A letter in this morning’s Telegraph from Richard Thorp (Director, High Speed Rail Group), insisted that the project should continue without any further delays, protests, squabbles or criticism from the general public and vested interests.
Quote “The reality is that HS2 has passed the point of no return. The debate now needs to be about making sure it delivers growth, as well as the urgent need to decarbonise transport. No more time and energy should be wasted on squabbling about whether a project deep into construction should be happening.”
He was very careful not to mention the escalating budget for this massive of white elephants – current estimates suggest anything between £140bn to £170bn and the clock is still ticking.
He also forgot to mention that the entire project would be underwritten by the government. And for government read Taxpayer. This means that the maintenance, repairs, future extensions & expansions etc will also be funded by the Taxpayer.
Which begs the question of where are the train operators in all of this?
As we saw with the privatisation of the railways back in the day, these operators waded in on the understanding that if they made a loss the Taxpayer will bail them out with subsidies. But when they were in profit the Taxpayer saw little or no dividend from it.
And so to with HS2. The Taxpayer pays for it, private operators take over on the same understanding that they will never end up in debt. No risk to them: shitloads of risk to the Taxpayer.
Moreover, as we saw during the 2 year pandemic vast numbers of former train commuters are now resorting to video conferencing either from their homes or offices. No more need to trek 200 miles on the train for a 1 hour business meeting.
And let’s not forget the power of the rail unions, who are currently making life extremely difficult for commuters with their strike action for more pay and better conditions – probably all funded by the Taxpayer.
Thorp is a deluded cunt, who cares little for the old concept of “value for money” for the hard pressed Taxpayer. All he wants is to see are nice profits, dividends and bonuses courtesy most likely from commuters and Taxpayers whether the latter use the trains or not.
Nominated by: Technocunt
Stalin would have executed this guy by now.
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Or given him a job…
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HS2.
The mindless destruction of ancient woodland and natural wildlife habitat.
Net Zero.
Wind turbines.
Electric Cars.
Mass uncontrolled immigration increasing the population to unsustainable levels.
Swathes of green belt destroyed for new house building projects.
Is there a single person in government who has got a clue what the fuck they are doing or who knows what is going on?
Apart from lining their pockets and looking like hypocrisy ridden fork tongued cunts that is.
And now the cherry on the icing on the top of the cake is Jeremy fucking Hunt.
Unbelievable.
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Robbing turds.Napalm Westminster.
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Perhaps it’s time to change this fab site’s name to, “Is a Hunt”?
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Another day, another cunt.
I read about this. Breathtaking amount of (borrowed) taxpayer money into the hole. Great.
Truth is this: the UK is simply too small a country to warrant a high speed line. Yes there should be massive investment into railways but to spend that amount of money to get to Birmingham 30 minutes earlier than before?
Why not just take an earlier train?
Fuck me.
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Southeastern’s website says an annual season ticket from Margate to St Pancras costs £8176 a year with a Zone 1 to 6 Travelcard (£6,220 without the Travelcard). Imagine the cost of a season ticket on HS2! I found an article from 2013 that said HS2 will cost 27% more. Who’s this train for, Leonardo di Caprio?
I wonder if Amazon will buy it and turn it into their own freight train.
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They might as well because even businesses are going to baulk at the ticket prices if it is only saving 20 mins here and there .
Can see it being a huge white elephant
Fucking cunts , I never thought I’d see a government worse than Blair’s but these cunts are fucking unbelievable.
Utterly incompetent .
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Why anyone would be in such a rush to get to Birmingham is beyond me.
What’s the big deal of a 20 minute reduction in journey time?
The whole idea stinks.
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One of the reasons they state for needing this line is that they need extra capacity. Why don’t they but buy extra carriages then? Some of the train lengths could easily be doubled.
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This cunt should stick to being Alan Turner off Emmerdale
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HS2 is/was a EU project foisted on the UK. Why we’re continuing with it, without their pressure, is unbelievable. And why did the EU-cunts want faster travel to and from Brum anyway?
I suppose escaping from that shithole with a journey twenty minutes shorter sounds good to Eurocrats, but then you arrive at the southern ‘vibrant’ shithole that Londonistan has become!
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The TOC of HS2 will be the current holders of the Inter City West Coast franchise or management contract as it is now.
They are Avanti and Trenitalia and look at the state of the West Coast service at the moment.
Mass cancellations, staff shortages due to a rest day working ban so I’ve been led to believe and cheap advance tickets being withheld.
So it’s in a right mess.
I’ve always believed HS2 should never be built. £100 – £200 Billion spent before even a train runs, money going into rich bosses pockets.
Us frontline rail staff are currently taking part in industrial action to try and eke something of a pay rise out of the operators and department for transport yet we’re being told that we’re greedy and disruptive but £100 billion plus can be found for a planet sized white elephant rich man’s train set. Cunts, all cunts.
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