"that the project will plough ahead with building a seven-platform station at Curzon Street, despite just three being required for the reduced HS2 line."
Unfortunately inews doesn't seem to quote the original NAO report, just linking to a list of NAO news items on inews :(?
[1] https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-waste-new-birmingham-s...
[EDIT] So the ft does actually link to the report [2] from this page [3] saying "The watchdog said scrapping the northern leg of the flagship high speed rail link would take three years and cost up to £100mn, and that some platforms would still be built even though they would never be used."
[2] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/hs2-update...
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/ecde4265-0269-4169-ac0e-179938667...
Not clear message of recreating BritishRail outright. They should go back to full uniform marketing strategy. NetworkRail should be rolled back into BritishRail.
Their proposal is mostly adding more unneeded stuff, to the complex organizational chart. You don't need a 'Passenger Standards Authority', what you need is a public rail company that works for the public and has good funding.
The rolling stock companies are literal cancers, the need to be burned down. In fact they should be disowned, the profit they made over the last decades should be removed from the price. They basically got a sweetheart deal and profit off the public since then. Its almost as fucking stupid as Chicago selling its own roads, almost.
They also promised very little beyond that. Britain desperately needs a rolling electrification program and a rolling station access compliance program. No commitment to anything other then just 'nationalization' as a pretty abstract thing.
There is no commitment to roll HS2 into BritishRail either.
Yes, before privatisation there wasnt a totally uniform strategy but BritishRail certaintly had strategy, both for the network and in term of branding and marketing different setvices.
This would not just be a BritishRail thing. It would also involve the government, local governemnt and related transport services like TfL.
The smart way of doing it is basically what Switzerland did in Bahn2000. You first look at your current network and timetable and think about what you would optimally want, make a priority list. Then you study and figure out what you can get for how much price.
Then you make targeted infrastructure and service investments to achieve those goals, and of course you coordinate between all the different stack holders.
In Switzerland you also dont just have SBB, there are lots of other imporantant organisation. RBB, SOB, BLS are signifcant in passenger transport. And of course the local governments with their Transport organisations.
Is it in Britain somehow impossible for people to work thogether and come up with a plan?
This could even have been done during privatisation. Japan has many private railway and do a lot of integrated planning.
Its just a weakpoint of UK governemnt.
Probably the best that they can do for anything this complex is headline policies and high level plans.
Now they are in power it’s probably only 10–20% about having the right policy and 80–90% about execution being competent, consistent, and quick.
They need to be given time to do the right thing, but not too much time.
When I wrote this I was not talking about accounting details, though I am not sure whether all of those details are really publicly available once you get down into the delivery organisations and projects that inevitably get set up for something like HS2.
What I was getting at is that this kind of project is hugely complex, and develops fast both as delivery progresses (or doesn't) and as decisions are made. Anyone who can't be in the room for those decisions and isn't managing the relationships and receiving the day to day reports is going to be at a big disadvantage if they are trying to make major changes.
You can stand on the sidelines and set how you would do things differently, but I don't think you can credibly turn up with a detailed plan that's ready to go on day one for something like this.
Which single person can read and be fully clued up a modern UK infrastructure project? Our infrastructure planning needs an overhaul.
The Lower Thames Crossing is worse than HS2, far worse, and it's not much more than 10 miles.
https://www.cityam.com/lower-thames-crossing-planning-applic...
We had a future plan, it was called hs2. They were far to slow getting the diggers out, so it was cancelled for spite.
Helping trans people, why bother the tories are against it. Repair schools, why bother? Tories will reverse it.
This is fucking insane. How are British people all such pesimists.
HS2 is literally being built. There are tunnels already there. The digger are out in force already. That exactly why Phase 1 wasnt cancled.
And if Labor took their finger out of their assholes they would get to a point where digger were out on Phase 2 and then the Tories wouldnt cancle that.
And maybe at some point HS2 actually is operational and people will see that it is nice and cancling the rest of it would piss people off.
If your strategy is 'lets do nothing we are gone lose the next election anyway' then you should just give up. Winning 3 elections in a row is possible ither parties have done it. The Tories are in a terrible situation, that wont be easy to come back from.
Now is the time to be bold.
Depends what you mean by "help". There's already a big enough problem with males using female spaces, why make this even worse for women and girls? And for minors, the Cass Review made it clear the evidence isn't there to favour giving gender non-conforming kids drugs to block their puberty.
> Repair schools, why bother?
The RAAC problem? Already being funded. Department for Education started doing this a few months ago and the new government are continuing the work.
blablabla right wing/TURF propaganda.
> And for minors, the Cass Review
No it didn't, its a report many people disagree including many medical organization disagree with. And anyway even if the Cass Review was true, that is not at all indicative that the Toris are not anti-Trans people. The report was weaponized as political tool.
> Already being funded.
Ahh see what my point is then?
Low intelligence reactive response. Would you like to try again with something more rational?
> No it didn't, its a report many people disagree including many medical organization disagree with.
I've yet to see a substantive critique of the Review that challenges its key points. So far it's just been ideological disagreement.
> Ahh see what my point is then?
No, because the schools with this issue (assuming that's what you were referring to) are actually being repaired.
And im not gone have a debate about trans stuff on HN in a train thread. Specially because you brought up a report that didn't have anything to do with the point I made about the tories.
Back it up with some numbers, and then let’s see how many of the perpetrators identify as trans.
But every armchair expert with a crayon has their preferred solution to rail. Is hs2 perfect? No
Is it better than nothing? Yes.
Throwing all the costs for everything from stations to trains into the same semi-private company. Not learning best practices from Japan rail station operation. Building way to many tunnels because of a few braindead Nimbys.
Simply recreate BritishRail, make the railroad public, including things like rolling stock as well. Put HS2 into BritishRail.
Then create a long term rail 2050 plan. HS2 should be fully done, with the original route. This will allow a massive reorganisation of the rest of the network.
Common labor, this are the 5 years to prove yourself.