Fares on HS2 will certainly be a lot more than current ‘express’ fares and not really an option for most people.It would be more cost effective and more socially cohesive to spend the money on cutting the time taken to get to the stations.
More than likely considering how far in the future it will come into use The Tories have dropped one here, they are trying to make good on a Labour idea and keep "the people" happy. They should have just said stupid idea bin it.
I meant in real terms, not actual. If we had actually built it when the country had money and not given it all away in tax cuts, it would probably have been running today. It would still have been better to improve transport times within cities instead of marginal improvements between cities
Much as it pains me to say it I think that building HS2 is the right decision. The point being that it is NOT about faster journeys....that is just a side effect. The current lines from London to the north do not have enough capacity. To get more capacity you need to build more lines and that is very expensive. The faster the trains go then the higher the capacity. So the decision tree goes....do we need more capacity....yes so build a new line and make it as fast as sensibly possible so that it spreads its cost over more passengers. That then frees up capacity on existing lines for local services so everyone benefits. Whether the costs are under control is a different issue.
Perhaps when Labour get back in, they will re-nationalize it. I thought when British Railways was sold, it was the buyers who paid for everything,not Jonny Public. What's the rush anyway.A train journey is supposed to be relaxing for the commuter.Now they want to get to their destination before they've left!!!!!
The issue with our rail infrastructure is that, in 1945, large sections of our railways were a tangled mess - as were large parts of the rail infrastructure in France, Germany and Japan The difference is that, while France, Germany and Japan rebuilt their infrastructure and also made headway with electrification which allowed them to allocate space for the TGV or Shinkansen further down the line, we just rebuilt what we had and stubbornly stuck with steam even though that was rapidly becoming obsolete, which became brutally apparent when the Eurostar used to grind to a crawl the second it emerged on this side of the channel Also, if HS2 is a white elephant like HS1 has been, it won't benefit local services: the local services will be overcrowded while the express service with higher ticket fares will be carrying as many staff as it does passengers Having used the railways in Japan, and nearly wept when having to use our shambolic services when back over here, what is clear is their system isn't efficient due to Shinkansen existing, it's efficient as there's two trains a minute on each main line through the major stations like Shinjuku or Shinagawa for the local services, and we don't have that through London Bridge or King's Cross so they'll remain overcrowded and ludicrously overprices, unlike publicly-funded railways like they have in...France, Germany or Japan
I think WW2 bankrupted Britain. Lord knows how much we owed the USA. Our bus system was a mess too. They were still using buses from the early 1930's until the early 1950's,which,like the trams,were falling apart. Didn't the Marshall Plan help Europe to rebuild,while it didn't help us?
The Marshall Plan did go to help us, as it was used to fund and establish the NHS The real issue was we were royally futtbucked by the terms of the Anglo-American Loan, because while the terms were agreed by FDR come the end of the war Truman was in charge and he decided to hold the UK accountable to their debts ahead of schedule that just so happened to establish the US as The Daddy because the UK was dumped into penury For some reason that sounds awfully familiar these days...
I still believe Britain saved the world from Hitler,etc. Lucky USA....and thank the RAF and Hitler's stupidity. I say lucky USA because if the Germans had won the Battle of Britain,the Japs would have hit America from the west and Adolf's friends would have hit them from the east. Then taking on Russia a little later. Never forget Battle of Britain Day.
Russia is what ultimately swung the war in the allies' favour, as not only did the Nazis willingly stretch themselves thin over two fronts, but their preparations for the Russia campaign would have been drastically improved by reading a copy of War & Peace because not only would that have told them that Russian winters aren't a lot of fun if your army is going in with only summer uniforms, but the Russians respond to people invading not by marching out to fight in a climactic battle but will dig in to such a degree that if their bullets don't get you the cold or starvation will
Oh I agree. But Hitler wouldn't have gone after Russia as early as he did if he had knocked us out But that lost Luftwaffe bomber crew who ditched their bombs on London by mistake causing Churchill to go barmy and bomb Berlin in retaliation,which caused Adolf to lose his marbles and bomb London and it's citizens,giving the RAF a respite to rebuild...….miracles do happen even though they don't seem to be miracles at the time. His nutty invasion of Russia,even though he had early successes wasn't by German soldiers alone. He had many recruits from other countries in his army.
Don't invade Russia in the winter and just don't bother invading Afghanistan. Not hard lessons, but they're never learned.
White elephant HS1? Fantastic if you live in Ashford. I can get to St Pancras quicker than someone living in Tottenham
That's much of the argument isn't it. If the country suddenly has 100 billion to spend, then surely there's better and more effective ways to do so. You can save 20 minutes between cities, but meanwhile local infrastructure within cities continue to degrade and become more overcrowded. Net saving may therefore be a lot less than it appears.
What could possibly go wrong? https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/its-official-croydon-london-borough-17727866
