We are quite sophisticated at fraud through taxpayer funded contracts to rich mates.
@John_Wood_
10 ай бұрын
yes, the whole thing was a cover.
@Zerpentsa6598
9 ай бұрын
Keep going. Keep voting Tory.
@JimFarrand
10 ай бұрын
"Poor management" is a pretty generous description. The whistleblowers make it sound more like outright fraud.
@Peacefulnessxxx
10 ай бұрын
It is from insiders its literally the aristocracy having a tax money grab here and there at our expense with jobs created in certain seats.
@jamesdodds9407
10 ай бұрын
another case for Scottish Independence, how much r of UK money went into this project of no benefit to them and future proposed extend "up to Scotland" completely gone. look at example of Forth Bridge replacement sadly we are still linked to this UK failure
@NeoECCHI
9 ай бұрын
@@jamesdodds9407 "another case" scotland is a failed country, drug and murder capital of europe. your largest trading partner is also england, your country would be bust in years. if that.
@Saucisse_Praxis
9 ай бұрын
Neoliberalism in a nutshell
@marcinboguslawski
9 ай бұрын
@@Saucisse_Praxis corrupt conservatism id say
@iq6057
10 ай бұрын
But Japan's population density is pretty high too. I think the key is corruption and bureaucracy as you touched on.
@raykenley
9 ай бұрын
China and Japan built high speed train base on military and goods transport purposes first, transportation for commute second. Or else they will not lost billion every year just to maintain and keep it running. Even Taiwan's high speed train merely make a profit. I do not think the ticket for Hs2 will be cheap and affordable when it finish. This is a complete waste of money and fraud on the table.
@mitsuyamaeda-railfan
9 ай бұрын
Basically, Japan's railways are maintained through private revenue. I think you should interview JR Tokai, JR West, JR Kyushu, Hankyu Corporation, Kinki Nippon Railway, etc.
@jeremybarker7577
9 ай бұрын
The population density in Japan is on average higher than in the UK (326/sq km vs 277/sq km). It is also a pretty mountainous country meaning that less of the land is suitable for building on, so housing density is really high in many places.
@nlpnt
9 ай бұрын
How much new right-of-way has Japan bought in recent times? Shinkansen mainline was bought in the late '50s/early '60s.
@mitsuyamaeda-railfan
9 ай бұрын
@@nlpnt Construction of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line between Kanazawa and Tsuruga (125km) began in August 2012 and is scheduled to open on March 16, 2024. Also, additional costs were required due to changes in seismic standards, and it seems to have come to around 1,677.9 billion yen, but I don't know if this is the final amount. By the way, although it is in Japanese, the outline of the construction can be found at the URL below. www.jrtt.go.jp/project/1_monitoring_20230630.pdf
@Stewy-xw9fz
9 ай бұрын
When the Jamaican government made a request to the UK government to build a couple highways thru the mountains on the island, The UK government told the Jamaican government that they were unable to do it and it would be impossible. The Jamaican government gave the contract to a Chinese Engineer contractor called CHEC and the rest is history.
@Kindness-qz7xr
9 ай бұрын
Evil doers shall fade away
@globalismoblackman
8 ай бұрын
They never really care about us #LateMichaelJackson
@James-st9uu
7 ай бұрын
Why would the uk government be getting involved in a Jamaican infrastructure project?
@Stewy-xw9fz
7 ай бұрын
@@James-st9uuthat’s a enormously $tup!d question. They get involved in a Jamaican infrastructure project because there are huge profits to be made from toll collection. Millions upon millions of tourist visit Jamaica yearly, they rent vehicle at the airport, they drive on highway to get to their hotels. These highways would require them to pay a toll or tolls, similar to Orlando. To get to Disney world quickly, you need to pay a toll or tolls. If you want to get stuck on I-4 for hours be my guest. English government is crap, not the people, the government. Most developing country is thankful for China to assist them in developing and being self reliant.
@thecrimsondragon9744
7 ай бұрын
Stupid question. @@James-st9uu
@majormoolah5056
10 ай бұрын
1850: The sun never sets on the British Empire 2023: Why can't we do what France does?
@joem0088
10 ай бұрын
1850: The sun never sets on the British Empire - you still live on nostalgia ?
@Inspector-Chisholm
10 ай бұрын
@@joem0088 . Really?🙄
@joem0088
10 ай бұрын
@@Inspector-Chisholm Really. Where is the British Empire ? Just England, Wales and a few Carribean islands. India is gone. Nothing in Africa ... Scotland is still there but they keep talking about leaving.
@kamsunleong6648
9 ай бұрын
@@joem0088Diego Garcia. You colonized the island, remove the natives and the lease it to the Americans to build their naval base. Shame. Please return it to the Chargos natives.
@widodoakrom3938
9 ай бұрын
Lol
@richardbloemenkamp8532
10 ай бұрын
The UK is sick, and I guess that is for a large part because UK politics is sick. Hope you get better and elect smarter politicians in the future, but so far it has been downhill at least the last 5 years.
@treyquattro
10 ай бұрын
since the 90s
@MyKharli
9 ай бұрын
since 1600`s@@treyquattro
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
Politicians are captured by voting blocs so can’t really do much. Tories can’t do without the Boomer vote so love NIMBYism and low immigration. Labour are captured by the socialists and we all know how well socialism has worked across the world. Unfortunately, until the boomers pass and we get a proper Liberal government from the Tories there won’t be any change for the better.
@Dermaa
9 ай бұрын
since Thatcher
@kubhlaikhan2015
6 ай бұрын
Yes, Thatcher was the beginning of the rot. She was the first to attack Constitutional law, undermine democracy with the invention of the "SDP", wage class war against the unions, deregulate the Financial sector, close down industry, throw open the doors to globalist corporations and destroy public housing. And a few other things. Every current ill can be traced to short-term and short-sighted Thatcherite initiatives. Even so, most of the actual damage was done by BLAIR.
@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg
9 ай бұрын
I worked on the Crossrail project in a 3 way joint venture Contractor partnership , 1 British, 1 Dutch, 1 Spanish Contractor. We built the tunnels and the station platform concourses and corridors to the Western section from Royal Oak to Liverpool Street. Total cost £850 million at 2015 prices. The job went like clockwork. We can compete with other countries but HS2 was a political brainchild with no thought or detailed planning behind it.
@Bobrogers99
9 ай бұрын
The UK isn't alone in building infrastructure so expensively. The same often happens in the US, and for some of the same reasons.
@pbworld7858
9 ай бұрын
I saw a video the other day where they gave some stats. The cost of building a metro in USA is about 10 times that of countries like Spain.
@alanc457
9 ай бұрын
Higher quality costs more right?
@Ranjan_Mohanty
9 ай бұрын
@@alanc457 higher quality of corruption, you mean ?
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
NIMBYies using and misusing regulations to drive up costs to try and halt a project. Any private project is easily stopped using regulations, government projects though are funded by taxpayers so don’t tap out to the NIMBYies early on.
@henghistbluetooth7882
9 ай бұрын
@@alanc457The US problem definitely isn’t one of quality. As anyone who has to take a train, use an airport or drive over a bridge in the US can testify to. And their congressional budget system is a joke - they are less than two weeks from a shutdown with a dark-ages religious zealot trying to control the purse strings. Anything approaching HS2 would be imposible in the US. Here it’s expensive but I live 7 miles from one of the stations and it is being built at a rate of knots.
@AL5520
9 ай бұрын
Gareth Dennis had an extensive analysis of the reasons for the high cost and one of the main ones he gets to in the end is that the UK economy is built on rentier extraction so the money is made mostly by a long chain of middle men that raises the cost.
@casey7057
9 ай бұрын
The Brits should have ask the Chinese to build it for them.
@kamsunleong6648
9 ай бұрын
Politics don't allow this. Eventhough it's the smart thing to do. Pretty sure the planners know this.
@user-or4ct5ow6b
2 ай бұрын
Haha funny u would say that. Becoz get this...They DID ask the Chinese. They wanted to award 18Billion contract or something to China. But China after carefull considerations, refused. Not worth the trouble anymore. Becoz Chinese infrastructure reputation is now legendary. They build the highspeed in Indonesia, laos, soon all over the world. But they havent forgotten about hinkley project and anglo media.
@clivejohnson6468
9 ай бұрын
UK has a stop / go attitude to rail. After HS1, HS lines should have started immediately, say East Mid to Leeds, Leeds Manxchester, and so on. You never see new Motorway building stop.
@balkanleopard9728
9 ай бұрын
Unfortunately you fail to mention China's HSR (now at about 40,000 km in total) built at a cost of around US$19m/km in very technically challenging terrain. Converting your £/mile for HS2 to US$/km gives a UK cost of US$243m/km. In other words UK built HSR cost around twenty (20) times as much per km as China. Perhaps the UK should let people who know how to build HSR, on schedule and budget, do the work.
@kamsunleong6648
9 ай бұрын
Pretty sure privately they would have loved to hire the Chinese. But politically not possible.
@widodoakrom3938
9 ай бұрын
@@kamsunleong6648then ask France or japan
@fckhaw1189
9 ай бұрын
Beware of Japanese made trains. Remember the high speed trains built by Hitachi were found with cracks in the Great Western Railway. The workmanship and quality of Japanese trains have deteriorated over the years.
@mindguru22
9 ай бұрын
Btw Chinese metro/subway construction cost is around 220m $/km. So how can they make HSR in 19m/km. The data is dodgy and shouldn’t be even considered.😮
@grouchypatch9185
9 ай бұрын
@@widodoakrom3938japan? A prolonged delay in india and Vietnam.
@oliverlondon5246
9 ай бұрын
A key issue are UK property laws. Because of these, the majority of the tracks are underground here. Such laws don’t exist elsewhere and the governments of other countries have the right to take possession of land for critical infrastructure projects
@Langevloei-NL
8 ай бұрын
Expropriation laws. We have them in The Netherlands. But you get good money for it.
@alhollywood6486
9 ай бұрын
The parallels with our white elephant California HSR are eerie. Exploding costs and construction of a less useful part of the route are just 2
@kamsunleong6648
9 ай бұрын
The Chinese help build their Pacific transcontinental railway back in the 1800s. Should have rehired the Chinese. They would completed it by now.
@erongi233
10 ай бұрын
The UK's paradoxical mix of higher proportion of rural space than many Western countries and high population density is unique to the UK. According to the World Bank, 78% of the UK's land area is rural, compared to 60% in Germany, 52% in France, and 38% in the United States.Study by the author Guy Shrubsole found that the aristocracy and gentry still own around 30% of England. William himself own 0.2%. Of course people like that have no influence behind the scene. Do they?
@Iondaime100
9 ай бұрын
don't you think that france had a point in 1789 with there aristocracy
@erongi233
9 ай бұрын
@@Iondaime100Converting their chinless into their headless you mean? I have no views on that.
@Ellinillard
27 күн бұрын
@@erongi23392% of French landmass is rural.
@normantan7796
9 ай бұрын
UK gave up infrastructres long time ago. Also gave up manufacturing too as they out source and concentrate on making easy money through tourism or anything that was easy money and less work.
@TobotronPrime
10 ай бұрын
£3300 for every income taxpayer in the country! For a train service that absolutely no one will use because it goes between suburbs not where people actually want to go, An absolute scandal!
@RockyRacoon66
10 ай бұрын
It is worse than that! £3300 per tax payer is the price of building but since we have a 2 trillion pound public debt, the money spent on this will be subject to financing cost for decades, possible for ever!
@vorong2ru
10 ай бұрын
And don't forget the tickets are going to cost a fortune too. I predict £100 for Birmingham to London, which means it won't be in use by many and likely to be yet another Virgin/Avanti for corporate travel.
@mikaelbohman6694
9 ай бұрын
From somewhere to nowhere.
@thomasgray4188
9 ай бұрын
the railway infrastructure strategy understander has logged on.
@gumbs2537
9 ай бұрын
I agree with you. Why didn’t they upgrade the high Wycombe line, new denham to Birmingham or Aylesbury. People that live in Aylesbury have to travel back to high Wycombe or London to go north…. The finical government or journalists that have balls need to look into everything. Could be just a plot twist way farmers are close friends need money so we will do a Coe to milk the government, let’s not forget the nhs scandal during covid and so many private companies was selling hand sanitizer and we as the public couldn’t buy in on the profits, shares…..
@berndfritz5789
9 ай бұрын
A direct connection between HS1&HS2. Then it would be possible to take the train between Birmingham and Paris, without transfer in London. Poor planing😞
@Smart1529
3 ай бұрын
And maybe Stratford could finally get international service. These people has let the country down time and time again 😔
@Molloy1951
10 ай бұрын
I haven’t heard the word “corruption” in this video. Anybody else also believes this should have been an indispensable topic? 🤔
@stvdmc2011
9 ай бұрын
Democracy doesn't have corruption, only non white run countries have corruption.
@eslofftschubar206
9 ай бұрын
Corruption implies intent, but the British ceased to do anything intentionally long time ago. HS2 is just a manifestation of the failure the UK has become.
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
Because it’s not corruption. It’s just the inefficient system that we’ve built where every man and his dog gets a say on if you’re allowed to build or not. Then even if you do get the go ahead they can drag you through the system of regulations to drive up your costs till you decide it’s just not worth it. Government though has taxpayer money and doesn’t tap out early like private companies.
@gumbs2537
9 ай бұрын
I agree a lot of backhanded payments, further more the country does lack skilled workers. Let’s not forget a year ago today construction and steel work was crying out for steel fixers and ground workers. Truth is you kiss ass you get work and why was there not a outside company doing the construction audit to make sure money was getting disputed fairly. I see mixer owners selling their wagons now? Why is that. Greedy!!!
@johnjephcote7636
8 ай бұрын
Even 50 years ago at Uni I knew the economic benefits of a Network rather than a mere Link. Now, that is all we have...a link to Birmingham. When I see freight trains sidetracked on loops (that were once slow lines) and I watch those trains rushing through in the wee hours, that is why we need the capacity for the old lines to take the freight and the new to run the expresses.
@sunnywu2464
9 ай бұрын
How many Brits believe that over 75% of the world's HSR are running in China? And believe the trains cover almost all major cities and the mileage keeps on expanding.
@danielmartinezdowsett4776
8 ай бұрын
I’m working on HS2 - from a consultant perspective there are two factors I have noticed that are definitely driving the design costs up: 1 - HS2’s undefined scope - it has evolved over the years and we are continuously redesigning 2 - Over-engineering required by HS2
@alexspike7331
9 ай бұрын
TBF 50B for HS2 is probably still a tolerable price. HSR is one of those projects we cannot afford not to build. I do also think we could get more if we had more affordable projects, but I'd still vote to bite the bullet on this one.
@jasonlee4267
9 ай бұрын
it literally isnt, and 50 billion is not the final cost either, its a disgrace and is nowhere near an acceptable price tag for a vanity project that has been mishandled at every step, china can build 35000km of high speed track in 10 years, and we can even build what 120 miles in that time, if you think that is tolerable you are part of the problem.
@mohammedsarker5756
9 ай бұрын
@@jasonlee4267 china is NOT a good comparison to the UK, 50B pounds for a regional economic development project between London and the Midlands is a great deal, the problem is that poor management let it skyrocket well past that point
@Bawdale
9 ай бұрын
The issue is incompetence in the government. Ministers don't know how to vet and manage large construction projects, and rely too heavily on private sector consultants. More engineers and industrialists are required in government not lawyers and media experts. Secondly cabinet ministers are more concerned about their individual brands which have a very short life cycle. They gravitate to cheap short term election cycle wins ahead of long term projects with benefits that play out over generations.
@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg
7 ай бұрын
100% agree with you. But politics being what it is means the politicians know nothing about anything.
@CRingsing
10 ай бұрын
The £50bn WASNT wasted !! The money came for public coffers, and via a string of government managed contracts, the £50bn has now ended up as proper (normal) cash which to a large extent now has gone to very good friends of the Tories, the construction company bosses….. Only God knows how much money was actually spent on HS2. Surely only a fraction of the taxpayer bill…
@garyb455
9 ай бұрын
this was a Labour project
@CRingsing
9 ай бұрын
@@garyb455HS2 as an idea is obvs good. A country this size and wealthy should obvs have a fast train service. Unluckily for the country, the project was started under the Tories who treated it as yet another opportunity to give top job to friends, and to bleed the budgets dry. Exactly as the Tories did in Woking, building rubbish real estate for £1.2bn, valued at £300m just a year later. It always happens when those uneducated Tory tossers are involved.
@CRingsing
9 ай бұрын
That being said, both HS2 and the disaster in Woking has made a lot of Tory voters with friends in higher places millionaires. I guess that’s a good thing for them 😂😂😂
@mittfh
9 ай бұрын
@@garyb455Labour came up with the idea and pencilled in the route, but finalisation of the exact route, taking it through planning, dealing with legal objections from dozens of councils, purchasing the land and starting construction was all done under Conservative governments.
@STJukes
9 ай бұрын
Out of curiosity, you say the UK has relatively low skilled workers compared to some countries in EU. But why is this the case to begin with?
@mittfh
9 ай бұрын
Since the 1980s, there's been a managed decline in British industry, with the sentiment in government being that if British companies can't outcompete foreign companies, then they deserve to fail. A variety of imported goods were cheaper than British made equivalents, so the government felt it pointless to subsidise British companies. Meanwhile, companies would lay off staff when recessions hit, then due to strong government incentives for the former workforce to find new employment elsewhere, couldn't recruit sufficient numbers of staff when recessions ended. Particularly after the 2008 recession, they felt the economy wasn't stable enough to invest in training new staff (fearing they could go to all the expense of training them, only for another economic showdown requiring them to lay off the bulk of their workforce again), so instead imported workers from elsewhere (mainly the EU). The workers would also typically not be employed on a permanent basis but just for the duration of a contract, so they'd come over here for a few years then return when their contract ended. Hence also the government's frequently stated aim of reducing net migration to tens of thousands was always going to be unachievable (never mind that international students also count in the figures, so any increase in international student places at universities pushes up the figures as they stay for 3-4 years).
@oldskoolmusicnostalgia
10 ай бұрын
Anything to do with state investment in the UK is considered a waste of public money or something to be privatised if it can generate some profit for cronies, ever since the days of Thatcher. I don't think that attitude is changing anytime soon, and by the time it does there will be too much catching up to do. Tories and Con-Lite governments such as that of Blair don't see any benefit in anything that generates long term positive outcomes.
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
Profit guides what is worth doing. If your product/service is desired then people will pay for it.
@cpkingadam5
9 ай бұрын
@@andrewharris3900 Profit can be intangible when talking about infrastructure. How much money do roads 'make'? None, bar the M6 toll, but we'd be pretty economically stuffed without them. Unrealised gains through underinvestment is what is making our country poor
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
@@cpkingadam5 roads do make money though fuel duty. The more you drive the more fuel you use the more fuel duty you pay. It’s not perfect but roads do make a profit.
@cpkingadam5
9 ай бұрын
@@andrewharris3900 Fuel duty doesn't even make a dent
@taipizzalord4463
10 ай бұрын
China could build HS2 in full in 5 years. Our political system is designed to do a little as possible.
@JustLikeBuildingThings
10 ай бұрын
It might only last 5 years though, but yeah I agree generally we have huge spends on consultancies/advisory and little on the doing.
@yellowgreen5229
10 ай бұрын
I think it represents a few months of Chinese communist rail line expansion. Britain is a capitalist dystopia.
@liamcollinson5695
10 ай бұрын
I'm not sure I would trust the Chinese with they whole tofu dregs building code the thing would probably collapse before it was complete
@Jim-kz4zo
10 ай бұрын
And need to be redone 3 years later after two derailments
@alkaholic4848
10 ай бұрын
Yeah but china's would be made of cheese, rarely get used, and fall apart after 3 months. Don't believe the crap you see in the mainstream media about china's huge projects, it's all for show, all propaganda. They have no freedom of speech so it's very difficult to find anyone who will tell you what's really going on there. The ones that do say it's very grim.
@nettcologne9186
9 ай бұрын
The London-Birmingham and Cologne-Frankfurt routes are comparable, both around 190 kilometers long. The construction of the German route took seven years and the costs amounted to around six billion euros: On July 25, 2002, the ICE route between Cologne and Frankfurt was opened. Here you can travel with the ICE at speeds of up to 300 km/h. The trip lasts approximately 50 minutes to 1 hour.
@AL5520
9 ай бұрын
The Madrid Barcelona 621km line was built in 12 years for almost 9B Euros, which is 14.4M Euros per kilometer (~23M per mile). The total current network cost (4000km) is less than 70B Euros and there are quite a few new new ones under construction (next one to open should be on November 30th to Asturias). As said here, we keep it simple but high quality. We don't over do it, not extravagant stations or necessary bridges or tunnels (and we do have them as Spain is one of the most mountainous country in Europe, the mentioned Asturias one and the future Basque one are mostly in tunnels).
@grahamf695
9 ай бұрын
The biggest mistake was to start in London, the most densely populated part of the route. They should have started with Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds to Birmingham.
@alaindumas1824
9 ай бұрын
The routes are comparable but note the difference. There are no stations on HS2 between London and Birmingham suburbs. The line goes through counties having no incentive in making it work. You built 3 stations in Montaubaur (only 12000 inhabitants), Limburg (34000) and Sieburg.
@nettcologne9186
9 ай бұрын
@@alaindumas1824 Yes, that's right. And if you really think about it, there is another stop at Cologne Airport. At the 3 stops you mentioned, it was built so that trains can rush through there without having to slow down. There are trips between Cologne and Frankfurt several times an hour without stopping, but some trains also have to stop once an hour in the small towns of Montabaur and Limburg. The stop in Siegburg/Bonn is visited frequently as around 800,000 people live here.
@antiti4ever
9 ай бұрын
The same distance high speed rails (350km/hr-380km/hr) will cost 100-120 million RMB yuan (US$21m) per KM, and take about 3 month to build in mainland China.
@huwgrossmith9555
9 ай бұрын
Because, like many governments, they do not contact in decent project management professionals. Govt contracts have 2 rules: 1 win - print variation books; 2 when any govt aligned persons says anything in any way fill out variation.
@petitkruger2175
9 ай бұрын
The Uk is able to engineer great things and build huge projects - but our government’s or authorities can't.
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
Can’t do shit in the UK. Too much regulation and every man and his dog gets a say on if you’re allowed to build or not.
@qjtvaddict
9 ай бұрын
@@andrewharris3900exactly end common law
@andrewharris3900
9 ай бұрын
@@qjtvaddict absolutely nothing to do with abolishing Common Law. A Common Law system can respect property rights (it currently doesn’t but it could and should).
@leonchu4330
9 ай бұрын
Looking at your video, the old building/construction technologies employed enabled me to understand why the UK cost of such projects is so high. Look at China in its new machines and building techniques that it invented and employed in building its HSR, The UK way of construction pails by miles.
@thevoid5503
8 ай бұрын
"The soil is too soft". Meanwhile in the Netherlands and Belgiun, the HSL is up and running and has been for ages.
@Fightback2023
9 ай бұрын
UK should have kept the Chinese construction company for the project.
@misterpositive9337
9 ай бұрын
All the UK needs to do is ask China for help
@qjtvaddict
9 ай бұрын
To be fair Japan would be more suitable UK can even facilitate peace between Japan and China
@user-or4ct5ow6b
2 ай бұрын
they did... but china rejected uks bid. not worth there time and moniez. they still remember hinkley.
@speedonz
9 ай бұрын
Dont forget. The biggest cost was scrapping it! Thats the biggest mistake.
@charleswillcock3235
8 күн бұрын
One major error Curzon Street is in the centre of Birmingham. The ultra high speed was a ludicrous part of the project, massive congratulation and incompetence.
@jankolman8064
9 ай бұрын
If it is true that this HS2 railway line should have been designed for a maximum speed of 400 km/h, then this would mean a completely new and therefore very expensive technology - while, for example, Spain or the Czechia design their HS lines according to French standards for a maximum speed 350 km/h (realistically 320 km/h).
@thierryparis2444
9 ай бұрын
UK should ask French groups to built high speed train years ago because French use it since 1981 😅
@Polite_Indifference
4 ай бұрын
When a nationally elected government can't build national infrastructure due to regional self interested objections, it's clear something is seriously wrong. Land ownership rights in the UK need to be changed to include a clause that national infrastructure projects supersede property ownership rights. Put simply if your land is in the way of a national infrastructure project and you refuse to sell it, it will be purchased from you at the market rate without your consent. The UK has a limited amount of land and the available land is essentially a national asset, not something for a minority to hoard then hold national objectives to ransom.
@bobdeverell
9 ай бұрын
We have a similar cost and delivery problem with nuclear and for many of the same reasons. Ours is now a rentier economy.
@Wilhelm8e
26 күн бұрын
back in 2014, there was some discussion on Linkedin about the bidders for the HS2. One commented that he would rather have the Brtish to build the HS2 that will last decades rather than the Chinese completing it in 5 years. Yeah, now we know it will first take the British decades to complete the HS2.
@gzk6nk
7 ай бұрын
The Chiltern Tunnels cost the North its access to a vital piece of levelling-up infrastructure. It must be remembered that HS2 Ltd is an arm of the state, so it seems the state failed to manage costs (caving in to Chiltern NIMBYism for example), then cancelled it because costs were too high!
@davecooper3238
7 ай бұрын
I am sure that environmental & road safety have added to the cost of HS2. But if something is worth doing it’s worth doing well.
@zoomed66
9 ай бұрын
It wasn't wasted, the money was stolen
@JoelBergmark
9 ай бұрын
"over engineered" 200km/h? If UK politicians would think twice, they would have let a Chinese company build it and get 350km/h still for less than what you pay now, and it would maybe already be done. We have similar issues in Sweden, overpaying still getting nothing and the 180km/h you cant even have a drink on the table without risk it would fall over.
@jeremybarker7577
9 ай бұрын
HS2 is designed for trains to operate at 400 km/h even though none of the trains on order can go that fast. Most recent TGV lines in France have a design speed of 350 km/h but operate at no more than 320 km/h. The design of HS1 was pretty much a copy of a French TGV line.
@JoelBergmark
9 ай бұрын
@@jeremybarker7577 Great that's better speeds, in Sweden they talk about high speed, I was on one 3 weeks ago and it went 120km/h for lost of the way and occasionally 150km/h. In China this summer the norm speed was 350 km/h and very rarely 230km/h. Pity for UK and Europe to fall behind so much
@nikkiparksy
8 ай бұрын
So spend on tofu dreg construction instead of building a good product in the 1st place . Way too waste more money in the long run . Chinese construction is called Tofu Dreg by the Chinese people for a reason check it out.
@fresagrus4490
9 ай бұрын
One of the largest if not the largest problems of the UK is that its entire economy and life gravitates around London and rest of the country is merely an appendix to it. Is it a positive development making Birmingham a suburb of London? The entire point of HS2 is feeding people into London. It is an extremely londoncentric project. Wouldn't be more useful restoring the decrepit railways all over the country and most importantly, making them affordable and reliable? This type of railway around Europe is extremely expensive, mostly a toy for rich tourists and corporate travel. The plebs have to get around with regional trains, buses and low cost flights. This will be even worse in the UK as taking the train is already ridiculously expensive and has an insane price structure. Why do you need a super premium train, and imagine what absurd its ticket would cost the way the railways are managed now. I say this as a former train driver and someone who loves trains: HS2 shouldn't be built. The regular people won't benefit from this and it will appease to the only demographic this government cares about: rich people in London. Surely the government didn't take this decision for the same reasons as me but the country dodged a bullet anyway
@walktravelanddiscover3945
10 ай бұрын
Thank you, great summary of this Tory Driven Catastrophic Decision.
@collins1972
9 ай бұрын
China would have completed it in record time. Route and appropriate style underground vs above ground rail. Too much lobbyist and protesters 😊
@jeanjacques9980
9 ай бұрын
Please let me if know if the Old Oak Common station was always planned to exist and to be so grand? Is it designed to be an interchange from the north to Heathrow? The tories flogged off to their mates the HS1 line for £3bn although it cost almost £6bn to construct. It’s also one of the most expensive lines to use in Europe per train mile/km. In Germany the High Speed lines run up to 300kph, surely the aim of HS2 would to serve Glasgow and Edinburgh in the long term hence line should be capable of 300kph. The French or the Chinese should have been awarded the contract, the incredibly poor management of Crossrail, all transferred to HS2 fir their £150+K salaries after huge delays and vast cost over runs. I believe the base Saint Gotthard rail tunnel was completed early and under budget.
@mijmijrm
9 ай бұрын
large scale projects require integrity in the project environment. Much like a building requires a sound foundation forsit to stand. The political/economic environment requires integrity. UK has no chance.
@johnjkiwi7818
Ай бұрын
Hi. Its not just the UK. In New Zealand we are just as bad at building infrastructure. The controversial cancellation of the Cook Strait Ferries ships are an example. I am wondering what impact nimbyism had on the HS2 project.
@MyKharli
9 ай бұрын
Its a total success ..for a few contractors and lobbyists and landowners .
@henry-pj9zo
9 ай бұрын
if UK gives contract to China, 1/3 budget and 3-4 years completed. it's so simple.
@jamesgreen1116
9 ай бұрын
The uks masters in the usa will never ever allow that though.
@mehmetalipasa
9 ай бұрын
Selling off land so the project can’t be restarted is almost criminal. One can only hope that Sunak is dethroned soon and that a new PM will restart the project.
@janeknight3597
7 ай бұрын
It has to be over engineered because we have no plans to maintain the new railway and no budget to replace bits that fail. All bridges in the UK have to have a minimum 500 year lifespan.
@mogznwaz
7 күн бұрын
We used to be brilliant at it. Joining the EU introduced European style bureaucracy into Britain and a top down mindset. Now everything is so strangled by regulations and bureaucracy that nothing actually gets done. Too many fingers in the pie
@paulyoung-td4zx
5 ай бұрын
If you look at the engineering and environmental requirements of the building of this project, I'm not surprised it's not costing even more!!! I think it's a tremendous project but very expensive. I look forward to travelling on it 1 day!!
@babibrain
9 ай бұрын
It will be harder and harder to create massive infrastructure such as rail networks in the future. Comparing to China, large workforce, people are willing to work 10 hours per day, where as British only work 5 hours per day in average. Moreover, population not large enough to justify the cost of building HSR
@slothsarecool
10 ай бұрын
Is there anything the UK is good at? 😅
@atlasnetwork7855
10 ай бұрын
Yes, but we need different management. Unfortunately both our political parties are equally corrupt.
@slothsarecool
10 ай бұрын
@@atlasnetwork7855 honestly curious haha, what would you say the UK does well?
@borisj
10 ай бұрын
Creating policies that generate wealthy retirees, who become faithful Tory voters. And wealthy bankers. That's it.
@oldskoolmusicnostalgia
10 ай бұрын
Binge drinking, exporting the Premier League to the world, accepting large scale money laundering. Those are not bad "side hustles" but they were foolish enough to think they could build an entire economy on these.
@Tototoo88
9 ай бұрын
We do corruption and mismanagement pretty well. We're also great at ignoring poverty and putting the rich and powerful before others.
@aasphaltmueller5178
9 ай бұрын
I heard of those ventilation shafts elsewhere - now we have those also in Austria, made up to look like a barn from teh distance in touristy areas - and I can not belive that cost a lot - likely "overengineered" i the UK, too
@michaellaw3732
9 ай бұрын
Why left out China's high-speed train from the price comparison?
@blackknight4996
9 ай бұрын
It will be too embarrassing...
@BritMemes
9 ай бұрын
This is shocking considering the UK invented the train and railways
@theundertaker183
7 ай бұрын
Stop building 200yr old trains with wheels on them. Give Siemens a contract to build meglev trains from King's Cross to Aberdeen.
@noelhall945
9 ай бұрын
But we have built Concorde, The Channel Tunnel; Cross Rail, Bridges across major Estuaries a Motorway Network - we have achieved major projects. Rail has to be shoehorned into existing country., he does admit to Density.
@user-ei3cp5nx9f
9 ай бұрын
The downside of the UK political system becomes apparent when politicians prioritize short-term livelihood issues such as tax cuts and subsidies to gain votes during elections, while neglecting investments in large-scale infrastructure. Although these infrastructure investments may take longer to yield benefits and require collaboration among political parties, the difficulty lies in the public's ability to attribute positive outcomes to any specific party. This emphasizes the limitations of the UK political system.
@amritbhupal8514
8 ай бұрын
HS2 was never about speed, it was about capacity
@stevensarson482
9 ай бұрын
Imagine somebody suggesting the Manchester Ship Canal today, or the railway infrastructure and water systems that saw the Lake District linked to taps in Didsbury. We don’t make heroic figures like Donald Campbell, we don’t have men like Bobby Charlton and we can’t build, can’t win. We are very good at apologizing and for that we should all be very sorry.
@lucasli7826
9 ай бұрын
China & Japan left the chat to go to the cinema with a full bucket of popcorn and a cup of cola just to watch UK's gov drama.
@marcmurrell8827
8 ай бұрын
The things we don't know,like where about some of the money is going ,a local canal restoration charity got funding from hs2 for some of its work in the Lichfield area
@arranf
6 ай бұрын
For that £50 billion wasted on HS2, Rolls Royce could have built 25 of their small modular reactors, providing huge amounts of safe, emission free electricity, that would have benefitted everyone across the country instead of 1% of the population that might use a train line.
@matpk
10 ай бұрын
Why Anglophone countries so bad at building high speed rail??
@pbworld7858
9 ай бұрын
I'm wondering whether it's just a coincidence or whether there's a reason. USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, UK.
@ausbrum
9 ай бұрын
@@pbworld7858 The first three are geographically large, and really have no need of high speed rail
@pbworld7858
9 ай бұрын
@@ausbrum Yeah, and China is a tiny country. Even Russia has some HSR. Don't tell me, Russia is as small as the Vatican City. UK and NZ are yuuuuge.
@adodgygeeza
7 ай бұрын
A few big things missed, cost per mile is misleading as project costs often inckude different things, not leastbthe uk includes trauns, depots, stations that wouldn't be included in a typical french or Spanish cost as they'd be separate projects or not necessary.
@georgeeagle872
9 ай бұрын
It's not building, it's planning. When you mix a strong dose of geopolitics in planning, you get what you deserve
@terryo5672
8 ай бұрын
We do not have a problem building infrastructure. It’s the problem that infrastructure costs so much more here because of our planning system. In a congested country with powerful environmental lobbies, it takes a huge cost just to get a development consent order. Often taking many years and many millions. Over long time scales the benefits and cost change and programme requirements then have to be modified or the entire scheme even scrapped. By contrast building in the Middle East say is far easier as they have none of the environmental challenges and far less congested. Bear in mind also that it is British Companies that are designing and building infrastructure all over the World.
@TCSC47
4 ай бұрын
One example of money being wasted, be it incompetence or fraud, are the construction works near us. Near a small village, Offchurch, Warwickshire, around 20 lovely mature trees were cut down along with ancient hedgerows. Now as we see the HS2 work progress, these trees were nowhere near where the track is being built and it is quite clear they did not need to go. Someone used the cover of HS2 to make off with a large amount of valuable timbre. Maybe a small thing on the HS2 scale of things but how many times has this scam been repeated over the whole length of the construction.
@tonywellard458
9 ай бұрын
There should have to be a referendum for amounts above a certain value before gov wastes our money!
@robertjohnsontaylor3187
4 ай бұрын
They should have extended HS1 from London through to Birmingham & Manchester to Glasgow & Edinburgh. There would be some point travelling from Edinburgh to Paris and beyond
@tommcmanamon8327
8 ай бұрын
32 miles of tunnels through the home counties (NIMBYS) and vanity bridges are the reason why this project was so over budget. The 20 million in the North have been ignored again. Levelling up is a joke in this country and the levelling up minister Gove (who is Scottish) is a clown.
@cocoacrispy7802
6 ай бұрын
The Chiltern View Preservation District - taxed at 50% of the increase in costs due to tunneling. The residents demand that the rest of the country bear the cost of preserving their quality of life without a comparable sacrifice on their part. , It's a case of socialize the costs and privatize the benefits. Their properties will increase in value; Make them contribute some of that increased value to the common good. put up or shut up. And if the UK's tax system can't capture the increase, that's a sign that the system needs to be reformed…..
@jonathanfreyone526
9 ай бұрын
You hit the nail on the head on all points.
@SteveRose-iq1cs
6 ай бұрын
Where did all the practical engineering go? We now have all the computer power but lack the ability to execute any large project. Look back to all the achievements in history. The Victorians built Britain through hard work and practical skills.
@martin2289
9 ай бұрын
While the huge sums mentioned (1:50 and 4:05) may well have been "mouthwatering" to contractors, for taxpayers these are better described as *eye-watering* amounts of money.
@Minecraft-pj4hm
21 күн бұрын
We are a cramped country and do not like it being trashed QED projects that elsewhere get bulldozed through do not here. That causes expense when Governments want useless Vanity Projects e.g. HS2.
@MajorMinor1970
9 ай бұрын
And all so you can get to Birmingham from London 36 minutes quicker. Providing the RMT are not on strike and the wrong type of leaves aren't on the track of course.
@jeremybarker7577
9 ай бұрын
The fundamental reason for building HS2 is to provide additional capacity - not cutting journey times.
@josephinebennington7247
9 ай бұрын
Not when you’ve got to schlep out to the suburbs first!
@MichaelBeeny
9 ай бұрын
I think you need a bigger mic. Seams to be a trend on KZitem to see who has the biggest mic. Why do we actually need to see it anyway? A lapel mic sounds as good and is almost invisible.
@petearmstrong2778
10 ай бұрын
Engineering projects in the UK is a complete failure and the country has fallen/is falling further behind. It was misnamed as it was capacity incl freight that was the real benefit not speed. Now the motorways will take the heavy eight of haulage and not rail (until road repairs go sky-high). Hard to see a bright-side ahead.
@jeremybarker7577
9 ай бұрын
The idea of HS2 is that most long distance trains (including a majority of trains from north of Birmingham) would use it rather than the existing line with the freed up capacity of the existing line being available for additional local and freigh trains.
@justjackman
4 ай бұрын
Point 2 isn’t quite right. Rather than “risk adverse contractors”, should be “weak procurement strategy”
@dalskiBo
10 ай бұрын
Health & Safety has gotten so ridiculous it is at the point where the bureaucracy makes it impossible to the job e.g. no ladders allowed on site, edge-protection more stringent to the contractor than to the general public; I'm not kidding edge protection measures for things like kerbs whilst the site is under construction, then the kerb is left for the general public. That's without getting into the paperwork.. A lot of measures make it more dangerous. Also the terms negotiated with the govt are unattainable with private contractors, nowhere else you'd get away with quadrupling your price. Many subbies are out of pocket atm who did not allow for increased costs in their contracts agreed a few years ago; & we all know what inflation has done since then.
@kensummers7757
2 ай бұрын
Frankly HS2 is a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem. Businessmen, they only people who, (thirty years ago) had a need to get to London faster, now use train time to work remotely anyway. Putting high speed broadband along the existing tracks would have made the "need" for a faster train evaporate.
@peterp7063
9 ай бұрын
It was the wrong kind of snow not leaves!
@raymawm
9 ай бұрын
UK and USA 🇺🇸 trends to believe that the project delivery “Design and Build” which main contractors are solely responsible for all design and build issues. They believe this type of contract will bought down the price of construction and make site activities more efficient. 😂 However, I see it as same as Net Zero policy that most studies will just ignore its restrictions and raise its merits. I believe everything has its tread hold😅. Think about your house extension, why people always tell you how important to hire an architect to monitor the project and never only contract to builders. There is Nothing you can do if the builder start to raise the price at the end of project and treating you they leave.😢
@matpk
10 ай бұрын
What about Indonesia High speed rail???
@daispy101
5 ай бұрын
Claiming that population density means high speed rail is less beneficial than in larger countries is absolute cobblers. The ideal point to point ride on high speed rail is around 200-300 miles because by the time you've driven to an airport, gotten to the terminal, checked-in, cleared security, waited at the gate, boarded, taxied to the runway (in a queue), take off, fly, land, taxi to the gate at the other end, deplaned, made your way out of the airport and on to the city of choice, some distance from the airport, you're spending hours in the process that are additional to your actual flight time. Those lost hours are eliminated by getting on, riding and off a train in a city center. That's the reason the US Amtrak Accela trains run largely at capacity despite only hitting top speeds for 18 miles between Boston MA and Providence RI on the entire route from Boston to Washing DC. "No one take a plane from Birmingham to London, it's too close", yes, because as outlined above, it STILL makes more sense to take the train from Birmingham or even to drive, because the inconveniences of air travel. Same reason people don't fly from New York to Philadelphia. Or Philly to Baltimore. Or Baltimore to Washington DC. Those legs are 45-90 minutes. But you build the line from You are also ignoring the network effect of rail: intermediate stops boost ridership and local economies, while making minimal impact of longer journey times, especially compared with air travel, where there are no intermediate stops and not economic benefits along the route. The UK is not "bad at building tunnels". See HS1. Costs massively overran because the Tories conceded at cost plus contract, rather than a fixed price contract. Contractors therefore had zero incentive to reduce costs or control them. Their fees were always on top of whatever costs ran up.
@dongmingzhu666
9 ай бұрын
Because the gov has paid billions to ‘consulting’ firms for the HS2😂😂
@dyong888
9 ай бұрын
The pommies need to learn from China..... the master of High Speed Rail.... among many other things.
@rolandharmer6402
9 ай бұрын
We have a two party state - Labour and Conservative - has that got anything to do with it?
@corrigenda70
3 ай бұрын
The issue is nothing to do with rising costs - because people try to prevent what is urgently needed. The real thing is that HS2 is not about speed at all but about capacity and those odd people who try to stop it have simply and completely stopped the North getting what they need. Crazy. All the railways in the South have been moved and expanded to accommodate far more freight West to East and South to North. They will now be used much more for that but improved passenger traffic above Birmingham is now cancelled as a result of those who stupidly objected. Freight and passengers must now share existing lines. How daft can people get?
@Automatique-DJ
3 ай бұрын
Nimbyism is a curse for governemnts without direct control. As we can see from posters below. OOh we lost some trees. Ok then we won't have a MTS. The sonner the boomers bog off the better. Selfish intolerable generation.
@Trecesolotienesdos
6 ай бұрын
Idon't hink this is fair. Crossrail is the biggest public transport development in Europe of all time, and was implemented. I don't believe this is a UK-specific thing.
@ronvalente65
6 ай бұрын
Considering our railways are struggling with room for more trains! why was the Midland Line from Manchester to London Marlybone line closed down?
Пікірлер: 549