Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
On the other hand TGV in France has been a success. Generated over €1 billion for the state owned railway (SNCF) in a single year, the initial success led not only to France expanding the network where they could but for other European countries to take up the network. Mainland Europe is now connected via a network of high speed lines. We have the connection to Paris, a German rail company (English ones lack the foresight, competence or skill it would seem) are planning a London to Frankfurt line. The French had the foresight to start this investment in 1981! So we're only 30 years behind.
---------- Post added at 10:01 ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 ----------
BTW The government has now officially approved it.
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And maybe that's exactly what's wrong Damien - we've missed the boat and what should have been done when financial and other conditions were far better than they are now simply wasn't.
Furthermore, the French network has never suffered from the huge legal and other problems that getting planning permission requires in the UK so, mile for mile, their network was built far quicker and cheaper than ours will be and has had the benefit of vast sums of govt. aid over decades. What we
know is that in Holland, the nearest equivalent of what's being proposed here, completed only a couple of years ago (as opposed to decades ago as in the case of much of the French network) is failing and already requiring lots more taxpayers money just to keep it running full of empty seats. That seems to be a far more realistic comparison.