS2 can't have it both ways, it's either one of the other. The line is being mooted because the we are told the Midlands to London rail network is at breaking point and needs more capacity but the best solution to that is a separate line which is connected to the existing network and trains can join with and use the existing network to reduce unnecessary changes. This is not what the proposed line does. If you look at traffic flows most long rail journeys (i.e. outside the local area) don't start in a City Centre. HS2 does nothing to assist those travellers but actually makes it more complicated unless they are going on from HS2 onto HS1 and the continent, but we are being told that the issue is capacity into London, not from people travelling on from London who are already served by the Airlines and local airports. I am all for more capacity, what i am not in favour of is unnecessary expense of high speed rail at the expense of more inconvenience to the traveller and isn't needed on what is actually a short journey already.
  11. Then several hundred yards extra walking at each end to get on and off the trains... Still not convenient for many people... Adding in a tram trip as well for New Street is laughable if it wasn't that people actually think it's valid reasoning. Once Chiltern started running direct trains from London to Stourbridge and Kidderminster any need to get off and switch stations in Birmingham went out of the window for many people. It's not convenient and the time gained by switching to a Pendo isn't worth the few minutes gained in journey time rather than just stay on the train you are already on. My views on that do not change and why i still don't see the need for HS2 in it's current guise..
  12. They have to believe something, though, and base their forecasts on that... Perhaps it would be more appropriate to blame the manufacturers for over-optimistic timescales, though no doubt they'd have some excuse up their sleeve... It's always someone else fault, story of the world these days...
  13. I think you knew what he meant! I agree with him that the time gain on the London to Birmingham run is not worth the extra investment for the extra costs of the high speed. I've long argued that if it is truly about capacity then a conventional line with more stations and high speed point-work into and out of them with stock that is compatable with the rest of the network and so could carry on their journeys without forcing the passenger to change trains/stations would make more sense than a dedicated self contained super high speed line that is being proposed. It makes me laugh when they say that Curzon Street will be "integrated" with Moor Street, they are not exactly close together, especially for people with luggage or the disabled! Furthermore most people changing trains in Brum go to places not served by the Moor Street/Snow Hill lines, New Street is the main interchange and that is even further away. From what I can see travellers from the West Midlands wanting to use HS2 will be faced with a trip in by local railways (if they are lucky!) and then a walk to the HS2 station. If you are only going to London then it would make more sense to just carry on from either Snow Hill or New Street and stomach the extra 15/20 minutes the journey would take on the "old" lines. The whole thing has been ill thought out and seems even more like a vanity project as time goes on. We are a small island and 250mph trains are not needed for journeys from London to the Midlands and NW or Leeds. Maybe for journeys to Scotland but is there the demand for a new line which would cost even more than this short stretch when so much work could be done on the existing network to increase capacity and speeds with that money? Is a saving of 10 minutes to an hour worth it? Personally I believe the answer is no. We don't have to keep up with mainland Europe where distances travelled are much greater and justify the higher speeds. It just seems like "they've got it so we have to have it, and better" without any thoughts for the true needs of the country. It's time the Human Race relaxed a bit and stopped thinking that we need to be where we are going by yesterday (at the latest!!)... Maybe even save a bit of fuel to help save the planet at the same time!
  14. Originally it was supposed to go all the way to Sheffield but is now a fraction of that. I suspect that's what was being referred to. Rather similar to the GW electrification... Oxford anyone?!
  15. You got off at the wrong stop, you should have carried on up to Dresden, the scenery between Decin and Dresden is stunning! A gorge with castles perched on on the tops of cliffs...
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