A fine summary although I'd argue that what the Government needs to do is encourage growth outside of London (it's really not that bad up here and I was born and raised in London). This is a small country we should be able to distribute ourselves a little better.
It's not that I'm against H2 because I don't think we need good infrastructure links between the North and South, it's just that I don't see that reducing an already 2 hour Manchester to London commute by 30 minutes is worth the money (already estimated at around £20 billion). I'd like to see a counter proposal describing what you could with that kind of money invested in the current network. My concern is that if H2 goes ahead, we will see each Government that comes to power pointing to it as the solution to all rail problems and taking little interest in the rest of the network.
It's not that I'm against H2 because I don't think we need good infrastructure links between the North and South, it's just that I don't see that reducing an already 2 hour Manchester to London commute by 30 minutes is worth the money (already estimated at around £20 billion). I'd like to see a counter proposal describing what you could with that kind of money invested in the current network. My concern is that if H2 goes ahead, we will see each Government that comes to power pointing to it as the solution to all rail problems and taking little interest in the rest of the network.