Emeritus Prof Christopher May6d ago

Ha ha ha.... the disgrace that is HS2 just gets worse.

Now, to save money the Govt. has decided to reduce the top speed of trains on the new lines (thereby reducing the specifications of the system & making it cheaper to construct).

Whatever might think of the original conception of High Speed Rail, this project has demonstrated the difficulty the UK in actually delivering infrastructure projects (and specifically railways).

Just ludicrous

#railways #HS2 #politics
h/t FT

Show threadRobert Klaschka6d ago
@ChrisMayLA6 while I'm sure the higher speed is a flagship headline for the project, I had understood that the extra capacity was the important thing, so maybe we shouldn't be so worried about the ultimate speed.
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher May

@robertklaschka

That may be so, but that was not what it was originally sold, its only as the project has become bogged down in difficulties that the claimed emphasis has shifted to capacity - which says more about shifting the goalposts in desperation than about good project management

Mar 22 at 10:14pmWeb
Show threadRobert Klaschka6d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 I don't know, I have been hearing the capacity argument for much longer, including when the last administration cut the Northern part of the route.

To me it feels like a similar thing to the way the British military seem to work, with projects failing or going far overbudget because they started with too high an expectation. HS2 may be similar because it was meant to be one of the very fastest high speed lines globally. It would be interesting to know how much slower it would get.