Ron Ron Ron

You have to marvel at the absurdity of suggesting that Eurostar staff at St. Pancras, could all be herded onto coaches (if you could even get hold of coaches at no notice, 2 days before NY, in the holiday period), or put on trains, rushed down to Ebbsfleet and/or Ashford, to quickly open up mothballed facilities within a few hours of the sort of disruption encountered the other day. Even if you could get them there so quickly, how many could you muster, as St. Pancras Int would still have to be manned to deal with departing passengers turning up there and needing to be dealt with. Then there’s staff training for the unfamiliar, smaller facilities; the provision of services for staff and passengers which will all be mothballed, out of use or removed; the lack of basics like toilet provision (all the toilets will have been drained down and closed for hygiene and safety reasons), no catering facilities, not even a coffee bar or stall, etc, etc. Of course, all that could be dealt with, but it would need a contingency plan that would require Ebbsfleet and Ashford to be maintained in a state of constant readiness and staff taken there for periodic training, for what? A once in 20 year occurrence? The whole notion is plain silly. .

Nobody suggested they would be "cheap". You appeared to imply that HS2 fares would be expensive... "..........and I think we can all be quietly confident that whatever else travel on HS2 will be, it WON'T be cheap. ...." As nobody knows what the fares will be, I simply asked on what basis you made that assumption? In the past and still to this day, critics and anti's have declared that HS2 fares would be "very expensive", "unaffordable", "for rich business men" and other such hyperbole. Most of their opinions are based on ignorance in assuming HS2 would be some sort of alternative 'premium" service, rather than the plain fact that HS2 services were always intended to be the same IC services that use the WCML today, but transferred onto a new, faster piece of rail infrastructure. If the DafT do end up dictating a "premium" for HS2 fares, what will it be a premium over? There will be no alternative, other than the stopping and semi-fast services currently provided by WMT to Birmingham. London - Manchester and London - Glasgow, would end up being "premium fare" only. The only thing we can be sure of, is that all rail fares will be more expensive in the 2030's than they are today. .

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North London ? HS2 goes nowhere near “North London”. Unless you mean Euston, being on the north side of Central London? OOC is on the borders of west and WNW London. .

Mace Dragados Joint Venture (MDJV) were appointed to construct HS2’s Curzon Street station in May 2021. Construction work is due to start over the next couple of months. The site is cleared and piling work will be commencing soon. .

So you think the NIMBY’s, environmentalists and other protesters wouldn’t have objected to the line passing through various parts of the countryside, just because the designed line speed was lower? .

I'm curious as to why you make that assumption? On what assumption(s) ? Just asking? .

At Warley, they wouldn’t say, other than a private aside, confirming that there was a list of developments in progress, taking the system beyond the launch offering. Kinesis already has the ability to program train sequences and shuttles. With the layout control software already there, it would be an opportunity too good to miss to add full train control, with loco detection. There was no mention of RailCom or RailCom+ however, both of which are present on the outgoing Dynamis Ultima. .

A map of the Delta Junction layout, showing the route of HS2 on it's way from London (bottom) to "the north" (top), with the branch to Birmingham going off to the left. .

The first span of the Delta Junction viaducts, at Water Orton, has been completed. .

This looks like an earlier view, looking east, towards Winslow. This is the bridge over HS2. The Calvert HS2 infrastructure depot will be built on the left of the frame. At the top right hand side, you can just make out the earth embankment being formed, to carry the the link from EW Rail towards Aylesbury.

Today's progress update from HS2 Ltd, is a little baffling. TBM "Lydia" boring the logistics tunnel at OOC, is said to have 216 metres remaining, which if I'm not mistaken, was the figure they gave several weeks ago ? I've read elsewhere, that breakout was due either just before Xmas, or early in the NY. Reported today, at the Northolt West tunnels.... Sushila = 2915m with 4925m remaining. Caroline = 2825m with 5015m remaining. Meanwhile at Bromford..... Mary Anne = 1290m with 4310m remaining. The latest Chilterns tunnels progress was reported yesterday (see a few posts above). Unfortunately, the slow and haphazard HS2 Ltd PR machine, have today issued an out of date press release, saying that Florence and Cecilia have reached the Chesham Road intervention shaft. That event must have taken place a few weeks ago, with Florence now almost halfway from that location to the north portal at South Heath, with Cecilia following on behind. .

Deliveries of tunnel segments, for the Northolt east tunnels, have just started. The segments are made in Hartlepool and are being transported to the HS2 infrastructure support depot at Willesden. .

Chilterns Tunnels.... Florence has 762 metres left to go. Cecilia has 1,158 metres left. .

A fast time video showing activity at the Curzon St. site..... Note the bridge construction 0.10 secs into the video. (Bellingham Bridge?) .

The viaduct is already blending in with the scenery.... .

Indeed, there’s a worthwhile case for the 455. NSE, Southern, SWT 1st livery, SWT red etc. Not a priority for me personally, as they don’t venture that far south, in normal service. There was a kit available, with a ready-built option. .

We’ve had SWT Class 170, 159, 158 and 450, but no 444 to match. A Southern 377 would go nicely with those, as the operational areas for these two operators, meet and overlap in numerous locations. So a RTR 444 and a 377 would top my own wish list. I’m not holding my breath. .

Because (like the analogue version) the digital version of this system is using Bluetooth for comms with the wireless handset, it can only accommodate two handsets. To add any additional handsets, you need to purchase a Consort expansion module for each pair of additional handsets, at another £195 per Consort module. Most DCC systems that have, or can add, wireless handsets, use WiFi rather than Bluetooth, so no such extra modules are required when adding extra wireless handsets. The Bachmann Kinesis system doesn’t require any such add-on modules when adding additional “Edge” wireless handsets either. With an r.r.p. of £399.95 it’s not only cheaper, but comes bundled with their RailController computer control software package, plus a free app to allow the use of a smartphone, or tablet ( iPad etc,) as additional loco and track control (mimic) controllers. .

Yes, it’s definitely the TBM previously named Dorothy. The names are really just a bit of PR fluff. Maybe giving it a new name serves some new local PR purpose?

As Jamie says, at Burton Green they are building the tunnel below what was the base of the pre-existing disused cutting. The overall, narrow width of land available, would almost certainly meant very expensive and difficult measures would have been needed to simply dig out the cutting to a much lower level. Hence the top down construction technique. The tunnel structure at Copthall, will be covered with a deep layer of, goodness knows how many gazillions of tons of earth infill. No doubt why it looks like a massive fortification. The Chipping Warden tunnel looks to be at a relatively shallow depth in comparison to Copthall. Is Greatworth similar in construction method? I’ve no idea about Wendover. .

The north portal at South Heath, taken 2 months ago. .

Incredible to think that Florence has only 920 metres to go. Progress will invariably slow down as they get closer to the north portal at South Heath. Over the last couple of hundred metres (prior to breaking through), the ground has been reinforced and stabilised with piling and the installation of deep set concrete Barrettes. The TBM's will be "steered" through this channel to the portal face. This aerial view (pinched from elsewhere), shows the approximation position of Florence (red circle - bottom right), relative to north portal (note: the photo is now way out of date). .

Click on the link above for the photos. .

I totally agree. I'm reading elsewhere, that following Lewisham and other incidents, NR were told in a report (...it might be from the ORR ?) that human factors and human behaviour had not been adequately factored into any emergency, or contingency planning. I think this extends all the way back in history, through BR and beyond. Without adequate information, and proactive people management, passengers are going to do what they think necessary in such situations, whether through calculation (flawed or not), belligerence, or in a panic. Most passengers don't know about all the potential dangers involved if leaving a train unsupervised, nor would they understand about OHLE or 3rd Rail. Why should they? They're not required to undertake emergency training before being allowed to travel. Speaking as a lay-person, I am sure there are lots of procedures and processes in place to deal with incidents like this, but clearly there are serious shortcomings that may serve to demonstrate that those procedures are either inadequate, or fundamentally flawed, when it comes to the aspect of dealing with stranded passengers. Blaming it on the availability of resources doesn't absolve any apparent fundamental failing. I would hope this incident should serve to highlight another gaping hole in railway safety culture, but as nobody died (thankfully), I do wonder to what extent and depth the "inquiry" will go. . .