Quote Originally Posted by mickd1961 View Post
If this is the case 923 then perhaps this useless government could communicate this to us as I had absolutely no idea.

The lack of decent rail in the north and cross Pennine is a disgrace though, I’m sure people and freight need to travel in these directions too?

Interesting info though so thank you.
Many years ago I heard a programme about the limitations of the London to Birmingham rail line. It travels north pretty much following the M1. Ideally it would be the equivalent of a motorway but this section was similar to a dual carriageway. The real problems start when it turns west as the line now is more akin to a single carriageway. Imagine trying to timetable fast moving non-stop express with slow moving stop at every station commuter trains with few places to overtake. Then throw in freight!

I agree it’s difficult to understand why this apocryphal that it’s just about saving 20 minutes (which seems to have decreased to 10) has been allowed to grow such legs. Perhaps like so many other things in life it’s easier whether it’s SM or main stream to find the negative headline rather than the positive.

Is HS2 the best use of what is a load of money? I’ve no idea but based on the ‘capacity’ rather than the ‘time’ argument I think it has merit.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a proper informed debate with all the facts before us rather than the knee jerk which takes over?