A surprising conversion

Economist article on the changing views on high speed rail in Britain .
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/ ... d=12861513

Both major political parties in the UK appear to support HSR, but it will need extensive public sector investment. We're still looking at a 15 or 20 year timeframe though:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 404369.ece

Chafford1 wrote:Both major political parties in the UK appear to support HSR, but it will need extensive public sector investment. We're still looking at a 15 or 20 year timeframe though:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 404369.ece

The rail press seem to think Lord Adonis is pro-rail, but I am not convinced his approach to education in his previous post was useful, so I am sceptical about what he would achieve. Anyway, it doesn't look as though the present government has much longer in power.

The recent announcement of yet another runway at Heathrow airport was accompanied by a sweetener of a promise of high speed rail. There is a lot of opposition to the third runway, because it will require the demolition of a village - Sipson - and will increase the already intolerable noise in west London. I doubt if the promise means much, nor the promise to use quieter and less smelly planes.

whens the election due ??

I happened to be visiting someone in auckland last weekend , they lived in a motorhome under the airport flight path ( but probably 10 k's from the airport ). i could not live there .

David Benton wrote:whens the election due ??

I happened to be visiting someone in auckland last weekend , they lived in a motorhome under the airport flight path ( but probably 10 k's from the airport ). i could not live there .

A few years ago I spent one night in west London (after coming back through the Tunnel rather late and missing the last coach home). I found the planes started coming over at about five o'clock. After that sleep was impossible. I am used to living in a fairly quiet part of the country, though with an airport getting busier. The situation is already intolerable. It will get worse if this expansion goes ahead.

Would the Tories really stop it? I have my doubts. Contracts may be signed. The election must be held in May 2010.

oh dear , thats long enough for them to hope people forgot their promise , or to say things have progressed too far for them to stop it . Though possibly planning permission etc , could hold it up

David Benton wrote:oh dear , thats long enough for them to hope people forgot their promise , or to say things have progressed too far for them to stop it . Though possibly planning permission etc , could hold it up

It's hard to know what's really going on.

Brown used to make environmentally uplifting speeches in opposition, but since coming to power he has been hostile to taking any of the useful steps that would encourage carbon saving. Possibly the civil servants are hostile.

The department of transport now runs the railways without going through a Railway Agency, such as BR was or the Strategic Rail Authority (now abolished). For decades they were hostile to rail altogether, favouring road investment and ordering the abolition of trams. Now they seem to be reluctantly in favour of rail but have been hostile to High Speed on the grounds of it being too expensive to build. But upgrading the existing West Coast line was so expensive that a new build line might have been cheaper.

Hoon is an ineffectual man who has been a disaster in every post he has filled (Defence, Home Office). He would just go along with whatever his civil servants tell him. Adonis, on the other hand seems to have ideas of his own and the ability to make them known.

There will be a big grassroots movement against the third runway and it will threaten several presently Labour-held seats. We shall see.