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HS2 is officially ‘unachievable’ after being given red rating
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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UK Politics
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Was literally discussing this last night. China built a whole high speed rail network across its country for £300 billion and we're £100 billion in and don't even have a single train available. It's actually insane.
That's not really comparable. China bulldozes through land with little regard for the societal or environmental impact. The UK is a place of natural beauty and has laws against doing that. It's right that we have proper surveys and planning permissions needed for this sort of thing, in my opinion!
Not sure why people are downvoting you, you're right. Checks and balances cost money, and in broad terms we're right to have those checks and balances. Maybe we need to reduce the burden slightly but our approach isn't totally wrong.
Even the chaotic Spanish have managed to build a decent high speed rail network. While they don't have the population density of the south east of England, they seem to be much more organised. Perhaps it's really Britain that's chaotic, certainly when it comes to infrastructure projects that aren't for cars?
Spain is basically empty outside of the larger cities, and property prices are often very low, so it is different.
The Netherlands is perhaps a better example. Very high population density, technical challenges due to a lot of reclaimed land, high property prices.
If they can manage it...
The Netherlands has plenty of normal rail, but actually hardly any high speed. Same problems...
"Problems". The Dutch government doesn't WANT to spend the money.
HAHAHAHAHAHA now that's a good one
?
Don't believe me, have a look for yourself:
https://www.idealista.com/
Valencia, Murcia... it's quite easy to find a house for under 10k. You'll have to renovate it, but still.
I can find a house without renovating for under 10k in bumfuck England too, does that make property in the UK cheap?
Instead of saying “Valencia or Murcia” why don't you go have a look where people there actually want to live, especially all the British “expats”, like say, Benidorm? How's finding something bigger than a matchbox for under 10k there going for ya?
Erm.... Valencia is the third largest city in Spain.
Here's a perfectly nice flat in the centre of Madrid, no renovation required, less than 100k, near a metro station, 15 minutes to the centre of Madrid:
https://www.idealista.com/inmueble/97370404/
I look forward to you finding me a similar flat in the middle of London.
Because most Spanish people don't live in a small tourist trap, and don't want to live in a small tourist trap, just because it happens to be popular with foreigners.
Also, when building a rail network, it's unlikely that you'll have to build most of it in fucking Benidorm. LOL
Not defending anyone's position, but even Italy managed to build one. I think costs were around 30+ billions.
I don't even know what to say to this. You have inherent biases and that's fair, but you should try and address them internally rather than just posting them. To suggest that China doesn't do proper surveys and just bulldozes through land without regard for societal or environmental impact sounds racist AF.
France has 3000 kilometres of high speed rail compared to our 100.
I’ve worked as a civil engineering consultant in china, comparing how the deliver a major rail project to here in the uk is frankly moronic. It isn’t bias, it’s fact
Well considering they've actually delivered their rail projects 🤷🏾♂️