The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway

[Dickon]

While cheaper than swimming pools, landfill itself is an expensive resource.  A lot of the spoil went by train and barge to the Thames estuary where it was used to reclaim some land for a nature reserve. 

Several million tonnes of clay from the tunnels were shipped to a specially built wharf on the River Crouch in Essex to re-landscape Wallasea island at the confluence of the Rivers Crouch and Roach as a bird sanctuary to compensate for the loss of wetlands elsewhere on the East Coast. It is the biggest wetlands reclamation project in Europe, about 115 hectares have been landscaped into creeks lagoons and islands. The wharf operated night and day to  unload some 2400 ship loads at a rate of two or three ships a day.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallasea_Wetlands

Edited June 1, 2017 by Dickon

[Fenman]

... It is the biggest land reclamation project in Europe, about 115 hectares have been landscaped into creeks lagoons and islands. ...

 

In case it's helpful to other old farts like me, 115 hectares = 284 acres.

 

Paul

[chris p bacon]

In case it's helpful to other old farts like me, 115 hectares = 284 acres.

 

Paul

Yes....but how many Double Decker buses is that.

[dibber25]

Pity they couldn't spend a little bit of money on the railways of the south west.

Which bit of the south-west is going to produce that number of passengers every day?

[Pint of Adnams]

Yes....but how many Double Decker buses is that.

Boris Buses or real ones?

[number6]

I miss those OU programmes when Men With Beards explained how a vector has direction and magnitude with a piece of string on a board, or rambled through conic sections with added algebra...

That would have been my Dad. Although his were about Genetics and it was sideburns not beard.

 

I sort of enjoyed this programme but can't stand the endless 'maybe it won't get finished in time, maybe they'll drop an escalator, maybe the train won't fit down the tunnel' manufactured peril.

[chris p bacon]

Boris Buses or real ones?

Depends how they cross reference against Nelsons Column.

[Tiffy]

I miss those OU programmes when Men With Beards explained how a vector has direction and magnitude with a piece of string on a board, or rambled through conic sections with added algebra...

 

On the other hand, it wasn't to do with railways, but last night the BBC rebroadcast a programme about the 50th anniversary of the building of the first Severn road bridge in the Timeshift series, which I bumped into through exasperation with the "Election Debate", the tedium of Britain Has "Talent" and various other unmemorable stuff.  It celebrated engineering, it interviewed engineers and workers who were there, it showed how it was made, it had human interest by the Olympic Swimming Pool, it was gripping, informative television.  But because it didn't have thrills and teasing dramatic suspension, I'm sure it would be seen as dull and uninteresting.

 

I think the problem is that everything is now recorded in colour.  If everything was filmed in grainy black and white, it would all seem so much more authentic and authoritative.  I won't even comment on the mimsy narrators they employ nowadays.....

It was quite spooky in the early nineties to go to Open University summer school - and actually meet some of those weird beards from the seventies and eighties TV programmes - professional scholars who had never really worked outside of academia. Very clever - but somewhat cloistered.

 

Or back in the early eighties (1982?) - whilst doing an HTEC in Vehicle Engineering - we wanted to watch the Mary Rose being brought to the surface live. Our instructor, a dedicated scholarly ex-matelot officer, would only let us - if - we calculated all of the forces in the cradle being use to raise it. He had made some disparaging remarks about the design, and nearly wet himself with glee when part way through the lift, there was a lurch, and everything dropped slightly,

 

Scholars eh!

 

Tiffy out.

[BlackRat]

Which bit of the south-west is going to produce that number of passengers every day?

As Exeter, Plymouth and Truro are pretty much gridlocked twice a day then why shouldn't we have some money spent?

 

My town is getting worse, and even places like Barnstaple, Penzance and Bodmin are suffering.

 

I tried to get into Plymouth Saturday, I gave up after spending just over 50 mins to travel 4 miles.

 

Perhaps if we had a few more trains? Now there's a thought.

 

Or does the world revolve around London?

 

We pay just as much tax down here, anyone north of Exeter seems to think we all trundle round on the back of hay carts?

[chris p bacon]

We pay just as much tax down here, anyone north of Exeter seems to think we all trundle round on the back of hay carts?

Are you using the 2 wheel carts ? If you get a RoSCO to build some 4 wheeled ones you can increase the payload.....maybe couple a few together with a few more horsepower upfront.............................just saying......

[Edwin_m]

Are you using the 2 wheel carts ? If you get a RoSCO to build some 4 wheeled ones you can increase the payload.....maybe couple a few together with a few more horsepower upfront.............................just saying......

I think the four wheel carts are already in use on the railway in the South West as well as further north, but the eight wheel ones are greatly to be preferred. 

 

Seriously though, the South West would benefit hugely from an influx of more trains.  Even keeping the same timetable but doubling the length of every train would make a big difference, and although it would need enlargement of some depots and platforms that's nowhere near what would be needed to double capacity in the South East.  I'm not sure to what extent this does actually happen with the cascaded DMUs and shortened HSTs that are promised. 

[melmerby]

Yes....but how many Double Decker buses is that.

Surely that is measured in Olympic Swimming pools?

Or is a land area proportional to the size of Wales?

 

 

Are you using the 2 wheel carts ? If you get a RoSCO to build some 4 wheeled ones you can increase the payload.....maybe couple a few together with a few more horsepower upfront.............................just saying......

Now would the Horsepower be Suffolk Horse or Shire Horse?

Edited June 1, 2017 by melmerby

[chris p bacon]

Now would the Horsepower be Suffolk Horse or Shire Horse?

If the Suffolk Punch, then the power could be equated to lawnmowers.

[Platform 1]

measured in Olympic Swimming pools

 

The Register already has standards defined for these things - so 284 acres is (are?) 283.7 football pitches or 55.3 microWales

[Mike Storey]

As Exeter, Plymouth and Truro are pretty much gridlocked twice a day then why shouldn't we have some money spent?

 

My town is getting worse, and even places like Barnstaple, Penzance and Bodmin are suffering.

 

I tried to get into Plymouth Saturday, I gave up after spending just over 50 mins to travel 4 miles.

 

Perhaps if we had a few more trains? Now there's a thought.

 

Or does the world revolve around London?

 

We pay just as much tax down here, anyone north of Exeter seems to think we all trundle round on the back of hay carts?

 

Er, no you don't, and that is the problem you have to deal with. Average council tax rates in London (and the SE) are far higher than in the far South West (although perhaps approaching that in southern Dorset). Even if you did, on a population basis alone, it would not even come close. Remember that CrossRail is largely funded by London council tax payers and not to the same degree by national government as are most regional schemes (although I admit that national government does underwrite, if not actually fund, the huge loans adopted by TfL and the Mayor of London). Bear in mind also that many (most?) of the regional transport schemes in the SW over the last 30 years, were significantly underwritten by the EU, under Regional Development Grants. You might say what schemes, but my daughter lived and worked down near Truro for several years not that long ago, and in that time, the local train service nearly doubled, largely due to such a grant, I was informed. You might care to give that some consideration when placing your X next week. It would seem that few did so when voting in the Referendum last year.....

[jjb1970]

I miss those old OU shows. OK some of the production values could be a little suspect (although some were excellent) but in terms of content they were wonderful and it was one of life's simple pleasures to end up learning about something you'd never even heard of before ending up learning about it from OU vision.

[Clearwater]

Clearly income tax rates are the same across the country, albeit the Scottish Parliament has not elected to date to use its prerogative to vary income tax north of the border, however the aggregate tax take from London is in excess of what is spent in London (for example):

 

www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/07/london-top-taxpaying-city-uk-report

 

As such, money spent in London that promotes economic activity, as Crossrail will undoubtedly do, will further increase the redistribution of that money to the broader UK economy. Brings to mind the old adage "Be careful what you wish for"....

 

David

[jjb1970]

HMRC isn't a savings account, you pay into the pot but the government decides how to spend the money. I agree with the comment about being careful about what people wish for as if tax revenue was ring fenced to remain in the area from which it is raised then the losers wouldn't be London. When I lived in Cumbria it was common to hear complaints from people about how they paid taxes and got nothing back as all the money was spent in urban areas, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were benefitting from rural electrification, gas, water, telecoms etc infrastructure development, roads, emergency service cover etc that would cost an awful lot more for them if it all had to be funded from the local tax take.

[Chris116]

I have just received the OU poster from this series. I wish they had made it clear that the OU now deals with 8 to 10 year olds as this 62 years old would not have wasted his time or the OU/BBC's money in ordering the poster.

[Platform 1]

First of 2 episodes in new Series 3 hits the screen tomorrow night: 9pm BBC2, repeated Sunday at 7pm (not Scotland or Wales).  Synopsis is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002jt4

 

[RJS1977]

The other thing to bear in mind is that the majority of Crossrail funding is not from Central government. A lot of it is in loans that will be paid back through TfL fares (not just Crossrail's), building developments over Crossrail sites, the Mayor's Infrastructure Levy etc...

[Mike Storey]

20 hours ago, Platform 1 said:

First of 2 episodes in new Series 3 hits the screen tomorrow night: 9pm BBC2, repeated Sunday at 7pm (not Scotland or Wales).  Synopsis is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002jt4

 

 

Thanks for that link. I was going to give it a miss, because I thought it was just another repeat of the previous series!! Will be very interesting to see how they deal with the delay - I see in the synopsis of the Ep 1, that the four issues covered will be finishing TCR fit out, Canary Wharf, driver training and the role of the testing and commissioning manager. No mention of the scheme already in delay, but that must become a feature of Ep 2 surely? So should be compelling watching.

 

[melmerby]

Looks like there will be enough material for a fourth (& fifth?) series as the project continues.

 

I was amazed watching the "cable pullers" as I thought the majority of services went in at the empty box stage, before loads of equipment had been fitted!

[Andymsa]

I did love the part on the lady trainee driver, oh if only you knew what I know about subsequent events 

[Platform 1]

Care/able to tell?  You can't leave us in suspenders...