Michael's Blog: Notes for New Year 🎊 Day 21:30 to 04:30 Thrope Station 🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉

Thursday, 1 January 2026

Notes for New Year 🎊 Day 21:30 to 04:30 Thrope Station 🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉

[01/01, 16:26] Michael Noël Turner: UK's first high-speed railway HS1 faced cancellation months before Channel Tunnel opening https://share.google/1s4TDSaziADCTBlvs

Ministers considered abandoning the High Speed 1 (HS1), the UK’s first high-speed railway that links London to the Channel Tunnel amid financial struggles just months before the cross-channel line was opened by Queen Elizabeth II, City AM can reveal.

According to correspondence released by the National Archives, transport minister John MacGregor listed axing the high-speed project from St Pancras to Ashford as one of three solutions to a £1bn black hole that had emerged in the project’s funding in 1994.

The move, which was mooted in a memo to then-Chancellor Ken Clarke in January, would have seen the Eurostar operated from its original London terminus at Waterloo indefinitely, despite the preferred St Pancras hub having already been given the green light three years earlier.

MacGregor, who was given a peerage in 2001, told Clarke that officials had underestimated the amount of taxpayer cash required for the multi-billion-pound public-private partnership and overestimated the social benefits of the line.

[01/01, 17:52] Michael Noël Turner: =================================================

[01/01, 17:52] Michael Noël Turner: 🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉

[01/01, 17:52] Michael Noël Turner: 745006 platform 1 - 1P60 19:37 Stratford to Norwich Thorpe arrived at ( 21:17) for 1P73 22:04 Norwich Thorpe to Stratford platform 10A 23:51 -

[01/01, 17:53] Michael Noël Turner: 745103 platform 2 - 1P64 20:37 Stratford to Norwich Thorpe arrived at ( 22:17 ) for 1Y75 Norwich Thorpe to Ipswich 23:46 platform 4 -

[01/01, 17:54] Michael Noël Turner: 745005 platform 1 1P68 21:37 Stratford to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (23:21) -

[01/01, 17:55] Michael Noël Turner: 745009 platform 1 - 1P70 22:37 Stratford to Norwich Thorpe arrived at ( 00:17 ) -

[01/01, 17:56] Michael Noël Turner: 745001 platform 4 - 1P72 23:37 Stratford to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (01:20) -

[01/01, 17:56] Michael Noël Turner: +++++++

[01/01, 18:00] Michael Noël Turner: 755420 platform 6 2S35 23:47 Sheringham to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (00:36) -

[01/01, 18:00] Michael Noël Turner: 755326 platform 5A - 2J99 23:30 Lowestoft Central to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (00:16)

[01/01, 18:01] Michael Noël Turner: 755411 platform 5B - 1K96 23:00 Cambridge North to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (00:12) -

[01/01, 18:02] Michael Noël Turner: 755409 platform 6 - 2C45 23:34 Great Yarmouth Vaxuhall to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (00:06)

[01/01, 18:02] Michael Noël Turner: -------

[01/01, 18:02] Michael Noël Turner: 755409 platform 6 -2P43 22:17 Great Yarmouth Vaxuhall to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (22:49) - 2P44 23:00 Norwich Thorpe to Great Yarmouth Vauxhall 23:30 platform 2 - cleaning

[01/01, 18:02] Michael Noël Turner: 755420 platform 5 - 2J95 21:48 Lowestoft Central to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (22:32) - 2S36 22:45 Norwich Thorpe to Sheringham 23:42 -

[01/01, 18:04] Michael Noël Turner: 755334 platform 3 - 1J93 20:57 Lowestoft Central to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (21:32) (platform 6 ) ? - for 1K97 22:40 Norwich Thorpe to Cambridge North platform 1 23:52

[01/01, 18:04] Michael Noël Turner: 755326 platform 6 - 2S31 21:09 Sheringham to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (22:09) - 2J96 22:40 Norwich Thorpe to Lowestoft Central 23:24 platform 3 -

[01/01, 18:10] Michael Noël Turner: 755408 platform 5B - 2P41 21:17 Great Yarmouth Vaxuhall to Norwich Thorpe arrived at (21:49) for 2J94 22:05 Norwich Thorpe to Lowestoft Central 22:51 platform 2 -

[01/01, 18:13] Michael Noël Turner: +++++ Thursday +++++ 21:30 to 04:30 Thorpe Station 🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉🚉

First Day of the year, and back to work, silly me.