Government unveils high-speed rail plan to ground short flights

Bring down the price of rail travel and then people will use it!

Agreed. I recently thought about getting the train (for a change) from London to Glasgow. Admittedly it was at short notice but the train was coming in at just over £200 return. I flew for £59!

1L.

Living in Kent, an area thats just receiving its high speed rail link in the form of much vaunted ‘bullet’ trains, i can say that even if you get over all the infrastructure obstacles, the main thing that stops me getting on a train is the price, if our current rail network is so astronomically priced, surely the price will only go up for high speed rail travel(as i am told it will here)

I love train travel(well maybe not the ramsgate to victoria line, or any south eastern routes) but if times not an issue its cheaper for me to drive to most places, esp if more than one person, or even drive up to an airport and pay for flights, parking, transfers, taxes, baggage charges, check in charges, toilet charges…. Bring down the price of rail travel and then people will use it!

Compulsory purchase will undoubtably be the answer – just ask the people under threat at Sipson…

So you all think that the nimbys are wrong. You wouldn’t mind your house/village/street/school/shops/parks etc etc being levelled then!

Eventually the NIMBY’s won’t have a choice – sooner or later infrastructure such as high-speed rail has to be built for the good of the country as a whole. It is the same with many major projects, be they railways, airports & runways, power stations, quaries, whatever… The selfish NIMBY’s always want the economic and social advantages that comes from these projects, but not to have them come nearby. The problem is that in this country successive governments have been too weak-willed to tell the NIMBY’s to foxtrot-oscar to somewhere else if they don’t want a project near them.

Andy

I share the skeptisism of others regarding any project parliament is involved in.
They cannot even get their own affairs in order, let alone manage a huge project as this.
History shows us that Parliament screws big projects right up.

Besides, there are too many Nimbys to let any project of this kind run smoothly.

So you all think that the nimbys are wrong. You wouldn’t mind your house/village/street/school/shops/parks etc etc being levelled then!

What do you think a train does – fly over everything?

Bri 😀

But it has to slow down this end of the tunnel as it cannot run at full speed.

Not any more, we now have a purpose built dedicated high speed line linking St Pancras and the Tunnel

Face it, by the time we have had the Public Enquiry, and the reroute to avoid Joe Blogg’s house at £34 million.

The follow on Public Enquiry on the proposed new routing, the then major shortfall in funding resulting in the track ending at Watford junction and busses utilised to continue the journey to Waterloo.

Followed on by the indecision as to who is going to fund it, the Public Enquiry into that, the purchase of the land on the planned route, the Public Enquiry into that.

The Part Industry ownership iniative and the Public Enquiry into that along with the one for it being awarded to a Foreign Company then the no doubt legendary British over runs on time, cost, finished product and usage along with the Enquiries and appeals into that lot.

The world will have run out of Oil and we will then be looking at paving over this new super highway on the ground for walkers and cyclists to get around the UK.

Its only taken them 20 years to agree that Heathrow gets it third runway , how long before it actually gets built another 20 Years

C’mon! The Brits are unable to run a project properly? I don’t buy that. You guys showed in the past many times your ability to manage successfully giants project.

Honestly under 2h of flight time, air transport is a non sense. It is just justified by lobbying and the lower cost of the infrastructures.

No , please read what i have writen, The British Goverment are Incapeable of runing, overseeing any major project wither it is in IT or construction.
the up and coming Olympics . are over buget, the new aircraft carriers are allready over buget and they havent even left the drawing board.
Just look back in history,its littered with great projects that have been screwed up after the Parliment get involved

Not talking about the tunnel itself – the high speed rail link to St. Pancras was on time and within budget.

But it has to slow down this end of the tunnel as it cannot run at full speed.

Face it, by the time we have had the Public Enquiry, and the reroute to avoid Joe Blogg’s house at £34 million.

The follow on Public Enquiry on the proposed new routing, the then major shortfall in funding resulting in the track ending at Watford junction and busses utilised to continue the journey to Waterloo.

Followed on by the indecision as to who is going to fund it, the Public Enquiry into that, the purchase of the land on the planned route, the Public Enquiry into that.

The Part Industry ownership iniative and the Public Enquiry into that along with the one for it being awarded to a Foreign Company then the no doubt legendary British over runs on time, cost, finished product and usage along with the Enquiries and appeals into that lot.

The world will have run out of Oil and we will then be looking at paving over this new super highway on the ground for walkers and cyclists to get around the UK.

How can our government hope to get this one running when they cant even manage to get 8 Chinooks into the air?

If this projects goes ahead and point to point domestic flights from airports that are within a catchment terminus are stopped then will the APD on unaffected flights where rail is still much slower (MAN-NQY) be dropped?

Steve

Its a Joke,
The railnetwork in this country cant handel what it already has and any major construction project headed by the goverment never delivers the promises.
whos going to run it ? whoever is granted this High speed train licence is going to milk it for what its worth

C’mon! The Brits are unable to run a project properly? I don’t buy that. You guys showed in the past many times your ability to manage successfully giants project.

Honestly under 2h of flight time, air transport is a non sense. It is just justified by lobbying and the lower cost of the infrastructures.

I agree about Nimbys being a major problem! Think even if the train is slightly longer in total time, it is prefereable, all that faffing around in the airport with security, no liquids etc, or sit in your seat with your laptop or paper etc….

Not talking about the tunnel itself – the high speed rail link to St. Pancras was on time and within budget.

Strangely enough, the last major UK infrastructure construction project headed by (or more correctly run on behalf of) the government was the Channel Tunnel Rail Link & St Pancras station – on time, under budget and it delivers what it promised!

A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel

80% over budget i think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Dome

Unable to fill Promises

and I m sure I could go on

Sounds good to me,but it should be steam!

Its a Joke… any major construction project headed by the goverment never delivers the promises

Strangely enough, the last major UK infrastructure construction project headed by (or more correctly run on behalf of) the government was the Channel Tunnel Rail Link & St Pancras station – on time, under budget and it delivers what it promised!

A

Its a Joke,
The railnetwork in this country cant handel what it already has and any major construction project headed by the goverment never delivers the promises.
whos going to run it ? whoever is granted this High speed train licence is going to milk it for what its worth

A high-speed rail line has got to be a good idea to reduce domestic air traffic.
As an aviation fan, I wouldn’t consider using an aircraft to fly domestically in this country. It just doesn’t seem to make sense.