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I am surprised this is going ahead, what with the ?32b price tag and also the damage to the countryside. In times of cuts how can they justify spending so much money? I am also surpised the Tories have decided upon this when one considers the potential impact on their support levels in the middle-England areas that it is going to go through. Even if the current line from London to Birmingham presently runs packed trains, and as the years go on demand will increase further and the existing capacity won't be able to cope, I would suggest they upgrade the present line and run more trains. I haven't looked into the current frequency but if there is presently a train as often as, say, every 20 minutes from London to Birmingham, they could run them every 10 minutes. They could have additional carriages on each train too, and even if that means extending station platforms to accomodate longer trains that could be done for a relatively modest amount of money compared to the vast cost of this new line. Someone said on TV today that the new line could run alongside the M1 motorway anyway, rather than bulldoze through the Chilterns. Running a new high speed line alongside a motorway was done with the Channel Tunnel rail link through Kent, which joins the coast with London, and I also recall that being delayed and delayed for years, largely for political reasons. People's views on all this please.

But the advantage is supposed to be shorter journey times. Maybe this will make it easier for someone living in Birmingham to get a job in London without moving there, easing the strain on housing and schools in the capital.

I think getting where you want to go faster is a good thing and will pay off in the long run. My worry is the pricing. Will it mean a two-tier rail network where we affectively have slow trains for the poor and high-speed trains for the rich?

It will be super-expensive whatever. It will be possible to commute between London and Birmingham with the shorter journey times, but I wonder if a 49 minute saving will really make that much differnce to the numbers who will want to commute.

Allowing a few people to get from Birmingham and maybe later Manchester / North West and Leeds / North East faster is not what is needed.

Instead the money ought to be spent creating real ideally mostly manufacturing jobs and on local transport in the West Midlands, North West and North East. This would increase the number of people in work while cutting the distances travelled. Also the distances freight is moved would be reduced.


If we are lumbered with this new railway the southern part of the route is wrong. It uses the same terminus as existing Birmingham / Manchester services so routes both would be disrupted if the terminus is closed due to an incident.

The London terminus should be adjacent to the Eurostar terminus even if that means relocating domestic services.
Putting aside the logistical, border control and security issues there will never be as case for direct trains to the continent but the transfer between trains should be easy and the connections well timed.

The route out of London could then be east and north of the sensitive Chilterns area vaguely following the M1 then M45 / A45 towards Birmingham.

Its a Cameron vanity project, his been caught out because eventually some people worked out that he didnt actually have any ideas how to make jobs as opposed to slashing them and as he had destroyed everything else that creates jobs its the only thing left in the ideas cupboard.

Before anyone chips yes im aware that labour were consistering this.

Like what his doing today saying that UK should make more blockbuster films how desperate is this bloke1

wayne wrote:

> Like what his doing today saying that UK should make more
> blockbuster films how desperate is this bloke1


Give 'em back the tax breaks then, and get H&S off their backs. There's one simple reason we don't make films here, it's cheaper and easier to do it elsewhere.

What have safety and health issues got to do with it?

andy at handiwork wrote:

> What have safety and health issues got to do with it?

Stunt work, mainly. One of the reasons Soloman Kane was shot out east is one scene required a guy to be on fire for longer than he would be allowed to be in the UK. Obviously cost was the overall decision, but this was a contributing factor according to the article I read.

There's an "artists impression" of one of the new double deck carriages planned for this line.

It has a glass atrium, easy chairs, an open staircase to the upper deck, a bar with a bottle of Champaign on the counter.

Oh yeh. Do you think it's going to be like that for me? Do you think they will let me in there if I show them my cattle-class ticket, or is it reserved for the Burlington Boys?

I don't know what substances that "Artist" was on but I'd like some.

Lets hop the contract to build these new carriages doesn't go to Germany after all this.