New high-speed rail plan unveiled

[8ace]

Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.

The line will go via Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the rail firm said.

It would cut travelling between London and Birmingham to 45 minutes, from a best time of one hour and 22 minutes currently.

Rail passengers would also be able to get to Manchester in one hour and 23 minutes, from two hours and eight minutes now.

BBC NEWS | Business | New high-speed rail plan unveiled

Sounds good to me.

 

[bhaexpress]

Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.

The line will go via Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the rail firm said.

It would cut travelling between London and Birmingham to 45 minutes, from a best time of one hour and 22 minutes currently.

Rail passengers would also be able to get to Manchester in one hour and 23 minutes, from two hours and eight minutes now.

BBC NEWS | Business | New high-speed rail plan unveiled

Sounds good to me.

You have to laugh. I was working in Ramsgate a few days ago and got the train from there. The new High Speed link to London (part of the Channel Tunnel line goes from there. I hope they get a few more passengers because believe me, at 7 PM Ramsgate Station was deserted.

 

[8ace]

Who wants to go to Ramsgate though

 

[bhafc99]

Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.

Just 21 years to go then, hurrah.

 

[bhaexpress]

Who wants to go to Ramsgate though

Quite. The whole of Kent from Medway onwards is an employment blackspot and not a great place to be. It just seems rather a large waste of money to stretch the link to Ramsgate. Dover I could understand but ironically it doesn't.

 

[adrian29uk]

By the time this is done the French will be running their trains at over 400mph.

Must admit the idea of being able to get down to the south of france in a few hours or other major european cities, seems a lot more exciting than having to sit in a depature lounge for hours and being stuck in a cabin at 39,000ft with no escape. Being a nervous flyer anyway, I really cant stand the extra bullshit these days of getting on a plane. Does anyone feel the same?

 

[The Large One]

Sitting in an airport lounge is one of life's more tedious pastimes, and not recommended for well-being.

 

[Gwylan]

By the time this is done the French will be running their trains at over 400mph.

Must admit the idea of being able to get down to the south of france in a few hours or other major european cities, seems a lot more exciting than having to sit in a depature lounge for hours and being stuck in a cabin at 39,000ft with no escape. Being a nervous flyer anyway, I really cant stand the extra bullshit these days of getting on a plane. Does anyone feel the same?

Until I had the kids, my usual holiday was in the south of France. For the last few years I travelled there by train - it took a couple of hours longer than plane but it was about 20 times more pleasant.

 

[Uter]

Quite. The whole of Kent from Medway onwards is an employment blackspot and not a great place to be. It just seems rather a large waste of money to stretch the link to Ramsgate. Dover I could understand but ironically it doesn't.

One of the reasons that East Kent, esp. Thanet, has performed so poorly economically is because of slow rail links to London.

Now it is possible for for people to live in Thanet and work in London. It will take time for passenger numbers to build up, but build up they will. I cannot agree that this is a waste of money.

 

[adrian29uk]

Until I had the kids, my usual holiday was in the south of France. For the last few years I travelled there by train - it took a couple of hours longer than plane but it was about 20 times more pleasant.

If I could car it, or train it for future holidays I think I will. I did TGV to Avignon about 6 years ago and it was a very nice trip.

I feel more in control of my journey and less trapped. I don't care if it takes me another day with an overnight stop for european destinations, at least I wont feel trapped and wont need to go through all the crap which makes my anxiety even worse.

 

[Brovion]

By the time this is done the French will be running their trains at over 400mph.

Must admit the idea of being able to get down to the south of france in a few hours or other major european cities, seems a lot more exciting than having to sit in a depature lounge for hours and being stuck in a cabin at 39,000ft with no escape. Being a nervous flyer anyway, I really cant stand the extra bullshit these days of getting on a plane. Does anyone feel the same?

I'm not a nervous flyer but I totally agree. Time was the airport and the flight were part of the holiday as it was a different experience to normal day-to-day routine and it was even quite exciting. Now you have to get to the airport two hours before take-off and queue, queue and queue again for check-in, security, boarding etc etc. And when you're not queueing you're crammed into a stuffy terminal with thousands of other people where the ony relief from the boredom is to allow yourself to be robbed blind by a load of tacky shops and restaurants.

Hopefully rail is the future, and of course whilst it's possible to hijack a train you can't then fly it into something like the Twin Towers.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Just 21 years to go then, hurrah.

I'll be 70 by the time it is completed and might use it if the OAP railcard hasn't been raised to only over 75s by then.

 

[sten_super]

This does my head in. Does Network Rail want some kind of kudos, for announcing ONE high speed rail line, to be built in stages over the next twenty years? Jesus Christ, by 2030 ALL of the major routes should be high speed rail lines.

*and breathe*

 

[Bluejuice]

I still think domestic flights are very good if you go with the right airline and don't have any hold luggage.

I flew to and from Edinburgh on BA recently for less than £90 (try finding a train ticket for that money) and turned up at the airport on both sides about half an hour before flying. No queue to print off my boarding pass and the only nuisance was going through security. The flight took less than an hour and even including my terminal time it still would have taken less time than this proposed train.

Doesn't sound good enough to me. If they're aiming for so far in the future why not just make outrageous claims that it will shoot you from one end of the country to the other in under an hour?

 

[sten_super]

I still think domestic flights are very good if you go with the right airline and don't have any hold luggage.

I flew to and from Edinburgh on BA recently for less than £90 (try finding a train ticket for that money) and turned up at the airport on both sides about half an hour before flying. No queue to print off my boarding pass and the only nuisance was going through security. The flight took less than an hour and even including my terminal time it still would have taken less time than this proposed train.

Doesn't sound good enough to me. If they're aiming for so far in the future why not just make outrageous claims that it will shoot you from one end of the country to the other in under an hour?

Agreed. When I went up to Edinburgh recently I flew up (was down in Hove for the match against the criminals so Gatwick was en route) and then got the train back, because the bizarre charge system on the trains meant it was cheaper to fly going up (costing about £90) and cheaper on the train coming back (£26). I much preferred flying; as you say you can turn up relatively soon before the flight goes, and the bus service at Edinburgh gets you into the centre very quickly. Whereas coming back involved about 7 hours on the train and two changes.

 

[BensGrandad]

I think that this and previous governments would have done better to have carried out the old idea of extending the M27 from Folkestone to Honiton rather than the shambles that is the A27 & A31 with the bottlenecks and conjestion at the moment.

 

[BensGrandad]

Until I had the kids, my usual holiday was in the south of France. For the last few years I travelled there by train - it took a couple of hours longer than plane but it was about 20 times more pleasant.

We wnt from Calais to Perpignon on one holiday and it was great going on holiday but the return journey at the end of the holiday with children was horrendous all we wanted to do was get home as quick as possible.

 

[Gwylan]

We wnt from Calais to Perpignon on one holiday and it was great going on holiday but the return journey at the end of the holiday with children was horrendous all we wanted to do was get home as quick as possible.

I've never done the journey with kids - I'm sure it would be no fun - but I can't see that hanging around an airport lounge for a couple of hours is going to be much fun either. And the mind boggles at the idea of my son sitting still in a seat for 20 minutes or so while we take off,

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Will they be unveiling a new high-speed replacement bus service for the weekends?

 

[BensGrandad]

Has there been any mention of how many jobs this is expected to bring about. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have always been in favour of a motorway from Folkestone to Honiton which would have had the cost offset a little by the numbers of jobs that would have been created.