HS2

Another 800 million needed to clear asbestos only weeks into construction!

Literally , this has to be the most pointless project and waste of cash - who ever's it is, since time immemorial!  

Link to BBC (yuk) news!

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly, if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

12 Billion for Serco and friends to not produce test and trace, 800 million, chicken feed.

I would vote for Boris in a heart beat.

No none of it is acceptable and the old they would do it if they had a chance, they used to do it when they were in power arguments just sustain it. What I'd like to know is where is the anger about it?

With the massive amount of corruption now plus the massive Tory majority resistance is futile.

Once the last politician has retired to Tuscany perhaps there will be a few scraps of the UK left.

Perhaps the silver lining is the reopening of Meldon Quarry, it seems the amount of track ballast required for HS2 could result in Meldon coming out of mothballs to supply ballast to the Network, which could lead to passenger traffic.
Track and structures have been assessed, so maybe we’ll have some crumbs

Sounds like good news Graiser.
Gotta be worth a million pounds a ton, through the middle man obvs.

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

Earwegoagain wrote:

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

I’m not aware of the Union issue but I do know the reason for closure was economic, at the time of closure there were only 8 people left working there, it’s actually mothballed.
The quality of the stone was probably the best in the uk but following privatisation it wasn’t economic to move it from Meldon throughout the Network.
Lady Sayers was most pleased!

Graiser wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

I’m not aware of the Union issue but I do know the reason for closure was economic, at the time of closure there were only 8 people left working there, it’s actually mothballed.
The quality of the stone was probably the best in the uk but following privatisation it wasn’t economic to move it from Meldon throughout the Network.
Lady Sayers was most pleased!

My old man worked at Meldon in the late 1960's-i occasionally do the walk there from Okehampton station,sad to see it at the moment but NR have definitely done some work in clearing ivy and other growth from a couple of bridges.The pricing of some of these contracts is fecking obscene though and really need a proper independent inquiry. Latest figure for opening the Tavistock-BA section comprising approximately 6 miles of track was £94 million ffs,how on earth can an increase of £74m from the figure quoted 10 years ago be justified? Heritage railways lay perfectly acceptable lines cleared to run at 75mph in some cases at a fraction of that cost-for sure they use hand-me-downs and volunteer labour which wouldn't be acceptable on the main network but the point still stands that it could be done far cheaper than the absurdity of a near billion.

Greenskin wrote:

Graiser wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

I’m not aware of the Union issue but I do know the reason for closure was economic, at the time of closure there were only 8 people left working there, it’s actually mothballed.
The quality of the stone was probably the best in the uk but following privatisation it wasn’t economic to move it from Meldon throughout the Network.
Lady Sayers was most pleased!

My old man worked at Meldon in the late 1960's-i occasionally do the walk there from Okehampton station,sad to see it at the moment but NR have definitely done some work in clearing ivy and other growth from a couple of bridges.The pricing of some of these contracts is fecking obscene though and really need a proper independent inquiry. Latest figure for opening the Tavistock-BA section comprising approximately 6 miles of track was £94 million ffs,how on earth can an increase of £74m from the figure quoted 10 years ago be justified? Heritage railways lay perfectly acceptable lines cleared to run at 75mph in some cases at a fraction of that cost-for sure they use hand-me-downs and volunteer labour which wouldn't be acceptable on the main network but the point still stands that it could be done far cheaper than the absurdity of a near billion.

Maybe about 10 years ago I drafted an estimate to install new track on a prepared formation for this route from memory it was about 8 million. However there would have been additional costs to prepare the formation, boundary fencing, drainage and signalling. From my limited knowledge on signalling, the costs for that would have been eye watering.
In my former life we had a rate of £850,000 to relay a kilometre of new track with no associated formation works.

Back then I understood that a housing developer (Bellway ?) would have been contributing significant funding, not aware what’s happened since then.

Just a point about heritage railways, there are no heritage railways in the UK that run trains at 75mph, maximum is 25 mph or I believe test trains could run on some tracks at 40 mph.

Removing all the Newts and Frogs would cost about a million pounds a mile these days.

Graiser wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Graiser wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

I’m not aware of the Union issue but I do know the reason for closure was economic, at the time of closure there were only 8 people left working there, it’s actually mothballed.
The quality of the stone was probably the best in the uk but following privatisation it wasn’t economic to move it from Meldon throughout the Network.
Lady Sayers was most pleased!

My old man worked at Meldon in the late 1960's-i occasionally do the walk there from Okehampton station,sad to see it at the moment but NR have definitely done some work in clearing ivy and other growth from a couple of bridges.The pricing of some of these contracts is fecking obscene though and really need a proper independent inquiry. Latest figure for opening the Tavistock-BA section comprising approximately 6 miles of track was £94 million ffs,how on earth can an increase of £74m from the figure quoted 10 years ago be justified? Heritage railways lay perfectly acceptable lines cleared to run at 75mph in some cases at a fraction of that cost-for sure they use hand-me-downs and volunteer labour which wouldn't be acceptable on the main network but the point still stands that it could be done far cheaper than the absurdity of a near billion.

Maybe about 10 years ago I drafted an estimate to install new track on a prepared formation for this route from memory it was about 8 million. However there would have been additional costs to prepare the formation, boundary fencing, drainage and signalling. From my limited knowledge on signalling, the costs for that would have been eye watering.
In my former life we had a rate of £850,000 to relay a kilometre of new track with no associated formation works.

Back then I understood that a housing developer (Bellway ?) would have been contributing significant funding, not aware what’s happened since then.

Just a point about heritage railways, there are no heritage railways in the UK that run trains at 75mph, maximum is 25 mph or I believe test trains could run on some tracks at 40 mph.

The Great Central is cleared to run trains at 75mph for diesels and 60 mph for steam and i believe NR use it to train crews and testing equioment. Pretty sure the Mid Hants is cleared to run at 60 mph too.

Greenskin wrote:

Graiser wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Graiser wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

I used to work there it was literally closed down by the unions. They could have had the Camels Head contract to supply 1 million tons of quarry fill (waste material of which they had a fookin great heap of on the skyline to the rear of the quarry, yet the union insisted that they only use union labour for it and the union men would have been shorthanded so rather than hire scab labour the quarry closed.

I’m not aware of the Union issue but I do know the reason for closure was economic, at the time of closure there were only 8 people left working there, it’s actually mothballed.
The quality of the stone was probably the best in the uk but following privatisation it wasn’t economic to move it from Meldon throughout the Network.
Lady Sayers was most pleased!

My old man worked at Meldon in the late 1960's-i occasionally do the walk there from Okehampton station,sad to see it at the moment but NR have definitely done some work in clearing ivy and other growth from a couple of bridges.The pricing of some of these contracts is fecking obscene though and really need a proper independent inquiry. Latest figure for opening the Tavistock-BA section comprising approximately 6 miles of track was £94 million ffs,how on earth can an increase of £74m from the figure quoted 10 years ago be justified? Heritage railways lay perfectly acceptable lines cleared to run at 75mph in some cases at a fraction of that cost-for sure they use hand-me-downs and volunteer labour which wouldn't be acceptable on the main network but the point still stands that it could be done far cheaper than the absurdity of a near billion.

Maybe about 10 years ago I drafted an estimate to install new track on a prepared formation for this route from memory it was about 8 million. However there would have been additional costs to prepare the formation, boundary fencing, drainage and signalling. From my limited knowledge on signalling, the costs for that would have been eye watering.
In my former life we had a rate of £850,000 to relay a kilometre of new track with no associated formation works.

Back then I understood that a housing developer (Bellway ?) would have been contributing significant funding, not aware what’s happened since then.

Just a point about heritage railways, there are no heritage railways in the UK that run trains at 75mph, maximum is 25 mph or I believe test trains could run on some tracks at 40 mph.

The Great Central is cleared to run trains at 75mph for diesels and 60 mph for steam and i believe NR use it to train crews and testing equioment. Pretty sure the Mid Hants is cleared to run at 60 mph too.

You are correct but those speeds are only for test trains, they are not allowed to operate their commercial passenger carrying trains at more than 25mph.

I hear Network Rail are in negotiations to buy back the privately owned portion of track from Aggregate Industries who own the line from Coleford Junction to Meldon.
New rail has been unloaded on the private portion which is to be utilised to upgrade some of the route.

Lord Melbury wrote:

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly,  if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

What.....???
Make your mind up fella ! You're normally crawling up Boris' arse the rest of the time now you're acknowledging "bent" MPs
Pure Gold indeed

harvetheslayer wrote:

Lord Melbury wrote:

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly,  if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

What.....???
Make your mind up fella !  You're normally crawling up Boris' arse the rest of the time now you're acknowledging "bent" MPs
Pure Gold indeed

You're getting more and more confused Harve are you on drugs? I really don't see anybody on here as a rampant Tory but just because we argue with your spurious and inaccurate daily claims in your eyes we are all true blue Boris fans?

harvetheslayer wrote:

Lord Melbury wrote:

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly,  if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

What.....???
Make your mind up fella !  You're normally crawling up Boris' arse the rest of the time now you're acknowledging "bent" MPs
Pure Gold indeed

There’s definitely something the matter with you, I think most posters on ATD acknowledge that most MP’s of all political persuasions are bent, you carry on as if Boris invented it!

Graiser wrote:

harvetheslayer wrote:

Lord Melbury wrote:

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly,  if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

What.....???
Make your mind up fella !  You're normally crawling up Boris' arse the rest of the time now you're acknowledging "bent" MPs
Pure Gold indeed

There’s definitely something the matter with you, I think most posters on ATD acknowledge that most MP’s of all political persuasions are bent, you carry on as if Boris invented it!

I was watching a prog on Anne Bolyn the other night and they said that Cromwell was the original spin doctor who Mandelson, Cambell and Cummings all model themselves on.

harvetheslayer wrote:

Lord Melbury wrote:

Obviously more bent MPs & "businessmen" looking for brown envelopes than were previously thought.
Honestly,  if we could somehow find an effective way to stop corruption the economy would literally take off.
Not just a cancer on the UK either.
Harve's EU is entirely built on corruption.
No

What.....???
Make your mind up fella !  You're normally crawling up Boris' arse the rest of the time now you're acknowledging "bent" MPs
Pure Gold indeed

WTF.
Show me a post where I’ve “crawled up boris’ arse”
You won’t find one. I wouldn’t trust him any further than I could throw him & don’t believe he will carrythrough on Brexit to the satisfaction of the Leave majority.
Contrary to your fantasy beliefs I didn’t vote for him either. I spoiled my paper as there was only a choice between liblabcon.

I do concede however he is preferable to the alternative, the ultra slimey Sir Kneel.

Looking more and more likely that the Tavistock line will be reopened however at the age of 57 I'm wondering if I will live to see it.

Okehampton to Tavi, init?

Tavi to Muffsville, Jannerbama would have been better given the huge amount of traffic to and fro the two towns these days.

Earwegoagain wrote:

Looking more and more likely that the Tavistock line will be reopened however at the age of 57 I'm wondering if I will live to see it.

Meldon to Exeter is 99% definite as the stone is required by Network Rail, new rail has already been unloaded on the private portion by Network Rail, it’s happening for stone and understand a park and ride has been identified.
Not hearing too much on the Bere Alston to Tavistock portion though

POI wrote:

Okehampton to Tavi, init?

Tavi to Muffsville, Jannerbama would have been better given the huge amount of traffic to and fro the two towns these days.

Don’t hold your breath on Tavistock to Okehampton opening at all.

There is a front page piece in the Tavistock Times this week and it says that a group of rail lobbyists are lobbying to open Oke to Tavi like I said I think it will happen but definitely not imminent.