HS2 Calvert to Aylesbury | Drone | 4K
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Aerial view of the highly controversial HS2 construction progress in May 2023, between Calvert and Aylesbury.
HS2 Phase 1 is the project to provide a high speed rail link between London Euston and a new station in Curzon Street in central Birmingham, not far from Moor Street station.
Footage taken from a DJI Mavic 3, in May 2023
Came for the video, stayed for the music!
Well done!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it 👍
Thank you for this great view, brings back lovely memories of metal detecting with Dad on the fields around where the incinerator now is, my uncle used to live in the very old house that's just about visable next to the 3 small silo's.
That area was my old stomping ground as well!
Thanks for the update! Crazy how much material they are moving around. I'm guessing that all the different mounds of stuff are slightly different material (rock, subsoil, topsoil etc) and this is all recorded somewhere...to be relocated,(for embankments and the like) at a later date.
Painfully slow progress though. Although I'm glad they are being careful (ish) to the environment, and not clogging up the local roads with traffic, I really do think this project be done a lot quicker and cheaper and still end up with the same result. Suppose you can't please everyone though!
30 million cubic metres last year
I'm sure poor planning and implementation hasn't helped with the glacially slow progress (or the massive cost overruns)
Before the first machine started l presume a survey would have been made to determine the depth of topsoil, usually between 6 and 9 inches in which all the nutrition resides.This would then be stored in a well drained location,the other varieties of sub soil would then be stored also so when reinstated and levelled to previous profile nature will be do the rest hopefully, basically what a good garden landscaper would do but on a massive scale
@@keithmason7481 We'd like to think so, but waste land around other railways don't appear to get that care....
@@theboy-uk The early canals and railways did a lot of damage to the natural drainage of the surrounded farmland due to the need for cuttings and embankments.I assume the planners of HS2 are doing their best to cause the least damage.When sections of the WCML were quadrupled some 20years ago there was some disturbance to adjacent farmland,not on the same scale obviously, there is now no evidence of the work.
Giant post ahead. My Apologies, it kind of ran away from me but I felt I had to say it.
I see from your comments that you're kind of against the idea of HS2 comparing it to motorways and the like for construction costs and time, but do remember that:
A) We know how to make motorways and yet in somecases the costs are still stupid, like that £1.4 billion being given to rebuild a roundabout and less than 10 miles of road where the A1 meets the A421 and the A428 near Bedford. Nevermind how destructive roads are, demolishing a lot more land to move less people.
B) We haven't built a new mainline like this in Britain in about 120 years, so we're having to relearn that expertise, that plus the fact it has to meet environmental targets some 5-10 times more stringent than new motorway construction has to.
C) The government decided that it had to be 225mph instead of just saying that the 186mph that the French call good enough would also be good enough for us so therefore the line is being built to a standard not matched in the rest of Europe and only by 2 other projects in the world, both of which are also over budget and behind schedule.
D) On the cost side, HS2 is mostly being built by a variety of subcontractors that have each been awarded construction contracts for parts of the line. This is for two reasons, number 1 is because we don't have a construction company large enough to do all of it currently in the UK, and number 2 is because we have lost the ability for Network Rail to do these sort of works in house. Network Rail is capable of making short branch lines and rebuilding and repairing track, but it's never built an entire new mainline. Still though, if the government had been sensible, they'd be using Phase 1 of HS2 to have the various contractors teach a bunch of new Network Rail staff, so that come Phase 2A and so on, Network Rail could take over and then it wouldn't be a bunch of companies needing to make profit contracting a bunch of companies who need to make profit, and would instead just be one large government run organisation which should theoretically therefore only require what money is actually needed for the project and not what is needed to make profit for them on top of profit for the sub-contractors.
E) That the end goal will be much healthier to live near and better for the environment than any motorway.
F) Oh on the subject of it being better environmentally, the total CO2 equivalent that'll be created by the project, is equal to the amount of CO2e put out by UK road emissions in a single month. Which sort of shows how polluting road use is in Britain currently.
I went to Hardwick Hall a week ago, wonderful place, the M1 is about a mile from it tops, the noise from the M1 is inescapable, whether you're indoors or out in the gardens, there's always the low buzz of traffic going 70mph.
Studies have shown that the noise from motorways increases stress levels and disturbs sleeping patterns and overall lowers the quality of life of a person. Even that short time of a few hours of having to deal with it annoyed me.
So at the end of the day I'll always take the new train line, especially as we should be building more of them, though we should be building them with Overhead Line Electrification (East-West Rail I'm looking at you, building simply with preparations for OLE isn't good enough), as we're in great need of more public transport if we want to hit our climate goals by the end of the decade.
I'm glad you did take the time to write all of that, very much appreciated. All very valid points, even if I do not agree with all of them.
Incidentally, I was all for HS2 until I went to the roadshows they did about 12 years ago, and it became obvious it was going to be a very, very expensive flop. It was also clear that the people from what is now Network Rail that became HS2 Ltd were prepared to say anything to get this project (Phase 1, they never believed "anyone would be daft enough to give the go ahead for any of Phase 2"), and readily admitted as much.
I also don't agree with the green credentials (nor do non HS2 commissioned reports). Obviously electricity has environmental impacts, as currently 49% is generated by gas, a few % by coal (still), a few % of bio fuels which although renewable still have environmental impacts. Its certainly not emission free.
In addition, by the time HS2 Phase 1 opens, it won't have been possible to by petrol or diesel cars for more than a decade. So if electricity is deemed to be green, then cars will be green.
Lastly on cars versus trains environmental impacts, the car is point to point. If I want to travel from (using EWR as an example, as its currently not an option due to HS2 delays), say, Blenheim nr Oxford to Newport Pagnell nr MK, I have to get a bus from Blenheim to Oxford, then a train to London Marylebone, then 3 tubes to Euston, then a train to MK Central, then a bus to Newport Pagnell. Or, in a car, drive direct from Blenheim to Newport Pagnell. I would bte a diesel powered car would be greener on that journey than all the buses, trains, tubes etc needed to do it via train. That's the trouble with stats, you can make them read anything to back a point of view - I learned that when I had to do a statistics O Level, LOL. Equally, I could make the train seem better by adjusting the parameters and using different statistics.
@@GoneFishin247 I recall a stat that 80% of a car's pollution was created during manufacture. I imagine that's similar for other forms of transport as well....
@@GoneFishin247 It does seem to be a poorly thought out project, with the benefits over emphasised, and costs, environmental damage and ongoing taxpayer subsidies kept quiet.
@@theboy-uk That stat is specifically for electric cars due to the materials they use in their construction, those for the battery mainly.
@@GoneFishin247 So as of last check that I can remember, shipping represented 2-3% of the world's total emissions.
For the UK specifically, some 27-28% of our emissions are produced by transport, of which the great majority is road transport, again of which the great majority is by cars.
So yes actually, even a 10% modal shift from cars to public transport would have a massive impact on the monthly emissions of the UK.
Lovely to see the route again and of course thanks for the taking the time to show us matey. Whilst it isnt instantly looking where the tracks will go, we must all remember the nature reserves which have gone in largely first, hence some of the dirt mounds rather than a linear track. Anyways, my guesses this time the boy, well hiding in the bushes and woods at the start, resreving of course for the sneaky submarine in the brown pool and finally hiding under the GCR bridge. :-) take good care
LOL, one of those is nearly right! Thanks for the comments :)
I am 75 now and a rail fan. I don't expect I shall live long enough to see this vanity project completed and even less likely to be able to afford a ticket. I worked on rail projects for many years, but see no benefit in this monster. The wholesale destruction of the English countryside, the damage to wildlife and the eye-watering costs are only are plain to see. Remind me please how much time is HS2 planned shave-off the journey time between London and Birmingham. It has never been a particularly long rail journey as I did it often. To add insult to injury, why is no one seen working?
Moan over, congratulations on a superb video.
It used to be around 1hr10m from New St to Euston, and 1hr14m from Moor St to Marylebone. However, both these have been significantly slowed by Network Rail. Now as Network Rail wholly own HS2 Ltd, the cynic in me thinks this is done on purpose to make HS2 look remotely viable, when everybody already knows it isn't.
2042 is the estimated date for the opening of the route from Euston to Curzon St, so only another 18yrs of disruption, and destruction to go! Assuming no more delays... ...and we never see long delays on large UK rail projects, do we... ;)
I'm surprised they managed to built the Motorways the amount of moaners there are in this country.
Was it Swampy who became a bit of a legend (depending on your point of view, of course) with road upgrades 🤣
How times have changed; the first stretch of the M1 motorway in 1958-59 84 miles, 300 concrete bridges and all the muck-shifting done in 16 months, not a safety barrier in sight.
Or even taking into account all the H&S rubbish, the nearby section of the M40 was completed in under 2 years. The disruption of HS2 is currently in it's 3rd year, with very little achieved.
@@theboy-uk Wimpey built 192 airfields during WW2, Heathrow included, with no barrier or cone in sight.
@@hamptonequipment5853 LOL, yeah, that puts in in perspective. But no need to rush this job when you're milking the taxpayer money tree for as long as you can get away with....
@hamptonequipment5853 and now Wimpey are bust. Got sold off gorgeous £1 in 1995 in an asset swap with Tarmac which then became Carillion. Then bankruptcy. I had the misfortune of working for Wimpey for a while in 1992. A useless company who were still living in the 1960's. Being worth just £1 said it all.
I may not share the same opinions as you about HS2 but I do enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work.
Thanks. We can't always agree on things, that's what makes life interesting :)
You chose a great day for this, lots of lovely cloud shadows. Still can't get over the impression that the first two thirds of the video, occupying an existing railway route, have been given the dig it all up and start from scratch approach; and the advantages of economy provided by an existing railway have been ignored. Perhaps HS2 will keep the old Great Central bridges for posterity!
Sadly, I suspect any of the GCR bridges along the route will have to be demolished, as they won't be big enough. The one by Quainton station should survive, as HS2 has deviated from the old route by then :)
Would be really useful if you include an inset map showing the physical location as the drone move
I agree that could be a nice addition. Not sure how easy it would be...
Great filming and a good choice of music, once at the stage of track laying, will be the easiest of the job, all straight line laying
Sometimes I find bits of footage - not really usable in these videos - where I'm quite surprised at how bendy the track actually is! For obvious reasons, of course, as it has to wind around towns and villages.
Thanks for posting this. I asked you several months ago, and you said you would look at doing this part of the route. I thought you had forgotten about it. When did you fly the route, it looks so green and wet? I have nicked a picture out of the route and posted it on our club website. It is where we sometimes shoot clay targets. We lost quite a bit of land to the HS2 construction, limiting the area we can set our targets.
I was mostly done in in May, well before the hot spell we had later in May :). Hope I managed to capture what you were interested in :)
Who did you get to do the sound track? I think they show promise.
Soundtrack is from RUclips's Audio Library.
@@theboy-uk Tchaikovsky 1812...as I am sure you know
@@chrismoule7242 Indeed it is 👍
Significant choice of music!
Fits nicely... 🤣
Some great flying again, it's like every time you post a new HS2 video nothing seems to be progressing very far. Possibly in 50 years or more they might actually lay some track down, then they will decide it's not needed anymore and rip it all up. I do enjoy watching them though and love the music.
I started doing monthly videos initially, but quickly realised that that was pointless, as nothing ever happens! I tend to do each section every 6 months, even so, limited progress between visits. I think they have confirmed they don't expect the London terminus to be ready before 2041!!
Thanks for the comments :)
@@theboy-uk Ime unlikely to be alive for the opening of Euston.
@@SteveTheTechy Given how over optimistic their project dates have been thus far, probably none of us will be!
Brilliant drone work, is. There anything left of the track bed between Calvert and Aylesbury, have you done any drone work between Buckingham to croughton, where the old finmere station was,
Significant portions of the trackbed between Calvert and Quainton have been destroyed by the groundworks for HS2, as you can see from this video. The last one I did that captured where Finmere Station once was is from April 2023, right at end of ruclips.net/video/ITprI-_bEno/видео.html
Cracking footage 👏 👌 👍
Thanks, hope you enjoyed the trip down what will be HS2 :)
The bridge being constructed at beginning of your film is capable of 4 lanes of traffic and is on the route of the now cancelled oxford to cambridge expressway have been told by engineers it is future proofing!!!!!
I would imagine the Expressway, if ever it happens, would be further north, broadly following the A421 from Finmere to West of MK?
All of it will be forgotten once the HS2 is up and running and the vegetation grows back. It’s the first new line in 100 years,what do you expect? It’s a huge infrastructural undertaking.
It will take centuries for some of the ancient woodland to be restored, all for a line that has never been needed. It was the wrong project to blow a couple of generations worth of infrastructure investment. Especially as it now goes from nowhere to nowhere - the Government hasn't gone far enough.
Great video, thank you. Do you know how they propose to get around the A41?
Its going over the A41 on an embarkment and bridge.
@@theboy-uk Thank you.
thanks for that great content,i take it that is the track bed on the right handside of all that mud
Its not actually that clear where the track bed will go, when they progress enough to be able to lay it. For the most part, based on other sections where its more obvious, its broadly down the middle.
What a prime example of legalised environmental vandalism to build a white elephant!
On a different note, how did you manage to shoot the long sequences with the drone whilst keeping VLOS?
Its filmed in sections, and stitched together, though some of the transitions are done better than others
As a railway fan I fully understand the need for HS2 which many comments on here do not acknowledge, however when the victorians built the railways in the 1800s mostly by hand with labourers they did not destroy hundreds of meters of the surrounding countryside doing it. Why on earth with all the advantages of modern equipment and methods do construction sites of a strip of railway need to do so much damage. The building of HS1 didnt do this much damage in Kent. This is some sort of architects and constructors wet dream which is totally unacceptable and costing far more money than necessary. Great camera work by the author of the video.
HS2 did appear from the start to be little more than personal ambitions of a few people, at the huge expense to the tax payer - that was obvious from the early roadshows that were put on a dozen or so years ago. I personally remain unconvinced, as a regular user of the WCML and CML between Birmingham and London (and, ironically, one of the few people that can actually use HS2 Phase 1) that it is really needed. There are far more pressing transport issues that need solving first, such as East/West routes like EWR (that I do support), and another East/West route through the Pennines etc.
sad destruction of our countryside just like the building of houses everywhere
Where are all the people coming from to need so many houses?
@@theboy-uk immigration, there's more than half a million people per year coming here
@@SniperUnknownVR I can't believe the massive number of new houses and flats being constructed is just due to immigration, legal or illegal....
All of this disruption. It would be cheaper to put the entire track in a tunnel. No farmland destroyed, no houses knocked down, no bridges to build for rivers, roads, or other rail tracks. No court cases, no appeals, no consultants fees, no compulsory purchases. The budget will be simple to quantify and rigidly stick to. But it will be more expensive than building in large countries where disruption is acceptable.
A valid point, although I'd argue in the case of HS2 Phase 1, why bother building it in the first place, as the claimed benefits can never materialise, mostly because they were utterly ridiculous claims.
They needed less space to build the Panama Canal
LOL, HS2 does seem to be taking up so much space, just for a 2 track railway!
all that mess for 19 mts width of track, you cannot make it up
They have promised to make nature reserves of all the spare land when complete. Whether or not that will happen (which probably depend if the taxpayer will fund it) remains to be seen. Plus I'm fairly certain that wild animals and 200mph trains aren't perfect neighbours....
RIP Great Central line. 😢
A far more useful service than HS2 IMHO....
The earth dies screaming.
Whilst I'm sure in a couple of decades it will look a lot better, the sad thing is I don't think HS2 has any future in its current form, and will either have to radically change to become yet another London commuter line, or simply close. What a waste of time, money, effort and environment.
@@theboy-uk your film and the music ( Fingals Cave?) Is really good though. I agree, 10 minutes shaved off to a place in Birmingham that takes half an hour to get to the centre.
@@ghengis430 Its from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
Curzon St in Brum is probably about a 5-10 minute walk from Brum's city centre, depending where in the centre you want to go, Euston is not really near the middle of central London, and actually sits outside the congestion zone.
@@theboy-uk ahh, I'd read that they'd have to create a new station out of the town to accommodate it. And thanks for reminding me it's 1812, wonderful stuff.
@@ghengis430 Curzon St station will be a couple of hundred yards (ish, maybe a bit more) from Moor St Station currently used by Chiltern and West Mids Trains, which itself is probably 800 yards from New St station, used by the operators on the WCML. New St station is arguably at the start of what many class as the city centre. London end, a new station is being built at Oak Common, which just inside the North Circular, and not currently served by any tube station (Though Crossrail/Elizabeth Line runs near, so I'm sure the taxpayer will have to stump up more for that as well). It will eventually run to Euston (which is probably one of the poorest tube connected stations in London).
The Chiltens was of the nicest counties for countryside & Buckinghamshire, now just trashed on an industrial scale, cannot see it ever being repaired & this project going in the red big time. Sorry rant over, good drone footage. The awesome music should be more apocalyptic.
I did put Chopin's Funeral March on a couple of previous HS2 videos, but got slated by all the HS2 fans 🤣
Brilliant Engineering but if it knocks 10 mins time off the journey I suppose it's worth it even at treble the Cost
I love big engineering projects, even old Victorian based ones like HS2. But with virtually no purpose at the end, I think its the wrong project in the wrong place.
Neverending construction 😉
Progress is slow, as you know. There was a recent report suggesting the London terminus would not be ready until 2041 !!
@@theboy-uk Lovely 😁
what a massive waste of public money, the money this has cost and effect on greenbelt is stupid. We could have got 4 hospitals if not more for this cost and funded fairer pay rises
I agree that the money could have been better used elsewhere...
Horrific environmental vandalism on a giant scale. I lived in Fairford Leys and the line was going to run less than 200 yards away from our front door. Sad to say, with the political situation as it is, it is too late to cancel it now.
Phase 1 is possibly too far gone, although I can feel the rumblings of discontent, so maybe the government will grow a pair, and can it. Lets face it, they could certainly do with not having to spend any more on the build, or find funds for the horrifically high subsidies if and when it ever opens...
Nimby! 😂
@@BritishAnts I'm lucky that it's not that close to me, as I certainly wouldn't want it at the end of the garden. Close enough, however, to have the daily slog of dealing with the disruption they are causing, and to have the local council spend shed loads on anti-traveller defences :(
Mad thing about it is that we do not need it, all that wasted taxpayer's money on a pet project
@@southerneruk Exactly. An expensive vanity project :(
Why is no one working Chinese would have had it up and running by now
Its quite rare to see anyone working on any of the sections I cover, though I frequently take these at the weekend....
must be working from home 😊
@@AndrewRoberts11 LOL! But maybe you have hit the nail on the head 🤣
Thanks to the Chinese for funding this project at lower cost with latest technology.
Eh?
It is heartbreaking to see this level of environmental destruction to the beautiful British countryside for this white elephant government vanity project. This expensive and unnecessary project is of no tangible benefit to the local communities whose backyards are being destroyed so a minority of people can travel between teo cities 20 minutes faster. There is over 100 miles of this level of destruction between London and Birmingham.
It is so sad, that they have also managed to do this with such an unnecessary width of destruction as well. If it ever opens, I can't see HS2 lasting long after opening in its current form.
All this environment damage just for a new railway that will never be able to pay for itself, the taxpayers will end up paying for it all and subsidizing the trains also
Indeed, not only is the build a huge burden on the taxpayer, but the running costs will be as well. And the claimed benefits seem minimal, and all the non HS2 commissioned reports state it will never offer value for money :(
What an environmental catastrophe.
It certainly has made a big mess, hasn't it 😢
@@theboy-uk it has not made any mess, you will see how beautiful it is!
@@Momanny247 Certainly looks a complete mess to my eyes at the moment!
@@theboy-uk can you do a flight in chipping warden
@@Momanny247 I have it on the list to go back to later this year. The footage from January on on this channel :)
What an environmental catastrophe. TERRIBLE.
And a mess 🤣