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| its like engineering meets art... and misses completely. |
I'm in engineering geek mode today, screw IT, let’s move a
mega-tonne of silt and slap concrete all over it. That’s a real job. Back in
the day, when I actually knew how to do things, I was going to be a civil
engineer. It turned out that it doesn’t pay very well and standing waist deep
in mud and shouting at people whilst wearing a hard hat didn’t appeal very much
so I drifted into IT and information theory but part of me is always going to
love civils and tunnelling in particular.
It’s a family thing, generations of Fowlers have worked in construction
from architecture, engineering to paperwork and QA. From the forth rail bridge
to the channel tunnel and from the Mulberry harbours to the London underground,
there has been a Fowler making things better, making them work or if that won’t
work, making things more expensive and complicated. So I'm particularly excited
to have seen this beauty from the train recently.
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| it's actually being built. blimey. |
I'm so please that this bit of engineering legerdemain is
finally underway after nearly twenty five years in the making. The idea is
simple, large scale rail route east west under London, linking Paddington to
Canary Wharf and linked into main line rail instead of tube tracks. Easy. That’ll
be fifteen billion quid please. The concept has waxed and waned a few times,
from linking Heathrow to the city to full integration into the continental high
speed line HS1 and the development of a new “London grand central” station
under Tottenham court road holding both main lines north, HS1 and Cross rail.
Of course if we were really serious about London’s infrastructure, we’d get a
crack on with London Boris Airport (here for the concept at the
Guardian) and link Crossrail into this and HS1 and we’d be away.
Of course instead of anything that sensible, the government is now talking about HS2, linking London and Birmingham as the next great railway white elephant and this is where my enthusiasm for mass infrastructure runs out. Rail in the context of metro lines and massive cities is a great idea. Rail in the context of the channel tunnel is a great idea, and using existing rail assets to their fullest is also a great idea. Even resurrecting old but good lines like the grand central is a good idea. But thirty two billion quid for an HS line between London and Birmingham? That’s a hell of a lot of money for a thirty minute saving per journey. I could just see it as part of a master plan to link the UK up more tightly, aiming for York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow but Birmingham and Leeds as a distant prospect? That’s bunk. The last great attempt at master plan thinking was the concept of the integrated London transport plan which ended up with Crossrail 15 years late and Thameslink 2000 being delivered in 2017. The failure to deliver the integrated plan ruined the ideas behind the Jubilee line extension, the move of HS1 services to St Pancras (which is at least an architectural and engineering masterpiece and a triumph of redevelopment) and makes large parts of the country less connected than before (why is Reading not being linked to Crossrail? Why isn’t Southend?)
With this track record, does anyone think HS2 will ever get further than Birmingham? Hell getting it to High Wycombe would be a realistic goal
For thirty two billion and an target of making Brum half an hour closer to London I’d have invested in more radical and arguably democratic ideas. How about making the M40 eight lanes a side and taking the speed limit off? How about making the M40 come all the way into town near Paddington and allowing drivers to ignore the stop start hell of the A40? Sod it for thirty two billion lets get more OTT. How about a monorail? I'm sure that’d be a lot cheaper than the amount of tunnelling and excavation to grade planed with HS2. Or if we want to be more eco friendly and focus on trade how about an optimised canal design? Hell anything rather than hoying a stadium full of purple drinking vouchers at a sub optimal TGV design.
Of course instead of anything that sensible, the government is now talking about HS2, linking London and Birmingham as the next great railway white elephant and this is where my enthusiasm for mass infrastructure runs out. Rail in the context of metro lines and massive cities is a great idea. Rail in the context of the channel tunnel is a great idea, and using existing rail assets to their fullest is also a great idea. Even resurrecting old but good lines like the grand central is a good idea. But thirty two billion quid for an HS line between London and Birmingham? That’s a hell of a lot of money for a thirty minute saving per journey. I could just see it as part of a master plan to link the UK up more tightly, aiming for York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow but Birmingham and Leeds as a distant prospect? That’s bunk. The last great attempt at master plan thinking was the concept of the integrated London transport plan which ended up with Crossrail 15 years late and Thameslink 2000 being delivered in 2017. The failure to deliver the integrated plan ruined the ideas behind the Jubilee line extension, the move of HS1 services to St Pancras (which is at least an architectural and engineering masterpiece and a triumph of redevelopment) and makes large parts of the country less connected than before (why is Reading not being linked to Crossrail? Why isn’t Southend?)
With this track record, does anyone think HS2 will ever get further than Birmingham? Hell getting it to High Wycombe would be a realistic goal
For thirty two billion and an target of making Brum half an hour closer to London I’d have invested in more radical and arguably democratic ideas. How about making the M40 eight lanes a side and taking the speed limit off? How about making the M40 come all the way into town near Paddington and allowing drivers to ignore the stop start hell of the A40? Sod it for thirty two billion lets get more OTT. How about a monorail? I'm sure that’d be a lot cheaper than the amount of tunnelling and excavation to grade planed with HS2. Or if we want to be more eco friendly and focus on trade how about an optimised canal design? Hell anything rather than hoying a stadium full of purple drinking vouchers at a sub optimal TGV design.
You get my vote x
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