HS2

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Still no news of Florence.  I wonder if the delay is for PO. Itical reasons and if so how much the delay is costing.

Are they waiting for a double breakthrough?

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Are they waiting for a double breakthrough?

I very much doubt it as believe that it's quite dangerous to run the machines next to each other.  As Ron has said they do have to go slowly in shallow ground near the exit but it is bizarre that it is taking so long. 

 

Jamie

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I very much doubt it as believe that it's quite dangerous to run the machines next to each other.  As Ron has said they do have to go slowly in shallow ground near the exit but it is bizarre that it is taking so long. 

 

Jamie

There've been some double breakthroughs down here recently but in deeper ground.

[melmerby]

Is there some work affecting the Derby Lines out of Birmingham?

 

XC Nottingham trains from midday and all day Sunday Start/Finish at Coleshill Parkway,

XC to the NE/Scotland go via Lichfield

[jamie92208]

It looks as if they are about to launch the next two TBM's from OOC.  Emily and Anne. 

 

I need to add some more columns to my spreadsheet.  Just three more to go.  Dorothy at Bromford then the two from OOC to Euston. 

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

I just saw that Jamie.

 

UPDATE

 

From other reports, TBM "Emily" hasn’t yet begun its launch from the Victoria Rd crossover box, in west London.

The video release is a bit premature.

By all accounts, launch is imminent, with TBM " Anne" following in a few or several weeks time.

 

The video uses mostly old footage and recent footage of the preparations in assembling the TBM's.

There's no actual video or photos covering the launch itself, because it hasn’t happened.

The usual poor HS2 Ltd PR output.

 

For those not familiar with events....

These TBM's are digging the Northolt East tunnels, westbound from OOC to Greenford, where the'll meet up with the Northolt West tunnels, currently being dug eastbound from West Ruislip to Greenford.

TBM's "Sushila" and "Caroline" have completed half of their work and should reach Greenford at the end of this year.

They'll be long finished and removed from the completed section of tunnels, before these latest 2 machines reach Greenford later in 2025.

 

 

 

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Edited February 25 by Ron Ron Ron

[corneliuslundie]

Re Coleshill Parkway, it was the same last weekend and Monday. Bus from Birmingham NS to Coleshill. 

Jonathan

[Ron Ron Ron]

34 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Re Coleshill Parkway, it was the same last weekend and Monday. Bus from Birmingham NS to Coleshill. 

Jonathan

NR say it’s engineering works.

 

Although the piers to carry HS2 over the line, are being constructed either side of the track, just west of Coleshill ( east side of the M42), current disruptive HS2 work in that area is to do with moving and replacing utilities and affecting some road closures.

 

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[jamie92208]

The sequencing does make sense. They can only remove one machine at a time  at Greenford they will get Sishilla out of the way before Caroline arrives then the other two will arrive. 

 

Meanwhile back at OOC the Herrenkenecht team will no doubt be starting on install g the Euston bound pair.  I wonder if those tunnels will be officially started  to coincide with some political event. 

 

Jamie

[62613]

Meanwhile, The Express (or The Mail) is trumpeting that "Rishi" is going to spend £5 billion of the "Saved" HS2 money from cancelling Phase 2 on "Boosting Northern transport".

1) is this actual saved money?

2) What would £5 billion actually get you? and

3) Where has the other £31 billion from the estimated price to complete Phase 2 gone?  

[jamie92208]

I better not comment.

 

Jamie

[corneliuslundie]

Potholes

J

[Grovenor]

42 minutes ago, 62613 said:

1) is this actual saved money?

2) What would £5 billion actually get you? and

3) Where has the other £31 billion from the estimated price to complete Phase 2 gone?  

1) For meney to be saved then you must have it in the first place, but this money was due to be borrowed at some future date when needed for phase 2.

2) So whatever it will get you, (Not much) it will be well into the fiture so it won't be "Rishi" taking credit or blame for it.

3) It hasn't gone anywhere since its not been borrowed yet.

[62613]

42 minutes ago, Grovenor said:

1) For meney to be saved then you must have it in the first place, but this money was due to be borrowed at some future date when needed for phase 2.

2) So whatever it will get you, (Not much) it will be well into the fiture so it won't be "Rishi" taking credit or blame for it.

3) It hasn't gone anywhere since its not been borrowed yet.

Pretty much what I thought.

[62613]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Potholes

J

Which isn't "investment" but day - to - day spending, yes?

[Mark Saunders]

18 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Which isn't "investment" but day - to - day spending, yes?

You can fool some of the people some of the time…

[jamie92208]

Great news,Florence has broken through this video actually shows the cutter head with a big banner above it. 

This is good news but why oh why is it being kept secret. I can hazard a guess that it is on orders from the Westminster direction. 

 

Jamie

Edited February 25 by jamie92208

[John Tomlinson]

22 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Which isn't "investment" but day - to - day spending, yes?

 

Quite so, or more precisely something that should have been "day to day" spending (i.e. revenue expense), but arguably has rather negligently neglected for several years. By guess who!

 

For a Govt. headed by a finance specialist to spin this fiction is IMHO nothing short of a disgrace (probably not allowed to say that).

 

John.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Florence must have broken through last week.

There's no debris from the breakthrough and the concrete plinth at the base of the portal is swept clean.

 

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[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Florence must have broken through last week.

There's no debris from the breakthrough and the concrete plinth at the base of the portal is swept clean.

 

.

I agree, no one around either.  I think I'll put Feb 19th as the completion date on my spreadsheet. 

 

I feel very sorry for the tunnelling teams who have been denied their moment in the spotlight. They have done a fabulous job and now no one knew that they'd done it.  They'll still have to fit a few more segment rings to get the cutter head and shield out into the open for removal.  From the look of those pads in front of the tunnel mouths they will bring it out a section at a time. 

 

Jamie

Edited February 25 by jamie92208

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I wonder if those tunnels will be officially started  to coincide with some political event. 

An announcement from the Government that Euston won't be built as it is too expensive, the money will be used for more road schemes in the south.😄

[class26]

16 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

Potholes

J

Which will be potholes again in 12 months time if the repairs are anything like those my local council attempt.  Cheapest possible materials used, hopeless

 

Nothing more than political grandstanding 

[Artless Bodger]

3 hours ago, class26 said:

Which will be potholes again in 12 months time if the repairs are anything like those my local council attempt.  Cheapest possible materials used, hopeless

 

Nothing more than political grandstanding 

They might last longer if the holes were filled with bundles of plastic banknotes - they're supposed to have good durability compared to the paper ones.

[Stevebr]

The journey times with only Phase 1 being completed have been a bit vague with claims (from the Department of Transport (DoT) and various Ministers) of 100 minutes from London to Manchester without any detail being available.  I have run several simulations using the "Schiehallion" simulation software to simulate journeys from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow as well as Birmingham to Manchester and Glasgow. In addition, the impact of potential speed increases on the existing West Coast Main Line above the existing 110 mph limit for non-tilt services are modelled. It will be seen from the table below that there are still significant improvements for services to Manchester and Liverpool as well as some improvements from London to Glasgow.  The famous 100-minute schedule oft quoted by the DoT from London to Manchester is possible with limited stops as shown in Table 2, but the saving should not be compared with a current train stopping more frequently.

There remain several key variables which may still influence these outcomes. One of the critical decisions revolves around Handsacre Junction where for the purposes of the simulation it has been assumed that the original proposal is implemented rather than the economy layout proposed when Phase 2a was accelerated (it seems a long time ago!).

For those who would like to see more of the dull detail a pdf is attached.

 

Table 1 Current and Projected Journey Times with Phase 1 Only

 

Table 2 Limited Stop Schedule to Manchester with limited stops and EPS

 

 

 

HS2 Journey TimesSJB_20240226_R02.pdf

[Ron Ron Ron]

The HS2 TBM tracker is today (26th Feb) showing that "Florence" has 20 metres left to go  ???????

 

Cecilia has 195 metres left.... possibly a couple of weeks before breakthrough?

 

 

Meanwhile, up in Brum, at the Bromford Tunnel, TBM "Mary Ann" is reported to have  completed 1,690 metres, with 3,910 metres left.

i.e. 30% of the total tunnel distance.

 

 

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