HS2: 300 years old tree felled for a service road

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Eurorapid
Posts: 269
Joined: 17. Apr 2021, 23:08

HS2: 300 years old tree felled for a service road

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2021-05-24 HS2 tree cut for service road
2021-05-24 HS2 tree cut for service road
Source: Twitter https://twitter.com/AmericanIndian8/sta ... 29763?s=20
posted by @AmericanIndian8
When Mozart was 8 this tree was over 40. When first Steam Engine was patented this tree was 50. When the Wright Brothers flew the first motorized plane this tree was 180. Now at aged 300 it was felled for a service road for HS2
Words fail me.
~ David Attenborough
Source: Twitter https://twitter.com/AmericanIndian8/sta ... 29763?s=20
posted by @AmericanIndian8
Not active on Twitter (X) anymore. Too much spam and rubbish there, not much serious stuff.

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Eurorapid
Posts: 269
Joined: 17. Apr 2021, 23:08

Siemens launches legal action against HS2

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Siemens launches legal action against HS2
SIEMENS Mobility has launched a legal battle against High Speed 2 (HS2), filing a procurement claim against the company on June 21.

The German manufacturer is one of five shortlisted for the high-speed train contract, the winner of which is due to be announced this summer. Siemens is also the second of the five bidders to launch a legal claim against HS2 Ltd, following Spanish manufacturer Talgo.

Neither Siemens nor HS2 would comment on the reasons for the claim. A Siemens spokesperson told IRJ: “as the official tender process is still ongoing, we currently cannot comment.”
[...]

Five companies were shortlisted for the contract, which is for around 54 high-speed trains that will be used on Phase One of HS2 from London-West Midlands/Crewe as well as the conventional network to the north.
Source: IRJ https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/sieme ... ainst-hs2/ Accessed: 2021-07-01

Image
Source: IRJ https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/sieme ... ainst-hs2/ Accessed: 2021-07-01
Not active on Twitter (X) anymore. Too much spam and rubbish there, not much serious stuff.

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jok
Posts: 121
Joined: 3. Apr 2021, 16:07

Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on

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Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on.

Image
‘Like Johnson’s garden bridge, the more extravagant it is, the more it can be described as world-beating.’ Photograph: Eddie Keogh/PA

by Simon Jenkins, The Guardian UK
Britain’s new high-speed railway will not – repeat: not – get to the north of England. It will go back and forth from London to the Midlands and its chief beneficiaries will be London commuters. All else is political spin.

This became certain last week as the government’s internal major projects authority declared phase two of the HS2 project, to Manchester and Leeds, effectively dead. While the already-started London-to-Birmingham stretch is still marked at “amber/red” for “successful delivery in doubt”, anything north of Crewe has been designated “unachievable”. Its multitudinous issues “do not appear to be manageable or resolvable”. [...] This was the verdict of an arm of the Treasury and Cabinet Office.

Since HS2 has always been politics-driven – no rail strategy ever gave it priority – it has raced past every red light for a decade. By far Europe’s biggest infrastructure scheme, it has finally been overtaken by its own extravagance. The pandemic has sent commuter numbers plummeting and wrecked any remotely plausible rate of return.

[...]

This one train line will consume the equivalent of Britain’s entire projected railway investment budget during its two decades of construction.

[...]

travelling between Birmingham’s as yet non-existent Curzon Street station and a Euston station that does not link with HS1 and the Channel tunnel (and is not even on the new Crossrail). No one boarding a train in the north will be able to travel directly to France. As for Curzon Street in Birmingham, it is a mile from the New Street interchange and the west coast main line. This makes absolutely no sense.

[...]

HS2 is more a taxpayer-funded theme park than a railway.

[...]

The project has long been out of control. It is a spending black hole: figures in 2018 showed its latest boss Mark Thurston having to be paid over £660,000 a year, with 15 of his colleagues on over £250,000. A quarter of all HS2 staff, over 300 people, received above £100,000. The Commons public accounts committee declared it to be “badly off course” and lacking even the most “basic financial controls.” This is despite the outlay of £600m annually on consultants, including £35m on the “big four” accountancy firms.

[...]

It is never too late to stop a dud project, but it requires ever more courage to do so.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... t-taxpayer Accessed: 2021-07-30
Best regards,
jok

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