| Sturgeon resigns 11:01 - Feb 15 with 20468 views | colinallcars |
Something fishy there. Perhaps she's got another job lined up……… |  | | |  |
| Sturgeon resigns on 14:40 - Jun 14 with 1089 views | Northernr |
Well I'm pleased we've moved away from Trump and onto trams 
Wasn't the problem with Edinburgh, apart from the gross overspend, that it was originally planned as a large three-line network going out into the suburbs and down through Leith to the royal yacht and cruise liner terminal etc. And then, as usual, as we're seeing with HS2, as the prices sky rocketed they cut it back and cut it back and cut it back to the point where it was still expensive but by and large pretty useless - just a £1bn shuttle to take you out to the airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_tram_lines_in_Edinburgh
Similarly in Sheffield where I lived for a while, I loved the tram, used it all the time (but then I'm geeky like that) but it always struck me that it was sort of half a network. One of the lines goes to a place called Halfway which the locals we knew always called Halfway to nowhere. The real value of it would have been to continue it out from there to Dronfield/Chesterfield. Likewise the line that stops at Hillsborough, ideally you'd take it further and finish it in Barnsley. They have now done this on the Meadowhall side which has been extended out to Rotherham and we used that after our match there this season.
The frustration for me with big infrastructure projects like these in this country is not the overspend (everything overspends as said above, maybe it's corruption, incompetence, whatever, everything overspends) it's that we often end up spending a huge sum of money on something that's sort of half finished. You're going to get exactly that with HS2. A concrete rocket right through the Chiltern Hills that connects Birmingham to Car Giant, a big hole in the ground at Euston for the best part of 20 years, and those huge cities across the M62 corridor still being served by one three coach diesel train an hour that turns up whenver TPE feels like it. AND you'll still have spent the money anyway. |  | | |
| Sturgeon resigns on 14:52 - Jun 14 with 1055 views | SheffieldHoop |
| Sturgeon resigns on 14:40 - Jun 14 by Northernr |
Well I'm pleased we've moved away from Trump and onto trams
Wasn't the problem with Edinburgh, apart from the gross overspend, that it was originally planned as a large three-line network going out into the suburbs and down through Leith to the royal yacht and cruise liner terminal etc. And then, as usual, as we're seeing with HS2, as the prices sky rocketed they cut it back and cut it back and cut it back to the point where it was still expensive but by and large pretty useless - just a £1bn shuttle to take you out to the airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_tram_lines_in_Edinburgh
Similarly in Sheffield where I lived for a while, I loved the tram, used it all the time (but then I'm geeky like that) but it always struck me that it was sort of half a network. One of the lines goes to a place called Halfway which the locals we knew always called Halfway to nowhere. The real value of it would have been to continue it out from there to Dronfield/Chesterfield. Likewise the line that stops at Hillsborough, ideally you'd take it further and finish it in Barnsley. They have now done this on the Meadowhall side which has been extended out to Rotherham and we used that after our match there this season.
The frustration for me with big infrastructure projects like these in this country is not the overspend (everything overspends as said above, maybe it's corruption, incompetence, whatever, everything overspends) it's that we often end up spending a huge sum of money on something that's sort of half finished. You're going to get exactly that with HS2. A concrete rocket right through the Chiltern Hills that connects Birmingham to Car Giant, a big hole in the ground at Euston for the best part of 20 years, and those huge cities across the M62 corridor still being served by one three coach diesel train an hour that turns up whenver TPE feels like it. AND you'll still have spent the money anyway. |
Doesn't the tram take 40 minutes from Sheffield to Rotherham? And the train is like 12 minutes? Used to be the same with Meadowhall, 5 minutes by train or 30 minutes by tram. Similar price. So train would always win for me.
HS2 is 30+ years too late. Waste of money imo. [Post edited 14 Jun 2023 14:54]
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| "Someone despises me. That's their problem." Marcus Aurelius |
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| Sturgeon resigns on 14:57 - Jun 14 with 1051 views | Northernr |
| Sturgeon resigns on 14:52 - Jun 14 by SheffieldHoop |
Doesn't the tram take 40 minutes from Sheffield to Rotherham? And the train is like 12 minutes? Used to be the same with Meadowhall, 5 minutes by train or 30 minutes by tram. Similar price. So train would always win for me.
HS2 is 30+ years too late. Waste of money imo. [Post edited 14 Jun 2023 14:54]
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It's extra capacity and extra services though, and for intermediate stops that don't have a train station. The train options post Rotherham away this year back to Sheffield were miss the last ten minutes of the game, or wait 50-odd minutes for the next one. Obvs I wish we'd taken the first option and missed the last 10, but there was a tram in between those two, so we used it, and had a nice beer in the Tap instead of sitting on Rotherham station for an hour. Meadowhall a bit different, loads of trains to there, but Northern and TPE have hacked back the trains to places like Rotherham so much another option is v welcome IMO, even if it is slower. | | | |
| Sturgeon resigns on 15:24 - Jun 14 with 1006 views | SheffieldHoop |
| Sturgeon resigns on 14:57 - Jun 14 by Northernr |
It's extra capacity and extra services though, and for intermediate stops that don't have a train station. The train options post Rotherham away this year back to Sheffield were miss the last ten minutes of the game, or wait 50-odd minutes for the next one. Obvs I wish we'd taken the first option and missed the last 10, but there was a tram in between those two, so we used it, and had a nice beer in the Tap instead of sitting on Rotherham station for an hour. Meadowhall a bit different, loads of trains to there, but Northern and TPE have hacked back the trains to places like Rotherham so much another option is v welcome IMO, even if it is slower. |
Nah not buying that, unless you got cheap off-license beers to enjoy on the tram (Which I think is against the rules?), I remain unconvinced tram was ever a good option.
It's like building the central line from Ealing to Stratford when you already have Crossrail, but without any of the massively busy Central line stops in between. Just old declining shopping centers that nobody wants to go to anymore. | |
| "Someone despises me. That's their problem." Marcus Aurelius |
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| Sturgeon resigns on 15:34 - Jun 14 with 983 views | slmrstid |
I was in Edinburgh for a weekend last year and used the tram a couple of times, but agree it is a bit limited in its current form in basically being from the airport to Princes Street/Waverley Station and not much else. That said it will take you to Murrayfield for rugby or if you go to Haymarket you're about a 5 minute walk from Tynecastle, so it could be useful if you're in the right place.
The Nottingham tram is great - I was there last Friday at Rock City (bit horrible seeing the pictures from yesterday given I was there so recently). Rather than driving into the city I parked at the giant P&R site at Clifton which is about 5 minutes off the M1, and it was about 40 minutes into the city centre for the same price as if I'd driven and parked. Probably a bit longer time wise but less hassle so there's the trade-off.
Big fan of tram systems, wish Leicester had one. Although I do cycle around the city a lot as its quite good for that, much to the fury of Leicestershire Live's Facebook followers. |  | | |
| Sturgeon resigns on 18:37 - Jun 14 with 893 views | distortR |
| Sturgeon resigns on 12:25 - Jun 14 by SheffieldHoop |
Speaking of trams. How much did they spend on relaying the donkey tram tracks on Douglas promenade? Went on for years!! |
They won't tell us. And they left it in the middle of the road. And it stops short of where it's supposed to, so they can get a new capital budget to finish it off. We do know they forgot to factor in £800k for signals  |  | | |
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