Ron Ron Ron

They usually do ! 🤣🤣🤣 .

Another view of the newly diverted Harvil Road, showing the new bridges over the HS2 trace and the adjacent Chiltern Line. This video clearly demonstrates that the Copthall tunnel serves no other purpose but to retain the original hillside profile, sloping from the left of the view, down towards the Chiltern Line on the right. Hundreds of millions of ££££'s spent, rather than the original plan to simply have a cutting and re profile the hillside. .

Harvil Road is on the eastern side of the Colne Valley, in the London borough of Hillingdon and had to be diverted to provide a road crossing over HS2, just off the eastern end of the viaduct. A later change to the plan has resulted in the inclusion of the Copthall “Green “ tunnel, which commences where the diverted Harvil Rd. crosses the HS2 trace and extends eastwards towards West Ruislip. .

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I understand it's for a separate line running parallel to and not linked to HS2. AIUI, there's no funding for this line to be extended beyond a new unloading facility at Calvert, to Aylesbury. .

Chilterns Tunnels... Florence has less than 56 metres to go, as of yesterday's report. Probably, slowly cutting through the heavily reinforced and stabilised ground in the final stages to breakout at the northern portal. Cecilia now under 465 metres from breakthrough and counting down. .

I thought that at first glance, but quickly noticed the map is turned on its side. North is on the left, south on the right. There are obvious clues from the locations marked on the map, such as the Greatmoor Energy from Waste plant, just to the south of Calvert and the relative positions of Quainton and Calvert villages. .

If you think that most of the "Green Tunnels" on Phase 1, are an unnecessary overspend and waste of literally, billions of ££££'s; then are you aware of the mega expensive "Bat Tunnel", that will be built over HS2 at Calvert ? Yes, you heard it correctly ! A Bat Tunnel.....and it has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne. Check the date ! This isn't the 1st of April either. Rather than being underground, or buried, the Sheephouse Wood Bat Protection Structure is above surface........ Details here..... https://assets.hs2.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Sheephouse-Wood-Bat-Protection-Structure-You-said-We-did-Information-Boards-March-2023.pdf .

For those of you, who'd rather we had some more actual HS2 construction news........... This weekend (just gone), the M42 was closed again, near the NEC, to allow demolition of the 2nd concrete bridge that previously carried the A452 over the motorway. (n.b. That was the roundabout over the motorway, that looked like a motorway junction, but without any slip roads or connection to the motorway itself.) With both bridges now removed, work can start on constructing the box bridge structure that will carry HS2 over the M42 at this location. Click here for the story...... HS2 Ltd News Media story and details Looking North....... .

Not the Philippines, but based in Guam, Micronesia. (a US overseas territory). From Guam, United 737's fly to a few Japanese destinations (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka), as well as Manila in the Philippines, Saipan (Mariana Islands), Micronesian islands of Colonia and Palau, .....plus the 15 hour long island hopping service (Five intermediate stops on the way), right across the central Pacific, to Honolulu. It was a long standing Continental Airlines operation, dating back to the 1960's if I'm not mistaken, and continues following the merger of Continental into United. .

Impossible. HS2 will be high up on viaducts. There can be no link to any other rail infrastructure, between Curzon St. and Washwood Heath, without major civil engineering to completely redesign viaducts which are already under construction. .

Putting on the pedant hat for a moment…..While it’s reported that DB Group is looking at a sale of DBS, do note that DB Cargo (UK) hasn’t been part of that subsidiary for 8 years. However, I take your point. DBC (UK) is likely to be sold off at some point. Parent DB Group are in need of funds to cover their huge losses and to help finance urgently needed infrastructure work. .

Chilterns Tunnels... A report elsewhere (Paul Clifton - BBC transport correspondent) says that Florence was due to break through today. However, the "ceremony" due to be held with the Rail Minister present, was cancelled. Presumably re-scheduled for early next week? .

The article is the same ones syndicated to several publications, derived from a report by a couple of researchers from Vienna, Rafael Prieto-Curiel and Daniel Kondor. There are some terrible mistakes and errors in the article. The Line is planned to be 170km (105 miles) long. The article suggests that making it a circle would result in a radius of 3.3km, i.e. 6.6km from one side to the other, making the maximum distance between any two points far less than on a 170km line. However, if a 170km line was turned into a circle, it would have a radius of 27km. i.e. 54km (33.5 miles) from one side to the other. Kind of blows their argument out of the water. They also state the proposed high speed rail line serving the length of the Line, would need 86 stations, hence preventing the HS trains reaching any sort of high speeds and slowing down connectivity. However, a tiny bit of research would show that the HS rail proposal is for just 4 intermediate stations between termini. These would be connected to a network of local transport systems. .

Average ICE lifetime has risen from 11 to 12 years, only just over 10 years ago, to around 16 years today. Average mileage at scrapping has gone up from 110,000 to 130,000, although well maintained, modern ICE cars could last for over 200,000 miles, but they mostly won't because of the lack of spare parts over time and economic viability. EV batteries (discounting early primitive types) are expected to last for between 200,000 and 500,000 miles. When will you need to replace the battery? Range? The average daily car mileage in the UK is under 20 miles (140 miles per week or just under 7,000 miles per year). The average annual company car usage (using the car for business) is under 14,000 miles (= approx. 270 miles per week). Less than 5% of cars do more than 15,000 miles a year. .

4 to 4.5 times as many used cars are sold each year, compared with brand new. That indicates that "the majority" can't afford (or are not prepared to pay for) new ICE powered cars either. As EV's filter through onto the used market in increasing numbers (as they are already starting to do), they will easily be affordable to anyone contemplating buying a similar used ICE powered vehicle. Early heavy depreciation in a fledgling and uncertain market, means you can currently (no pun intended) pick up, almost new, low mileage EV's for bargain prices and benefit from lower running costs, making them "more affordable" in the long run. Back to Choo Choo trains.......... .

They had to rebuilt a large amount of destroyed infrastructure. Ours was largely intact and the desire and impetus in a cash strapped economy, tended towards a restoration of a pre-war normal. We patched up and made do. The money was needed elsewhere. A mindset that lasted for a long time. Add in the massive cost of the 1950's and 60's Cold War, the propping up of the remains of Empire and the focus and budget being placed on new technologies, like Nuclear etc. .

With Labour’s £28b flagship Green plans now thrown in the bin, what chance they can rustle up the money for restoring HS2 Phase 2a &b ? .

100% Plus, how much would costs escalate in real terms, never mind inflation, if it takes another 10 years to get a new scheme underway? The original Euston plan (complete rebuild) was deemed to be too expensive and highly disruptive, so they went ahead and designed a half plan (an 11 platform HS2 extension to a modified existing station). That was then stopped by the a Treasury after £100 million had been spent on the design, because it was “too expensive”. The resulting redesign then began to over-run by £4 billion and that has now been stopped by the PM. Now they want private investment in a probably not-fit for purpose 6 platform station. It’s not just HS2. This cack-handed approach to saving money, by the Treasury and whatever government department is involved, has dogged public managed and funded projects (both civil and military) for decades. It’s shambolic. The politicians, of whatever party, are just the clueless lumps who get sucked into this failed system. .

Nothing out of the ordinary there Brian. Just a typical bad weather day. We get them for a few days every year. Most planes landing, with a few diversions early on (BA diversions to Gatwick and Stansted). A go-around for a BA flight from Jersey a few minutes ago, but most planes are landing. .

The trains have already been ordered to a specification issued before the cancellation of 2a. In any case, I doubt there would be much of a time penalty resulting from any minor speed reduction on the stretches of track between Handsacre and Crewe (or Piccadilly), where 125 mph running depends on tilt. Handsacre to Crewe is only something like 32 miles after all. How much of that mileage needs tilt and would be affected? The time saving resulting from running on HS2 Phase 1, would more than make up for it. Sounds like a total Red Herring to me. More concerning is the passenger capacity issue. . .

There would be little to no savings as all the civil engineering and infrastructure would still have to be built, all the "mitigation" for this that and the other would still be insisted on and the environmental and nature ad-ons would almost certainly be kept. On the other hand, the idea of a "conventional line" that would be for the exclusive use of HS2 trains, that coincidentally allowed running at errmm, "higher speeds", might be worth floating. .

There’s only one A380 stand on the piers. Stand 12 on the end of pier B ( T1), is specially equipped with the required airbridges, larger gate waiting area and has the lateral clearances. Vertical clearances come into play as well. The stands on the T3 pier are far too small, with the multiple parking positions being provided for smaller regional types. For example, in FlyBe days, you’d see a couple Q400’s on one such gate and in an earlier era, BA Connect regional types. These days it might be a single Ryanair 737 or suchlike. The other stands at Manchester, capable of accommodating an A380, are remote stands on the Western Apron, near the cargo village - Stand 62 and Stand 80. There’s possibly one other remote stand. The T2 development plan includes several new A380 size stands (e.g. on Pier 2 currently under construction). Originally, T1 was due to be decommissioned and demolished, but COVID delayed and resulted in some changes to the development timeline. Under those original plans, Stand 12 would have gone, but I don’t think anyone’s sure what’s going to happen to pier B in the near term. With passenger numbers at Manchester, almost back to pre-Covid 2019 levels, I’m surprised that the plans haven’t been put firmly on track. .

As has been pointed out, this DCC feature has been around for at least a decade in other markets. This is just the first time a British outline RTR model has included it.....finally. .

Roads and Rails made a mistake then ! https://www.esu.eu/en/products/digital-control/ECoS-50210-dcc-system/what-ECoS-can-do/ .