HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct

That sure is long. Some awesome views too. Great video.

What a beautiful structure. I'm looking forward to eventually riding a train across this, though it will be a blur...

Its Colne, not Colen!

Nice visuals and nice script.
But they don't match up at all. e.g. You're talking about swooping curves whilst showing an image of the embankment hundreds of metres from the start of the viaduct.

James, can you confirm you obtained approval to fly in Denham Airports FRZ?

Why is this called a valley? All that water must have been an engineering challenge.

It's a great feat of engineering and when people complain about the environment nature quickly recovers quickly.

Dominique wasn't "custom built".

> Originally built in 2004, the launching girder was first used during the construction of the Hong Kong East Tsing Yi Viaduct.

It's absolutely beautiful

Please everyone, say AITCH not HAITCH. You don't pronounce the H at the start of the letter.
HS2 = A Chess Too.

That said, some great footage of a bloody great eyesore for an unnecessary project.
The whole network could have been upgraded for the same money.

Miles, yards and feet too please. Our official unit of road and rail measurement is still the mile, regardless of what some people would have you believe.

イギリス頑張れ〜！

Can’t wait for California HSR viaducts to get completed. High speed rail should move forward.

Thank you James. A really good piece of work and a lovely video. Lots of great shots, and information......Thank you!

It’s beautiful, hopefully the news flow on HS2 starts to focus on the positive now.

What a monumental waste of tax payers money. Only on a publicly funded project in Britain would you see uncontrolled spending on this scale. Not a single cost/benefit analysis in sight.

It is amazing from an engineering point of view but you have to ask did it really need to take that route?

4 years, built faster than the fixes on the motorways.

It's a shame it has to go through the Colne Valley but since it has to at least they built a very good looking bridge.

Ever wonder why it's costing so incredibly much?

rofl....

Why these “environmentalists” bang on about the impact to birds and bats is nuts - not exactly the Serengeti is it …

i wish the narrator would pronounce the name correctly. other than that a good video.

You keep mentioning HS2 extending beyond Birmingham and going further north. HS2's northern leg was abandoned by Rishi Sunak in autumn 2023. The "critics" you refer to are experts in their field of wildlife, ecology etc. so why not refer to them as such? No mention of the humongous overspend on the HS2 project. The original cost of HS2 – at 2009 prices – was supposed to be £37.5 billion. In 2020, the leaked Oakervee Review revealed the total project could cost up to £106.6bn, but concluded “on balance” it should continue (channel 4 report). Now let's look at the benefits. Commuters save 40 minutes on a train journey from end to end. So 40 minutes time saving for commuters who would probably be working on their laptops anyway= £106.6 billion? Fantastic. Hey Mr Starmer, instead of taxing small businesses etc, why not stop this carbuncle of a project and save £70 billion? Pretty civil engineering projects for commuters who are now seeing the benefits of working from home given the expansion of fibre networks (perhaps a more financially sustainable use of taxpayers money with wider benefits) is not great politics. I don't suppose that I will ever use this train line. But thousands more commuters would rejoice if their daily commute into the "northern powerhouse" was reduced by 40 minutes on rolling stock that animal protection league activist would take an interest in if cattle or sheep were transported in them. There, I'm feeling better already.

Now the new government has reinstated the link from Old Oak Common to Euston, this viaduct will not end up as the white elephant it could have been. If the northern legs of HS2 are also reinstated, then the line will prove extremely profitable, and the bridge will pay for itself. As to the environmental impact, the route of HS2 had to go somewhere, and the route chosen is an acceptable compromise. Thanks for uploading.

I’ve been working on hs2 for 3 years, I put a lot of those bases on for the piers. Been a good job but you can see where the money is wasted on every site I work on, never seen anything like it.

It's sad how negative and ignorant the media portrayal, and therefore public perception, is around HS2. This is a beautiful structure that has minimal impact upon the environment it sits in. HS2 is about capacity and growth, especially around freight workings, it's sad that people have to be so cynical and negative.

How can hs2 help cut carbon emissions? The damage is already done in the construction of it. We already had a rail line from London to Birmingham so all this is unnecessary. The paying commuting public will be priced out of using it anyway because the government have a lot of money to recoup. They should have built the northern part first before they ran out of money but that doesn’t suit their agenda!

HS2 has been built because one man, Boris Johnson, gave in to lobby groups and gave it a thumbs up. But because he gave priority to a hugely expensive railway line, he's also responsible for the awful state of our armed forces - the navy and army in particular. What's more important - our armed forces or a railway line? Commonsense says we could have had an adequate (not ultra high speed) but cheaper London-Manchester line constructed (perhaps using part of the old Great Central Line) AND allocated funds for the army and navy!

A truly stunning and beautiful piece of engineering. Easily the equal of the Glenfinnan & Ribblehead Viaducts.

Colne not Collon

It’s going to look nice once it’s done. Good job. Most impressive. ❤

I bet HS2 doesn't cut journey times and it won't run when the drivers are on strike anyway.

This is one spectcular piece of construction, it will look great with a HS2 train doing 225 mph over it

HS2 has not much to do with reducing train times ; 10/20 mins !! It is ALL about ADDING capacity ; Ask a train guy .

That said "people" didn't want The turnpikes ; they were built . Every 'improvement' since ; Canals , Rail , Motorways has had opposition and have all been built with reference to speed . HS2 was never going to be cancelled once started .

You pronounced Colne incorrectly. It’s not Colen, it’s Cole-n.

Haich?

Ridiculous vain glorious project that will only reduce London to Birmingham by 40 minutes if that…billions of overpriced nonsense

It's magnificent.

On time and under budget as always.

Its great how quickly they've removed the temporary works across the lakes so the viaduct now just becomes part of the landscape like it was always there

We need that train station in Aldridge, Walsall