Cable Forum - View Single Post - job market to be slow & painful contraction

**Chris** · 15-11-2011, 17:47

We shall agree to disagree on that point. I think the evidence of the last decade is that trying to upgrade the WCML would be more likely to result in wasting money. The line really has nowhere to go in terms of speed improvements, in the absence of rolling block signalling, which has never been made to work on a route as complex as the WCML. As a matter of fact, HS2 is upgrading the infrastructure, just as shifting from A roads to M-ways was an upgrade to our road infrastructure in the second half of the 20th century.

I'm aware that state spending on rail runs counter to the instincts of the small-state thinker, but I happen to think that rail is as fundamental a part of the national infrastructure as the motorways. I'm sure there were plenty of people who thought the A6 was a perfectly good road before they built the Preston Bypass.

15-11-2011, 17:47	#11
Chris Trollsplatter Cable Forum Team Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: North of Watford Services: Humane elimination of all common Internet pests Posts: 38,581	Re: job market to be slow & painful contraction We shall agree to disagree on that point. I think the evidence of the last decade is that trying to upgrade the WCML would be more likely to result in wasting money. The line really has nowhere to go in terms of speed improvements, in the absence of rolling block signalling, which has never been made to work on a route as complex as the WCML. As a matter of fact, HS2 is upgrading the infrastructure, just as shifting from A roads to M-ways was an upgrade to our road infrastructure in the second half of the 20th century. I'm aware that state spending on rail runs counter to the instincts of the small-state thinker, but I happen to think that rail is as fundamental a part of the national infrastructure as the motorways. I'm sure there were plenty of people who thought the A6 was a perfectly good road before they built the Preston Bypass.