Re: Scotland on Sunday: Secret talks on London bullet train

B <blimpie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
news:fe0079ff-ec93-4e86-9d2b-fc0d3cd7771e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 

> On Jun 2, 9:14 pm, Mister Niceguy <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Cats <ramwa...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>> innews:90365d73-e34f-414d-8782-23129bdf6cec@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
> 56g2000hsm.googlegroups.com:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > On Jun 1, 9:42 pm, The Voice of EDI <thevoiceof...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>> > wrote:
>> >> A MULTI-billion-pound plan to build a high-speed train link
>> >> between Scotland and London is back on track following secret
>> >> talks between the UK and Scottish Governments.
>>
>> >>http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews/-Secret-talks-on-
>> Londo
>> >> n.41
>> > 39887.jp
>>
>> >> or
>>
>> >>http://tinyurl.com/5d2x88
>>
>> >> I noticed that the print edition of the same paper had a full page
>> >> ad from NXEC extolling the benefits of train travel over domestic
>> >> air travel.
>>
>> > This looks like pie-in-the-sky to me.  The actual route will be
>> > highly 
> 
>> > contentious, both in terms of which cities want to be connected and
>> > where people don't want it to go. The public enquiry would never
>> > end. There is also the issue of how much Scotland would have to pay
>> > for, given (according to the article) that England would be
>> > unwilling to pay north of whatever the north-most major city on the
>> > new line would be since it would be track not of obvious direct
>> > benefit to England. 
>>
>> Alas your picture of doom and gloom is probably a fair predictor of
>> major trans****t improvements in the UK, Cats.  Eurotunnel was an
>> obvious 
> 
>> choice of route but has been a financial disaster.  Other major
>> developments in my lifetime have all been in London.  (Can you call
>> ECML 
> 
>> electrification a major development?)
>>
>> A fast rail link that reduces journey time to 3 hours would be enough
>> to swing it away from air for most people.
> 
> When it comes to trans****t infrastructure the UK is a backward country
> without a shadow of a doubt IMO, too much red tape and 'consultants'
> TBH,

Public inquiries certainly take years to complete.  But that's the 
mentality in the UK.  When the French built their equivalent of the CTRL 
it was seen as a jobs boom to northern France.  By contrast, the people 
of Kent (of the angry from Tunbridge Wells variety)  didn't want our 
CTRL in their "back yard".