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About Haydn1971

  • Rank
    Registered User
  • Birthday 06/07/1971

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  • Location
    Near Crystal Peaks
  • Occupation
    Freelance Civil Engineer
  1. The original Arup report from 2013 gives some indications... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-phase-two-engineering-options-report-west-midlands-to-leeds Specifically a map on page 228 shows several route options investigated at a very conceptual stage, including one up he Moss Valley ! The Victoria Loop is shown from page 132 onwards. My preferred option would have been a high level station to the east of Midland Station, heading south via a tunnel under Meersbrook, Norton and Dronfield popping out somewhere to tie into the current planned route near Staveley. And to the north, via a viaduct over Park Square and then diving down under Burngreave to pop out somewhere near M1 J35. Expensive yes, right solution though.
  2. Some interesting perspectives here, people keep suggesting that we should be investing in our current railways, well HS2 is just that, the current lines are outmoded and are difficult to improve on, other than perhaps electrification and some minor alignment changes. HS2 provides a dedicated new line that primarily shifts lots of long distance passengers to new fast line, there is a huge secondary benefit in that once these long distance trains are gone from our current lines, more services can be provided for local and regional services. The whole idea that HS2 is all about London is missing the point, our current railways are so full, improvements are near on impossible, HS2 allows the local improvements to be done as well.
  3. I do the trip on the train, used to be five times a week, it was exhausting, I'm now doing three days a week, a day at our Leeds office (drive there), plus a half day at home. I enjoy driving but wouldn't want to drive daily to Manchester - although you have a head start on me, I live near Crystal Peaks. Your train options - parking at Sheffield Station is £15 a day, so if you want to save cash and avoid a rush hour drive, you could use either Meadowhall and catch the TransPennine Express - it's pretty fast but very busy, involving a stand if you don't barge your way into a seat first. The 6am train is quiet enough to get a seat every time, there isn't a 7am train, so you need to connect via Sheffield, which gets messy. You will struggle to park at Meadowhall past 7:30am though. Cost is £27 for an anytime return, or about £338 for a monthly anytime season ticket. The return train leaves Manchester at 20past the hour and it's a real punch up to get a seat, the East Midlands train is better, but involves a change at Sheffield. I'd suggest living in Hillsborough, you would be better driving to Bamford, where there's free parking, and the anytime return is £15 - there's a fast (ish) East Midlands train at 6:43am, but if you miss that, your will have to wait till 7:37am. Returning is slower via a Northern train at about 10 to the hour in the peak, with a service every two hours in the day and after the 18:49pm train. I'd strongly recommend you push for as few a days in Manchester as possible - on a good day, i spend 3hrs 45minutes travelling. All this falls apart if you are not working in the city centre, this is where the car wins hands down unless it's on a railway service from Sheffield.
  4. Too late for that now, Phase 1 is well progressed and to stop that to push forward with Phase 2 would be wasteful. Also, the limitations of the existing network are most acute between London and the Midlands, thus building Phase 2 first wouldn't yield the return on investment as quickly.
  5. HS2 isn't about getting people to London quicker - what HS2 does is free up our existing rail network of express trains that take space that local and regional passenger services, or freight services could overwise use. It's extremely difficult to widen existing routes from 2 to 4 tracks, because much of our rail network has been developed around. Think of HS2 as being like when the motorways were introduced, previously you had to drive from town to town to make a journey, the motorways removed these congestion points and created faster journeys, the benefits were also felt on urban streets, as the through traffic was reduced, making more room for local and regional journeys. To say you won't use HS2 is a bit blinkered really, you won't have the choice, the long distance services will move wholesale to HS2 and the connecting routes up the east and west coast mainlines, the only things running on the existing mainlines will be stoppers and semi-fast services.
  6. I'd expect route options would need working through, but I recall a tunnelled route under North Sheffield being part of the original factors against Victoria in the 2011 HS2 reports - the biggest issue I have with Victoria is its integration proposals with other rail, tram and road - by running with Victoria, Sheffield has missed the biggest opportunity possible - slotting a new HS2 Station in next to Midland Station, either above and to the east on the hillside or to the west and through what is currently the bus station - Victoria just wasn't thinking big enough for me.
  7. Perhaps if the photos were better people could help.
  8. Annual Average Daily Traffic - Slightly flawed measure in some respects but used worldwide as a common measure of daily traffic volume.
  9. It's not called Meadowhell just because of the busy shopping ;-)
  10. Not quite, traffic over the viaduct is 70% of that to the south of Tinsley roundabout. Actual figures from 2009 are J35-34 = 114k AADT viaduct = 80k AADT J34-33 = 113k AADT These have increased - not got access today to current but point made is that a lane drop from 4 to 3 lanes is appropriate here.
  11. The works finished in c2005 made the viaduct structurally sound for three running lanes and a hard shoulder in each direction. Prior to reopening, discussions with the police resulted in an agreement to operate with a lane drop and lane gain at both ends resulting in current two running lanes in each direction over the viaduct. My understand is that principal of a lane gain, lane drop will remain, thus four lanes on approach (ALR*), lane drop to three running lanes and hard shoulder over the viaduct, then lane gain back to four lanes (ALR). * ALR = All Lane Running
  12. Not so much causes, but there is a link - we had a similar issue in West Halifax, with a large area of terrace and back to back homes with high occupancy levels - the link is also with ethnic background too, with different lifestyles, not necessarily worse, just different. One issue that was raised in West Halifax was the lack of road sense, as many kids were brought up in families not necessarily familiar with the "green cross code" era of road safety, so had a different understanding of risks associated with crossings roads. One issue that was aknowledged was linked to the high levels of home occupancy led to parking issues - parking problems start to impact of inter-visibility between pedestrians and drivers, high ownership and long straight terraced streets led to busy streets, with off peak speeding issues - not necessarily high speeds, but high enough to increase severity - traffic calming is part of that solution, but a bigger part is education of children through bike awareness and walking clubs etc
  13. OP said it was a fire extinguisher - never said it was drained, never said it was depressurised - stretch your mind somewhat further, your IQ might reach three figures !
  14. At very least call around to your local fire station and ask - they could be presurised and create a risk of injury to some unsuspecting bin man or waste operative if you hide them in your wheeliebin.
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