HS2
Posted: Wed 11 January, 2012 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Politics, Travel, Work-related |3 Comments »Yesterday, the UK Government approved the HS2 high-speed train route from London to Birmingham, and potentially then on to Leeds and Manchester.
Personally, I don’t understand the need for HS2 between London and Birmingham. There’s already several ways to do that journey.
To my mind, what’s *really* needed is a cross-country route, rather than another up/down-country route. For example, at the moment I’m travelling between Bury St Edmunds and Bedford on a daily basis. It takes about 65-75 minutes door-to-door, which is OK. However, if I were going by train, I would have to go Bury St Edmunds -> Cambridge -> London -> Bedford – around five hours of travelling time. And that’s ridiculous.
We simply don’t (to my understanding) need another ‘length of the country’ high-speed route. We do need one that goes across the country – from Cambridge across to Oxford and on to Bath/Bristol. That would have allowed for far more useful routes and better links, and would probably be better used.
Basically all it will do is widen the commuter belt. Once if/it gets to Leeds and Manchester most of the country will work in the south. Any prizes for it going over budget? Legislation by 2014, completion 2026 – bring back Brunel et al
You’re so right, Lyle.
And let’s not forget the long-promised east coast port to the rest of the country road improvement – that has not featured in the new road-building to get us out of recession programme.
Anyone who is any doubt about the need for that should try to A120 from Colchester to Braintree at any time of day – single carriageway all the way. It’s OK as soon as it doubles and Stansted/M11/M25 and on become easy, but the rest is a total nightmare.