First completed sections of HS2’s Curzon Street Station viaduct 

Very slow expensive process

@@jakehowie442 Very true.

It's inevitable it will take years when the entire length from London to Handsacre has got to be built piecemeal fashion. Divert a roundabout, build a bridge over a river, divert a power cable, build a new power cable and so on. If Britain was a new country with no infrastructure to build round it would have been built by now.

Should’ve started Manchester to Birmingham or in the North much cheaper land than in South, more space too

@@jakehowie442 I have to agree, especially since London gets all the glory.

It’s definitely not! HS2 line is pretty useless and doesn’t serve even 1/10th of the population. Very few people want to travel to Birmingham especially from London… More people want to go to Manchester and Liverpool, even Leeds, as well as North to South from these cities

@@jakehowie442 So where do we start then? Your opinion on where from and to?

@@1346crecy Manchester to Crewe to Birmingham to London like planned, Liverpool to Manchester to Leeds / Sheffield to Newcastle to Edinburgh better served with high speed lines

@@jakehowie442 Don't disagree with any of what you said. So on the premise of we cant do all this at once lets allow thirty years to completely upgrade our rail system. As soon as were nearly finished this bit ,I agree with you that the east coast should be next. Keep it rolling so we're not starting from scratch every time. Finally take the awarding of contracts away from the Treasury and appoint group of senior retired businessmen who have spent their lives in construction to peruse tenders and award contracts.

@@1346crecy nope, London and Birmingham do not need HS2. The North does. Very few commuters to London nowadays. Manchester UK's fastest growing city

If Labour get into power hopefully some of them will be able to work on Bakerloo line or some of the Northern Rail improvement works or even Crossrail 2.

@@DavidKnowles0shame it requires us having a labour government

I’m not convinced they have the ability to organise anything successfully

Guess labour could squeeze the taxpayer, I think they might lose the election with the news of re nationalisation

Crossrail 2 is needed, but the priority should be the bits of HS2 the short sighted muppets cancelled.

I agree I think another government regardless of it's political hue will pick this up and push it right the way up the country. It has to start somewhere right. With regard cost, I work in construction and material costs have pretty much sky rocketed since COVID. Also, unfortunately, The Treasury is staffed mostly with incompetents who are unsackable....In my opinion

​@1346crecy Did you know a budget estimate has never been produced ? The 32.70 billion figure everyone is trying to benchmark the costs against was a figure Boris Johnson said would get the go ahead so HS2 said it could be built for that.

@@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg No I'm not having this blaming the politicians all the time. Its the Treasury's job to manage all public projects. My opinion is they are not up to it. Where did Johnson get that figure from did he just pluck it out of he air? Of course not. Typical bureaucrats fuck up, then hide behind the politicians be they Labour or Tory.

I'm told by someone who went to an HS2 presentation that they had carried out soundings in the government and felt 32.70 billion would be OK to proceed so HS2 confirmed it could be built for that figure. What normally happens is a Cost Consultant does a budget costplan and that's never enough because Cost Consultants don't have enough technical capability to understand what things cost. But in this case it would have been impossible to put a detailed budget costplan in place when no information existed.

@@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg I've worked on and managed rail projects and Underground projects over the last 30 years . "Carried out soundings" is not a way to invite tenders for major Civil engineering projects on behalf of the public. As I said the people perusing the tenders have to have the detailed knowledge required, you cant just say give me a ballpark figure. I do understand that this is complex and if a " Cost consultant" doesn't have the relative knowledge then he is as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle. The point I keep going back to, is that the Treasury seems unable to manage these things which is supposed to be their job. Therefore a new way of inviting tenders that is open and transparent needs to be formulated. These matters should not be resolved over a good lunch.

You should check out Jack from Bam Nuttall on the Coast Cams (RU-vid) documentation of the Dawlish Sea Wall Upgrade project. Jack (and Network Rail et al.) show how community engagement should be done. Give a vidographer access to an expert who can explain in laymans terms what is happening and everyone is happy.

Excellently put.

There are a lot of people out there who know nothing about the construction industry but have always got an opinion about it. Then they look silly. It's like me insisting NASA can build a rocket that can get us to the moo. In a day when I know nothing sbout space travel or rockets.

There is zero chance that Crewe will not see this extended to there, irrespective of the political winds there is no other options it just will not be called hs2, watch out for a Crewe high speed bypass coming your way soon ;-)

The funniest bit of all is the Tories will be powerless to avoid it

It won't stop there. The project will be reviewed and then continued because the capacity is required for the future. It is only Sunak and his government that cannot understand this, for some unknown reason.

This is only the terminus of HS2 in Birmingham, but the HS2 line also has another line that bypasses Birmingham to Handsacre in Staffordshire which will allow HS2 trains from Birmingham and London to go to Manchester and the North

@@peterwilliamallen1063 At the moment the project north of Birmingham is is disarray, mainly of this government's making. Presumably it will be sorted out when people who know anything about transport take over. The French must be laughing at us, really. They have had high speed rail for decades. In the meantime, the British, or at least the Conservative government and its adherents keep pretending that they can stay behind the wheel on an ever expanding road network indefinitely, which of course will be impossible.

Second largest city in Britain = nowhere, really?

@@nigelgarrett7970 I meant the main line.

@@neilcurson4505 It is the main line from Birmingham and Handsacre to London Euston what else would it be

@@nigelgarrett7970 3rd in urban economic reality. It is also far poorer than Manchester now unfortunately.

@@richardwills-woodward5340 Nice try 😂Citation please

Currently scheduled to be open before 2030

good, it should read this is an expensive pile of shit

It's the M11 allover again 😮

@@beecee2205 So what would you spend this on, it is not for you but the fiture generations who will want to travel at high speed by rail

@@peterwilliamallen1063 local links. Unlike all the fools on this thread I live in Warwickshire. I live 1.5 miles from Nuneaton. Its on thw west coast mainline. I do not need HS2, which will be over priced. And lets not forget the parking eh ? High speed ? Train from Aston to Acton is high speed ? Please. Do we need a high speed link ? Ever hear of the internet. Its a lot quicker.

@@beecee2205 Definetly shows you know nothing about HS2 or Birmingham, for a start HS2 goes no where near Aston, Birmingham Curzon Street Station is in the heart of Birmingham City Center then it runs through the Vauxhall and Duddeston area of Birimingham, then Saltley, Washwood Heath and finaly under Bromford to Water Orton but no where near Aston I am afraid to say and then terminating in London Euston again definaetly not Acton. We in Birmningham, the West Midlands Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland definately need this HS2 high speed link and Nuneaton and the existing WCML will get a slower train service as most of Avanti West Coast services will trnsfer to the HS2 route when it opens and where do you get the over priced bit from, maybe where you got the idea of HS2 terminating in Aston. I suggest you get an AtoZ map of Birmingham a trace the HS2 route on it before making silly comments, and yes I live in Birmingham near where HS2 runs

Train movements will be easy due to the Delta Junction at Water Orton which will allow trains from Birmingham Curzon Street to go south to London and North to Manchester and the North but will also allow trains from London to Manchester to by pass Birmingham. A through station would of been too time consuming, costly and problomatic with in the City Centre and Birmingham New Street has not the capacity for HS2 services plus other services hence the reason to build a new station for HS2 services

Unlike many UK cities that are centred on river valleys, Birmingham city centre, where New Street station is located, is on a hill. Curzon Street is actually the original terminus of the London and Birmingham railway, and the railway stopped there because the cost of actually putting the terminus in the city centre was considered at the time (1838) to be too great for the company to bear. Only later was the railway extended to the city centre through a costly tunnel, and the station had to be built in a deep, restricted width cutting. When other railway lines reached Birmingham, they too had to approach New Street station via expensive tunnels. The constricted approaches to New Street station and the restrictions on the size of the station have caused problems ever since. It's just not economically or environmentally viable to expand New Street station to accommodate HS2. Also the existing line northwest from there, via Wolverhampton to Stafford (where it joins the Trent Valley diversionary line) goes through 20 miles of urban area, and once again, the environmental disruption of widening that route to accommodate HS2, and the cost of doing so, would be far more than that of the route now being built to the east of Birmingham. The new Curzon Street station and approaches to it are sited on old railway marshalling yards and abandoned former industrial areas, so the build cost is relatively much lower, and the environmental impact is much less. I hope that adequately explains the decision to built a terminal station at Curzon Street.

They will need a dedicated team to clean it off.

A tram service from Curzon Street to Digbeth and the City Centre is being provided by the Midland Metro

Because the station main entrance is higher than the ground level near the original station and for the line to enter Curzon Street Station it has to cross at high level the Birmingham to Derby Railway Line and the Cross City Line before entering Curzon Street Station

This area will be full of transport sites such as taxi ranks, Bus stops and a tram stop

@@peterwilliamallen1063 yes your probably right, if had gone to New Street station instead of terminating in Digbeth, there would be no need for taxis or buses

@@user-gj7ew2sm5u Again sorry to correct you HS2 doesn't terminate in Digbeth, you are thinking of the National Express Coach Station, HS2 runs into Curzon Street Station from the Vauxhall area of Birmingham with the Birmingham Curzon Street Station Main Entrance being on Moor Street Queensway in the City Centre next door to Birmingham Moor Street Station, even if you went into New Street Station in most cases you require to get the Tram, Bus or Taxi to your final destination

@@cjjk9142 didn't you have the same issue with Crossrail?

So the second largest city in Britain is nowhere then? Given how often I see the same comment I wonder who is funding them?

You lost me in your word salad. Please, again in English..?

@@mrglide7078 go back to school 😂

Incorrect. It has nothing to do with time. If you understood railways you'd know the network is full. There is no other solution that is viable. Beyond that, if you support mass migration we'll need to repeat it.

It central government that decided to put tunnels in empty country side rather than a tunnel and underground station here.

@@DavidKnowles0 and you don't think Birmingham Council had any say in it? You have no clue.

Its not a wasteland. Its where people can walk and ride bikes and get about in an open and well lit area. It has a use so not wasted.

@@DavidKnowles0 Well not true but have you any idea of the subterranean structures under Birmingham from the last 200 years that would have had to be either shifted or negotiated around? Curzon Street station will sit above ground rather than in a huge hole underground. More daylight and easier access and less costly.

Huh? 1:40

That's how construction management tend to speak, been like that for at least a couple of decades that I've been an electrician.

I didn't even notice but now I notice every time.

I'm sure the engineers who planned the HS2 route and the construction works have considered the possibilty, but it's likely that the height contours of the approach from the east mean a tunnel would not be a sensible design. It's not a good idea to make trains (even modern ones) have to go up a rising gradient out of a station from a standing start. The line into Euston was built in a cutting going downhill into the station, and this proved to be a problem from day one when trains leaving the station had to immediatley negotiate a rising gradient. Much better to construct railway lines to be as level as possible, particularly at stations.

and very expensive

what is? Your device for posting inane comments with?

black bear... tabby cat...

What utter rubbish, it appears you do not live in the vacinity of HS2 and Birmingham because if you did you would know what is happening with train services once HS2 opens, once this new line opens 98% of high speed train services run by Avanti West Coast who will be the operators of all HS2 services from Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland will transfer from operating on the southern section of the WCML to London Euston on to the HS2 route, so every one who uses Avanti West Coast Train Services into London Euston will when it opens will have to use the HS2 services so yes people will be able to afford to use HS2 services like the Europeans use the TGV lines in Europe

@@peterwilliamallen1063 I live in Middlesex smack in the middle of the end of the HS2, and given current rail prices I can't see how anyone is going to afford to use it given its massive over budget spending and the private investors who will want to reap their money back and more. But by all means call my rational points "utter rubbish". But I remind you that the lockdown disproved the need to move large numbers of people into offices to get the job done, many big companies have down scaled their offices if their egos allowed them too and many office workers are still working from home entirely or the at least the majority of their time. So the fantasy of thousands of workers living "up north" and getting on HS2 for the commute to their London grind is just that a fantasy as none of them are going to benefit from 6-7-8k or more a year in rail fares, and I am being generously optimisic they will be that low. Yeah perhaps try to use reason and logic and facts instead of ad hominem mate.

Indeed. Let's all pack it up and go home lads. TheWarforged says it's a pointless project