HS2

[KingEdwardII]

1 hour ago, wagonman said:

HS2 station will be at Curzon Street which is nowhere near Moor Street

Walk out of the western entrance of the new Curzon Street station and you will almost trip over the entrance to Moor Street station. They could not be much closer unless you built the one on top of the other. Like St Pancras and Kings Cross.

 

New Street Station to Curzon Street Station is about 650m on foot. A tram connection is being built - the Birmingham Eastside Metro extension to Digbeth:

https://metroalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Eastside-Edition_issue-14.pdf

 

Yours, Mike.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, wagonman said:

 

The HS2 station will be at Curzon Street which is nowhere near Moor Street and even further from New Street. My source for this assertion? HS2's own website.

 

 

You quite clearly haven't looked properly at the plans, or are familiar with where the station sits in Birmingham.

[melmerby]

Location View from Google Earth:

 

There is also a proposed pedestrian link directly from the HS2 station to Moor street

 

The tram extension will have a stop at the bottom of Albert Street, just across Moor Street from the HS2 station, there will be another near the far end called Curzon Street where there will be another entrance to the HS2 station., so you will be able to choose which end of the train to go to.

Edited July 31, 2023 by melmerby

[wagonman]

I sit corrected.

[martin_wynne]

They couldn't be much closer:

 

 https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/17272404#map=18/52.47907/-1.89078

 

Martin.

[jamie92208]

An update video about the Northolt tunnels has just been released. 

Stilno update on Lydia's prigresslwith the logistics tunnel. 

 

Jamie

[Siberian Snooper]

Curzon Street progress from the 6th floor of the Carrs Lane Travelodge.

 

[jamie92208]

I presume that the two white vertical structures are part of the roof structure. 

 

Jamie

[RJS1977]

On 30/07/2023 at 11:49, locoholic said:

The BBC is reporting that the Infrastructure and Projects Authority says of HS2, "Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable".

 

What on Earth does this mean? What does an unsuccessful delivery of HS2 look like?! Horse drawn trains from Old Oak Common to Brackley?

 

Interesting to read though that this time last year the IPA called East West Rail "unachievable", but this year it's described as "potentially achievable."

[Edwin_m]

5 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Interesting to read though that this time last year the IPA called East West Rail "unachievable", but this year it's described as "potentially achievable."

I'm led to believe this rating for HS2 is because the re-planning of the project to take account of the Government's postponements hasn't been finished yet, so there is no plan in place to achieve what they are now being asked to do.  There's probably not enough budget either, as the postponements have increased costs.  

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I presume that the two white vertical structures are part of the roof structure. 

 

Jamie

I wonder whether they will be tower cranes for lifting segments onto the supporting structures?

[Ron Ron Ron]

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I presume that the two white vertical structures are part of the roof structure. 

 

Jamie

They’re tower cranes.

That area is where they’re building the approach and station throat viaduct.

The station building will be located in the foreground, extending from alongside the historic station building, towards the tree line at the bottom of the photo.

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

HS2 delivers third huge bridge move in the West Midlands this month - 27 hours ahead of schedule
 

https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/news/hs2-delivers-third-huge-bridge-move-in-the-west-midlands-this-month-27-hours-ahead-of-schedule
 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited August 10, 2023 by Ron Ron Ron

[jamie92208]

The team driving the long Chiltern tunnels really have got their act together about updates on progress.  Every 7 days now.   Florence is going well at 12,339 metres at a rate of 25 per day. Cecilia seems to have had a maintenance period but is now on the move again with just 50 metres this week.    Still no news from Lydia.  Perhaps she has got lost somewhere under Willesden and will suddenly emerge somewhere without warning.

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

Continuing with tunnelling news.....

 

The first components for the 2 TBM's that will tunnel the eastern section of the Northolt Tunnels, have been spotted at the Victoria Rd. crossover box site.

The cutting head for one of the machines can be seen under covered storage at the western end of the site.

Other items may be under the adjacent covered areas.

 

(n.b. The eastern Northolt tunnels will be dug westwards from Victoria Rd., to Greenford, where they'll meet the western section tunnels, currently being dug eastwards, from Ruislip.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[The Stationmaster]

On 30/07/2023 at 23:24, billbedford said:

 

Would that include something to deal with the lack of capacity on the southern end of the WCML?

More likely the problems at times of perturbation on the route as it currently stands.  Last November I was in a heavily delayed Cross Country train from Leamington which was the result of a freight blocking the Coventry line due to another freight having failed in the vicinity of Greaves Siding.  That upset the local 'service' and the. Cross Country service.  So it's not unlikely that one day there would need to be a further extension of double line on the route

 

It's a very long time since the days of CP1 for emergency diversions off the WCML and I'm pretty sure that Coventry -Leamington didn't play much (any?) part in it.  CP1 was really a work of amazingly optimistic fiction and it was difficult enough to resource even 25% of what was in the plan let alone resource something for this route where Road Knowledge was even more limited!.  The last time I saw it implemented it resulted in a single train being diverted to Paddington compared with the idea of a couple every hour.

[Ron Ron Ron]

I'm just waiting for confirmation, through a press release, that the first of the 2 Bromford tunnels TBM's, "Mary Ann", set off on its tunnelling drive on Friday (4th Aug).

 

 

https://www.hs2.org.uk/work-items/update-on-tunnelling-works-in-north-warwickshire/

 

 

 

.

[jamie92208]

Seven days later and the Chiltern team and the Northolt team have updated their progress reports.  Sushila has now done over 30% of her drive at 2432 metres and is going at a rate of 14 metres per day. Caroline is at 1, 711 and going a bit slower.   Florence has got to the 77% mark at 12.443m out of 16,000 and Cecilia is getting back up to speed and is at 11,805m.   I am certain that Lydia has headed into a wormhole and will surface somewhere strange in due course.  Still no news since June.

 

Jamie

Edited August 10, 2023 by jamie92208

[Ron Ron Ron]

Water Orton, near Birmingham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

A certain Stephen Walker, has posted a YouTube video of a section of the Colne Valley viaduct that isn't being built using the Launching Girder, "Dominique".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

Another recent video, filmed before the section in the above video, was completed....

 

 

 

 

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[ess1uk]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66468773
 

[woodenhead]

5 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66468773
 

Literally a sunk cost 🤣

 

But also very good planning, if they didn't do this then the cost of completing those tunnels would have risen massively as they worked to put the boring machines in around newly completed infrastructure and that in itself could have been the biggest barrier to restarting the push to Euston.

[jamie92208]

I suspect that they will be tested by going forward until their tails are clear of the Logistics wormhole that Lydia has disappeared down.  She hasn't been heard from since June 7th. I'm not sure if they have to be out of the way before they can launch the TBM's northwards to Northolt. 

 

Jamie

Edited August 11, 2023 by jamie92208

[melmerby]

Some of these viaducts look quite elegant.