GLASGOWOODS Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 It amazes me how no heads roll for government projects that go way over budget,or aint fit for purpose. Even up here in Scotland... The new Forth Bridge. Holyrood parliament Edinburgh trams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Bynnol Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 In Switzerland the building of the Lotchsberb base tunnel, the longest in Europe at 34.6Km, travels through the Alps at a depth of 2KM in places. It involved the removal of 16 million tonnes of rock. It carries both passengers and freight, 90 trains a day at up to 200 kph. Completed just six years ago, it cost £2.8 billion. It is not right to compare the cost of a tunnel with building a new network. The Lötschberg Base Tunnel at 22 miles is incomplete-still under construction-needs another billion Swiss francs- and is a one part of a much bigger project called Alp Transit. The project started in 1996 and is planned to be completed in 2019. Passenger services will not even as fast as current UK rail. The "Alp Transit" project should be compared with HS2. Their aim is to meet the demand, to increase freight capacity, to speed up passenger journeys and allow for an expansion in use of the current network. They are both very expensive and take decades to complete ---------- Post added 20-11-2013 at 20:36 ---------- If they used the old Central Line route, closed by Beeching, much of the land would already be available, and much cheaper. But then governments only go in for value-for-money when it suits them. The GCR mainline did not go through Birmingham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansheff Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Well, if it's anything like Olympics, which started out at 9 billion and ended up costing £100+ we haven't a hope of bringing it in for under 500 billion. The point is why is it always so much more than they originally estimate, and always so much more expensive than other countries? Hasn't the cost of the aircraft carriers almost doubled as well? How the hell can the costs spiral to the extent they have. Does the Government not know what the ships require to be state of the art and include it in the design brief, because if I remember correctly a huge amount of the money is for extras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Obviously the country is rich beyond it's wildest dreams to be able to afford such project. Or maybe we're just going to give £50billion to G4S and they'll provide a wonky mini railway between Mansfield and Dore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biotechpete Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 i imagine that much of the cost will be the purchasing of the land ^^This^^ and legal fees. Land prices and the compensation now required is much higher in the UK than other countries. IIRC there was a land mark legal ruling a few years ago which places the land value much higher for compulsory purchase. Something to do with taking account of the value if each piece to the entire development not just the base value of the land itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obelix Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Well, if it's anything like Olympics, which started out at 9 billion and ended up costing £100+ we haven't a hope of bringing it in for under 500 billion. The point is why is it always so much more than they originally estimate, and always so much more expensive than other countries? Can you provide a citation for the Olympics costing eleven times it's original budget please? Also have you considered the cost of compensating people for all that land that HS2 will take? Market value plus 10% is the usual figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 A good whack of the £50bn is the purchase and service of the initial rolling stock. Another good part is the marketing budget to counter the NIMBYs. And another is the budget for commissioning reports to counter those like SCC produced to say HS2 should go through the city centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vague_Boy Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Completed just six years ago, it cost £2.8 billion. Total cost of the project is 9.8 billion Swiss francs, or US$10.3 billion LINK $10.3 billion dollars is about £6.39 billion pounds. Do you do cost estimates for UK infrastructure projects by any chance? But overspends do seem to be a way of life with UK projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Two words. "Human Rights". or "consultancy fees" or "property prices" etc... etc... etc... ---------- Post added 20-11-2013 at 23:24 ---------- According to the following link the cost is about £80 billion, personally I thought about £95 billion ( £100 billion would just be a rip off ) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10249815/High-speed-rail-scheme-cost-to-double-to-80bn-economists-warn.html Just one other point for a train to travel at high speed the track needs to be 'Arrow Straight', that is without bends or curves or it may leave the track. It takes a detour around George Osborne's Tatton constituency Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psynuk Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 I'm not sure why they don't just dig an arrow straight tunnel between london-b'ham-manc-sheff-leeds? have it surface near each city, would solve a lot of the problems regarding nimbys, compulsory purchase etc. you could probably set the machines going in a few months so the whole project could be done fairly swiftly if only we didn't just leave our machines under the english channel... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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