High-speed rail: just 1.2 miles of railway in Chilterns will be above ground (UK's HS2)

Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12:16PM GMT 10 Jan 2012 | David Millward, Transport Editor

[Olog-hai]

Just 1.2 miles of the new High Speed Rail line in the Chilterns will be above ground in an attempt to lessen the visual impact of the controversial project.

Direct train services linking Birmingham to Paris in just over three hours will be possible from the middle of the next decade after the Government confirmed it will press ahead with plans for a high speed rail network.

The decision to include a direct link between the existing high speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel and the new route up to Birmingham was the biggest surprise in the announcement by Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary.

At the same time she moved to soothe critics of the controversial scheme, which would see trains hurtling through the countryside at speeds of up to 250 mph, by announcing a series of new tunnels which are designed to minimize the scheme's environmental impact. …

Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "High-speed rail (HSR) will leave generations of ordinary taxpayers paying for a train set that will mostly be used by the rich. We can't afford £32 billion for this project right now. The business case is fundamentally flawed and the Government has vastly inflated the benefits of HSR to the regional economy while hiding the true costs of the project." …

[Olog-hai]

Well, that answers (in part) why this project costs 110 percent more in terms of per-mile cost than CAHSR. They intend to build a London-Birmingham subway . . .

[Jonty30]

Don’t you mean a Birmingham-London-Paris subway?

[BfloGuy]

They intend to build a London-Birmingham subway . . .

They've made this major change (tunnels and deep cuttings) without adjusting the cost at all. Surely, this will add another 30-50%. I wonder when that gets announced.

[GonzoGOP]

Surely, this will add another 30-50%. I wonder when that gets announced.

The other thing that will never be brought up is how much more it costs to maintain an underground railroad. You can't bring in the big cranes and heavy work equipment that allows a few men to do a lot of work. Instead you have massive labor costs as everything needs to be done either by hand or with equipment that can fit into the tunnel.

Then there is water. In rainy England underground tunnels want to fill with water. So now you have to pay to maintain and run pumps 24-7-365.

On the up side there are no problems with snow removal or grade crossings.