Sunak kills the Northern Powerhouse.

westendgirl

It was said that people who lost land would be given the first chance to buy it back. Wonder if the price will have escalated hugely.
Now Euston will only be used for HS2 if there is private investment to pay for it and he calls Starmer Captain Flip Flop!

Even if this happened, and they accepted, they’d have to pay capital gains tax on the money they’ve received.

MaizieD

ronib

DAR front page of the DT bought on the way to the dentist….it quite cheered me up…..

I'm not terribly sure that I would believe the DT.

What he actually said: "I can't stand here and give a commitment to reversing that decision. They have taken a wrecking ball to it," Starmer told reporters when asked what Labour would do.

'Can't commit' is not the same as 'won't'.

Oh, I misread your original post. Scrap the above...

westendgirl

I did not realise that those whose land was compulsory purchased will have to pay capital gains on the purchase.

What? 😲

ronib

DAR front page of the DT bought on the way to the dentist….it quite cheered me up…..

I'm not terribly sure that I would believe the DT.

What he actually said: "I can't stand here and give a commitment to reversing that decision. They have taken a wrecking ball to it," Starmer told reporters when asked what Labour would do.

'Can't commit' is not the same as 'won't'.

I did not realise that those whose land was compulsory purchased will have to pay capital gains on the purchase.

DAR front page of the DT bought on the way to the dentist….it quite cheered me up…..

I haven't a clue about the logistics of running a train freight service, but wouldn't that mean that the trains would be idle for half the day? Some freight trains do run during the night now. It would also mean that journey times would have to fit in conveniently to certain slots - and presumably the drivers and loaders (or whatever they're called) would have to be paid anti-social rates.

I used to live a couple of hundred metres away from a main rail line and I knew that there would be two freight trains a night - and I just had to put up with them. I must admit I wouldn't be very happy about the constant rumbling and house shaking of freight trains running all night.

MayBee70

GrannyGravy13

Why can’t freight trains run during the night, when there are few if any passenger trains?

Line maintenance work is done during the night because it isn’t safe to do so in the daytime. If it is done in the day it’s very disruptive eg the train from London to Edinburgh had to stop at Newcastle for several weekends and shuttle buses had to be used.

I know maintenance is mainly carried out at night, but surely not on every line every night.

With some planning freight traffic should be able to move around the country during off peak times and nights.

GrannyGravy13

Why can’t freight trains run during the night, when there are few if any passenger trains?

Line maintenance work is done during the night because it isn’t safe to do so in the daytime. If it is done in the day it’s very disruptive eg the train from London to Edinburgh had to stop at Newcastle for several weekends and shuttle buses had to be used.

ronib

Keir Starmer is in agreement with the plan to use savings made by scrapping part of the high speed project to fund other rail and transport improvements across the North…… apparently?? So good to have approval in this way….

Where did he say that, please ronib? It's always good to have the exact words.

Why can’t freight trains run during the night, when there are few if any passenger trains?

Trurider1

I never ever thought the project would ever be anything other than an unnecessary white elephant. The saving in time on a journey isn't sufficient to merit it and the costs of running it wil vastly outweigh any income derived from selling tickets which will be hugely expensive.
WE have had 125MPH Inter City trains since 1976. Building a special DEDICATED track for a train to go just 25 MPH faster makes no sense at all .
The distance form London to Birmingham is 101 miles and from Birmingham to Manchester is 71 mile. So now work out how much quicker a Specialised train travelling at a MAX of 150 mph bearing in mind its need to accelerate and de accelerate is that an ordianary Inter City train travelling at 125 Miles per hour.

It is like building a high speed train link across Lichtenstein. Totally pointless.

The project was not about cutting journey times to London. It was about providing extra capacity on the railways to enable more freight and slow trains to run on the existing east and west coast lines.

As it is, the west coast line is running at over capacity, which is why it is such a mess. Without HS2 it will get worse. I don't think the east coast line is much better.
It certainly won't enable much more freight to go by rail, which would be better for the environment than running thousands of lorries up and down the country, because there isn't the capacity to run more fast or stopping, trains, plus freight, on the existing lines.

Then trains will be even more overcrowded and unreliable and everyone will moan about them; forgetting how they welcomed the decision to halt HS2...

The more I think about it the more I think it's a very stupid decision.

I never ever thought the project would ever be anything other than an unnecessary white elephant. The saving in time on a journey isn't sufficient to merit it and the costs of running it wil vastly outweigh any income derived from selling tickets which will be hugely expensive.
WE have had 125MPH Inter City trains since 1976. Building a special DEDICATED track for a train to go just 25 MPH faster makes no sense at all .
The distance form London to Birmingham is 101 miles and from Birmingham to Manchester is 71 mile. So now work out how much quicker a Specialised train travelling at a MAX of 150 mph bearing in mind its need to accelerate and de accelerate is that an ordianary Inter City train travelling at 125 Miles per hour.

It is like building a high speed train link across Lichtenstein. Totally pointless.

Keir Starmer is in agreement with the plan to use savings made by scrapping part of the high speed project to fund other rail and transport improvements across the North…… apparently?? So good to have approval in this way….

Don’t think that selling land is the final nail in the coffin as it can always be rebought? Much as it was initially?

I've seen a suggestion that if Starmer were to say that if he gets into government he will slap compulsory purchase orders on this land it would make it deeply unattractive now to prospective purchasers...

Urmstongran

Apologies, Sunak is in Granada for their talks.

Yup, he's in cahoots with the fascist Italian PM. She's probably the only EU PM who can stomach the anti immigrant rhetoric that his Home Secretary spouts.

Apologies, Sunak is in Granada for their talks.

Iam64

And another thing. Sunak and senior tories were all saying no final decision had been made. Sunak made the video cancelling it 3 days before

Wot! They lied again?
Sadly, not unexpected. Sunak probably thought he could keep his announcement under wraps (silly man) for his big reveal at conference.

He’s in Seville now hoping to garner support to stop the dinghies in the Channel. The Europeans are trying to tackle their own problems re this. At least Brussels are giving the UK full access to border issues now. Better late than never. The whole situation cannot continue.

westendgirl

It was said that people who lost land would be given the first chance to buy it back. Wonder if the price will have escalated hugely.
Now Euston will only be used for HS2 if there is private investment to pay for it and he calls Starmer Captain Flip Flop!

Some lost their livelihoods too as it was farmland, been in the families for generations.

It was said that people who lost land would be given the first chance to buy it back. Wonder if the price will have escalated hugely.
Now Euston will only be used for HS2 if there is private investment to pay for it and he calls Starmer Captain Flip Flop!

How anyone can defend this shambolic lot is beyond me. I wasn’t a fan of huge expense to shave 10 mins of a train journey Manchester to London but - hs2 was more than that.
I’d like to see the cost of cancellation set against continuing, with the benefits of improved modernised infrastructure and employment properly factored in.

Farmland and housing devastated - compensation costs will be huge but can’t compensate farmers for the destruction of land and livelihood

Ww2 I thought Sunak didn’t want to commit £100 billion to HS2 when £35 billion is earmarked. With a national debt approaching something like 3 trillion and real poverty in the UK, and the pledge to reduce inflation, does this decision look like the sensible decision of a dictator/autocrat?
Don’t think that selling land is the final nail in the coffin as it can always be rebought? Much as it was initially?
Although from any perspective, Sunak is a bit clueless on how he presents himself and his actions to the public despite his wife acclaiming his zest, zeal and zip…..

Looks like, 48 hours after Sunak said it would happen, the line is not now going to Euston, unless private funding is secured.

He really is Mr Flim-Flam. 🙄

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67021225

👀

Marina Purkiss
@MarinaPurkiss
·
11h
Sunak didn’t just cancel HS2…

He authorised the sale of the land that would form part of the cancelled route

So no other leader could reverse his decision.

This major decision

One he took unilaterally

Without consulting parliament

…without anyone having voted for him.

Stopping it is right. Why bankrupt the country? The rail operators will only strike and stop the trains anyway!