HS2

[Ron Ron Ron]

Pete Waterman is boring !!!

 

That well known favourite, wacky rail nut, was invited to unveil the name of the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel TBM.

Christened "Dorothy", this TBM is about to start its tunnelling work in the next few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

A47 Heartlands Bridge demolition.

 

A disused bridge near Saltley in Birmingham has been safely demolished by HS2’s main works civils contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV)

Over 685m3 of concrete, 165 tonnes of reinforcement and 250 tonnes of structural steel were removed by precision techniques over four weekends.

 

In preparation for the construction of the northern section of HS2’s Phase One route between London and the West Midlands, main works civils contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) have successfully demolished a disused bridge in Saltley near Birmingham.

The Heartlands Parkway bridge originally connected the A47 with a nearby industrial park, crossing over the busy Birmingham to Derby rail line and had been decommissioned for some time.

 

The bridge needed to be removed because it stood in the path of the HS2 line into the new Curzon Street Station in Birmingham city centre.

Now the bridge has been demolished, it clears the way for Balfour Beatty VINCI to construct the one kilometre long Washwood Heath retained cut, and the team will start by building piling platforms for the 1,800 metres diaphragm wall, with piling works commencing later this year.

 

HS2’s Washwood Heath depot will also be constructed next to the railway in this area, which will be HS2’s central control centre and maintenance depot, including a 40,000m2 rolling stock maintenance building, carriage wash, automatic vehicle inspection building and 14 sidings where trains can be stored overnight. 

The construction of the Washwood Heath depot will transform the 40 hectares brown field site into the nerve centre of the HS2 network, with the added benefit of offering up to 500 long-term jobs.

Three bidders have recently been invited to tender for the contract to build the depot and control centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

 

[melmerby]

Wasn't that bridge the former entrance to Metcam/Alstom?

The site has long since been razed to the ground.

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by melmerby

[woodenhead]

It was also the bridge over Washwood Heath sidings.

[figworthy]

8 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Pete Waterman is boring !!!

 

That well known favourite, wacky rail nut, was invited to unveil the name of the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel TBM.

Christened "Dorothy", this TBM is about to start its tunnelling work in the next few days.

 

.

 

Named ‘Dorothy’ after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

 

Adrian

[Dava]

“Named ‘Dorothy’ after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.”

 

Dame Dorothy was Chancellor of Bristol University for a period and conferred my BA Hons in 1981. Happy note.

 

Sad note: it is being reported that HS2 East is indeed being scaled back to a basic link to the MML at East Mids Parkway with the new line to Sheffield & Leeds cancelled and trains running on the existing route.

 

Presumably this will be electrified at long last but clear evidence of ‘levelling down’ in comparison with West Mids.

 

Dava

 

[jamie92208]

12 minutes ago, Dava said:

“Named ‘Dorothy’ after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.”

 

Dame Dorothy was Chancellor of Bristol University for a period and conferred my BA Hons in 1981. Happy note.

 

Sad note: it is being reported that HS2 East is indeed being scaled back to a basic link to the MML at East Mids Parkway with the new line to Sheffield & Leeds cancelled and trains running on the existing route.

 

Presumably this will be electrified at long last but clear evidence of ‘levelling down’ in comparison with West Mids.

 

Dava

 

Sad to hear that.  I just hope that it is constructed in such a way thst it can be extended and that the route north continues to be protected.

 

Jamie

[lmsforever]

The article I read talks of HS2 trains traveling at 60mph between Leeds  south to Brum not a white heat project looks like  Kings Cross Leeds will become a viable fast route and HS2 will become a London to Brum branch line albiet a fast line.I wonder if further cuts will happen or the powers that be will pause the contract this obviously is an emergency hapening but with the country as it is and continued covid you never know.  I hope that works progress as this is along term job consideration has to be required to carrying on wiyh work.

[kevpeo]

Isn't the story going around that the first stretch to East Mids Parkway (instead of Toton) will be built, and the last bit, from the South Yorkshire border to a new Leeds station. This to allow the NPR junctions to be built? Kev.

[class26]

15 hours ago, lmsforever said:

The article I read talks of HS2 trains traveling at 60mph between Leeds  south to Brum not a white heat project looks like  Kings Cross Leeds will become a viable fast route and HS2 will become a London to Brum branch line albiet a fast line.I wonder if further cuts will happen or the powers that be will pause the contract this obviously is an emergency hapening but with the country as it is and continued covid you never know.  I hope that works progress as this is along term job consideration has to be required to carrying on wiyh work.

But the classic lines south to Brum are considerably higher than 60 mph so where does this come from ?

I think there is confusion where the article says having to travel for 60 MILES on "classic" lines which has got misread to having to travel at 60 mph . Even the direct route to Toton from Chesterfield is 80 mph and largely 4 tracked. I would have  though 2 of those tracks would get a substantial upgrade

[lmsforever]

The dedicated station at Totton was also destined for the dustbin under the plans announced and only the possible route maybe was safeguarded but basicaly forget Leeds as destination for high speed .

[woodenhead]

8 minutes ago, class26 said:

But the classic lines south to Brum are considerably higher than 60 mph so where does this come from ?

I think there is confusion where the article says having to travel for 60 MILES on "classic" lines which has got misread to having to travel at 60 mph . Even the direct route to Toton from Chesterfield is 80 mph and largely 4 tracked. I would have  though 2 of those tracks would get a substantial upgrade

It's three track at best now, though the trackbed does still exist to be four track, quite a bit is just two tracks now - so putting in two tracks dedicated to HS2 trains alongside the existing route may be possible but lower speed than true HS2 dedicated routes.  It is true four track around chesterfield, but more because of the diverging routes and simplification of Clay Cross Junction.  Then is is two track to Sheffield without a new line being built to a dedicated Sheffield HS2 station.

 

2 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

The dedicated station at Totton was also destined for the dustbin under the plans announced and only the possible route maybe was safeguarded but basicaly forget Leeds as destination for high speed .

Totton was never intended to be part of HS2 - unless Southampton is planned on a bizarre spur.

[Pete the Elaner]

15 hours ago, Dava said:

 

Sad note: it is being reported that HS2 East is indeed being scaled back to a basic link to the MML at East Mids Parkway with the new line to Sheffield & Leeds cancelled and trains running on the existing route.

 

Presumably this will be electrified at long last but clear evidence of ‘levelling down’ in comparison with West Mids.

 

Dava

 

 

The actual opening is still a long way off & don't big, public projects always get scaled back?

It is a matter of budgets. If you can bundle something into a different project, you can hide those costs away from anyone wanting to quote the highest figures possible to make the project look bad.

It is not so much government practise as business practise.

[lmsforever]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

It's three track at best now, though the trackbed does still exist to be four track, quite a bit is just two tracks now - so putting in two tracks dedicated to HS2 trains alongside the existing route may be possible but lower speed than true HS2 dedicated routes.  It is true four track around chesterfield, but more because of the diverging routes and simplification of Clay Cross Junction.  Then is is two track to Sheffield without a new line being built to a dedicated Sheffield HS2 station.

 

Totton was never intended to be part of HS2 - unless Southampton is planned on a bizarre spur.

I understood that the tram  from Nottingham was going there and a large interchange station was being built beside the yard  called Toton  is that the  correct spelling?

[jamie92208]

4 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

I understood that the tram  from Nottingham was going there and a large interchange station was being built beside the yard  called Toton  is that the  correct spelling?

Yes, there was going to be a large interchange station on the main line through Toton. There wereccertsinly plans to extend the branch of the Nottingham tram system to this station. I believe that it's only about a mile. There were also potential plans for a tramway to Derby.  

 

Going north, Sheffirld trains were to leave the HS line not far north of Toton and then join the MML south of Clay Cross.  Services would have then passed through Sheffield and rejoined the HS route somewhere eastvof Meadowhall.  If the stretch from there to Leeds is built then there wouldvonly be a gap if about 30 miles to Toton.

 

From memory there was fue yo be a south facing spur near Trent Junction to serve East Midlands Parkway and Leicester under the latest proposals.

 

Jamie

[woodenhead]

London-Birmingham - HS2 makes sense, a non-stop railway between the two locations between Old Oak and Birmingham Airport.

Birmingham - Manchester starts getting windy to go to places like Crewe because it needed political support, doesn't go to Liverpool though even though it is a big city like Manchester.

Birmingham - Leeds goes through the heart of the Midlands with an interchange at Toton because it needed political support but the target was Leeds.

 

'The North' asks for a HS3 from Liverpool to Leeds - suddenly Toton looks very weak because a HS3 not only connects Liverpool into the high speed network it also allows HS2 an alternative route to it's target in Leeds and may or may not also give Sheffield a better HS2 service.

 

Sacrifice Toton and the midland line to save a bucketload of money to give to the mayors of the North to build HS3 - all makes sense.

 

What they need to be doing very quickly if they do choose this option, is to electrify the midland to Nottingham and Derby to allow acceleration of the MML services

[Edwin_m]

58 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Yes, there was going to be a large interchange station on the main line through Toton. There wereccertsinly plans to extend the branch of the Nottingham tram system to this station. I believe that it's only about a mile. There were also potential plans for a tramway to Derby.  

However, the time from London to central Nottingham via HS2 and tram would be (at best) a handful of minutes faster than by the existing route.  Derby would be similar, with the added disadvantage that the tram would be running through open country where its top speed of under 50mph wouldn't be competitive with the parallel A52.  So Toton really needs feeder train services to make it at all useful, and as there is no scheduled passenger service today this means either diverting (and decelerating) existing trains or adding new ones (for which route capacity would be a major issue). 

 

So the value of Toton to the region is highly questionable - it risks being somewhere useful only to those who drive there, which means it would be good for the affluent to travel to London but less good for visitors who might actually bring some prosperity to the region.    Finishing at East Midlands Parkway has a lot more potential, as there are existing services that could provide onward connections even if through HS2 trains to Nottingham and Derby aren't provided.  

[woodenhead]

You know who might really want Toton to be a HS2 hub - Deutsche Bahn AG.

 

Are they responsible for all that land rather than Network Rail?

 

Then there is the cost of abandoning Toton TMD - something that would likely need to happen if HS2 went that way (no sign of it in illustrations), the redundancy costs for the displaced staff plus the cost of setting up at a new smaller location elsewhere.

 

All that would be covered off in a HS2 route through the site of the yard - without that it remains a big ghost yard under their responsibility and a costly exit which at some point they are going to have to swallow.

[DK123GWR]

Mr Calder seems to get the point (just remember that we're not the target audience).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/gambling-over-hs2-s-eastern-arm-will-only-trigger-more-rail-delay-roulette/ar-AAPYyoq

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, DK123GWR said:

Mr Calder seems to get the point (just remember that we're not the target audience).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/gambling-over-hs2-s-eastern-arm-will-only-trigger-more-rail-delay-roulette/ar-AAPYyoq

I'm not a great fan of Mr Calder, who in our house is known as the nodding dog.  He seems to be the only transport correspondent used by the BBC. However that article is well written and does explain the need for the eastern leg, particularly the connections at Church Fenton and Woodlesford  to feed the long distance expresses onto HS2.

 

Jamie

[woodenhead]

Church Fenton and Woodlesford would both be achievable from HS3 avoiding the eastern leg south of Sheffield.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Some information and photos concerning HS2 construction work taking place at Euston.

The Ian Visits blog from yesterday..........

 

 

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2021/10/26/inside-hs2s-huge-euston-construction-site/

 

 

 

 

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[Davexoc]

For years I have driven under the old rotting bridges that were the former GCR at Finmere (Newton Purcell). Today after some months of not passing under them, I drove under the new HS2 structure.

It looks like a new steel deck that partly reuses the old GCR station structure, but now a single deck for both lines, and with fairly tall wooden sides that I assume are sound deadening barriers on each side. Quite a change....

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 hours ago, Davexoc said:

For years I have driven under the old rotting bridges that were the former GCR at Finmere (Newton Purcell). Today after some months of not passing under them, I drove under the new HS2 structure.

It looks like a new steel deck that partly reuses the old GCR station structure, but now a single deck for both lines, and with fairly tall wooden sides that I assume are sound deadening barriers on each side. Quite a change....

That new bridge is a temporary structure, to carry the construction access and haul road and it isn’t the HS2 rail bridge that will eventually be built alongside it.

i.e. it’s a temporary road bridge.

https://assets.hs2.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/04132429/Finmere-Bridge-AWN-June-v1.pdf

 

 

 

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Edited October 28, 2021 by Ron Ron Ron