On Mar 10, 10:56=A0pm, Michael Bell wrote:
> Chafford wrote:
>
> > According to the Guardian, this evening:
> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/10/high-speed-rail-plans
> > 'The government will tomorrow unveil plans for a 225mph British high-
> > speed rail network, including a detailed London-to-Birmingham route
> > that will create more than 10,000 jobs if the multibillion pound
> > project goes ahead.
>
> [snip]
>
> > The route will then embark on its most controversial phase, through
> > the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire, one of 40 areas of outstanding
> > natural beauty in England and Wales.
> > The Chilterns Conservation Board, the public body responsible for
> > protecting the area, has warned that swaths of the area could be
> > "trashed" by the route.
>
> There is no negotiating with nimbys like this. The experience of the
> CTRL was that negotiation was impossible, you get nowhere and there
> are vast delays at impossible expense. It's either kow-tow to them, or
> overrule them. But we don't want to be beggars or beasts, and there is
> a judo way (which uses the enemy's stremgth against himself. If the
> new Backbone route is started from Birmingham to Manchester, and on to
> Leeds, and forked north to Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Edinburgh,
> Glasgow, and south to Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester and back to
> Birmingham, so completing the Ringby loop, the London business lobbly
> will be clamouring to have access to this unified northern market,
> much bigger than London. The Chiltern Nimbys mostly live on London
> money, so their opposition will just melt away.
>
> [snip]
>
> > However, the national route beyond Birmingham will be outlined in
> > broader terms, with rail industry sources expecting a "V" shaped
> > network running through Manchester to Glasgow on the west side of the
> > UK and to Leeds and Edinburgh on the east side. Adonis ultimately
> > hopes to reduce the journey time from London to Edinburgh from four
> > and a half hours to two hours 40 minutes.'
>
> Actually THOUGH Manchester? I doubt it.
>
> I sadly fear that this will be a "Farm track layout", connecting all
> to London, "the Farmhouse", but none to each other. I can show that
> such farm track layouts bring in nearly 1/5 of the traffic/track mile
> that the Backbone Route brings in.
I'm really looking forward to your expert analysis in each of the 82
different HS2 threads that start tomorrow. Interesting to hear that
living on "London money" is an apparent guarantee that opposition will
melt away. I trust that any attempts at informed discussion based on
the release of the report tomorrow won't dull your willingness to go
in for dollops of pure unfounded assertion. Mind you, it's what pretty
much everyone else will be doing on here... |
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