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Originally Posted by Damien
I was on the high speed rail link connecting London to Kent today. I've been on it before and it really is very good. Comfortable, modern and fast. I had experience going the same route while at University, before the HS1 was finished, and it's significantly better now so whenever I make that trip I always take it.
I can't understand why we shouldn't roll out the network across the country. It's fantastic. Imagine the benefits of the major cities and commuter hubs being connected by high speed rail, suddenly the entire country will be within a short amount of time from each other.
I see people saying that it 'only' saves 23 minutes. That isn't an insignificant amount of time to save for that journey. If we were talking about London to Glasgow then maybe but saving 23 minutes on the relatively short Journey to Birmingham is noticeable.
The only problem I can see if we're too slow in building it. We should have started building already and be going to Manchester now, with Birmingham a mere milestone along the way.
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Damien I'm sure it's going to be wonderful but do you think it'll ever be and/or remain affordable to ordinary people?
It's all very well people saying it doesn't have to be an either/or situation with the proposed link and the rest of the rail network but govt. spending is going to be under severe pressure for years and my feeling is that sooner or later the new link will arrive at the point which the rest of the network has been at for years and that is having to increase ticket prices again and again in order to cover costs.
IMHO the only way for a rail network to run affordably for the end user is for it to be subsidised out of general taxation - easy when things are booming but not so when every pound of expenditure is being scrutinised, savings are required and very tough decisions have to be made. No matter what direct or indirect benefits result from this link, the pressure will inevitably fall upon elected politicians to either spend more helping to run this link and the rest of the network or allow fares to rise to the point where many people can never afford to use the service. I think I know what they'll decide in order to stay in power - it's been happening for years and it isn't good news for passengers.