Villa Park Redevelopment

[algy]

And now HS2 has been frozen, imagine what a small part of that money could do for the transport infrastructure of Birmingham.

Has HS2 been frozen? Seeing plenty of work going on round here. Would be a disaster for Brum to halt things now anyway.

Work's paused at Euston, and for the northern (Birmingham to Manchester) section of HS2.

[ChicagoLion]

And now HS2 has been frozen, imagine what a small part of that money could do for the transport infrastructure of Birmingham.

Has HS2 been frozen? Seeing plenty of work going on round here. Would be a disaster for Brum to halt things now anyway.

Its a disaster anyway. They are getting the Euston site ready to close it, I would imagine its the same with Bham.

[Percy McCarthy]

And now HS2 has been frozen, imagine what a small part of that money could do for the transport infrastructure of Birmingham.

Has HS2 been frozen? Seeing plenty of work going on round here. Would be a disaster for Brum to halt things now anyway.

Its a disaster anyway. They are getting the Euston site ready to close it, I would imagine its the same with Bham.

Getting ready to close it after spending the last few months putting the viaduct piers in place? Also just about to start constructing the deck? Time will tell I suppose. They seem very busy working round by me though. Has nobody told them it’s over?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7R2eviWu60&pp=ygUSSHMyIHByb2plY3QgdXBkYXRl

Maybe you can tell that bloke in the comments about your bad news CL.

[pauliewalnuts]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

[Dogtanian]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

[algy]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

Once things are moved on to there, it should open up a load of additional capacity at Birmingham New Street.  That'll be the big improvement IMO - obviously it's a good thing being able to get to London 20mins quicker, but it's more about creating capacity elsewhere in the network.

Really don't understand why they've not made that a big selling point - it's the biggest reason for building a new line over upgrading existing lines.  They can run more local services if they don't need to make space for the ones going to London ... and have more services to London on top of that.

[Sexual Ealing]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

I assume it'll be given to one of the government's favoured outsourcing partners to run, and that said outsourcing partner will have carte blanche to charge even more than the current bandits do for normal trains. In short, I doubt it!

[paul_e]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

Once things are moved on to there, it should open up a load of additional capacity at Birmingham New Street.  That'll be the big improvement IMO - obviously it's a good thing being able to get to London 20mins quicker, but it's more about creating capacity elsewhere in the network.

Really don't understand why they've not made that a big selling point - it's the biggest reason for building a new line over upgrading existing lines.  They can run more local services if they don't need to make space for the ones going to London ... and have more services to London on top of that.

Yep, a new line between London and Birmingham has bene needed for ages, especially since it's the main link to the airport as well. I reckon national trains are responsible for a big chunk of the problems with the local trains in the city and, without huge investment in trams, we really need to free up that space to make public transport a viable alternative to cars for people. Doing both would be even better but I've long given up on ever seeing a proper tram network in the city.

[IFWaters]

Without getting into the ins and outs of HS2, I think it's fairly self obvious to state that any reliance on improved rail infrastructure will take for ever.

I still think Villa part finding a fleet of 50 + buses to run shuttles to and from starcity , city centre, Alexander stadium with parking there would help.buses given priority near villa park and 30 minute round trips could move 8,000 people an hour over what there is now. If people willing to spend an extra hour at villa live after that's 16,000 that could be moved in 2 hours post match. The bus travel could be included insome tickets. Is it really beyond the wit of man to do this in Birmingham?

[Des Little]

I hear the Witton Arms is moving into new hands and getting a major overhaul.  They could do worse than sell pints to the train queue

[Dogtanian]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

Once things are moved on to there, it should open up a load of additional capacity at Birmingham New Street.  That'll be the big improvement IMO - obviously it's a good thing being able to get to London 20mins quicker, but it's more about creating capacity elsewhere in the network.

Really don't understand why they've not made that a big selling point - it's the biggest reason for building a new line over upgrading existing lines.  They can run more local services if they don't need to make space for the ones going to London ... and have more services to London on top of that.

Yep, a new line between London and Birmingham has bene needed for ages, especially since it's the main link to the airport as well. I reckon national trains are responsible for a big chunk of the problems with the local trains in the city and, without huge investment in trams, we really need to free up that space to make public transport a viable alternative to cars for people. Doing both would be even better but I've long given up on ever seeing a proper tram network in the city.

I hadn’t thought about the impact on the existing lines, it makes more sense now to be honest. As long as they do take advantage of it to improve local services.

[paul_e]

Hs2 hasn't been frozen at all, at least not the bit that is under construction right now.

They're apparently well past the point of no return. They've tunnelled halfway across the Chilterns for a start.

Out of interest, does anyone here imagine they will be making much use of it when it opens?

Once things are moved on to there, it should open up a load of additional capacity at Birmingham New Street.  That'll be the big improvement IMO - obviously it's a good thing being able to get to London 20mins quicker, but it's more about creating capacity elsewhere in the network.

Really don't understand why they've not made that a big selling point - it's the biggest reason for building a new line over upgrading existing lines.  They can run more local services if they don't need to make space for the ones going to London ... and have more services to London on top of that.

Yep, a new line between London and Birmingham has bene needed for ages, especially since it's the main link to the airport as well. I reckon national trains are responsible for a big chunk of the problems with the local trains in the city and, without huge investment in trams, we really need to free up that space to make public transport a viable alternative to cars for people. Doing both would be even better but I've long given up on ever seeing a proper tram network in the city.

I hadn’t thought about the impact on the existing lines, it makes more sense now to be honest. As long as they do take advantage of it to improve local services.

It's not just the lines, New Street runs right on the edge of it's capacity because of the tunnels, if that could be reduced by a few trains per hour it'd help a lot.

[luke95]

If your a regular user of the cross city line & have seen the state of Kings Norton & Northfield Stations  then you know BCC & the Train companies don't like to spend any cash on the railways. Really can't see either rushing to upgrade Witton.

[Percy McCarthy]

If your a regular user of the cross city line & have seen the state of Kings Norton & Northfield Stations  then you know BCC & the Train companies don't like to spend any cash on the railways. Really can't see either rushing to upgrade Witton.

I wouldn’t have thought it’s anything to do with the council. Not financially anyway. I certainly don’t expect them to spend what little they’ve been left with by the Tories helping out private companies. I’d rather they didn’t have to slash social services than read about more cases like little Arthur and stuff like that.

WMCA and Railtrack/Network Rail shoukd be responsible for this.

[Ger Regan]

I still think Villa part finding a fleet of 50 + buses to run shuttles to and from starcity , city centre, Alexander stadium with parking there would help.buses given priority near villa park and 30 minute round trips could move 8,000 people an hour over what there is now. If people willing to spend an extra hour at villa live after that's 16,000 that could be moved in 2 hours post match. The bus travel could be included insome tickets. Is it really beyond the wit of man to do this in Birmingham?

Fine in theory, but would there really be 50+ bus drivers just lying idle to do a gig for a few hours every fortnight? There's a pretty major shortage of drivers internationally, so I'm not really sure you'd get the numbers needed to make a dent in the demand.