Stonehenge and its Environs 134
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Stonehenge and its Environs

A303 to go into a tunnel eventually?

Mustard M
Mustard Oct 2, 2013 09:28:26
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
The main reason there's no vast investment in the rail network isn't because there is no demand, actually there is a soaring demand from commuters to do just that.
That's a very different issue though. That's demand from people who are already commuters on existing transport corridors. That's not the same thing as demand for new public transport routes.

thesweetcheat wrote:
The main reason for the lack of investment in infrastructure is because the profits made from rail fares are paid to the shareholders of the privatised train companies. You will not get significant infrastructure spending on the railways unless they are re-nationalised. Currently privatised rail services are subsidised by the taxpayer by about 5 times as much as BR was.
Well I think you'd be lucky to see much in the way of new infrastructure (as opposed to improvements of existing infrastructure) even if the railways were state funded. I'm in total agreement with the principle of renationalisation though, and I'd like to see many new rail routes, even though I think there's a snowball's chance in hell of it ever happening. And to be fair, in many instances, the demand simply doesn't exist to justify the investment. The car is simply too comfortable, cheap and convenient to be easily displaced.

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Oct 2, 2013 13:02:57
Replying to Mustard

Mustard wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
The main reason there's no vast investment in the rail network isn't because there is no demand, actually there is a soaring demand from commuters to do just that.
That's a very different issue though. That's demand from people who are already commuters on existing transport corridors. That's not the same thing as demand for new public transport routes.
The demand is as much from business as it is from commuters, because they want to be able to transport their goods more efficiently using rail not road.

And commuter demand includes re-opening closed lines and especially re-opening stations. By way of an example, a number of stations have been opened or re-opened in South Glamorgan, using an existing line but adding greatly to its potential. In effect, it has created a new rail route, while using a line that was already there.

If you think about, there are very few parts of England and Wales (Scotland to a slightly lesser extent) that did not have rail coverage at the height of the 1920s usage, or similarly extensive bus coverage from the 1930s - 1960s. So any "new" public transport route is likely to simply be a permutation of an "old" one anyway (the white elephant of HS2 being an exception, obviously).

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