More High Speed Rail?

[mushroom25]

https://www.metro.news/high-speed-rail-for-whole-uk/1076336/
//CREATING multiple high-speed rail lines would inject ‘rocket fuel’ into the economy, a transport group has urged.//

since high speed rail is widely viewed as a white elephant vanity project for fiscally boated bankers, wouldn't "rocket fuel" be better injected, and benefit far more of the population, by using an equivalent level of funding to properly upgrade the motorway network?

[Guilbert53]

>>>since high speed rail is widely viewed as a white elephant vanity project

Not by many countries it isn't

France has 1163 miles of high speed train lines

Germany 798 miles

Italy 462

Portugal 625

Spain 994

Japan 1524

How many has Britain got ?

Just 70 (yes SEVENTY)

Even Belgium has more than us (173)

Note I got these figures off the internet, cannot vouch for their accuracy. High speed in this case means going faster than 155 mph.

[Guilbert53]

>>>properly upgrade the motorway network?

Great quote I heard about building more motorways

"Building more motorways to reduce congestion is like buying larger trousers to cure obesity".

Our motorways are clogged, build more and they will just clog up with more people doing more miles in more vehicles.

The only answer is an expanding UK wide train system, with more goods carried by train.

[Canary42]

.... or re-instating much of the network that was removed to reduce maintenance costs by Network Rail. There are now so few crossovers/passing places that one broken down train soon brings great swathes of the network to a grinding halt. My local station being a good example - 4 tracks reduced to 2.

[redman41]

This High Speed Rail project is expected to cost the ridiculous sum of £56 billion .It should be scrapped and the existing Rail Network should be upgraded instead. Build new Railway lines and Stations in Areas where extra Transport is badly needed

[mushroom25]

//the existing Rail Network should be upgraded instead.//
not an option, unless the travelling public will tolerate 10-15 years of continuous disruption - the West Coast upgrade was started in 1990s and is still not finished - indeed there was major inconvenience to passengers at Birmingham, Liverpool and the north-west this weekend just gone, for the same reason.

if rail freight were to disappear, the need for high speed rail would disappear with it, overnight. this will occur when 60t trucks are allowed on the roads, as the fiscal case for rail freight will vanish forever, and will provide all the extra capacity the rail network needs. but, this option will require major road upgrades to accommodate.