Curzon Street construction begins as 'options' explored to revive HS2 Norther Leg

Improved rail links between Birmingham with Manchester are still being looked at by the West Midlands Mayor after the Northern Leg of HS2 was scrapped last year.
Today - work officially began on Curzon Street Station in Birmingham which plans to open by 2033. It is a major milestone in a project that has been chopped and changed at almost every turn.

[@dgattenb]

having a branch line shuttle is nothing like the plan orginally ... up to Scotland... joined up with HS1 .. then one by one they fell ... as ever with the UK , good ideas ... but we fail at everything . Ironicaly we sold Spain and France our " old " locos to build there High speed lines

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

What are you on about" Branch Line Shuttle", do you actualy know anything about HS2 apparently not. First HS2 was never going to be built to Scotland full stop, the line to Birmingham is not a " Branch Line" but a high speed line that takes trains from Birmingham Interchange to one of the biggest and modern Terminal stations in the UK and Europe, Birmingham Curzon Street and the main HS2 train fleet storage and Maintainance depot at Washwood Heath Birmingham and the reason for Birmingham Curzon Street Station is a terminus station is that these trains would not fit into B/Ham New Street which is grid locked and these trains woul make it worse and the HS2 track is on a different alighnment to B/Ham New street Station and the present HS2 line was never planned to join upto HS1 because there is no reason for HS2 and HS1 to be connected as HS2 is a UK domestic line where as HS1 is an International line between the UK and Europe and no Domest European train service comes through the Channel tunnel to London only Eurostar trains, and the loco's old to France and Spain were not required in the UK and were due to be scrapped by the UK operators

[@gorgu08]

@@peterwilliamallen1063you are wrong on so many counts here mate. HS1 and HS2 were envisaged to connect at St Pancras, do your research! It would have enabled the UK (not just London) to connect to the continent. Also HS2 would have connected to Scotland with the ultimate aim of creating sub 3 hour journey times from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London, thus removing the need for domestic air flight from anywhere but the most northern regions of Scotland, again do your research. The difference is the line north or Crewe would have been mostly passing loops and upgrades to the WCML that connected to HS2, there was also. A transport Scotland fertility study on how to speed up and bypass current Glasgow Carstairs travel and also the Carstairs junction has been upgraded to allow for faster navigation if that junction

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

@@gorgu08 What utter crap mate, HS2 has never ever been enviaged to run into London St Pancras International as there is no room for HS2 services there with Eurostar Services, Midland Main Line Services and Kent Coast Javelin Servuces, HS2 in it's present form is just a West Coast Main Line Up Grade replacement from Birmingham to Londonand to Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland, the HS2 line was never going to be built North of Crewe and domestic flight will never dispear and transport for Scotland has nothing to do with HS2

[@gorgu08]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 the thing with keyboard warriors is they are so often v poorly researched: www.transport.gov.scot/media/1606/rail-high-speed-rail-scotland-summary-report-web-version-march-2016.pdf

[@8492946able]

HS2 must be fully built
Both eastern and western legs

[@CRIMSONANT1]

They won't be .. its a travesty that any of this monstrous vanity project has ever seen the light of day - it's an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.

[@davidlajess-ieslarra5418]

163 km from Birmingham to London and done in 2033; what a joke! Spain will have probably opened more than a 1000km by then. it´s known labor is more expensive in the UK but a 10 year timeline is so unrealistic... they should have started with Birmingham to Manchester and then that would have forced them to complete the line further north and of course to London. just my opinion.

[@dietcab-kem6142]

probably.

[@janeknight3597]

I am going to Birmingham from Oxford next month. I am going by bus because the rail ticket is too expensive. Can’t see HS2 changing that.

[@l.b.3416]

German money can do a lot of things in a lot of countrys because the Germans are stupid and let their government do anything with them and their money unlike the British who understood democracy.

[@KingFinnch]

it was started from london because london-birmingham was the most expensive, hardest, least useful, and longest portion of the line
the idea was, if that could be done, the second half is a no-brainer

[@KingFinnch]

@@janeknight3597HS2 will change that because it’ll be a minimum of 4,000 extra seats an hour

[@l.b.3416]

Then at least buy the land you genius major.

[@barryamorris]

If the government can counterfeit a hundred billion pounds into existence to pay for HS2, then all forms of taxation should be abolished. #fiatcurrency #economics

[@dietcab-kem6142]

what a load of nonsense

[@barryamorris]

@@dietcab-kem6142 Perhaps you should study economics and look up Fiat currency before making stupid comments

[@scottpeacock5492]

Abolished taxation, have you been drinking, how do we pay for new infrastructure and repair roads etc without taxation, it not hundreds of billion of pounds for Hs2, it around 59 to 65 billion of pounds for the line, you need to stop reading rubbish from corrupt media.

[@dietcab-kem6142]

I would say the same to you plus the definition of confidence and how permanent infrastructure underpins the confidence of the economy @@barryamorris

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

@@barryamorris Yep, I actualy think we should go back to travelling on Donkey and traps.