Spare a thought for our nearest neighbours and forget about that SHED

Calahonda52

Britain is building the most expensive railway in the world.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/hs2-britain-expensive-high-speed-railway/index.html

Long article but worth a read from a number of headings, including engineering

Re sheds

This month it was announced that nearly $130 million would be spent on a one-kilometer-long “bat shed” covering the track in rural Buckinghamshire to ensure high-speed trains do not disturb bats living in nearby woodland. Its construction was demanded by planning authorities despite a lack of any evidence that bats are affected by passing trains, according to HS2’s builder.

riddlinrussell

I'd be more incensed by the pointless, extremely expensive bored tunnels just to avoid upsetting a few well heeled residents

sydthebeat

What are the chances of the bats setting up home in this new shed???

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122856138#Comment_122856138

I don't think you can say that about any of the HS2 tunnels - the long tunnels are needed to meet the very strict gradient and curvature limits for bringing a 360 km/h railway through hilly terrain without having to elevate the rest of the railway (an eyesore that would cost more). Even the 1.6 km tunnel under the ancient forest is understandable for conservation reasons - we’d end up doing the same here.

Personally, I think “360 km/h” was the root of all HS2’s problems. This is a line that’s barely 250 km long - it does not justify such a high design speed. It really felt like the British were overcompensating for having the slowest railways of any of the big European economies. France runs its 350+ km/h railways through sparsely-populated areas of the country - the part of England that HS2 runs through is still pretty well-populated.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058381306/spare-a-thought-for-our-nearest-neighbours-and-forget-about-that-shed

Apparently, the bats in question are not a threatened species, but all bats are protected by law in the UK. The agency that people are blaming for requiring it, are now saying they never demanded this solution but only commented that it would work. Really sounds like something that would happen here ..