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I've made no secret over the years of the fact that I'm a fan of high-speed rail and I'm a fan of the HS2 proposals. So I'm delighted to see that the government have now approved the building of the line from London to Birmingham.
The line isn't really about cutting journey times between those two cities, though. It's about cutting journey times into London from, well, everywhere. It will benefit people from Edinburgh, Newcastle or Manchester just as much as those travelling from Birmingham.
Of course, I'd much rather see a dedicated High Speed line running the length of the UK. And I'd love to see Scotland with it's own High Speed network. Taking 2 hours and 20 minutes to go the 125 miles from Edinburgh to Aberdeen really is ridiculous in this day and age. But that appears to be a pipe dream at the moment.
Of course, being Britain, HS2 will now get caught up in legal actions, go over budget and take longer to complete than originally thought. We need a modern-day Brunel who can throw these things together in a jiffy!
2 comments:
I'm glad that they've finally stopped dithering on HS2, but I'm a little concerned that once it reaches Manchester and Leeds, that'll be it.
A high speed network of our own here in Scotland would be great, but improvements could be made without such huge expense. Electrification of the line to Aberdeen is a must. It would allow jounryes from London to continue the whole way without switching to diesel traction.
I also think that doubling the Highland main line and the line from Inverness to Aberdeen is essential. Had these improvements been in place, we might not need to upgrade the A9 and A96 to dual carriageway.
I completely agree with you with regards to the upgrades in Scotland. There is so much we can do to enhance the lines we have.
I seem to recall the UK govt saying they would build from Manchester north to the border if the Scottish Govt paid around a third of the cost! I doubt we'll see that happening any time soon...
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