Hopkirk - // Well that's quite a jump Andy, and I'm not sure I agree. //
Fair enough.
I think my comparison is valid - because it is about the over-arching enthusiasm carrying away the practicalities and the cold analysis of whether we reach the end result, and whether it is worth it.
// The railways are seriously in need of additional capacity, and this is one way of doing it. There were plenty of people not happy at the Victorian engineers building railways in the first place. We are better off because they did. //
Absolutely no argument there, but the method, and more importantly the ideology behind it, is seriously skewed in my view.
They talk about saving twenty minutes on a journey from London to Manchester. And? Who really honestly needs twenty minutes, when the majority of business passengers are well settled into their work on their phones and laptops and would not appreciate losing twenty minutes of working time that way.
Add to that the serious disruption and destruction the route is going to cause - and the facile argument that it Opens the Northern Powerhouse' which is as big a load of guff as I have ever heard in my life!
The only thing a fast south-north rail line will do is speed up the exodus from north to south!
The BBC made masses of noise about the 'potential' of Manchester to all its forcibly relocated staff. What they neglected to mention was the small detail that no-one was moving to Manchester, they were actually going to Salford which is the city next door, something people south of Watford wouldn't understand. And of course, they major staff didn't move anyway!!
I always quote three words when people talk about HS2 - Richard And Judy.
Their show began in Liverpool, it finished in London. Why? Because they couldn't persuade major movie and TV stars to take a train, or drive to 'the north', so the mountain came to Mohammed.
The notion of a 'Northern Powerhouse' is a buzz phrase dreamed up by some corporate gonk who lives in Docklands and wouldn't know 'the north' if he was forcibly transported there, and he'd eat his own red braces first!
To return to the point of the OP - be very very very sure of what you are doing, what you want, and if you can get it, before letting enthusiasm, and money, get you carried away.