Bloody ridiculous... please log in to view this image MOTORISTS could have to wait another decade for long-delayed upgrade plans on Hull's busiest road to become a reality. The multi-million-pound improvement scheme for Castle Street includes proposals to lower a section of the main east-to-west route in the city centre and construct a new road above linking Ferensway and Commercial Road. As well as those changes at the existing Mytongate junction, the plans also include removing all the existing traffic lights between Myton Bridge and the Daltry Street flyover. It had been thought construction work on the main scheme would start in 2018 to avoid clashing with Hull's year as UK City of Culture 2017. However, city councillors heard yesterday that the start date could be pushed back even further. Transport portfolio holder Councillor Martin Mancey said the latest indications he had from Highways England, the company in charge of the project, were that nothing was likely to happen for some time. He said: "The road improvement scheme is still causing problems for Highways England. "The problems revolve around meeting certain environmental requirements necessary to enable the scheme to be signed off by the secretary of state. "At the moment I do not see those issues being resolved in the near future. "How long things will be delayed rather depends on the view taken by the secretary of state when looking at those environmental concerns, but I do not think we are going to see the Castle Street improvement scheme open much before the early 2020s." Cllr Mancey said modelling by Highways England suggested air quality levels would deteriorate in the immediate city centre once the new-look Castle Street traffic flows were in place because of an expected increase in vehicles using the route. He said the issue was sensitive because of the number of people living and working in the area. Cllr Mancey confirmed progress was being made on what are now separate plans for a new footbridge across Castle Street, which he expected would be ready for early 2017. The bridge will connect Princes Dock Street with the marina and rest of the waterfront. On the cards since 1989 Possible improvements to the A63 bottleneck at Castle Street in the city centre have been considered since 1989. However, none of the ideas for tackling the issue since then have managed to get off the ground. The Government says it remains committed to the current scheme. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/dela...tory-26674731-detail/story.html#ixzz3cjuHleHF
And yet they're - the government - is spending multi billions on saving 20 mins on a train journey from Leeds to London. I dont know any regular train users (I make the journey every week) who are in favour of that. It's 20 minutes, just give me a more comfortable carriage with ****hot wifi and I'll be happy. HS2 will cost £121 million PER MILE. I know Highways Agency are not responsible for railways but they're still transport and government funded.
HS2 is one of the biggest, most ****ing stupidly ******ed wastes of money in the history of mankind. At least £43 billion to get Brummies to London 20 minutes quicker. What a ****ing omnishambles.
I'm all for progress but only when it's viable. England is too small and the route has too many stops for it to be worth it, the trains will hardly get up to top speed before stopping again. I can see the benefit of High Speed rail from Glasgow to London perhaps but then again I'm sure they'll just fly. And on top of this in the plans you would get high speed rail from Leeds or Manchester and then have to change stations to continue High Speed to the continent. Wtf? It's surely only worth it if it links seamlessly with Street Pancreas station and you can go high speed all way without changing to Paris or Brussels..
And there has been, to my knowledge, no canvassing of regular rail users whatsoever. I would bet my ballsack that if they asked "what would you prefer - £50 billion spent on building a whole new rail system and the environmental upheavel that will come from it, taking decades before the first train even runs and then you save 20 mins on your journey time OR we spend, say £1b on keeping the same track and journey times but you get a lovely carriage with exceptional wife free as standard this time next year?" then it would be nearly 100% vote for the latter.
Flights from Glasgow to London take just over an hour and you can get one for £36, the improved train speeds are good enough to get most people to switch.
this footbridge is likely to be a temporary abomination - if they aren't starting work on the road beneath it til much later , i cant see it being in good nick by time the roads completed - As i said the most cost effective way to get a bridge over Castle St is by starting from Prinneh Key - no need to start a bridge from near waterfront entrance then is there .
amazing isn't it. You'd almost think they all had mates on boards of companies who would profit from it wouldnt you...?
As we don't make high speed trains, the biggest beneficiaries aren't even British companies, it looks like all the trains will be French.
To me the HS2 project is about increasing the travel to work area for Londoners by reducing travel times to the Midlands - f*** all to do with shortening journey times for people outside of the London bubble.
So traffic pollution is what's delaying it now. How is this to be resolved? Reduce the amount of traffic using the route? Traffic flow is what it is. It'll probably only get busier. You'd have to somehow divert the traffic elsewhere. Is this really feasible? Reduce the amount of pollution each vehicle produces? Wait around until we are all driving electric cars. Invent sail cars. It can get a bit windy round there. Are we basically saying the whole scheme isn't viable under current regulations and Castle Road was always a dead duck.
Blame is an emotive word DMD understanding the reasons for any delay for any project concerning the City Of Hull comes down to the fact that we never have and never will have that political clout of other cities, in the North or anywhere else. The Humber Bridge was a bribe from the Wilson government because they had no majority in the Parliament of the day, vote for the Labour candidate and you shall have your bridge. A bridge that had been mooted over 80 years previously, then the infrastructure for industry around the bridge, we had Kimberly Clark and that was it, finance was pulled. Myton Bridge was a cost cutting measure as a tunnel was first mooted and a taller bridge that would let boats pass underneath but the bridge we have now was cheaper, even though it was German engineering it broke down at its opening day ceremony. The electrification of the the East/West railway stops at Selby, although there has been vague soundings that it MAY extend to Hull. I am suspicious that this announcement may have something to do with George Osborne's spending cuts in the future so many billions of pounds have to be saved and no doubt all governmental departments have had to look at their spending although the indication is that welfare is Osborne's target nothing is out of the question. If you are asking me for an individual to blame I cannot help you but I don't recall a commitment yet of any of the projects total costs only the work now being carried out on the cemetery near to Whittington and Cat. So I can't blame anyone as I don't know who is involved in this project but Whitehall ultimately hold the purse strings and they seem very tight at opening that purse with any project concerning the City Of Hull. Seems to be no bother in splashing out £50 billion for a railway that will not benefit anyone around our area though.
One easy way to reduce the pollution is to increase the average speed of the traffic and avoid stationary traffic. Idling cars in ques produce more pollution than those driving at a steady speed. It needs some sort of road link....
