Nothing but a monstrous blot on the landscape & a complete & utter waste of billions of pounds. Within a decade of opening (in about 50 years time given the current rate of progress), this concrete monstrosity will be nothing more than a glorified cycle path. As for "nature recovers quickly", HS2 Ltd don't give a toss about the environment. Are you aware that they've already incurred numerous fines for multiple breaches of environmental issues? Thousands of trees planted along the route in Warwickshire where the vast majority perished due to lack of aftercare. The pollution of streams, rivers & other waterways with toxic chemicals. The bulldozing of mile upon mile of hedgerows containing nesting birds when they specifically promised to wait until the nesting season was over .. the list goes on. HS2 is an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.
I dont believe a word they are saying. If we get rid of the fake rich farmers (NIMBYs) we could plant more wood land for the people and nature to enjoy as for the cars and motorways all over britain that make road kill on the road they should do there research and stop making political things up for fake charity.
What an awful thing to say. How is 'nature going to "recover" from "rail noise" .HS2 Ltd itself says: 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential receptors (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route will "have the potential to experience significant noise impacts". - what a weasel phrase at the end 'the potential to experience' I say I am going to come and shout in your ear for hours on end and I tell you, who don't seem to like the idea very much , that you, whether you like it or not have the potential to experience significant noise impacts!!! Just shows you the indifference and stupidity and lack of concern for anything other than themselves and £££££££ of these HS2 characters.
@@908error So concrete, glass , steel, plastic and noise ( not music or birdsong, which you probably dislike - just noise) and air pollution turns you on eh? Aieeee! The ancient woodlands and their fauna won't be 'just' fine'. There just won't be any. The clue is in the word "ancient". Concrete, glass, steel, and noise and air pollution. That's it. Welcome to your world. 😞
Its great how quickly they've removed the temporary works across the lakes so the viaduct now just becomes part of the landscape like it was always there
Really? A high rise concrete and plastic + noisy object 'part of the landscape'? It'd be OK I guess in Dubai but in an English Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? I don't think so. A vanity project for arrogant 'people' to fill their pockets with ££££££££ The dislike, disdain, of and indifference to the 'natural' world is obvious.
The 'awesome views' are that part of the natural world this ludicrous project hasn't destroyed. How about an awesome view of this viaduct from close up instead of your 'awesome views'?
It's sad how negative and ignorant the media portrayal, and therefore public perception, is around HS2. This is a beautiful structure that has minimal impact upon the environment it sits in. HS2 is about capacity and growth, especially around freight workings, it's sad that people have to be so cynical and negative.
You work/ed for HS2 presumably. What you write is just what HS2 says of itself in its propaganda sites. Twaddle about thousands of lorries currently using the roads suddenly transferring to rail!! That's magical thinking ! Where is the evidence for that happening?
@@monkeysausageclubThe real benefit of HS2 is to free up so much capacity on the west coast line. This will benefit the whole west coast of the country.
Now the new government has reinstated the link from Old Oak Common to Euston, this viaduct will not end up as the white elephant it could have been. If the northern legs of HS2 are also reinstated, then the line will prove extremely profitable, and the bridge will pay for itself. As to the environmental impact, the route of HS2 had to go somewhere, and the route chosen is an acceptable compromise. Thanks for uploading.
@@peterjohnson1739 The government minister said in a TV interview that the previous government's plan had been that HS2 could only operate as a high speed line on a dedicated track for its entire length. Consequently the northern section had to be cancelled. But the present government has ordered a redesign of the trains so they can continue their journey on slower lines north of Birmingham. As I understand it, under the original scheme, HS2 trains would require a higher platform than is normal on British Railways. With this idea thrown out, the prospects for travel beyond Birmingham look more optimistic. What do you think?
@@AllensTrains As I understand it the main factor is the length of the trains. The HS2 line from Euston to Birmingham (via Old Oak Common) has 400m long platforms. Trains of that length can’t operate on the old West Coast Mainline (WCML) or to Birmingham New Street. However, a proportion (50%?) of trains would be half the length and could then travel along the WCML all the way to Glasgow - but not as fast as they covered London to Birmingham (because they'd be on old track that's not designed for the speed). That’s why the branches of HS2 north of Birmingham were so important. They’d bring the longer trains at full speed initially to Manchester and Leeds. There had been a discussion about continental style trains (double deck and wider) here the limiting factor is not platform heights but the sizes of bridges. Put simply, bridges in the UK are only designed for our smaller trains so continental ones will not fit through the bridges. As I understand it the current design of HS2 trains (height and width) fit on any current UK mainline track. I’ve never read or heard an argument over platform height per se . In short, all the arguments I've heard imply that the current design go HS2 train can run unmodified anywhere on there UK mainline provided the platforms are long enough (or the trains are run at half length to accommodate shorter platforms). The "government minister" is probably mistaken. If the present government has “ordered a redesign of the trains” that can only result in further delays and increased cost! It’s a fundamental truth about any major infrastructure cost ... Redesign = Higher Cost ... (that ‘s partly why HS2 costs what it does, [there have already been too many redesigns]). Does adding cost (by redesigning the trains) make building it more, or less, likely?
@@peterjohnson1739 This is the video which asserts the higher platform heights were the issue. ruclips.net/video/rZUrWyeOQwE/видео.htmlsi=H_YYw1juFmaWswsN I don't think train length is the key thing. Trains on Southern operate to stations with short platforms. The guard controls which doors can be opened. An announcement tells the passengers to walk through the train. Example: ruclips.net/video/pbtyxdRDIls/видео.htmlsi=w4achixgBvGmPbsL&t=816
@@everything777 What a very intelligent, well thought out reply NOT Come on now, grow up rather than calling people you don't know 'silly'. How old are you?
Is the human life span long enough to see any modern grand plan here come to fruition. Especially worrying with the dire state of medicine here. You must be very young and may even travel on a home built Scottish ferry, yet another UK masterpiece of fast development and budgetary control. You will not be walking on the Green Bridge in London though which is the mother of all pointless projects. The sight will not be a blur when the windmills powering us are not turning and the trains sits still until the unpredictable wind rises again. The UK will be like a sailing ship stuck in the doldrums for long periods.
@@michaeld5888I am a 36 year old man from the United States who has been around the world and seen a lot of shit. Your statement is irrelevant to my initial post. You can be negative on someone else's post.
You might as well go through a tunnel, or even better not go at all. Why travel from Old Oak Common to Birmingham? You are treating it as a tourist attraction. Why destroy swathes of the natural environment 'spend' more than a hundred billion pounds on a 'tourist attraction' which would involve going to Birmingham from central London slower than you could already?
Enjoy living by noise do you? HS2 Ltd stated that 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts. Go live there and be a 'receptor' why don't you?
@@daydays12 I live in Birmingham just short of a quarter of a mile from the HS2 construction site and I don't hear any noise at all, mate you are talking a load of rubbish to e blunt as the HS2 route is either being built on brown field ex railway land in Cites such as Birmingham or in tunnels
@@peterwilliamallen1063 I was not writing about the construction site in Birmingham. I quoted HS2's own statements about their line, I quote : HS2 Ltd stated that 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts.' They were writing about the HS2 raiLway train noise. That is what I wrote about and I would have preferred you to comment on what I wrote rather than some imaginary noise coming from work on Curzon Station. A little respect is always appreciated.
@@daydays12 The thing is once HS2 is finished it wont be their line as it will be run by Avanti West Coast Trains using 2525 mph Electric trains and all any will hear when one of these trains passes is a low Whooshing noise as the train passes, if you want to hear how these trains sound as they pass Google high speed Italian trains at speed, plus most of the HS2 route is either in open country side or tunnels, running into Birmingham it starts in a 3 mile tunnel and then runs through old Railway land no where near any offices or houses and going from Old Oak Common to London Euston it will be in a tunnel so first I don't know what you are talking bot and I don't believe HS2 ltd have said anything of the Sort
@@peterwilliamallen1063 Why, then did HS2 Ltd write and I quote: " 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts.'" Do the HS2 people know nothing or are they lying?
How can you love concrete and plastic and HS2 noise and the destruction of the few remaining ancient woodlands in England and the destruction of so-called "areas of outstanding natural beauty"???
@@daydays12 As the saying goes “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Whatever your views on the HS2 project, surely you can recognise the elegance of design and the quality of the engineering.
@@daydays12 Fact Check It's in a "Regional Park" not Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB) The Colne Valley is a “Regional Park”, it isn’t an ANOB. It’s in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Furthermore, it’s flooded gravel pits -- a post-industrial environment. The nearest AONB is the Chiltern Hills. HS2 is going under these in the Chiltern Tunnel. The twin-bore tunnels are almost 10 miles long. Design The viaduct only touches the ground (or lake surface) at its piers. This means that (unlike a ground level railway or road) it doesn’t impede wildlife or people wishing to cross the route. The London Borough of Hillingdon It’s part of the London Borough of Hillingdon and already crossed by the M25, M4, M40 and railways. It’s also near Heathrow airport. The motorways cause much more environmental damage than the railway. Grand Union Canal The canal stimulated local industries, such as copper works and sand and gravel extraction. The Colne Valley lakes are a post-industrial landscape that show how nature heals relatively quickly to produce something we enjoy. There are many other examples - such as the Norfolk Broads which have been proved to be flooded peat diggings. Colne Valley Gravel Pits The Colne Valley lakes are “essentially a young landscape created through extensive mineral extraction in the early 20th century.” - South Hertfordshire Landscape Character Assessment. Trees A surprising fact is that trees grow, die and fall down to be replaced by new trees. Most of the disruption is only during construction. The area will regenerate and the final footprint of a two track railway is far less than any other piece of transport infrastructure. Concrete Concrete has been used since about 6000 BCE, the Romans used it extensively, many world recognised buildings of great merit are made from concrete. Don’t attempt to rubbish its design because it uses concrete. Not just HS2 Other Projects such as Heathrow expansion, motorway service areas, ‘technology parks’, Pinewood theme park, housing etc are more of a threat to the Colne ValleyRegional Park.
@@peterjohnson1739 Thank you. Yes, I do recognise that ( elegance of design and quality of engineering) but it shouldn't be where it is imho. I found the beauty of the Colne valley pre-concrete far more impressive, and touching , a beauty which has now been lost.
@@apangel100 Where are these? Dartmoor is becoming more andmore clay tips, in the North there's open cast mining in the so called National Parks. The hate and indifference the English express towards what little remains of the 'countryside' is truly horrendous.
@@daydays12 You really should get your facts correct before commenting The china clay (aka kaolin) industry on Dartmoor is very old, the open-cast pits date back to the early 19th century. As an industry it’s been in steady decline since the 1980s. There is no open cast mining in the North - it all stopped decades ago. FYI - the last open cast coal mine in the UK was Ffos-y-fran near Merthyr Tydfil. It closed on 30 November 2023. You are correct that there are National Parks in Cornwall, the North and South Wales. However, these all came into existence after mining ended and reflect the recovery of the landscape after a relatively short time.
Dominique wasn't "custom built". > Originally built in 2004, the launching girder was first used during the construction of the Hong Kong East Tsing Yi Viaduct.
I’ve been working on hs2 for 3 years, I put a lot of those bases on for the piers. Been a good job but you can see where the money is wasted on every site I work on, never seen anything like it.
Why not fill the valley in? Then you could build a concrete and plastic "new town" like Milton Keynes on it. Nobody with ££££££ gives a fig for the Colne Valley. That's clear - the £££ characters backing HS2 just built an arrogant 'look at me'! concrete monstrosity deliberately, it looks like, visible ( and audible) from as far away as possible. It's like a child's black squiggle drawn over Boticelli's Venus ( if the HS2 characters have ever heard of it )
HS2 has not much to do with reducing train times ; 10/20 mins !! It is ALL about ADDING capacity ; Ask a train guy . That said "people" didn't want The turnpikes ; they were built . Every 'improvement' since ; Canals , Rail , Motorways has had opposition and have all been built with reference to speed . HS2 was never going to be cancelled once started .
Adding capacity to what???? HS2 on their extraordinary site claim that HS2 will transfer thousands of lorries from road to rail!!! Magical thinking! The ignorance about logistics is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Motorways put ££££££££££ into Transport Minister Marples' pockets who was a shareholder in the company that built the first motorways. How much ££££££££££ has gone in the same or similar ways into the pockets of HS2 backers' pockets?
People DID want the turnpikes, they DID want the railways and they DIDN'T want them taken away by Dr Beeching and especially Ernest Marples the transport minister who had shares in a road construction company ,destroyed the railways and promoted motorways for which the company he had shares in got contracts.. He did very well financially. HS2 has nothing to do with train times and everything to do with ££££££ for the owners of the construction companies.
Nice visuals and nice script. But they don't match up at all. e.g. You're talking about swooping curves whilst showing an image of the embankment hundreds of metres from the start of the viaduct.
I ran out of Structural video to put in place, I got distracted with the lake and the little tree islands I found interesting at the time. I film, then I make a script. I also have 3 drone batteries of 25 minutes flight time each. So cutting down 50-75 minutes of film into 5 minutes isn't easy but I enjoy it.
@@daydays12 Yeah, 30,000 employed on it all earning salaries, feeding their families, paying their taxes ... would you rather they all be queuing up at Job Centres and receiving Social Security payments? Many apprentices learning how to build. Don't you want to invest in the future?
@@daydays12 The claim is that when HS2 opens 90% of hi speed Avanti West Coast train services will transfer from the WCML south of Crew to the HS2 route so allowing more capacity on the existing southern half of the WCML for freight services and other passenger services
No, it didn't, and so many commenters seem to be oblivious as to the terrible planning behind HS2, and how it's now highly compromised because of it. It's still not built, folks, and as much as I think it should be finished, *in its intended entirety*, costs have quashed that....not least because of the fantasists of folly of structures like this.
I too was very concerned to see that high pass on the base leg and across the extended centreline of Denham airfield. It's been a while for me, but looked too close to circuit height, some GA pilots fly very wide circuits. A pity, as the rest looked very good.
Yes it is a great piece of work, but sadly like so many other structures these days, it will look bloody awful once the graffiti morons get to work on it.
It is VERY ugly and VISIBLE from a long distance and the 'trains' on it will be NOISY and heard from a long way! 😞 How much irreplaceable ancient woodland was destroyed for this vanity project paid for by the taxpayer to the tune of 100 billion £££££
Please everyone, say AITCH not HAITCH. You don't pronounce the H at the start of the letter. HS2 = A Chess Too. That said, some great footage of a bloody great eyesore for an unnecessary project. The whole network could have been upgraded for the same money. Miles, yards and feet too please. Our official unit of road and rail measurement is still the mile, regardless of what some people would have you believe.
Road signs are still in miles, because the DfT bottled it in the 1970s. Rail measurements are in miles on older railways, but in kilometres on newer railways such as the Tyne and Wear Metro and HS1 plus all tram networks, and even the London Underground converted to kilometres. Electrification construction is all done in kilometres, and all lines converted to ECTS use kilometres both lineside and in the cab. HS2 is very much measured in kilometres (although they refer to miles in their PR videos, presumably because they think people would be scared of km). But no, the whole network could not have been upgraded for the same money - that's an utterly ignorant statement. You get far more benefit from building HS2 than spending the same money on 'upgrades'.
HS2 has been built because one man, Boris Johnson, gave in to lobby groups and gave it a thumbs up. But because he gave priority to a hugely expensive railway line, he's also responsible for the awful state of our armed forces - the navy and army in particular. What's more important - our armed forces or a railway line? Commonsense says we could have had an adequate (not ultra high speed) but cheaper London-Manchester line constructed (perhaps using part of the old Great Central Line) AND allocated funds for the army and navy!
Not so ... HS2 was first approved by Gordon Brown (remember him) he was the Labour Prime Minister after Tony Blair. It's not really about politics. Nor is it as simple as cancel HS2 and increase the size of the armed forces. Rishi Sunak famously said that instead of taking HS2 north of Birmingham the savings would be spent on fixing pot holes in our roads.
How can hs2 help cut carbon emissions? The damage is already done in the construction of it. We already had a rail line from London to Birmingham so all this is unnecessary. The paying commuting public will be priced out of using it anyway because the government have a lot of money to recoup. They should have built the northern part first before they ran out of money but that doesn’t suit their agenda!
@craigbarnett9489 It’s not about speed or carbon emissions - it’s all about capacity, to free up space on the West Coast Mainline and hence improve commuter services, inward investment and job opportunities, especially in the West Midlands. It seems that Birmingham has the most to gain from its completion. HS2 was started by a Labour Government (Gordon Brown), much delayed by too many planning objections and debates. Curtailed by the last Conservative Government. Now back to Labour who have (so far) failed to reverse the decision to cancel north of Birmingham. One would have thought that the new Labour Government would have building in the North as part of their agenda. The trouble is politicians (of all political persuasions) have a very blinkered view of the world - their only concern is the result of the next election which is never more than 5-years away.
You havent done your resurch into HS2 have you !!, yes Birmingham has two Railway Routes already to London, but the fact is that the one run by Chiltern Railways can take near on 2 hours to travel from Birminghm Snow Hill to London Marylabone, but the second route from Birmingham New Street to London Euston is totaly grid locked especially Birmingham New Street Station causing delays and train cancellations and HS2 is not just about Birmingham as Birmingham Curzon Street Station and the HS2 route is a replacement for a twice failed upgrade of the WCML which it will replace Hi Speed train wise and to improve hi speed passenger train services between Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland by bypasing the long winded curved southern section of the WCML from Crewe to London Euston
Of course... HS2 has just polluted the air and pumped huge quantities in to the air. The noise pollution generated by their trains will continue for ever especially on high rise highly visible viaducts like this
What a monumental waste of tax payers money. Only on a publicly funded project in Britain would you see uncontrolled spending on this scale. Not a single cost/benefit analysis in sight.
You sound like a Victorian from the 19th Century! The reason this line is costing so much is down to: A) it should've been built 30 years ago when land prices were cheaper B) the NIMBYs have caused a high percentage of the route to be in a tunnel. Tunnels cost more than plain line! C) material cost has sky rocketed since the first costs were done. We should be building the final leg into Scotland by know, and with it, removing internal flights....
You sound like a train fan who beyond your weekly shop has never managed a project of any importance and had to control its costs. The cost of this line never made sense and its approval was given for purely political purposes. How on earth did the need for 10 trains an hour at 200 mph + direct from Birmingham to London ever get approved ? Where was the justification for this ? If there was ever a rational argument for a second mainline it most certainly could never justify the speeds which have added so much cost to this one. The truth about this project has been known for years now but a succession of governments have all lacked the political resilience to cancel it completely. The contractors have had a field day making cancellation now too expensive to contemplate. It is destined to be a monument to British political incompetence.
Yeah, no. They definitely did extensive study for this. I believe them over you. Despite the cost, it will be worth it. It will remove pressure on other rail links and spur the economy which god knows, needs it. HSR is almost always a good idea, and braindead morons like you are only ok with cost overruns on airports and highways. 10B extra to add one airline terminal? No problem. $1B per lane mile of a highway which will get 10,000 drivers per day at best or $750M interchanges? No prob. High speed rail? Eewww way too expensive. Lol
@@derekwhyle1884 The UK can't rely on Victorian infrastructure forever, we have to build new stuff, the Politicians getting involved in the project is regrettable because they have watered it down, the cost over it's 100 years of actual operation is a lot less than funding illegal migrants with a lesser return on that money!?!
Birmingham is a short distance from London. It will provide little benefit for the taxpayer's who are going to have to foot the bill for the interest and principle. Most of the population of the UK are far outwith the reach of this glorified train set.
It's a great feat of engineering and when people complain about the environment nature quickly recovers quickly.
Nature adjusts quickly. Nature will be just fine, but whether it adjusts with or without humans in mind... Well nature just doesn't care
Nothing but a monstrous blot on the landscape & a complete & utter waste of billions of pounds.
Within a decade of opening (in about 50 years time given the current rate of progress), this concrete monstrosity will be nothing more than a glorified cycle path.
As for "nature recovers quickly", HS2 Ltd don't give a toss about the environment. Are you aware that they've already incurred numerous fines for multiple breaches of environmental issues?
Thousands of trees planted along the route in Warwickshire where the vast majority perished due to lack of aftercare.
The pollution of streams, rivers & other waterways with toxic chemicals.
The bulldozing of mile upon mile of hedgerows containing nesting birds when they specifically promised to wait until the nesting season was over .. the list goes on.
HS2 is an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.
I dont believe a word they are saying. If we get rid of the fake rich farmers (NIMBYs) we could plant more wood land for the people and nature to enjoy as for the cars and motorways all over britain that make road kill on the road they should do there research and stop making political things up for fake charity.
What an awful thing to say.
How is 'nature going to "recover" from "rail noise" .HS2 Ltd itself says:
21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential receptors (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route will "have the potential to experience significant noise impacts". - what a weasel phrase at the end 'the potential to experience'
I say I am going to come and shout in your ear for hours on end and I tell you, who don't seem to like the idea very much , that you, whether you like it or not have the potential to experience significant noise impacts!!!
Just shows you the indifference and stupidity and lack of concern for anything other than themselves and £££££££ of these HS2 characters.
@@908error
So concrete, glass , steel, plastic and noise
( not music or birdsong, which you probably dislike - just noise)
and air pollution turns you on eh? Aieeee!
The ancient woodlands and their fauna won't be 'just' fine'.
There just won't be any. The clue is in the word "ancient".
Concrete, glass, steel, and noise and air pollution. That's it.
Welcome to your world. 😞
Its great how quickly they've removed the temporary works across the lakes so the viaduct now just becomes part of the landscape like it was always there
Really? A high rise concrete and plastic + noisy object 'part of the landscape'?
It'd be OK I guess in Dubai but in an English Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? I don't think so.
A vanity project for arrogant 'people' to fill their pockets with ££££££££
The dislike, disdain, of and indifference to the 'natural' world is obvious.
That sure is long. Some awesome views too. Great video.
Cheers 🍻 thanks for your comment
@@jamesmaclarnon any time.
The 'awesome views' are that part of the natural world this ludicrous project hasn't destroyed. How about an awesome view of this viaduct from close up instead of your 'awesome views'?
Those views are from a drone, not the viaduct 🤦🏻♂️
It's sad how negative and ignorant the media portrayal, and therefore public perception, is around HS2. This is a beautiful structure that has minimal impact upon the environment it sits in. HS2 is about capacity and growth, especially around freight workings, it's sad that people have to be so cynical and negative.
You work/ed for HS2 presumably. What you write is just what HS2 says of itself in its propaganda sites. Twaddle about thousands of lorries currently using the roads suddenly transferring to rail!! That's magical thinking ! Where is the evidence for that happening?
Its Colne, not Colen!
...Like Coal-ne
Like coal-ne
@@steffenfrost995 Pronounced "Cone" - like a round pointy thing
_AITCH_ ESS TWO as well..
It doesn't matter how its pronounced since the ££££££££ people ( HS2 et al) don't care and don't live there.
Thank you James. A really good piece of work and a lovely video. Lots of great shots, and information......Thank you!
I’m happy you enjoyed it! Thanks ☺️ like and subscribe for more :)
It’s beautiful, hopefully the news flow on HS2 starts to focus on the positive now.
Yes 👍🏻 would be a good change to see it in the news and in a positive light.
Is there any though? Doesn't this just benefit those living in London, just makes it easier for them to live outside of London and commute in.
@@monkeysausageclubThe real benefit of HS2 is to free up so much capacity on the west coast line. This will benefit the whole west coast of the country.
What is positive about HS2?
@@jamesmaclarnon
Why? Do you work for or are you sponsored by HS2?
Now the new government has reinstated the link from Old Oak Common to Euston, this viaduct will not end up as the white elephant it could have been. If the northern legs of HS2 are also reinstated, then the line will prove extremely profitable, and the bridge will pay for itself. As to the environmental impact, the route of HS2 had to go somewhere, and the route chosen is an acceptable compromise. Thanks for uploading.
Thank you for your support and comments
It’s a question of when HS2 is built north of Birmingham .. not “if it’s built”. It might be called something different perhaps “Great Midlands Rail”!
@@peterjohnson1739 The government minister said in a TV interview that the previous government's plan had been that HS2 could only operate as a high speed line on a dedicated track for its entire length. Consequently the northern section had to be cancelled. But the present government has ordered a redesign of the trains so they can continue their journey on slower lines north of Birmingham. As I understand it, under the original scheme, HS2 trains would require a higher platform than is normal on British Railways. With this idea thrown out, the prospects for travel beyond Birmingham look more optimistic. What do you think?
@@AllensTrains As I understand it the main factor is the length of the trains. The HS2 line from Euston to Birmingham (via Old Oak Common) has 400m long platforms. Trains of that length can’t operate on the old West Coast Mainline (WCML) or to Birmingham New Street. However, a proportion (50%?) of trains would be half the length and could then travel along the WCML all the way to Glasgow - but not as fast as they covered London to Birmingham (because they'd be on old track that's not designed for the speed). That’s why the branches of HS2 north of Birmingham were so important. They’d bring the longer trains at full speed initially to Manchester and Leeds.
There had been a discussion about continental style trains (double deck and wider) here the limiting factor is not platform heights but the sizes of bridges. Put simply, bridges in the UK are only designed for our smaller trains so continental ones will not fit through the bridges.
As I understand it the current design of HS2 trains (height and width) fit on any current UK mainline track.
I’ve never read or heard an argument over platform height per se
. In short, all the arguments I've heard imply that the current design go HS2 train can run unmodified anywhere on there UK mainline provided the platforms are long enough (or the trains are run at half length to accommodate shorter platforms). The "government minister" is probably mistaken.
If the present government has “ordered a redesign of the trains” that can only result in further delays and increased cost!
It’s a fundamental truth about any major infrastructure cost ... Redesign = Higher Cost ... (that ‘s partly why HS2 costs what it does, [there have already been too many redesigns]).
Does adding cost (by redesigning the trains) make building it more, or less, likely?
@@peterjohnson1739 This is the video which asserts the higher platform heights were the issue. ruclips.net/video/rZUrWyeOQwE/видео.htmlsi=H_YYw1juFmaWswsN
I don't think train length is the key thing. Trains on Southern operate to stations with short platforms. The guard controls which doors can be opened. An announcement tells the passengers to walk through the train. Example: ruclips.net/video/pbtyxdRDIls/видео.htmlsi=w4achixgBvGmPbsL&t=816
It's absolutely beautiful
How about concreting over the rest of what remains of the countryside and natural habitats if you find that so beautiful?
@daydays12 you're silly
@@everything777
What a very intelligent, well thought out reply NOT
Come on now, grow up rather than calling people you don't know 'silly'. How old are you?
@@daydays12 Have great day Mr poopy pants.
@@everything777
Is that the best you can do is that?
You are one for the collection! 😞 Yikes.
It’s going to look nice once it’s done. Good job. Most impressive. ❤
WHAT? You'd be better off in Dubai.
As would this horrific concrete + plastic monstrosity.
What a beautiful structure. I'm looking forward to eventually riding a train across this, though it will be a blur...
Is the human life span long enough to see any modern grand plan here come to fruition. Especially worrying with the dire state of medicine here. You must be very young and may even travel on a home built Scottish ferry, yet another UK masterpiece of fast development and budgetary control. You will not be walking on the Green Bridge in London though which is the mother of all pointless projects. The sight will not be a blur when the windmills powering us are not turning and the trains sits still until the unpredictable wind rises again. The UK will be like a sailing ship stuck in the doldrums for long periods.
@@michaeld5888I am a 36 year old man from the United States who has been around the world and seen a lot of shit. Your statement is irrelevant to my initial post. You can be negative on someone else's post.
You might as well go through a tunnel, or even better not go at all. Why travel from Old Oak Common to Birmingham? You are treating it as a tourist attraction.
Why destroy swathes of the natural environment 'spend' more than a hundred billion pounds on a 'tourist attraction' which would involve going to Birmingham from central London slower than you could already?
It's magnificent.
4 years, built faster than the fixes on the motorways.
Thank you for your comment :)
Can’t wait for California HSR viaducts to get completed. High speed rail should move forward.
Yes! It will hopefully be magnificent.
Great video. Very informative and direct. Loved the drone shots :D
Thanks a ton! Glad you enjoyed it!!
03:16 "Enhancing local habitats". Comedy gold.
Very well said!
This is one spectcular piece of construction, it will look great with a HS2 train doing 225 mph over it
Enjoy living by noise do you?
HS2 Ltd stated that 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts.
Go live there and be a 'receptor' why don't you?
@@daydays12 I live in Birmingham just short of a quarter of a mile from the HS2 construction site and I don't hear any noise at all, mate you are talking a load of rubbish to e blunt as the HS2 route is either being built on brown field ex railway land in Cites such as Birmingham or in tunnels
@@peterwilliamallen1063
I was not writing about the construction site in Birmingham. I quoted HS2's own statements about their line, I quote :
HS2 Ltd stated that 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and that 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the preferred route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts.' They were writing about the HS2 raiLway train noise.
That is what I wrote about and I would have preferred you to comment on what I wrote rather than some imaginary noise coming from work on Curzon Station.
A little respect is always appreciated.
@@daydays12 The thing is once HS2 is finished it wont be their line as it will be run by Avanti West Coast Trains using 2525 mph Electric trains and all any will hear when one of these trains passes is a low Whooshing noise as the train passes, if you want to hear how these trains sound as they pass Google high speed Italian trains at speed, plus most of the HS2 route is either in open country side or tunnels, running into Birmingham it starts in a 3 mile tunnel and then runs through old Railway land no where near any offices or houses and going from Old Oak Common to London Euston it will be in a tunnel so first I don't know what you are talking bot and I don't believe HS2 ltd have said anything of the Sort
@@peterwilliamallen1063
Why, then did HS2 Ltd write and I quote:
" 21,300 dwellings will experience a noticeable increase in rail noise and 200 non-residential " receptors" (community, education, healthcare, and recreational/social facilities) within 300 metres (330 yards) of the route 'have the potential to experience significant noise impacts.'"
Do the HS2 people know nothing or are they lying?
A truly stunning and beautiful piece of engineering. Easily the equal of the Glenfinnan & Ribblehead Viaducts.
I’m glad you think so! Thank you for your comment :)
How can you love concrete and plastic and HS2 noise and the destruction of the few remaining ancient woodlands in England and the destruction of so-called "areas of outstanding natural beauty"???
@@daydays12 As the saying goes “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Whatever your views on the HS2 project, surely you can recognise the elegance of design and the quality of the engineering.
@@daydays12 Fact Check
It's in a "Regional Park" not Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB)
The Colne Valley is a “Regional Park”, it isn’t an ANOB. It’s in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Furthermore, it’s flooded gravel pits -- a post-industrial environment.
The nearest AONB is the Chiltern Hills. HS2 is going under these in the Chiltern Tunnel. The twin-bore tunnels are almost 10 miles long.
Design
The viaduct only touches the ground (or lake surface) at its piers. This means that (unlike a ground level railway or road) it doesn’t impede wildlife or people wishing to cross the route.
The London Borough of Hillingdon
It’s part of the London Borough of Hillingdon and already crossed by the M25, M4, M40 and railways. It’s also near Heathrow airport. The motorways cause much more environmental damage than the railway.
Grand Union Canal
The canal stimulated local industries, such as copper works and sand and gravel extraction. The Colne Valley lakes are a post-industrial landscape that show how nature heals relatively quickly to produce something we enjoy. There are many other examples - such as the Norfolk Broads which have been proved to be flooded peat diggings.
Colne Valley Gravel Pits
The Colne Valley lakes are “essentially a young landscape created through extensive mineral extraction in the early 20th century.” - South Hertfordshire Landscape Character Assessment.
Trees
A surprising fact is that trees grow, die and fall down to be replaced by new trees. Most of the disruption is only during construction. The area will regenerate and the final footprint of a two track railway is far less than any other piece of transport infrastructure.
Concrete
Concrete has been used since about 6000 BCE, the Romans used it extensively, many world recognised buildings of great merit are made from concrete. Don’t attempt to rubbish its design because it uses concrete.
Not just HS2
Other Projects such as Heathrow expansion, motorway service areas, ‘technology parks’, Pinewood theme park, housing etc are more of a threat to the Colne ValleyRegional Park.
@@peterjohnson1739
Thank you. Yes, I do recognise that ( elegance of design and quality of engineering) but it shouldn't be where it is imho.
I found the beauty of the Colne valley pre-concrete far more impressive,
and touching , a beauty which has now been lost.
Why these “environmentalists” bang on about the impact to birds and bats is nuts - not exactly the Serengeti is it …
No but it IS a wildlife haven, which are becoming rare in Britain today.
With the new policy of building on green belt, they will become rarer still.
@ we’ve got more designated national parks than we’ve ever had before.
@@MS-tm2yz
Where else do we build.
@@apangel100
Where are these?
Dartmoor is becoming more andmore clay tips, in the North there's open cast mining in the so called National Parks.
The hate and indifference the English express towards what little remains of the 'countryside' is truly horrendous.
@@daydays12 You really should get your facts correct before commenting
The china clay (aka kaolin) industry on Dartmoor is very old, the open-cast pits date back to the early 19th century. As an industry it’s been in steady decline since the 1980s.
There is no open cast mining in the North - it all stopped decades ago. FYI - the last open cast coal mine in the UK was Ffos-y-fran near Merthyr Tydfil. It closed on 30 November 2023.
You are correct that there are National Parks in Cornwall, the North and South Wales. However, these all came into existence after mining ended and reflect the recovery of the landscape after a relatively short time.
The M6 Bromford viaduct is longer at 3.5 miles (5.5 km).
We need that train station in Aldridge, Walsall
Chat to the West Midlands Mayor
Dominique wasn't "custom built".
> Originally built in 2004, the launching girder was first used during the construction of the Hong Kong East Tsing Yi Viaduct.
News to me, thank you for your comment :)
2:30 Nice to see the workers working at speed!
Well it'd high speed 2.
I’ve been working on hs2 for 3 years, I put a lot of those bases on for the piers. Been a good job but you can see where the money is wasted on every site I work on, never seen anything like it.
Thank you for your anecdote and work. Like and Subscribe for more :)
Is that so? I can imagine. Thank you for that real life info!
Why is this called a valley? All that water must have been an engineering challenge.
It's flooded gravel pits. following extensive mineral extraction oil the early 20th century.
It's a shame it has to go through the Colne Valley but since it has to at least they built a very good looking bridge.
Why not fill the valley in?
Then you could build a concrete and plastic "new town" like Milton Keynes on it.
Nobody with ££££££ gives a fig for the Colne Valley. That's clear - the £££ characters backing HS2 just built an arrogant 'look at me'! concrete monstrosity
deliberately, it looks like, visible ( and audible) from as far away as possible.
It's like a child's black squiggle drawn over Boticelli's Venus ( if the HS2 characters have ever heard of it )
HS2 has not much to do with reducing train times ; 10/20 mins !! It is ALL about ADDING capacity ; Ask a train guy .
That said "people" didn't want The turnpikes ; they were built . Every 'improvement' since ; Canals , Rail , Motorways has had opposition and have all been built with reference to speed . HS2 was never going to be cancelled once started .
Adding capacity to what????
HS2 on their extraordinary site claim that HS2 will transfer thousands of lorries from road to rail!!! Magical thinking!
The ignorance about logistics is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Motorways put ££££££££££ into Transport Minister Marples' pockets who was a shareholder in the company that built the first motorways.
How much ££££££££££ has gone in the same or similar ways into the pockets of HS2 backers' pockets?
People DID want the turnpikes, they DID want the railways and they DIDN'T want them taken away by Dr Beeching and especially Ernest Marples the transport minister who had shares in a road construction company ,destroyed the railways and promoted motorways for which the company he had shares in got contracts.. He did very well financially.
HS2 has nothing to do with train times and everything to do with ££££££ for the owners of the construction companies.
i wish the narrator would pronounce the name correctly. other than that a good video.
?
Haich?
イギリス頑張れ〜！
Cheers 🍻 thank you for you comment! ありがとう
Nice visuals and nice script.
But they don't match up at all. e.g. You're talking about swooping curves whilst showing an image of the embankment hundreds of metres from the start of the viaduct.
I ran out of Structural video to put in place, I got distracted with the lake and the little tree islands I found interesting at the time. I film, then I make a script. I also have 3 drone batteries of 25 minutes flight time each. So cutting down 50-75 minutes of film into 5 minutes isn't easy but I enjoy it.
@@jamesmaclarnon no worries. keep on doing what you love
China builds one of this (or longer) every other week...
Ever wonder why it's costing so incredibly much?
"Some" people are filling their pockets with £££££££ that's for sure.
@@daydays12 Yeah, 30,000 employed on it all earning salaries, feeding their families, paying their taxes ... would you rather they all be queuing up at Job Centres and receiving Social Security payments? Many apprentices learning how to build. Don't you want to invest in the future?
I bet HS2 doesn't cut journey times and it won't run when the drivers are on strike anyway.
Brilliant! Thank you!
And it doesn't transfer thousands of lorries from road to rail either which is what they claim.
@@daydays12 The claim is that when HS2 opens 90% of hi speed Avanti West Coast train services will transfer from the WCML south of Crew to the HS2 route so allowing more capacity on the existing southern half of the WCML for freight services and other passenger services
It is amazing from an engineering point of view but you have to ask did it really need to take that route?
Thank you for your comment :)
No, it didn't, and so many commenters seem to be oblivious as to the terrible planning behind HS2, and how it's now highly compromised because of it. It's still not built, folks, and as much as I think it should be finished, *in its intended entirety*, costs have quashed that....not least because of the fantasists of folly of structures like this.
@@stephensaines7100 Thank you very much for your post
You put very relevant info succinctly.
You pronounced Colne incorrectly. It’s not Colen, it’s Cole-n.
Colne not Collon
James, can you confirm you obtained approval to fly in Denham Airports FRZ?
I too was very concerned to see that high pass on the base leg and across the extended centreline of Denham airfield. It's been a while for me, but looked too close to circuit height, some GA pilots fly very wide circuits. A pity, as the rest looked very good.
Yes it is a great piece of work, but sadly like so many other structures these days, it will look bloody awful once the graffiti morons get to work on it.
It is VERY ugly and VISIBLE from a long distance and the 'trains' on it will be NOISY and heard from a long way! 😞
How much irreplaceable ancient woodland was destroyed for this vanity project paid for by the taxpayer to the tune of 100 billion £££££
Too expensive, and a major part of HS2 is cancelled. It is a disaster.
On time and under budget as always.
rofl....
Please everyone, say AITCH not HAITCH. You don't pronounce the H at the start of the letter.
HS2 = A Chess Too.
That said, some great footage of a bloody great eyesore for an unnecessary project.
The whole network could have been upgraded for the same money.
Miles, yards and feet too please. Our official unit of road and rail measurement is still the mile, regardless of what some people would have you believe.
Road signs are still in miles, because the DfT bottled it in the 1970s.
Rail measurements are in miles on older railways, but in kilometres on newer railways such as the Tyne and Wear Metro and HS1 plus all tram networks, and even the London Underground converted to kilometres. Electrification construction is all done in kilometres, and all lines converted to ECTS use kilometres both lineside and in the cab. HS2 is very much measured in kilometres (although they refer to miles in their PR videos, presumably because they think people would be scared of km).
But no, the whole network could not have been upgraded for the same money - that's an utterly ignorant statement. You get far more benefit from building HS2 than spending the same money on 'upgrades'.
HS2 has been built because one man, Boris Johnson, gave in to lobby groups and gave it a thumbs up. But because he gave priority to a hugely expensive railway line, he's also responsible for the awful state of our armed forces - the navy and army in particular. What's more important - our armed forces or a railway line? Commonsense says we could have had an adequate (not ultra high speed) but cheaper London-Manchester line constructed (perhaps using part of the old Great Central Line) AND allocated funds for the army and navy!
@@PhilBrown-ik1dk especially in this climate! Thank you for your comment :)
They could not of used the old Great Central line, too much of it has been rubbed out with building work not related to Railways
ABSOLUTELY. Very well put 🙂
Not so ... HS2 was first approved by Gordon Brown (remember him) he was the Labour Prime Minister after Tony Blair. It's not really about politics. Nor is it as simple as cancel HS2 and increase the size of the armed forces. Rishi Sunak famously said that instead of taking HS2 north of Birmingham the savings would be spent on fixing pot holes in our roads.
How can hs2 help cut carbon emissions? The damage is already done in the construction of it. We already had a rail line from London to Birmingham so all this is unnecessary. The paying commuting public will be priced out of using it anyway because the government have a lot of money to recoup. They should have built the northern part first before they ran out of money but that doesn’t suit their agenda!
@craigbarnett9489 It’s not about speed or carbon emissions - it’s all about capacity, to free up space on the West Coast Mainline and hence improve commuter services, inward investment and job opportunities, especially in the West Midlands. It seems that Birmingham has the most to gain from its completion.
HS2 was started by a Labour Government (Gordon Brown), much delayed by too many planning objections and debates. Curtailed by the last Conservative Government. Now back to Labour who have (so far) failed to reverse the decision to cancel north of Birmingham. One would have thought that the new Labour Government would have building in the North as part of their agenda.
The trouble is politicians (of all political persuasions) have a very blinkered view of the world - their only concern is the result of the next election which is never more than 5-years away.
You havent done your resurch into HS2 have you !!, yes Birmingham has two Railway Routes already to London, but the fact is that the one run by Chiltern Railways can take near on 2 hours to travel from Birminghm Snow Hill to London Marylabone, but the second route from Birmingham New Street to London Euston is totaly grid locked especially Birmingham New Street Station causing delays and train cancellations and HS2 is not just about Birmingham as Birmingham Curzon Street Station and the HS2 route is a replacement for a twice failed upgrade of the WCML which it will replace Hi Speed train wise and to improve hi speed passenger train services between Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland by bypasing the long winded curved southern section of the WCML from Crewe to London Euston
Of course... HS2 has just polluted the air and pumped huge quantities in to the air.
The noise pollution generated by their trains will continue for ever especially on high rise highly visible viaducts like this
What a monumental waste of tax payers money. Only on a publicly funded project in Britain would you see uncontrolled spending on this scale. Not a single cost/benefit analysis in sight.
You sound like a Victorian from the 19th Century!
The reason this line is costing so much is down to:
A) it should've been built 30 years ago when land prices were cheaper
B) the NIMBYs have caused a high percentage of the route to be in a tunnel. Tunnels cost more than plain line!
C) material cost has sky rocketed since the first costs were done.
We should be building the final leg into Scotland by know, and with it, removing internal flights....
You sound like a train fan who beyond your weekly shop has never managed a project of any importance and had to control its costs. The cost of this line never made sense and its approval was given for purely political purposes. How on earth did the need for 10 trains an hour at 200 mph + direct from Birmingham to London ever get approved ? Where was the justification for this ?
If there was ever a rational argument for a second mainline it most certainly could never justify the speeds which have added so much cost to this one. The truth about this project has been known for years now but a succession of governments have all lacked the political resilience to cancel it completely. The contractors have had a field day making cancellation now too expensive to contemplate. It is destined to be a monument to British political incompetence.
Yeah, no. They definitely did extensive study for this. I believe them over you. Despite the cost, it will be worth it. It will remove pressure on other rail links and spur the economy which god knows, needs it. HSR is almost always a good idea, and braindead morons like you are only ok with cost overruns on airports and highways. 10B extra to add one airline terminal? No problem. $1B per lane mile of a highway which will get 10,000 drivers per day at best or $750M interchanges? No prob. High speed rail? Eewww way too expensive. Lol
@@derekwhyle1884 The UK can't rely on Victorian infrastructure forever, we have to build new stuff, the Politicians getting involved in the project is regrettable because they have watered it down, the cost over it's 100 years of actual operation is a lot less than funding illegal migrants with a lesser return on that money!?!
Birmingham is a short distance from London. It will provide little benefit for the taxpayer's who are going to have to foot the bill for the interest and principle. Most of the population of the UK are far outwith the reach of this glorified train set.
#StopHS2 #HS2Spam #Spam