HS2 Project will Fail to Meet Objectives
On the day I wrote the original London-Birmingham railway line blog, it is announced that the HS2 project will fail to meet objectives, and is overpriced. Read the BBC news article article here.
HS2 Costs
Experts are arguing that the cost of HS2 compared to comparable French high speed rail is five times more expensive.
HS2 Speeds
Experts also suggest that it is vanity to require a 250mph (400km/hour) top speed because the distance between London and Birmingham is only just over 100 miles, and most of that will be spent either accelerating or decelerating. This will have a negative impact on CO2 emissions, compared to running the trains at a lower speed of 190mph (306km/hour). The extra high speed will also save only around 3 and a half minutes on the London to Birmingham route.
Whilst it is clear that the project is expensive, others argue that it is being designed for ‘Future Technological Innovations’. Something that perhaps should have been done with the original London to Birmingham railway. (As I wrote in the blog here!).
Projects need clear aims and objectives, and for any project, the overall aim may be broken down into several objectives. In this case the overall project aim is “To build a high speed train line between London and Birmingham” (and beyond). Whilst the objectives include the time-frame, the cost limit, the speed of the trains, and the rail line capacity. It is highly likely that whilst people may agree to a projects overall aim, they may disagree with the way the aim is achieved, and may argue against some of the projects objectives. Perhaps the objectors in the article should consider the time saving of a non-stop HS2 train trip to Manchester or York in 80 years time.
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