Rail Boss: We Want Money

[Defiant]

Britain's ailing rail network needs £22.7bn over the next five years to get it running properly, according to the regulator.

Are they building a new rail service somewhere we dont know about?

Every year we hear how they need extra billions and they normally get it.

Is it just me that thinks its about time it stopped ?


http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12832838,00.html

[Chris]

Are they building a new rail service somewhere we dont know about?

Every year we hear how they need extra billions and they normally get it.

Is it just me that thinks its about time it stopped ?


http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12832838,00.html
I'm sure you're not the only one - Thatcher was famously pro-road transport rather than rail, and wanted a road tunnel under the channel (cars on the back of trains was a compromise). However personally I think we ought to be spending more on rail, not less.

The rail network is part of our national transport infrastructure and is as vital as the m-way network. If rail ground to a halt we'd all be right up the creek. You think road congestion is bad now - just wait and see what x-million extra tons of freight on the motorways would do to them.

Governments of all colours have been neglecting rail for 50 years in a show of unbelievable short-sightedness. We invented the damn thing yet the only way in which we lead the world now in this field is our expertise at destroying it. We allowed our tramways to be dug up, only to now have to spend millions to rebuild them. We allowed rural rail railway lines to be dug up, only to find we now have serious problems combating urban traffic congestion without hammering the rural economy at the same time.

We need to spend an extra £8 billion now because that £8 billion, and more, was not invested over the last 50 years. We're paying for the mistakes of the previous generation but I don't see any alternative.