Railnews: "Engineer sets out plan for more trains on HS2"

Link to web site

"Giving the iRail 2012 Distinguished Lecture – ‘Designing High Speed Rail for Britain’ – Professor McNaughton ... said that London was the 'only true metropolis in Europe', and that it was necessary to be able to distribute people to all parts of the metropolitan area.

"This explained the plan for a major interchange station at Old Oak Common, just west of Paddington, which would enable passengers for the west and east of central London to continue their journeys with one simple change to Crossrail, while passengers heading north or south would continue to Euston. [Don't forget north and south at Old Oak!]

"... In support of the Old Oak Common plans, he said that the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham was regarding the development not just as a railway interchange, but as a West London equivalent of the Docklands regeneration area."

Ealing Gazette: "Councillor faces calls to quit over 'misleading' HS2 comments"

Link to Ealing Gazette

"Conservative Councillor Jason Stacey criticised Labour's Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, after a Freedom of Information request showed that Ealing Council had not contacted the Department for Transport (DfT) regarding HS2 despite claiming otherwise.

"But Mr Mahfouz spoke out to defend himself, saying he had written to the DfT twice, and in the past month had requested to meet with Transport Secretary Justine Greening to discuss the impacts of the high speed rail line on Ealing residents. He criticised the Conservatives for politicising the issue."

BBC: "London mayoral candidates clash over transport"

Link to web site and iPlayer

"Transport topped the agenda when the four main candidates to be London mayor clashed at a hustings in the City.

"Conservative Boris Johnson attacked Ken Livingstone for his promised Tube fare cut, but the Labour candidate accused him of "sitting on money" rather than helping hard-pressed commuters.

"Lib Dem Brian Paddick urged 'smarter' use of Heathrow to increase capacity, while the Greens' Jenny Jones suggested a congestion charge around the airport.

"The election will take place on 3 May."

Evening Standard: "All change at King's Cross"

Link to Evening Standard

"John McAslan uses a modest architectural cliché to describe the new concourse he has designed at King’s Cross Station, which opens to the public next Monday, after the Mayor cut the ceremonial red tape [last night]. 'We were trying to stitch together things that were disconnected,' he says, as if he’s just finished darning a sock.

"But the 15-year, £400 million project he has masterminded at King’s Cross Station is more than stitching. It is a fundamental reconstruction of one of the thorniest logistical and architectural problems in London, one that has had an array of architects scratching their heads for a generation."

BBC: " 'Metal moles' begin work below London"

Link to BBC web site

"Tunnelling work is about to begin on a grand scale in London as the £16bn Crossrail project gets set to build 26 miles (42km) of tunnels beneath the capital. 

"Described by Boris Johnson as 'voracious worms nibbling their way under London', the 150-metre long machines will take three years to build a network of tunnels beneath the city's streets."

Architects' Journal: "Arup and Grimshaw land HS2 Euston revamp job"

Click on images for Architects' Journal
- subscription required

"Arup with Grimshaw has been appointed to work on the redevelopment of Euston train station, which will become a new London terminus for High Speed 2 (HS2) rail services.

"The project would see Euston station expand by up to 16 metres westward, to become the service’s new London terminal."

Crossrail tunnels - and a video, thankfully without insipid music

Link to Crossrail video

"In the west, the tunnelling strategy proposed by the winning contractor has been adopted. The Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) will be launched at Royal Oak Portal to tunnel towards east of Farringdon, creating the running tunnels first, after which the station tunnels will be enlarged around the running tunnels. 

"These TBMs will pass under station sites at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Farringdon."

Public Accounts Committee reports on reducing costs in the Department for Transport

Link to Parliament web site

"The Commons Public Accounts Committee publishes its 71st Report of the Session, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Transport.

• Report: Reducing costs in the Department for Transport
• Public Accounts Committee

The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The Department for Transport prepared early for the 2010 Spending Review, identifying areas for budget reductions based on good analysis. But for road users, railway passengers and taxpayers, there are many questions which remain unanswered.

... Another area which concerns us is rail spending. Rail budgets aren’t being reduced as much as other areas, yet passengers still face high fares. The Department needs to understand why the cost of rail travel is so high, and understand better what scope there is for further efficiencies.

It is unacceptable that Network Rail is still not fully transparent or accountable to Parliament or the taxpayer. The Department hands Network Rail over £3 billion each year and underwrites debt of over £25 billion, and yet maintains the fiction that this is a private sector company. The National Audit Office must be allowed full audit access as quickly as possible to this organisation, which is essentially kept afloat through public funds."

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Link to The Independent:

"HS2 Rail boss wants to stay in charge rather than return to Whitehall"

Boring Boris begins bold burrowing bid

"The Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for Transport today revealed the giant 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines that will carve Crossrail’s tunnels under the capital.

"Almost 40 years after the new railway was proposed, this marks a significant milestone in the delivery of this major transport infrastructure project, set to add £42 billion to the economy and create thousands of jobs.

"Today, the first of eight enormous machines, each 150 metres long and weighing 1,000 tonnes, will begin their journey to the Royal Oak Portal in west London from where, next week, they will start tunnelling 6.4 km (four miles) east to Farringdon via Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road. The machines are equivalent to 14 London buses end to end with enough force to lift over 2,900 London taxis."

Network Rail releases Old Oak Common platform plan

Evening Standard: "This poor man's Shard will cast a blight on our homes"

Link to Evening Standard

"A new 35-storey skyscraper will loom over west London like a 'weak rip-off of the Shard' claim neighbours who today vowed to fight the plan.

"... The plans, submitted to Hammersmith & Fulham council by Imperial College which paid £28 million for the site two years ago, include a new campus, offices, flats and a hotel."

Cameron and Spanish Prime Minister on Crossrail visit

"Prime Minister David Cameron visited Crossrail’s Westbourne Park site in west London today, to view the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) ahead of Crossrail tunnelling commencing next month.

"The Prime Minister was joined by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to meet engineers and construction workers and to hear more about tunnelling preparations for Europe’s largest civil engineering project.

"Construction of Crossrail’s western tunnels between Royal Oak and Farringdon is being undertaken by a UK joint venture comprising BAM Nuttal, Kier Construction and Ferrovial Agroman - the UK subsidiary of Spanish multinational Ferrovial. Over 150 people are currently employed at the Westbourne Park site."

"No, stand on me,
la ruta es a la derecha de la estación paddington, matey."

Westfield White City extension plans for John Lewis store approved

Link to Hammersmith & Fulham web site

"Major regeneration and development plans for White City have been approved by Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s planning applications committee.

"The £1billion scheme by shopping centre owners, Westfield, includes plans to build up to 1,522 homes, a new public green, offices and an extension of the existing shopping centre in Wood Lane with new restaurants, cafes and a leisure complex.

"Westfield will contribute £20m toward improvements to the community, including £3.9m for works to Shepherds Bush overground train station, with an extension to the ticket office, a new entrance, and for lengthening the platform. One million pounds will go towards highways and junction improvements, £450,000 to buses local transport, and £75,000 for new town centre signposts. A new bridge and pedestrian footpaths linking east and west of the site will also be built, connecting H&F with Kensington & Chelsea."

The Independent: "HS2 rail link may face legal challenge"

Link to web site

"The Government may face a legal challenge to its £33 billion HS2 high-speed rail project, it was revealed today.

"Opponents of the scheme are also contacting the European Commission, over concerns about HS2's environmental impact."

Secretary of State's speech on HS2

This is Justine Greening's speech delivered at the 'Making HS2 Happen' conference on 26 January, as published (audio only) by the Department for Transport.

Old Oak Common provides Crossrail tunnel segments

Link to Crossrail web site

"The new tunnel segment manufacturing facility at Old Oak Common has begun full operations, pouring the first batch of 250,000 concrete segments that will line 42km (26 miles) of Crossrail tunnels.

The facility will employ about 60 people at its peak, including the first of 15 trainees and apprentices, some of whom have been unemployed for up to 12 months.

They are among the first group of apprentices and trainees to receive training at the new Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) – a facility near Ilford station that will not only train up to 3,500 people to work on Crossrail, but will also continue to operate well beyond the Crossrail project, and help the UK become a world leader in tunnelling construction."

Carbon Impacts of HS2

Link to Greengauge 21 web site

"A research study into the potential full carbon impacts of HS2 has been commissioned from Greengauge 21 by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). 

"This report sets out the interim findings, highlighting the issues that we have identified as likely to be significant in the carbon case for HS2."

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Link to Greengauge 21, January 2012:

"We haven’t seen all that HS2 can deliver".

The Bow Group: High Speed Rail Review and Recommendations (Jan. 2010)

Link to Bow Group PDF file

FOREWORD by Lord Heseltine:

"The development of a nationwide high speed rail network, linking our great cities, represents the most ambitious and demanding engineering challenge of our time. It has the potential, if done correctly, to regenerate those regions which have fallen behind and open up access to parts of our country and our main airports which have previously endured poor rail access.

"... The route chosen for High Speed 2 (HS2), between London, Birmingham and onwards must not be just left to the rail industry, though their expertise and opinion is important. Many other considerations must be taken into account such as how best can we move people from air to rail, how best can HS2 help regenerate the great cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and on into Scotland, how can it deliver a genuine integrated transport strategy and how can it help us meet our binding environmental targets on carbon emissions?

This requires vision and conviction from today's decision takers and policymakers. This document, 'The Right Track – Delivering the Conservatives' Vision for High Speed Rail' is an exhaustive account of the history of high speed rail, the various options on the table toda,y and the leadership which has been shown in other European countries in the joined up implementation of high speed rail, particularly with aviation.

This study provides a positive framework for a future Conservative Government to secure the benefits of high speed rail for the nation, if it takes the right decisions for the right reasons."

---

"The Government plans to report on its HSR plans in the spring [2010]. The Bow Group, through its research for The Right Track, strongly recommends that it supports a direct HSR link to Britain's only national hub airport and thus allows it to become a truly national airport, bringing to an end its enduring lack of proper and effective public transport connection.

"For Conservative Party policy to be translated into action, we must learn the lesson of the adopted proposals for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link [HS1] where

"a number of interests came together, and a solution presented itself which met a variety of objectives international connectivity together with competitiveness, domestic rail improvement, economic and housing growth, regeneration, environmental protection and improvement."

"There are also direct parallels in that decisions were made, for example, in the case on a London station site purely because it was convenient for British Railways, not its customers, and without any discussion over the environment or development possibilities.

"Today, the continued promotion of Old Oak Common as both a London high speed rail station, and the Heathrow interchange, follows the same argument, of a redundant railway site being available and, in the narrow rail-centric view, suitable, and therefore chosen without any proper consideration of wider issues or benefits."

'Question to the Mayor' about Old Oak Common

Old Oak Common
Question No: 122 / 2012
Navin Shah

"Now HS2 has been given the go-ahead from the Coalition Government, can you confirm Old Oak Common will be a major interchange?"

Written response from the Mayor

"The Government’s plans for HS2 include a new interchange in west London at Old Oak Common. The current plans are to provide an interchange between Crossrail and HS2 services. However, as I stated in my consultation response in July 2011, a major new interchange in this location also needs to be integrated with the local transport network to ensure that the station is fully accessible to the surrounding area.

TfL has been developing plans to link the station to large parts of south, west and north London by providing connections to the London Overground network. In the supporting material released by the Government last week, connections to the local highway and public transport network are discussed. I was pleased to see this.

In addition, Hammersmith and Fulham have developed large scale regeneration plans for the site, designated as an Opportunity Area in the London Plan. The GLA will be leading an Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF) study to ensure that a coordinated approach to planning at Old Oak Common is developed in conjunction with the surrounding boroughs.

TfL will be working very closely with HS2 Ltd over the coming months to ensure that the opportunity for Old Oak Common to become a major interchange and development opportunity is realised, if at all possible."

Crossrail at Royal Oak: "This part goes here. (And you always have bits left over.)"

"Re-assembly of Crossrail's first tunnelling machine
advances, as cutterhead is lowered into place"