Hi everybody.
I would very much agree with the statement made in regard to the “diabolical” state of passenger rail services west to east and visa versa cross country in England. Here in the west country communications with south east England were very good until the Romans arrived and built a very large town between the two points and called it Londinium .
As Cybordongreen has said rail services in England and wales are now very London centrist. By example, the forgoing means that all rail commuters originating out of the west country traveling to any part of south east England have to catch a service to London Paddington, then tube it across the centre of the capital to catch another train from Liverpool street which serves the south east. In business terms that is all very time consuming and may account in part for why British workers are being accused low productivity when measured against other European countries employee output.
With Britain’s road network becoming ever more congested there is often little or no alternative to rail travel. However, any future planning for rail development must encompass that development being inclusive for all of England and Wales and not targeted towards London. In that I believe that HS2 should be cancelled immediately and that huge funding distributed throughout the most deprived areas of the existing rail network.
Poor regional infrastructure always brings about poor living standards and low wages in the areas affected. Therefore regions such as the North East of England, parts of the North West, North and East Wales, Devon and Cornwall should receive the largest share of the funding that had been earmarked for a cancelled HS2 project.
As has already been stated, a direct rail connection between Bristol and Norwich via Oxford alleviating the need to travel via London could be accomplished with only reasonable expenditure above what is already planned. That route would be a huge economic benefit to both regions, but sadly as things stand at present I cannot perceive it happening along with much else in the above.
Bill