The £100BN Railway Dividing a Nation

construction projects don't come much bigger than this hs2 is a new high-speed railway being built right up the heart of britain with the promise of economic growth low carbon travel more capacity and some of the fastest trains on earth high speed 2 is one of the world's biggest infrastructure projects it'll start right here in the heart of london and run across through and under england's countryside to the midlands and one day beyond but building it is far from easy the project has gone several times over budgets and face delays and staunch opposition it's now known more for its setbacks and the decisions of those in power then its benefits or the incredible engineering that's going on an idea to bring a country closer together has become divisive hs2 will generate jobs skills and economic growth it is just a waste of money a terrible waste of taxpayers money and that's not just a uk issue we're seeing this everywhere when public money is involved the stakes get much higher the scrutiny gets more intense and when things go wrong it can become difficult or even impossible to stop so how much say do we really have over the massive projects like high speed 2 built with our money can our governments ever stop once they've started and does they come a point with these projects where they're just no longer worth it we can now travel over land at the rate of 30 miles an hour think of it ladies and gentlemen 30 miles an hour houston departure point for 175 trains every day we need to build new railway lines in our country we haven't built a line north of london for 120 years it will redefine the way we travel around our country i'm absolutely convinced finally giving the home of the roadways the fast connections they need another back now that it makes any sense without hs2 the way that uk government makes decisions with ebb and flow depending on the political weather that's not how you deliver major infrastructure we're in a climate emergency we need to be doing sustainable creation not destroying the country this project is absolute madness in the whole size of hs 2 the only thing to do is keep digging hs2 will deliver lots of benefits there's no question about that the question is whether it's worth the costs like many countries the uk is divided there are big economic and social differences between the capital and the rest of the country and there's little sign of anything changing back in 2009 the government proposed a new high-speed railway to better connect london and the north of england spreading wealth up the country three years later that project was approved and billions of taxpayer cash was set aside for it it's called high speed 2 which is often shortened to hs2 and it's being built in three stages phase one runs from london to birmingham phase two a will carry the route to a town called crew and 2b takes it to manchester and originally leeds high-speed trains would then continue on to other parts of the country at normal speeds using the existing network so those living in the wider north and scotland can benefit too the trains will have a top speed of 225 miles an hour the fastest in europe now to do that they need a track that's as straight and flat as possible but drawing a straight flat line up england isn't easy some ninety percent of the phase one route will be up on bridges and viaducts or dug below ground in tunnels and cuttings making it an immense feat of engineering a journey north from london will begin here in a new three-story terminal at houston it'll have the uk's longest concourse a pre-fabricated geometric roof and 10 platforms built some eight meters below ground this site down here at houston is where that massive new terminal is going to start to rise in the years to come now it might not look like much right now but just getting to this stage has been tough going and the team has faced all the kind of challenges you might expect them to face when clearing a site like this in the heart of a major city existing buildings neighbouring properties traffic services and of course the current live railway running into houston alongside them after houston trains will arrive at aldo common where there'll be additional links to heathrow airport wales and the southwest the first landmark outside london is the cone valley viaduct it'll run for 3.4 kilometers across several waterways and become the country's longest railway crossing next up is the 16 kilometer chilton tunnel the longest and deepest on the entire route sitting up to 90 meters underground then it's another tunnel but this one is less about length and depth and more about what's above it the uk has over three hundred thousand hectares of ancient woodland that's trees that have been around since sixteen hundred despite weather in the ages some of those trees now find themselves in the path of hs2 instead of cutting them all down planners have tried to limit their destruction and one way is to go underneath them like up here at long itchington wood this is one of hs2's new tunnels and just behind me back there is where construction teams are working away to dig this route deep beneath england's countryside now when you're down here you can't help but be blown away by the scale of the engineering that's going into this project in years to come people on trains are going to pass through here in a matter of seconds they'll be drinking a coffee doing some emails and they probably won't even notice but to make that leisurely experience possible construction teams are putting in the grind using 2 000 ton tunnel boring machines like this to cut a path the machines feature a cutting head at the front and a system that quickly takes soil back up to the surface in these pipes along the side of the tunnel this is the very front of one of hs2's tunnel boring machines just ahead of me up there is a massive cutting head that's steadily eating its way through the soil by about 20 to 24 meters a day slowly but surely this machine is building part of hs2 the long itchington tunnel will run for 1.6 kilometers and be the first to complete across the whole route when it finishes in 2023 it's just one example of some of the massive feats of engineering that are taking place between london and the midlands to enable this high speed line to run in time those incredibly fast trains are going to run across the ground i'm currently standing on through this cutting and on towards birmingham the last stop before birmingham is the solihull interchange currently billed as the world's most eco-friendly railway station with connections to the airport and the exhibition center phase one then all culminates at birmingham kurzon street it's the first intercity rail terminus built in the uk since the 1800s and it'll feature an arched roof inspired by the railway pioneers of that era it's all a lot of work and money to connect london and the midlands but there's a payoff economic growth the idea is that the billions being poured into this project will be paid back and that millions of people will have their quality of life improved high-speed rail effectively brings major cities and population centres closer together businesses can access larger customer bases supply chains and labor pools integration and trade are improved productivity goes up and commuting longer distances becomes possible you no longer have to buy a house in an expensive region in order to work there and that takes pressure off the housing crisis hs2 will slash journey times getting from london to birmingham will take just 45 minutes 37 minutes quicker than today but better connectivity between regions is about more than just speed there's another key word in all this capacity if you take a look at the uk's rail map you might question whether this project makes any sense london already has a direct connection to birmingham and manchester via the west coast mainline so why build another well because it's one of the busiest railways in europe it's used by intercity local and freight trains all at the same time and things can get crowded hs2 will be just for high-speed passenger trains it'll mean getting up and down the country quicker and free up much needed space on the existing lines the hope is that this all makes taking the train an obvious choice as compared to driving or catching a domestic flight it's designed to be the world's most sustainable high-speed railway offering carbon-free travel from the day the trains start running it all seems like a good idea but there are some who question whether the uk actually needs this high-speed line at all unlike some other countries renowned for their high-speed rail networks the uk's major cities are all much closer together that's a factor that's perpetuated the lack of an extensive high-speed network in the uk to date and one reason why it hasn't cultivated much homegrown talent or expertise good at building it the guy tasked with assembling and leading the team that's having a go for the first time in decades is mark thurston hs2 is a once in a generation project we will connect all the major cities on that corridor in our country at high speed clearly make a massive difference to the way we decarbonise our transport system it is unprecedented over 300 sites alone just between here and the west midlands but also again if you look around us here in houston we're right on top of the local community so how do we build this railway sensitively in a way that respects people who've got to kill their lives you know for some years yet one until this railway is fully commissioned now you might be wondering who gets the say over whether or not big expensive projects that impact so many people's lives like this get to happen well it's complicated but stick with us because grasping this will help you better understand how your tax money is being spent the uk is a constitutional monarchy the sovereign is in charge but delegates all their power to a democratically elected government and lower house of parliament called the house of commons like many countries we elect people from each region to sit on that parliament and represent us the political party that wins the most seats forms the government they get to control all the government departments and decide which laws are introduced and debated in the house of commons they pretty much set the agenda now we decide which candidate or party we're going to vote for based on what they say they're going to do and in the uk the two major parties the conservatives and labor both advocate the principle of a new high-speed rail line so in a way the people chose this the elected uk government formally decided to build hs2 back in 2012 after a lot of debate and consultation finally in 2017 parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill giving the government special powers to build operate and maintain phase one when boris johnson then became prime minister in 2019 he commissioned the okavi review to advise his government on whether and how to proceed with the project then he made the final call the cabinet has given high speed rail the green signal we are we are going to get this done at that point with powers already obtained from parliament back in 2017 boris signed the final notice to proceed with the project permission for phase 2a followed in 2021 to try and get a better understanding of this complicated process and how it's used to approve projects like hs2 i went to see stephen glaister he's emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at imperial college london and he was a contributor to that okave review the parliamentary process of course is very important to the big scheme like this you can't build a railway in this country without parliamentary approval the government has made a decision in principle to build this scheme so it's a matter of policy to build the whole scheme the parliamentary process is to allow people badly affected to make their case about how their interests should be dealt with in 2012 when the project was first backed it was given a target finish date of 2026 for phase one and 2033 for phase two the initial budget was set at 32.7 billion pounds that's a lot of cash it gets funded by something called a granting aid from the governments which in turn gets its money from the taxpayer in public people like me and you small amounts gathered from millions of us can create a hefty budget and that's what puts most national infrastructure projects in a completely different budget galaxy to skyscrapers or other buildings funded by private companies or people even tech giants like google facebook or apple don't spend more than a few single-digit billions on their flagship projects and they're some of the richest firms in the world now you'd think that combining such a big budget with the uk's history as the birthplace of the railways would be a winning formula but hs2 hasn't gone to plan and public opinion now is generally far from positive data from may 2022 shows that only seven percent of brits strongly support hs2 compared to 19 that strongly oppose it so what happened between the original business case when people were sold hs2 and all those benefits made it feel like a bit of a no-brainer and today well the short answer is that the ambitious dream of redefining how people travel has begun to clash hard with the realities of making it happen many are unhappy with the choice of root residents and businesses have had to be moved out of the way thousands of people have been served with compulsory purchase notices and others have seen their properties plummet in value these initial works mark the start of years of heavy construction and a crash in the value of property nearby sadly this is often the trade-off when building infrastructure to benefit millions a minority are asked to pay a heavy price building project like this on a route like this inevitably means you have to make some tough decisions at some points on the way around what has to move out of the way yeah i mean if you look at what we're doing here just at houston alone you know right on top of the local community a live railway station just behind us uh massive demolitions in the background here just to sort of clear the footprint for the station so to your point those tough decisions are made you could point to multiple examples of them all along the route however some property owners feel they've been offered unfair valuations and have criticized how they were dealt with but perhaps the biggest source of contention has been the project's environmental impact even with sections like the long itchington tunnel which aimed to protect ancient woodland as much as possible around 24 hectares will be lost on phase one across 25 sites that's around 34 football pitches hs2 say this only amounts to the partial destruction of these habitats and they're planting millions of new trees in return that they are responsible for maintaining when you put you know point-to-point city high-speed connections in place that has the economic effect but to do that we've had to be really sensitive about the impact on the natural environment got a target to plant some seven million bushes and trees along the route we're always we're getting close to north of seven hundred thousand already we're very sensitive to and it's sympathetic to to that natural environment now you could argue that people and businesses might in time adapt and move on from a difficult compulsory purchase of their land but trees that have been around since the time of elizabeth the first aren't coming back any time soon and that's tough for some to swallow the anger has boiled over into numerous protests from sites way out in the country to the heart of the capital in a park in front of houston station some people who want hs2 stopped have set up a protest camp there are 80 000 people here and they all walk through the open countryside here and hs2 is a concrete electrified scar that will cut them off from their access to countryside many also believe the project poses a huge threat to animals and other plant life even though efforts are being made to protect species like endangered bats and the scheme is projected to leave behind 30 percent more wildlife habitats than exist currently hs2 claims it's been employing more stringent environmental standards than in many other countries building high-speed tracks and right there you have one of the reasons why this project which was already pricey to begin with is now set to become the most expensive high-speed railway in the world that 32 billion figure from earlier was only the initial budget from 2012. after just one year the estimate had risen to 42.6 billion it then went up to 55.7 billion in 2015 and that's the number that parliament passed the bill on in 2017. two years later hs2 put the cost at around 88 billion while in 2020 the okavi review found the bill could go as high as 106 billion today the government puts the cost somewhere between 72 and 98 billion pounds and with billions more in what's called future cost pressures now being reported that number isn't final the current global inflation and supply chain challenges could all start to have an impact too 44.6 billion is now going on phase one alone more than the entire project was supposed to cost at first and almost 15 billion pounds of that has already been spent we asked hs2 for comment on these budget issues and they responded that the project remains within budget meaning the latest budget that's been set they added that the original budget was worked out using simple calculations and 2011 rates that didn't take the scheme's full complexities into account whatever your take on this the cost now is a lot more than what was in the budget when parliament chose to approve it would our elected mps have made a different decision if they knew how much it would eventually cost parliament was asked to make a decision in principle but they were offered a set of costs which are much less than the out turn costs had they been offered at a cost of a hundred billion they might have come to a different answer on behalf of us all the project's been hit by delays too phase one was supposed to finish in 2026 but now it's 2029 at the earliest as for the entire network which was meant to wrap up by 2033 it could now be as late as 2041 2b hasn't cleared parliament yet so exact details of what it will look like and where it will go remain uncertain a bit of a case of to be or not to be along the route there have been some unexpected complications which have had pretty dramatic consequences in 2019 ground conditions had become in the words of hs2's then chairman significantly more challenging than predicted he revealed that the 2015 cost estimate for phase one was made without the benefits of any investigation of ground conditions or similar levels of detail across all areas of scope more time has been needed for ground settlements adding to the delays and there have had to be route changes further north to avoid obstacles like salt mines it's also been revealed that the cost of buying up property for phase one is over three times more than first thought at around 3.9 billion pounds that's according to figures provided to us by hs2 they added that every home business and piece of land is unique and there are sometimes different opinions between owners their professional advisors and hs2 about the value of a property in all cases we seek a fair deal for both claimants and the taxpayer there have been delays to the stations too including here at houston the latest designs were only revealed in march 2022 seven years after the first images were made public and after construction here had already begun and yet there's more one major decision has sparked anger and disappointment in the region that was supposed to benefit most from this project london's one of the world's top financial centers with a higher gdp across its metropolitan area than anywhere else in europe and a habit of spending big on infrastructure but many other parts of the uk like here in leeds haven't seen the same levels of infrastructure and public services investments creating a north-south divide that's only getting bigger the north of england has long suffered with outdated transport systems while the capital continues to get more big projects like the elizabeth line one of the current uk government's big pledges at the last election was to level up the whole country now that involves boosting local economies outside london and building a high-speed train line to them would be a good start to try and really understand the north-south divide and what a high-speed railway could do for this part of the country i caught up with henry morrison from the northern powerhouse partnership it's an independent body that represents businesses and civic leaders across the north how much of a north-south divide is there in the uk and is it getting better or worse in your view so our analysis of the most recent ons data which is collected for all the regions of the uk shows that london has really bounced back and the challenge is that the rest of the country is still lagging behind and in reality under this current government we're not making huge progress it may take longer to see some of the benefits of some of the leveling up projects but they're often too short-term not focused enough on long-term productivity and so unlikely to yield the longer-term benefits we need economically but this is exactly the kind of issue that hs2 was designed to fix so now the people of the north can look forward to phase 2b being completed and all the economic advantages it's going to bring then there's northern powerhouse rail another major program of upgrades which would link with hs2 as part of a new integrated rail plan for the region sounds like things are looking up at last but there's a big problem when those costs were getting out of hand and it was decided that part of the route had to be shelved it was the bit that runs right here to leeds that took the hit that route we showed earlier going all the way up to leeds is no longer happening and that northern powerhouse rail scheme has also been downgraded the eastern leg of phase 2b will now terminate near nottingham over 70 miles away trains will still be able to go further north but only on existing non-high-speed lines although the intention is to get to leeds eventually and ideas have been put forward nothing's been confirmed there's just a study which in itself is set to cost a further 100 million pounds the original plan which was deliver hs2 in full and northern powerhouse rail from here through bradford across to manchester is now not being delivered so losing both with no certainty exactly over what will replace it there's a notional promise from government of some hs2 trains coming to leeds well we don't know how frequent or what the capacity will be so we don't really know the value so we are talking to the government now about the eastern leg certainly having traveled in around the midlands and the north a lot on rail you see the stark difference between the sort of frequency and regularity of services compared to london and southeast so that's i think where we need to sort of put our focus next working with the department for transport but that's not all of it the project is still being scaled back and again it's the north that's affected even while we were making this film another key section connecting to the west coast mainline was cut it was through here that high-speed trains would have continued on as far as scotland the government says it's now committed to finding the best solution to take hs2 trains to scotland and will explore alternatives deliver similar benefits there's issues to iron out in manchester as well like the decision to build the main station on the surface rather than underground which has been criticized by some local officials currently a journey from london to leeds in the uk looks like this now this trip is taking me two hours and 13 minutes under the original plans for hs2 that would have been dramatically cut to just one hour and 21 minutes but when phase one completes the difference will be just 20 minutes from what we were promised with hs2 that original dream this this fantastic railway connecting all parts of the uk or certainly the north has public opinion shifted now i think that the public opinion uh is wary of a government that isn't prepared to keep its promises to the north of england in this country we are entirely dependent on who the occupants of number 10 and 11 are for whether leeds gets a mass transit system or where the leads get to take chess 2 station or whether leeds gets access to a train line that supposedly for its own benefit now that doesn't mean the north isn't getting anything at all billions have been spent to upgrade transport links across this region through that new integrated rail plan but for many people up here that doesn't make up for the loss of high-speed rail which they were promised by the government the integrated rail plan represented 36 billion of cuts to what had originally been promised and that rather than just being an economic problem it's also a political problem for a government that claims it's leveling up if you had to describe hs2 in a single word what would that word be starts and a problem the problem is that i don't think this government intends to finish it to their credit those currently working for hs2 are doing their best to move on from the past and politics and just focus on constructing the railway but despite the good job that teams on the front line are doing it's clear that what's currently being built is a long way from what was put forward at the beginning and there's little sign of this project ever being stopped so is it time for a radical rethink or does this railway now simply have to be finished no matter the cost hs2 might have gone from an ambitious dream to a bit of a nightmare but the uk is far from the only countries who have had a few difficulties when it comes to building new infrastructure in fact many other public funded railways have also fallen behind schedule and gone over budget california high-speed rail in the u.s and stuttgart 21 in germany are just two examples big energy projects don't seem to fare much better either the oikoloto3 power plant in finland and china's three gorges dam both faced big challenges but it's not just the setbacks that feel repetitive infrastructure schemes like these all seem to fall back on the same vague positive sounding and almost unquestionable counter-argument to their problems the promise of long-term economic gain the almost counter trump card to all the delay the controversy is this this card of economic gain economic growth and actually this is going to be it's painful now but it's going to be worth it in the long run don't worry where's the line how many more billions how many more cost uplifts how many more unexpected events before we say actually you know what this just isn't worth it anymore it's just too much hassle and we're never going to see the benefits or are we locked into this now whatever it takes there's no mechanistic way of deciding whether or not something's worthwhile at the end of the day it is of course a decision for government on behalf of the nation people do not understand what this is going to cost the taxpayer if you take 100 billion and divide that by the population of the country it turns out to be over a thousand pounds per head and bearing in mind that hs2 will be of use direct value to a rather small proportion of population so there's a real issue there another way of looking at that is 100 million pounds a week every week for 20 years are there days where you question whether or not the whole thing's worth it uh no not really not really i mean you've got to believe uh in a project like this to do my job and and all the people that work with me you've got to believe it's an important project so of course as you say there are swings and roundabouts and all big projects have sort of dark moments but you you the highs more than outweigh the lows we have to just keep going and see it through or is there a line where we're just spending too much money taking too much time for not enough economic gain well ultimately that's a big question for the politicians but but let's be really clear one of the things we did in my first sort of 18 months is reset the budget for phase one i inherited both the budget and the time frame which proved to be undeliverable you know but textbooks generally can and should have confidence that we've set ourselves up now deliver the project for the budgets we've committed to government when done properly the payoff of big public projects can be huge they have the ability to shape our world and change its course better connectivity between countries cleaner more affordable energy lifting people out of poverty limiting the impact of natural disasters it's all made possible by infrastructure projects that's why so many national governments look to schemes like this and approve them despite their financial social and environmental costs infrastructure has the potential to make a big lasting impact and enable countless other aspects of our societies all with the added benefit of creating something very tangible and quite literally concrete to show voters but the bigger the rewards the bigger the risks and the costs the stakes all round get much higher and everything becomes magnified yes things go wrong in other parts of construction we've seen unfinished skyscrapers which usually happens when private developers run out of cash but when it's public money that's on the line that word unfinished becomes unthinkable i do think that there's a problem in the british system and maybe in other countries too whereby governments get committed to a controversial idea and because it's controversial they make firm promises and then if it turns out on further investigation not to be such a good idea they defend the idea rather than being able to to review it i've said many times this this project divides opinion uh you know it draws a huge amount of public money it's disruptive it takes a long time uh and and people struggle sometimes to justify the the investment in it but of course those railways are invested in high-speed rail i've never regretted it britain's high speed 2 is a potent reminder of the power of infrastructure it shows us once again what the construction industry can do and the impact it can have on so much of our lives the teams pulling off the extraordinary feats of engineering to create this railway are quite literally writing this country's next chapter into its land for whatever the mistakes of this project's management or the discourse around its very existence that's something that can't be taken away from these amazing people and it'll inspire future generations of engineers and yet around the world the impact of what teams like this do places them in a firestorm of debate infrastructure schemes almost always face an uphill battle to deliver on their pledges and restore faith with the people they'll serve we might be the ones coughing up the cash but we're not calling the shots while governments can be voted out once projects like this get going and the train has left the station there can be no going back hs2 epitomizes the story of the infrastructure mega project huge benefits are laid out for future generations that citizens of today must bear the cost of just as our predecessors did for us the promise of a bigger prize ahead is used to counter painful issues and becomes the lens we see them through fear of stopping drives people on supporters and detractors are selective with their facts we're told that we'll one day forget it all and only experience the benefits but that verdict is cruelly deferred by decades only time will reveal the true extent of hs2 success and whether the decision to carry on was really worth it but like so many infrastructure projects around the world it will undoubtedly leave its mark on this nation it's not the first massive scheme in history to daunt people with its costs challenges and ambition and it won't be the last it will redefine the economic geography of our country it would transform the way we think about low carbon travel in our country and i think frankly certainly if you're based in the midlands and you live in the midlands and the north you won't realize the true effects you'll have until it's until it's open like so many of the world's biggest infrastructure projects britain's high speed 2 promises enormous benefits requires huge amounts of money is grappling with immense challenges and contains enough naughts and trade-offs to sharply divide opinion but for whatever you may think of this another big public projects like it it's kind of time that more of us sat up and took notice of the extraordinary influence the construction sector has on all of our lives and the massive projects being built with our money and in our names guys if you enjoyed this video and you want to find out more about this incredible industry make sure you're subscribed to the b1m you

Channel: The B1M

Views: 4,037,566

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, hs2, high speed rail, high speed 2, railways, britain, uk, infrastructure, megaprojects, uk government, boris johnson, mark thurston, henri murison, stephen glaister, california high speed rail, stuttgart 21, olkiluoto, conservatives, labour party, parliament, london, birmingham, manchester, leeds, crossrail, elizabeth line, rail, UK Rail, northern powerhouse

Id: FSD5ps9bLQ0

Length: 34min 8sec (2048 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 10 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

What doesn't help is in typical tory fashion it's been trashed heavily.

however the birmingham leg is at the point of no return with it proberbly being too expensive to cancel.

[u/thepurplescope]

Thanks for posting this, love big engineering projects. HS2 looks great.

[u/TheShakyHandsMan]

Just watching it now. One of the causes of budget overspending is compulsory buying of land for people.

I wonder how many Tory donors got vast overinflated sums for having the line pass through their land.

[u/cdezdr]

Surprisingly balanced video from the B1M. I enjoyed the questioning of whether to complete a project that has turned into a money pit. The motorways and train lines of the UK are congested so the capacity is needed. If we are going to question the 100B cost, is there anything as effective that costs less?

[u/ClippTube]

we love fred mills

[u/Made-in-1882]

Corruption.

[u/The_real_pabloisme]

https://metro.co.uk/2016/03/09/boris-johnsons-dad-receives-multi-million-pound-payout-over-hs2-5742573/

[u/The_real_pabloisme]

If you think a stunt is too far off target just use the tinter web do a search and lo & behold scumbags!