High Speed 2: The UK's £100 Billion Rail Project

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's a new year's resolution or a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace check out my wonderful all-in-one platform through the link in the description below more on them in a bit [Music] following hot on the heels of the seemingly endless brexit squabbling comes another project larved in controversy now right at the beginning of mega projects we did a video on london's new crossrail underground line it was a project big on ambition and grandeur but it was also mired in development issues and one that is still not finished but if you thought that was the biggest rail venture going on in the uk well think again because welcome to high speed 2. the name high speed 2 feels like it's already been around forever indeed as a british person i'm like a high speed 2 that's not finished yet really but construction has only actually just begun the high-speed rail link service will initially link london and birmingham before separating and continuing north to manchester and leeds the manchester branch will also have an offshoot terminating near wigan the first phase is due to be completed between 2028 and 2030 while the northern sections are scheduled to be open somewhere between 2035 and 2040. i'll be over 50 years old when that happens that's somewhat depressing so we're going to be talking about high speed 2 for a little bit of a while not in today's video i just mean in the general discourse of a society this is a truly monumental project that has already seen its estimated cost balloon to truly stratospheric levels and one that has courted significant controversy up and down the country this could well be the uk's defining mega project of the 21st century in comparison with some other countries around the world britain is far behind in terms of high-speed rail travel the most famous of course is the japanese shinkansen trains now capable of traveling at speeds of 360 kilometers an hour 223 miles per hour in europe france italy spain and germany all use high-speed trains that have been in place for a long time in britain high-speed rail has always been a bit of a difficult journey traditionally one of the leaders in terms of rail innovation the country has slipped noticeably down the pecking order over the last 50 years during the 1970s the advanced passenger train was trialled in the uk capable of speeds up to 249 kilometers an hour 155 miles per hour however it ran into financial problems that were compounded by the negative media coverage focusing on the train's design faults and was finally scrapped in 1987. instead the uk built and extended motorways around the country in 1960 the total length of motorways in britain was 95 miles as of 2019 that figure has reached 2 320 miles the average vehicle flow across the two periods also increased by nearly nine times the uk just became much more of a car nation and sadly rail services just began falling behind [Music] if you were already wondering about high speed 1 then here we are the first high-speed rail line in the uk opened fully in 2007 and runs for 108 kilometers 67 miles between london and the channel tunnel which in case you missed it is a rail tunnel which passes under the english channel connecting the uk with france at a cost to 5.8 billion pounds it certainly didn't come cheap but it pales in comparison to the absolutely astronomical figures we're going to be coming to shortly this was an important line because it finally put the british section on par with their gaelic cousins before this trains had traveled from paris to the channel tunnel at speeds of up to 300 kilometers an hour but coming out of the tunnel in the uk trains could only travel at a maximum speed of 160 kilometers an hour for a nation who invented rail travel this was a little bit galling [Music] it was only two years after the full opening of high speed one that murmurs of another longer high-speed rail line began to emerge initially the proposal came from the labour party then in power but it was supported by the conservative and liberal democrat coalition which came into power in 2010. the initial y-shaped design which we mentioned at the beginning of the video has not changed much but the design has undergone slight alterations to mitigate the ecological impact the government hopes that high-speed 2 will increase capacity on british railways weaning the country from air and road to rail it is hoped that by adding high-speed connections between the major cities it would free up space on other lines which could then operate slower local routes and freight services then there was the argument that seems forever danced around in the uk the north-south divide london is not only the largest city in the uk by far but has also attracted significantly more investment than anywhere else everything from average income life expectancy house prices and unemployment have all traditionally been skewed along the north-south divide those in the north have felt left behind for decades and now it's difficult to argue with that sentiment a new high-speed rail line connecting the north and south was seen as the start of a leveling up process within the country to borrow a phrase from prime minister boris johnson which hopefully would see rising investment away from the bright lights of london in 2010 the estimated cost for the entire project was between 30.9 billion pounds and 36 billion pounds but things were still a long way from getting started between 2010 and 2019 the uk went through a truly tumultuous period the referendum on leaving the european union spilled over into bickering protests and at times open contempt it was not a particularly pleasant time for the country and one in which the debate over high speed 2 exploded the opposition to high-speed 2 has been fierce with much of it centering around the environmental impact that the line will have the woodland trust the uk's largest woodland conservation group has stated that 108 ancient woodlands will be affected by the railways with a whole catalog of rare animals set to lose their habitat others argue it's simply a waste of money and that the uk doesn't need a high-speed rail network with the nhs often struggling badly for funding it's not hard to find other causes that could benefit from the money and not to get too far ahead of ourselves here but that estimated cost i just gave you well that's already got up considerably it wasn't quite stratospheric enough it's a project that has divided many in politics as well although the three largest political parties the conservatives labor and liberal democrats now do support it the green party brexit party and uk independence party oppose the project but hold so little power in parliament they haven't managed to provide much political opposition then there is the awkward question of co2 emissions you would think that by installing high-speed railways that the uk would reduce co2 emissions but it's not quite that straightforward a government white paper published in 2007 stated that trains that travel at a speed of 350 kilometers an hour 220 miles per hour use 90 more energy than at 200 kilometers per hour 125 miles per hour which would result in carbon emissions for a london to edinburgh journey of approximately 14 kilograms per passenger for high-speed rail compared to seven kilograms per passenger for conventional rail air travel emits 26 kilograms per passenger for the same journey so it's certainly better than an aircraft but perhaps not quite as green as you would imagine however the paper also added that a switch to carbon free or carbon neutral energy production would make a huge difference obviously in 2010 the government said that the project would be and i quote roughly carbon neutral which is about as non-committal as you can possibly get politicians a statement by high speed 2 has said that the construction of phase 1 will lead to roughly 5.8 to 6.2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions but after which it will be carbon neutral and by 2030 emissions are estimated to be 8 grams for high speed rail 22 grams for conventional intercity rail 67 grams for private car transport 170 grams for domestic aviation per given passenger speed rail the green signal all of this opposition built up steadily over the years so much so that the government ordered a full review of the project in 2019. at the time preparation work for phase one had already begun and continued through the inquiry though the review was completed by the end of 2019 the findings were delayed because of the general election in december in february 2020 the okavi review was finally published concluding that high speed 2 should go ahead with certain alterations much of it relating to the spiraling costs high speed 2 had its final go-ahead and if you want your new website to earn a well-deserved green light well you've got to think about 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line to be constructed will be the section from london to birmingham which will include four stations london houston old oak common and interchange just outside of london birmingham kurzen street and birmingham interchange outside the city the route will be in the region of 160 kilometers long and is expected to take 45 minutes the current journey time is at least one hour and 22 minutes coming out of london the train will travel through two tunnels before reaching the m25 the ringed motorway which wraps around london one thirteen kilometers and the other fifteen point eight kilometers outside of the m25 it will continue north and include a green tunnel a carton cover tunnel where a shallow ditch is dug and then covered over with natural elements in theory making it more aesthetically pleasing the new birmingham interchange station will be situated near the small town of solo hull around 14.4 kilometers southeast of birmingham and it's here that phase one will make its second scheduled stop before continuing into britain's second largest city but that's not quite it for phase one the line is due to terminate near litchfield north of birmingham where it will eventually merge into phase two phase two is a little more complex but it can be broken down into phase two a and phase two b but even then it's still not quite so simple the phases denote the construction process rather than the actual line so the western line from birmingham starts with a section of phase 2a and then morphs into phase 2b phase 2a will connect litchfield and crew which will act as a gateway to both manchester and liverpool liverpool has not been included on the high speed 2 lines but will be connected to it via an existing freightline and will service high-speed trains crew is set to see a major upgrade to its existing main station and will also include a tunnel beneath it allowing trains not stopping in crew to go under it without needing to reduce speed from crew phase 2b will travel north and break into a y shape with the western section terminating near wigan and the eastern continuing to manchester airport then manchester itself through a newly constructed 16 kilometer tunnel the second section of phase 2b will begin just outside of birmingham at coles hill from there it continues northeast to a newly built station called the east midlands hub near derby at this point the high speed 2 line will continue north to leeds where a midland main line will run parallel to it from the east midlands hub up to sheffield once again this is not an official section of high speed 2 but it will use high speed trains needless to say the most significant change that passengers will experience will be travel times a journey from london to manchester will be reduced from two hours and seven minutes to one hour and 40 minutes and if you want to go even longer london to edinburgh will take 3 hours and 48 minutes rather than 4 hours and 22 minutes i've used two examples from london but the entire country will see reduced times between connecting cities the number of people using the train services is also anticipated to grow quickly high speed 2 is expected to carry 26 000 people every hour and 86 million passengers annually london houston is going to see a massive increase in both passengers and trains with an estimated 15 trains either arriving or departing the london station every hour during peak hours houston will see its commuter capacity more than treble after the introduction of high speed 2. speaking of houston and changing topics slightly work around the busy london station has already included the removal of 40 000 skeletons from st james's church graveyard nearby one of which was found to be the long lost remains of matthew flinders who led the first inshore circumnavigation of australia by the way his remains are now going to be re-buried in his hometown of donington in lincolnshire the site of the expanded birmingham cursing station has also unearthed some 6500 skeletons from a nearby burial site as well as the remnants of the world's oldest roundhouse a large turntable that was used to turn locomotives dating around 1837. [Music] the situation with the trains or rolling stock as they say in the business is also a bit of a complicated matter the bidding process began in 2017 was expected to have been awarded last year but that has now been pushed back to the first quarter of 2021 but what do we know about the trains that will operate on high speed 2. it's thought the first batch purchased will number at least 54 individual trains with a maximum speed of at least 360 kilometers an hour and measuring roughly 200 meters it's also hoped that the trains will be able to operate on both the new high speed lines but also on most existing routes however this does come with a bit of a dilemma almost all high-speed trains built in europe operate on a larger structure gauge than in the uk meaning the minimum height and width of the tunnels and bridges are different making the trains larger than what is normally seen in the uk purchasing custom-built trains to fit the uk network will likely cost nearly 50 more than the off-the-shelf options one estimate states a specially designed train would cost 40 million pounds rather than the 27 million pounds it would cost to buy something similar which is used across europe so it seems that either the uk will have to stump up significantly more money to purchase trains that can be used all over the uk or go for cheaper options that would be constricted to high speed 2 lines and other routes that have been modified okay so now we come to the massive white elephant sitting in the corner of the room the cost of high speed 2 has exploded since 2010 when if you remember the estimate was between 30.9 billion pounds and 36 billion pounds it's already an insane amount of money well in just 10 years that figure has more than tripled officially it currently stands at 98 billion pounds although some involved with the ogilvy review contend that it could be much higher than that perhaps as much as 170 billion this staggering increase has been attributed to several factors inflation population density cost of land and the fact that high speed 2 needs to travel into city centers and if we've learned anything from the elusive crossrail project building new train lines through london is an absolutely hugely costly nightmare at the same time we do need to take into consideration the cost-benefit ratio yes this is going to be a very costly endeavor to construct but it is expected to produce net benefits and additional revenue the net benefits can be a little vague but are likely to include the economic stimulation for towns and cities along the line as well as an increased freight capacity which should in theory lower costs a few years ago the ratio is estimated to be 2.30 meaning 2 pounds 30 of benefits for every 1 pound spent however this figure is now believed to have fallen to around 1 pound 50. not quite as attractive but if correct it would still be beneficial in the long run then there's the cost of operation the estimated running costs of high-speed 2 are 3 pounds 90 per thousand meters for a 200 meter train and 5 pounds for 260 meter trains in comparison the existing network costs 2 pounds per thousand meters for 200 meter trains and 2 pounds 60 for the longer trains [Music] after all the waiting scrutinizing and protesting it seems that high speed 2 is finally going ahead that's not to say that the debate over it has calmed far from it in fact but the government appears increasingly committed to the project and as work begins it's difficult to see a last-minute change in mind this will be one of the largest most significant infrastructure projects the uk has seen in living memory considering the nation will need to contend with the fallout of the covet 19 pandemic a brand new recession and the messy divorce from europe it certainly hasn't come at the best time but then again is there ever a right time for something quite like this so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that like button below don't forget to subscribe please do check out fantastic sponsor squarespace if you're thinking simon you're wearing a great t-shirt well go to megamerch.com and you can buy one for yourself and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 351,528

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Id: I1TcObZ6i7I

Length: 19min 31sec (1171 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020