A Farce, a Fracture and a Fantastic Achievement.

Hi Everyone

If you a long time Rubbish reader, you will be aware of my opinion of HS2. That’s high speed trains to you and me. The original budget back in 2017 was £37Billion to build the railway from London to our second city, Birmingham and then onwards to Manchester in the west and Leeds in the east. In 2019, the then Transport Minister said it would cost £65Billion and that “we are on budget and on time” with the trains expected to be running in 2028. I called that an irresponsible comment at the time, as serious work on the project had only just commenced. Although my experience is in building rather than civil engineering, we always said that if we were in profit when the building emerged above ground level, then the financial prospects for the project were good. Railways are mostly in or under the ground, meaning that it is almost impossible to produce accurate forecasts. To me, it is obvious that the original and future cost forecasts should have included large contingency sums to cover any unforeseen problems. Now, this week, the latest forecast is for the cost to be just over £100Billion and that it will be another ten years, yes ten years, before any trains will start to run. That forecast also assumes the trains' top speeds will be reduced to save costs, not forgetting that the project beyond Birmingham has already been scrapped All this to get trains from London to Birmingham about 20 minutes sooner than at present. Of course we need modern, comfortable train travel throughout the country, but this fiasco will put that dream back years. If we are not a laughing stock across the world, we should be. Just imagine what we could do with that £100billion. It would enable us to repair nearly all the potholes in the whole of our local  area. Just a rough estimate of course.

This week, one of our friends had a fall in the driveway of their house. Unfortunately, she broke a bone, resulting in a five day stay in hospital after a hip operation. She was not able to be in the fracture ward as it was full, meaning that fourteen other patients had to be relocated to other wards. It perhaps illustrates that as we approach middle age, a five day ‘holiday’ in a fracture ward is a distinct possibility. I fell some weeks ago, but fortunately with no serious consequences, but it has made me far more careful, in the hope that it will not happen again. Next month, in case you need reminding is Fathers Day, and no doubt my children are wondering what to buy the old duffer. Hopefully they will read this Rubbish as, for me, the best present they could buy me is a supermarket shopping trolley. Now I gingerly walk from my car to the trolleys, but once I have got my two hands on the handle, I can walk miles in complete safety. The only downside is that the shop owner expects me to put something into the trolley.  

Last week I told you about our son and four of his friends tackling an endurance event in the Snowdonia National park in Wales. Three, including our son, did the 50K (31 Miles) challenge while one tackled the 100K (62 miles) challenge. Our son completed the course, which was 57.07kl long in 10 hours 48 minutes and 39 seconds with an elevation gain through the run of 3,806m, nearly 12,500feet. Towards the end of the run, he fell and damaged his toe. He was helped by a complete stranger from Ireland and they completed the last few kilometres together. His friend completed the 100k challenge in a staggering 46 hours, 5 minutes and 27 seconds. All this was achieved climbing the highest mountain in Wales twice and two other nearby mountains in very challenging weather conditions with rain, heavy cloud and low temperatures throughout the event. No doubt they will be together back in the Netherlands running together this weekend in the hot sunny weather we are now experiencing. That’s life as they say, or could it just be climate change?

Just a Thought:

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy everyone north of London a Ferrari?

My friend has given up internet shopping. His trolley kept falling off his computer.

I would make a great long distance runner, as I have a pacemaker.   

Brian