@@TonyAbbeyFETraining These were taken in January, and its now May! They are already out of date (although aside from the trees looking greener, not a huge amount has has happened in those 3 months on this small section)
I have a few already from just south of Brackley to a few miles NE of Brackley, have a search on this channel for GCR - all should be on this playlist - ruclips.net/p/PLoer2ToyOBGBw9p8zKTk3u7i_ty36WZYC - most are from a couple of years back, but obviously minimal changes.
We need to learn in this country that we need the countryside. Ukraine has already taught us we need to be more self-sufficient on home grown produce.... ....and we need lots of countryside for that!
@@martinsloman6905 I have the original proposal for Phase 1, and what you say is indeed what they claim will happen. However, due to a massive overspend of catastrophic proportions, they have to keep going back begging for more taxpayer money. And you can guess the bits that get dropped when any sane government finally says no more cash... Looking at the waste land that Network Rail own, I'd say it's not habitat friendly, and I have no reason to suspect this will be any different. In addition, I'm fairly convinced that fast trains and mammals are incompatible with easy other, so have nature reserves on the side of the track doesn't strike me as a grand idea. Returning it to growing food strikes me as a more necessary option given the size of our population, and the Ukraine thing highlighting that we need to be more self sufficient on crops etc....
Is it for the greater good? To blow £100bn on construction and then blow £billions every year in taxpayer subsidies, for a line that is utterly unneeded and likely to close shortly after opening unless it converts itself to yet another London commuter line? I think not. A waste of money, and pointless destruction and upheaval for no gain....
@@DaveFiggley I apologise, I'm a bit behind with editing, I have more that I'm filmed, just not got around to editing and uploading - you know how life gets in the way!
@@martinsloman6905.. HS2 Ltd aren't as "environmentally friendly" as you'd like to think. 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 said they'd wait until the nesting season was over .. the list goes on. Their numerous RUclips videos are nothing but propaganda & the blatant corruption within the organisation that's recently been exposed proves they've been hoodwinking the public & the government since day one of this disastrous vanity project. HS2 is an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.
@@martinsloman6905 And many of the same problems of "gangs" terrorising local communities still exist on HS2. Brackley Town Council spent a fortune fencing off even small green areas in the town due to a massive surge in the number of caravans and transits rocking up and causing a spike in crime and a mess to tidy up when they could finally be evicted(only to move to a new area just down the road, and the legal process has to start over). Compared to the broadly similarly routed M40 built in the late 80s, HS2 construction progress is utterly unacceptable. And those expensive service roads and dedicated bridges to keep traffic off the public roads? Its not working. Much like all the traffic lights they have so badly configured everywhere where their private access roads join the public roads. Land acquisition for HS2 was simple. Very simple. If they wanted it, they were legally entitled to it due to the laws passed for this monstrosity of a project, to the point even now, some of the original land owners are still waiting for the payment (and will only get the "fair price" when valued 5 or 6 years ago.
@@martinsloman6905 According to the press at the time, "In the 1840s, the railway sliced through the Castle remains “as if for the express purpose of vaunting modern progress at the expense of the historic past,” said historian Cadwallader John Bates in 1895" . I remember as a child standing on top of the Keep watching the steam trains go right under me, just a matter of feet (metres) from the castle itself.
@@martinsloman6905 Disruption is inevitable. The Victorians got round it by not hanging around, and fair play to them. I suspect this was more because private investors were funding it rather than a desire not to cause long term disruption. The local council believes there have been limited positive benefits to the local economy from the construction, and lots of cost around anti-traveller measures and increased crime and vandalism. At a personal level, I've had multiple (3 this year) wheel and tyre damage due to the damage HS2 contractors are doing with their access roads joining the local roads, and the roads dig out across the crossroads where the original tarmac meets the concrete HS2 laid over the roads. The M40 extension was completed in 4 years - 87 to 91 - from land purchase to when it completely opened. HS2 construction so far has been from 2019 when the first land grab started, and 5 years later all they have done on these sections I cover is built enormous compounds for themselves and moved some soil spoils around. Completion of the full Phase 1 - and it's still not confirmed if Phase 1 will get funding for its entirety - is estimated to be 2042. The pollution argument doesn't stack up either. Remember, by the time HS2 opens, the traffic on the M40 won't produce emissions along the route as we will all be in milk floats by then. It's right that such projects as HS2 (and the M40, and others) should be heavily scrutinised. The M40 made complete sense, and has exceeded its claims by some margin. HS2 will fail completely, and will either close or become another London commuter line within a few years of opening, because it's fundamentally flawed - nobody can use it. It will never see its required 576,000 passengers a day for Phase 1. To put that number in perspective, pre pandemic (before passenger numbers dropped through the floor), Avanti and Chiltern - the 2 competing lines - only carried 120,000 passengers across their entire networks (not just the London to Birmingham bits). In fact, as a regular traveller on both these lines, I'd estimate less that 5 % of passengers get on in London/Birmingham and travel all the way to Birmingham/London, all the rest use stations in between. It was always the wrong project (and I say that as one of the handful of people who can use HS2, assuming it opens in my lifetime). For info, the Greathworth green tunnel shown on this video was on the early proposals.
Exactly, and why progress is glacial, as everybody wants to ride the gravy train - no pun intended - for as long as possible. Given that hardly anybody travels on the 2 existing lines from central London to central Birmingham, I can see HS2 being close within a few years of opening, so extending the build phase as long as possible means people keep jobs for longer, and hopefully can finish their careers before they all have egg on their faces....
@@martinsloman6905 Well, CML is (was) a London to Birmingham route, offering a 1hr12m service at one point, before Network Rail tried to knobble it to make HS2 look better. The passenger capacity issues apply equally to Avanti, although they always run 8 carriage trains. Pro HS2 supporter like to forget about Chiltern, as it completely wipes out the "HS2 is needed for capacity" augment, as it has mountains of spare capacity available.... ....that nobody wants, simply because there isn't the demand to travel between Birmingham and London. That last point is inescapable. Hence HS2 can only survive if it becomes yet another commuter line, in which case, why are we bothering with the whole High Speed thing and it's associated (unpalatable) construction/running cost price premium?
Great video of the progress ❤
Thanks for your comments, glad you enjoyed the fly-over :)
Thanks for the update, it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything from this section of the route.
Great video.
Apologies for the delay, I'm a bit behind with editing these!
@@theboy-uk - no apology needed - just very happy to see the videos as and when ready!
@@TonyAbbeyFETraining These were taken in January, and its now May! They are already out of date (although aside from the trees looking greener, not a huge amount has has happened in those 3 months on this small section)
Any chance you could fly the old GCML alignment, from where its diverges from HS2, South East of Brackley, to either Banbury or Rugby, for comparison?
I have a few already from just south of Brackley to a few miles NE of Brackley, have a search on this channel for GCR - all should be on this playlist - ruclips.net/p/PLoer2ToyOBGBw9p8zKTk3u7i_ty36WZYC - most are from a couple of years back, but obviously minimal changes.
But now kinder weather is about, I'll try to get out over the next 2 or 3 months and get some updated footage of GCR.
love this aerial footage you just cannot get the same perspective of the scale of the works from the ground
Glad you enjoyed it, it certainly gives a different perspective from above.
One day you will return and see rail lines laid down, that will be a shock to the system. Great to see how the progress is going (or not).
Oops, only just seen your reply, apologies. Its possible the tracks might go down in my lifetime!
Clearly shows the British government's commitment to tinker with the landscape
We need to learn in this country that we need the countryside. Ukraine has already taught us we need to be more self-sufficient on home grown produce.... ....and we need lots of countryside for that!
How can you write 'progress' in the title? 😏
No need to rush when you can string it out for as long as possible!
@@martinsloman6905 I have the original proposal for Phase 1, and what you say is indeed what they claim will happen. However, due to a massive overspend of catastrophic proportions, they have to keep going back begging for more taxpayer money. And you can guess the bits that get dropped when any sane government finally says no more cash...
Looking at the waste land that Network Rail own, I'd say it's not habitat friendly, and I have no reason to suspect this will be any different. In addition, I'm fairly convinced that fast trains and mammals are incompatible with easy other, so have nature reserves on the side of the track doesn't strike me as a grand idea. Returning it to growing food strikes me as a more necessary option given the size of our population, and the Ukraine thing highlighting that we need to be more self sufficient on crops etc....
@@theboy-uk This is a real art of construction.
@@robodrone5662 #JobForLife
@@theboy-uk 👍👍👍
Looks messy but if it's all for the greater good it must be worth it, right?
Is it for the greater good? To blow £100bn on construction and then blow £billions every year in taxpayer subsidies, for a line that is utterly unneeded and likely to close shortly after opening unless it converts itself to yet another London commuter line?
I think not. A waste of money, and pointless destruction and upheaval for no gain....
@@theboy-ukCheer up, darling x . Keep em coming.
@@DaveFiggley I apologise, I'm a bit behind with editing, I have more that I'm filmed, just not got around to editing and uploading - you know how life gets in the way!
When the Victorians built all the railways I bet they didn't make this much mess and the engineering was far superior and pleasant to look at.
And they did it quicker. But I suppose they are happy to milk it for as long as possible....
@@martinsloman6905.. HS2 Ltd aren't as "environmentally friendly" as you'd like to think. 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 said they'd wait until the nesting season was over .. the list goes on.
Their numerous RUclips videos are nothing but propaganda & the blatant corruption within the organisation that's recently been exposed proves they've been hoodwinking the public & the government since day one of this disastrous vanity project.
HS2 is an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.
@@martinsloman6905 And many of the same problems of "gangs" terrorising local communities still exist on HS2. Brackley Town Council spent a fortune fencing off even small green areas in the town due to a massive surge in the number of caravans and transits rocking up and causing a spike in crime and a mess to tidy up when they could finally be evicted(only to move to a new area just down the road, and the legal process has to start over).
Compared to the broadly similarly routed M40 built in the late 80s, HS2 construction progress is utterly unacceptable. And those expensive service roads and dedicated bridges to keep traffic off the public roads? Its not working. Much like all the traffic lights they have so badly configured everywhere where their private access roads join the public roads.
Land acquisition for HS2 was simple. Very simple. If they wanted it, they were legally entitled to it due to the laws passed for this monstrosity of a project, to the point even now, some of the original land owners are still waiting for the payment (and will only get the "fair price" when valued 5 or 6 years ago.
@@martinsloman6905 According to the press at the time, "In the 1840s, the railway sliced through the Castle remains “as if for the express purpose of vaunting modern progress at the expense of the historic past,” said historian Cadwallader John Bates in 1895"
. I remember as a child standing on top of the Keep watching the steam trains go right under me, just a matter of feet (metres) from the castle itself.
@@martinsloman6905 Disruption is inevitable. The Victorians got round it by not hanging around, and fair play to them. I suspect this was more because private investors were funding it rather than a desire not to cause long term disruption. The local council believes there have been limited positive benefits to the local economy from the construction, and lots of cost around anti-traveller measures and increased crime and vandalism. At a personal level, I've had multiple (3 this year) wheel and tyre damage due to the damage HS2 contractors are doing with their access roads joining the local roads, and the roads dig out across the crossroads where the original tarmac meets the concrete HS2 laid over the roads.
The M40 extension was completed in 4 years - 87 to 91 - from land purchase to when it completely opened. HS2 construction so far has been from 2019 when the first land grab started, and 5 years later all they have done on these sections I cover is built enormous compounds for themselves and moved some soil spoils around. Completion of the full Phase 1 - and it's still not confirmed if Phase 1 will get funding for its entirety - is estimated to be 2042.
The pollution argument doesn't stack up either. Remember, by the time HS2 opens, the traffic on the M40 won't produce emissions along the route as we will all be in milk floats by then.
It's right that such projects as HS2 (and the M40, and others) should be heavily scrutinised. The M40 made complete sense, and has exceeded its claims by some margin. HS2 will fail completely, and will either close or become another London commuter line within a few years of opening, because it's fundamentally flawed - nobody can use it. It will never see its required 576,000 passengers a day for Phase 1. To put that number in perspective, pre pandemic (before passenger numbers dropped through the floor), Avanti and Chiltern - the 2 competing lines - only carried 120,000 passengers across their entire networks (not just the London to Birmingham bits). In fact, as a regular traveller on both these lines, I'd estimate less that 5 % of passengers get on in London/Birmingham and travel all the way to Birmingham/London, all the rest use stations in between. It was always the wrong project (and I say that as one of the handful of people who can use HS2, assuming it opens in my lifetime).
For info, the Greathworth green tunnel shown on this video was on the early proposals.
This is a program of a government feeding its mates vast amounts of public money, what a waste for 10min time saved
Exactly, and why progress is glacial, as everybody wants to ride the gravy train - no pun intended - for as long as possible. Given that hardly anybody travels on the 2 existing lines from central London to central Birmingham, I can see HS2 being close within a few years of opening, so extending the build phase as long as possible means people keep jobs for longer, and hopefully can finish their careers before they all have egg on their faces....
@@martinsloman6905 I type this and the previous long reply as I sit on a near empty 3 car Chiltern DMU. Crowded? I'm lonely!
@@martinsloman6905 Well, CML is (was) a London to Birmingham route, offering a 1hr12m service at one point, before Network Rail tried to knobble it to make HS2 look better. The passenger capacity issues apply equally to Avanti, although they always run 8 carriage trains. Pro HS2 supporter like to forget about Chiltern, as it completely wipes out the "HS2 is needed for capacity" augment, as it has mountains of spare capacity available.... ....that nobody wants, simply because there isn't the demand to travel between Birmingham and London. That last point is inescapable. Hence HS2 can only survive if it becomes yet another commuter line, in which case, why are we bothering with the whole High Speed thing and it's associated (unpalatable) construction/running cost price premium?