Will they actually build these new high speed lines.?

Question

i don't want to seem pessimistic, but whenever we Brits set about a big project like this it either doesn't end up being built or goes wrong - millennium dome, 2012 Olympics, terminal 5 etc.

i really hope they do build them though. I go from Bristol to London all the time and it takes ages. Also it'll shut my French next door neighbour up - "off to work Chris?" "Bet you wish you 'ad le TGV". "Shut up Leon, Waterloo Leon, Waterloo”

Answer 1

Dammit, I thought you were talking about high speed internet lines :(

The train system needs a complete overhall in my opinion, but like everything else in this country, it gets worse and worse rather than better right now

Answer 2

Of course not. None of the NIMBY's in the London commuter belt will want this at the end of their garden.

OTOH, the mayor of Lille actively campaigned for the Eurostar to go through the town.

Answer 3

Not a chance, the government won't even allow the reopening of the largely intact woodhead route, which is badly needed to ease the chronic transport problems between Manchester and Sheffield. If they won't spend a small amount on a worthwhile project such as that, what chance has a multi billion pound new build project got?

Answer 4

Let me try to explain why Britain is the shambles of Europe. After world war 2 Europes rail infrastructure was shattered because 'bomber harris' pulverised it. So they rebuilt it all.

Meanwhile our system is fundamentally victorian. Then Beeching pulled it to bits and allowed Barratt to build houses on the trackbed. We're a victim of our own success. We invented the railway so we now have the oldest working heap of junk in the world.

Simple!

Answer 5

They could well do given enough money and time.  However very very unlikley, like most upgrades or new parts of lines built, it takes years.  For example where I work in the South East Commuter Zone of the Home Counties, there have been numerous projects, the most famous being London Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, both have been talked, planned, budgetted for since the late 1970's 40 years later almost and still nothing has happened, except waste of money.  On one section of line I am concerned with which stretches about 15 miles from Surrey into Sussex, was converted from old Semaphore to Coloured Light to increase the service, 3 signal boxes where closed and signalling was transfered to a main box which controls most of Central Surrey and Sussex, was supposed to take about a year to complete, actually took 6 years and cost in the region of £60 million pounds, so each mile £4 million pounds, if you was to convert that to the lines they are going to build / improve, it  is a lot of money and time!  Also the result of the upgrade .... ZERO increase in service and speed of travel.

So even when they do get something done, it not always increases the service.

Keep wishing, you never know it might happen.

Good Luck.

Answer 6

Probably not - it's a case of "we'll think about doing something, so we appear to be doing something".

Like all projects (APT, Electrification etc.) it's all talked about, something may get done (APT being a good example) but nothing major will come out of it.

Answer 7

No way will these get built in the UK.

Networkrail are only proposing a study to find out how much they would cost to build.

The NIMBY's would soon put a stop to it...yet most of them are the ones who moan about the state of the UK network.

If it were down to me...I'd do what the french did...

Get a map and a ruler and do a series of straight lines between the major cities,and tell the government thats where we want them.

That way..it's only cost the price of a map,pencil and ruler..and when its rejected as impractical...its the gov to blame not Networkrail.

If any were accepted..then thats a bonus.