Try driving from England to Aberdeen, ok until you get to Gateshead it’s not bad. But on the Newcastle A1 bypass after the angel of the north it’s a nightmare, up to Edinburgh takes hours due to a single track road with some dual track bits, after Edinburgh it reverts back to mostlly single track roads again.

I have to say that I haven’t gone up the East coast for a while. We go up the M6/M74. Edinburgh to Aberdeen is dual carriageway or motorway. All the way.

Well, DF we will just have to wait and see what your views are when Mother Winter throws it all at us, won’t we?,
Lincoln .7

So trains in the olden days weren’t delayed by the weather? Really?

I can only go by my experience and your quote

Don’t make me laugh, when did you ever know any Train to leave and arrive at exactly the time it’s supposed to?,

is wrong. Pure and simple.

Indeed, Inverness and Aberdeen road links are a joke, I did drive to Aberdeen once, I was clean shaven when I set off, when I got there I had a beard.
If you want to get to the NE of Scotland air is the only viable option. Where are all the oil jobs? Guess? Strange to have the area in affect cut off.

I drive to within 40 miles of Aberdeen regularly and from where we are it’s dual carriageway or motorway virtually all the way. The motorway network goes to Perth currently and is decent standard roads to Aberdeen. The A9, is I believe a bit of nightmare but it always was and I suspect geography may be the limiting fact there.
I agree that a motorway between Manchester and Sheffield would be nice but again geography may play a part.

Once the main HS2 network is build, who knows where it might be extended to next. Are we really saying that HS2 has to be on your doorstep before there is any benefit?

There is no doubt that spending the money tinkering with the existing road and rail network would have some effect but for how long? Why not look forward and invest in something worthwhile?

20%. Really. I would like to some figures to back that up. 7 to 9% at most.

I guess not. “Almost 10%” is one quote. “Nearly 4%” is another. “6 to 11%” from Ofgen themselves. Nowhere near 20% though.

Chas, You say it will shave 20 to 30 mins off the time as it is now..Don’t make me laugh, when did you ever know any Train to leave and arrive at exactly the time it’s supposed to?, we will still get the same old/same old story over the Tannoy “The train due to arrive at platform, 1.2.3.or4, will be late, because there is XXYYZZ..” on the line?.
It’s only that Japanese one that leaves and arrives at it’s destination on time, almost to the second.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I’m guessing either you haven’t used a train for a while or you’ve been very unlucky. We used it a fair bit during the summer and none of the trains were any more than a few minutes late at most. Most were on time. By and large they were clean and quick. There is no way you could get from our house to central London in just a shade over two hours by any method other than the train.

HS2 offers the ability to commute to London from Manchester. It has great potential, something that internal flights or motorway travel could never achieve.

20%. Really. I would like to some figures to back that up. 7 to 9% at most.

Are you condoning the current exploitative system?

Er…. do we use the train? Yes we do. It’s better than the car in many aspects and if you can find a reason for going from A to B, you can always find a reason getting there quicker (hence motorways, trains, aeroplanes etc….)

No they don’t but at least the fact that this incident is being investigated shows that at least someone on our side is trying to do the right thing.