To think that spending billions on UK transport infrastructure is crazy?

[YarkYark]

God, my AIBU sounds like I'm a journalist (I'm not) but this drives me crazy.

During and after the pandemic this country proved pretty adequately that business can carry on pretty much as usual without endess face to face meetings. I used to go to many of these, both in the UK and abroad, inevitably it meant hours or days of travel and associated costs, often all for the sake of a few hours where little would be decided - except the date of the next jolly. Actual decisons would likely be done over the phone the next day.

So why, why, why does this country need to be investing is super high cost projects like HS2 and a third runway for Heathrow. Why will there continue to be a need for people to travel to do business when we shoud be investing in a world leading internet infrastructure and cut out all the travel nonsense and associated issues?

What am I missing?

YABU: Of course UK needs to improve its transport links, otherwise we'll never grow as a country.

YANBU: You're right, we're thinking like its the 1990s, get with the future, Britain.

Manchester to London is roughly 190 miles and will be built to the current standards (newer LGVs are 320kph while China is running at 350kph). Paris to Brussels is a similar distance, running at 1990s speeds of 300kph. On what basis are you claiming that the completed route will be 38% slower than LGV Nord/HSL 1?

Is your source "trust me, bro"?

Levelling up should have focussed on rail projects in the North.

Last time I checked, Manchester was in "the North" (no pedants from Berwick or Carlisle, please). Local services are heavily constrained by capacity issues through Castlefield Junction, Stockport, and the Styal line towards the airport. The solution to that is to build an additional line, grade seperated from the existing throat and flat junctions at Ardwick and Slade Lane terminating in additional platforms at Piccadilly which are 400m long to accommodate decent lenght trains, just like those pairs of TGVs, ICEs and Railjets you see in Europe. Heck, if you build it in full then double-deck stock becomes practicable. That's part of the HS2 project. Osborne's "Northern Powerhouse Rail" project between Liverpool, Manchester and beyond relied on HS2 infrastructure to get into Manchester. No HS2, no new Liverpool-Leeds line as the latter cannot make a business case alone for the 9 mile tunnel under South Manchester.

I think if UK rail travel was cheaper, more people would use it.
@InvisibilityCloakActivated the reason that prices are so high is that demand considerably outstrips supply. Call it "surge pricing" if that makes things clearer. Over the last few years LNER have been conducting stealth price hikes on journeys between London, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. They've done this at the behest of the government to price off demand. We need more capacity.

While I agree that the right to travel should be heavily restricted

@Dotjones I can't believe that I'm reading this. How dystopian. While I'm in favour of reducing fossil fuel-based transport, that shouldn't mean that we should end up confined to the town we live in. We have the technology to travel in a low-carbon way, we should be able to enjoy it.

Where i live in North Essex. One bus an hour and this is on a big housing estate

I wish someone would invest in a high(er) speed rail link between Cornwall and London. And make it affordable. Why on earth is air travel between Newquay and London Subsidised? I've never flown between the two but sometimes I'm mighty tempted....

It's just wrong.