Boris Pushes For Northern High Speed Rail

[Lizzie Zoom]

Further to the "Cost Overrun" thread, we can now add that today Boris Johnson announced his commitment to Northern High Speed Rail development, and first a Leeds to Manchester line.

He also stated he was aiming to build 100 new towns in the North, and he reiterated the old cry of making a Northern Power House!

Now if he achieves everything he plans, including 20,000 more police officers, then I will be the fist to eat my critical words for Boris and praise him.  But I sense first there must be a General Election, and there is the small matter of Brexit!

He certainly has the right idea on High Speed rail development (sorry TB!) to boost Northern development, the birth place of the Industrial Revolution.

[Varche]

Was it only five years ago that Osborne showboated the Northern Powerhouse, fast rail links East West. What happened in those five years?

As STEMO says he is making a lot of promises.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Boris has promised to spend the national GDP for the next couple of decades within the last week. Ive heard fish fart and seen the bubbles. 

[Sir Tigger KC]

Was it only five years ago that Osborne showboated the Northern Powerhouse, fast rail links East West. What happened in those five years?

As STEMO says he is making a lot of promises.

Didn't Gideon represent a Northern constituency?    

[Lizzie Zoom]

Was it only five years ago that Osborne showboated the Northern Powerhouse, fast rail links East West. What happened in those five years?

As STEMO says he is making a lot of promises.

I agree, but there is a General Election in the wind, so Boris, breaking out of 'Austerity' will try to establish himself as a serious PM.  WE shall see!

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Theresa was going to turn Britain into Utopia. She would start with the JAM's.

I'm sure Boris will be equally effective once the honeymoon period is over......

[Doctor Gollum]

Presumably when the M62 is turned into a smart motorway, someone might think to run a pair of tracks along the central reservation

[Rods2]

It has a much better business case than HS2, where east-west transport communications are generally, much, much worse than where most north-south transport routes lead to London.

If you want the best £££s spent, then it is on smart signaling where you can double or more the number of trains running per hour & get rid of over priced drivers & all bloody minded unions, with automated trains & no union contracts for guards & station staff.

[aaronjb]

Presumably when the M62 is turned into a smart motorway, someone might think to run a pair of tracks along the central reservation

You jest, but .. that's exactly where the tracks are as you enter Tel Aviv from Ben Gurion airport. Granted, it's not quite "a pair of tracks down the central reservation" as the  two sides of the motorway are separated by a hundred hards of multiple tracks

[Bigron]

The money would be better spent on concreting over all of the railway lines, giving direct and easy routes into London, preferably without speed limits. Convert all of thr stations into free car parks and maybe at last motorists might get some value for all of the exhorbitant taxes we pay?
Am I still your Minister for Transport, TB?

Ron.

[Nick W]

The money would be better spent on concreting over all of the railway lines, giving direct and easy routes into London, preferably without speed limits. Convert all of thr stations into free car parks and maybe at last motorists might get some value for all of the exhorbitant taxes we pay?
Am I still your Minister for Transport, TB?

Ron.

I hope not.
Cars aren't the solution to everything, and reducing their use in large urban areas is the way to go. Driving a car in London(or any other big city) is an expensive, slow, dirty, inefficient and wasteful thing to do. Any vehicle that isn't at least 50% full at the start of its journey should be disencouraged.

[Varche]

The pollution aspect is a big thing over here. A few of the major Spanish cities including our nearest of Granada, are failing to hit their EU target (and will get fined) .

On bad days they have introduced a 30 kmh , that is 20 mph approx , not only on main arterial roads but the ring road motorway in parts.

Even with cleaner cars, something has to be done about the ever increasing number of vehicles on our roads.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

The pollution aspect is a big thing over here. A few of the major Spanish cities including our nearest of Granada, are failing to hit their EU target (and will get fined) .

On bad days they have introduced a 30 kmh , that is 20 mph approx , not only on main arterial roads but the ring road motorway in parts.

Even with cleaner cars, something has to be done about the ever increasing number of vehicles on our roads people in western Europe.

ftfy. 

[Lizzie Zoom]

The money would be better spent on concreting over all of the railway lines, giving direct and easy routes into London, preferably without speed limits. Convert all of thr stations into free car parks and maybe at last motorists might get some value for all of the exhorbitant taxes we pay?
Am I still your Minister for Transport, TB?

Ron.

I hope not.
Cars aren't the solution to everything, and reducing their use in large urban areas is the way to go. Driving a car in London(or any other big city) is an expensive, slow, dirty, inefficient and wasteful thing to do. Any vehicle that isn't at least 50% full at the start of its journey should be disencouraged.

Yes I agree, and I would add that tarmacing over railways is an old, totally unrealistic, solution.

Throughout the UK passenger rail journeys for the year have increased to 1.8 billion journeys.  In the South East it has increased to a DAILY passenger journey figure of 600,000.  If all those passengers got into cars tomorrow, or at least two per car did, how would the roads, or covered railways, cope with an EXTRA 150,000 vehicles, with the majority going into London there and back, per day or 450 million, based again on two people per car, road journeys per year EXTRA on the roads going there and back?

In short, the most efficient method of the mass movement of people is by rail, and we should not forget the importance of railways for freight movements, and if they did not happen by that method, then tens of thousands of extra lorry movements would happen on our roads, adding to all the extra cars being there.

So, any argument to pave over our railway lines is a non-starter. Always was, always will be.

[Bigron]

The "extra" traffic will be using the reclaimed railway lines and they will then use my proposed free parking at the now redundant stations.
Oh yes, plenty of capacity for freight too,because the existing road network will still be there - everybody happy?

Ron.