John Marriott 🍃💚🍃🚲

In 2009 the cost of Ph1 was said to be £12.3bn including Risk. It is the only published HS2 estimate that showed how it had been derived. It didn't understand the risks & cost of its pointless speed & was fiction. However, the methodology was transparent.

We could have learnt a lot from Japan but HS2 was set on course with a vanity specification & people who did not understand basic maths & physics or an appreciation of England. £100bn wasted to save under 2 minutes & have less capacity. Simple. Don't exceed 250km/h.

Car-dependent sprawl is sprawling out along the A27 to Portsmouth. No worries. A few tweaks to an existing junction will "fix" it. Also heading north up the M3 towards Micheldever.

It seems the extension of the bored Chiltern tunnel was almost certainly cheaper than the proposal for a separate tunnel at South Heath. The bonkers bit is that it climbs to the highest part of the route in the Chilterns & emerges there to wreak it's havoc.

It only makes sense to HS2. Propose a "green" "tunnel" under a disused airfield & claim it would "save" 30-40 million quid & call it a "refinement".

You just can't build a high speed railway through the Chilterns without tunnelling. HS2 knew that much. However, the ludicrous design had the tunnel climbing at a steep gradient to emerge close to the highest point on the route. Chipping Warden is nowhere near the Chilterns.

Northern politicians were conned into supporting a boondoggle sold on lies & ignorance. HS2 decided to extend the tunnel claiming it would save £30-40million. The tunnel into Manchester was just as ludicrous. One reason is it was never designed to serve the airport.

It was done because HS2 said it would be cheaper.

At 250mph, HS2's chosen vanity speed, the ground is far from flat. The "design" required 56km radius vertical curves to stop it feeling like a roller coaster. That was not factored into the choice of route. The time saving is seconds at best but the cost is enormous,

It was not a field. It was a disused aerodrome with much used for car storage. It was nuts - but HS2 said it would save money and it was called "green". The problem was that the principles were approved by lobbied & whipped MPs. That was done specifically to avoid scrutiny.

@faisalislam Newscast. Do you do any fact checking? No money was wasted on beautifying HS2 in the south of England. Go and have a look. If you are talking about tunnels - then many were needed for its pointless speed. HS2 docs said they would save money or risk of delay!! Ho. Ho.

No-one looked at the simple maths & physics which show higher speeds produce exponentially reducing time savings for exponentially increasing costs. They also reduce capacity & cause more damage to the environment. 125mph is perfectly adequate.

HS2 & DfT failed to realise that very high speed trains are the worst value for money when it comes to saving time on a journey. £billions wasted to save 1 or 2 secs per kilometre. It's simple maths. Vastly increases cost & risk & reduces capacity too. 140mph is a sensible max.

Look at all this high rise development around a railway station. The problem is the station closed 60 years ago & Leicester City Council did not take up the offer to safeguard the route. Offices by the other station are now vacant but it wants a multistorey car park!

I expect @NationalHways would say this M1 motorway diverge is "to standards". It has finally collected the inevitable vehicle. How was this launching ramp not spotted by NH years ago. Compare with other countries to see how it should be done.

Not HS2 trains unless you count the 3 stations that may now have higher platforms than standard. The platforms were originally going to be lower like here with the train HS2 chose as its Reference train. HS1 uses low platforms at St Pancras, Ashford & Ebbsfleet.

Very lucky to get any sort of bike lane in this part of the East Midlands. A few painted bike symbols on the road is often all you get. In this case a developer paid for a few metres of cycle track. Somehow @activetraveleng raised its rating from 0 to 1!