Travel Troubles

Have been travelling round the country for the past three days. I was working in Birmingham for my employer on Wednesday, and then travelled down to the Bristol area last night for a meeting of Bristol University Court (of which I am a member) this morning.

In both cases the journey out went without a hitch and the journey home was stressful. My trip to Birmingham on Wednesday morning took the expected four hours and I arrived in good time but because wind brought a tree down on the railway power cables near Lancaster, effectively closing the Northbound West West Coast Main line for several hours at that point, my journey home took eight hours instead of four and I was one of thousands of people who had a badly disrupted journey. Similarly the trip down to Bristol went smoothly despite some very wet weather but the M5 and M6 were dire this afternoon and evening and I arrived home rather later than I had hoped and planned.

Those who oppose HS2 and HS3 are entitled to their views and I can also see the case that if these projects go ahead it is important to have adequate compensation to those who will lose out if the railway is built close to their homes.

But I am entitled to my views too and, as someone who lives in the North West but sometimes had good reason to travel to other parts of the UK on business or public service, I think we desperately need improvements and modernisation  in the transport infrastructure serving the Northern areas of the UK - and not just to Birmingham or even Manchester and Yorkshire either. 

Comments

Jim said…
HS2 and HS3 are fine, so long as they are funded from private enterprise. A little like the very successful Channel tunnel which was a privately funded venture.
7:35 am
Jim said…
on a side note, if you want a laugh, then go onto the BBC iPlayer and watch question time. Its hilarious, Russell brand is the only person in history who managed to make Nigel Farage look smart. honestly this "debate" is one that actually made PMQs look good.
7:40 am
Jim said…
Its been a couple of years since i did last take a train anywhere, I took the mrs to Canterbury to see a gig in the cathedral.
It was, as I remember quite an eventful trip.
the whitehaven to carlise leg was, well, different.
then down to Euston, that was good, I had bought first class tickets (not something i would ever normally do, but we booked a while in advance and got a good deal, also had figured it would give Ange a treat) I wont ever forget that bit, constantly being asked if I have a first class ticket, and being frowned at as i thought the breakfast was horrible so instead a box of cereal from a variety pack ange had brought.

though i must say once in london and going to cantebury the regional railway trains were good. You sort of understand then why taking the train is seen as an alternative to driving. Though its a pain when you do get to where you are going and have no car.

Trains are something which should be privately funded. funded as a business. If there is money in the public sector to build high speed rail, then it would be better used to build and maintain roads, after all thats where it comes from, road tax and petrol tax + Vat on petrol tax
9:38 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I'd certainly prefer to see the railways funded and run from private enterprise and as a private business but let's be realistic, no major new road or rail construction has ever happened without the active support of government in any developed country or ever will.

This has always been the case - it took Acts of parliament in the 18th century to build canals, and in the 19th century to make the very first railways possible.

Saying that you don't want governments to by
e involved in building more railways is absolutely identical in its practical effects to saying that you don't want any new railways. Ditto roads and airports.

I was still on my way to Bristol when Question Time was broadcast so didn't see it. There is an extremely scathing article in the "I" newspaper today about that programme, which was so rude that I was wondering whether to watch it on iPlayer out of curiosity to see whether the programme could possibly be as bad as the Indy writer thinks. Given your comments I probably will.
5:35 pm
Jim said…
The twitter feed at the time had the episode marked as "the day question time became Jeremy Kyle"

others had even suggested going all out and bringing in the lie detector
1:02 pm
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