Non-binary lesbian; equality activist; pro-internationalism, pro-devolution, pro-trains, pro-equality, pro-cats. Personal account at @sarahlicity. They/She.
Feb 15, 2020 • 30 tweets • 6 min read
Simon Jenkins, he of "Boris Johnson is a secret liberal" and "The Lib Dems should merge with Labour" fame, has a new galaxy brain editorial, this time about HS2. Let's go over why he's completely wrong, shall we?
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
First off, the rounding up of £100 billion, the Byng/Berkeley estimate that was completely discredited in the Oakervee report.
Let's shoot for the middle of Oakervee's estimates and assume the budget is £85bn. Over twenty years, that's £4bnpa. It's not all spent at once.
Feb 21, 2019 • 43 tweets • 7 min read
Let's talk a little about rail capacity, why HS2 is needed, and why any viable alternative to HS2 won't do anything to placate the a lot of the opposition.
There are, roughly speaking, two things that constrain the capacity of any train line: terminal capacity and headways.
Terminal capacity is how many trains can fit in any terminal station at one time. Headways are how many trains can be on a section of track over a period of time.
