Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I think this is a good time to be making such investments/ It will lead to more jobs and businesses right away amongst those building the new rail line and it may increase confidence amongst foreign firms that the UK will continue to be a good place to do business. Birmingham itself should see a boost from the knowledge that London will soon be closer. I have seen many arguments that infrastructural investments are more effective in times of slow economic growth, likely because of the reasons I mentioned.
Besides, the sooner we get started the sooner it will get completed. The estimates for us finishing just the Birmingham branch are ridiculous enough as it is. At this rate most of us will be dead before they complete the Manchester branch. We spend far too long on these things and think up many reasons why we shouldn't do them, we should be more proactive. A lot of mainland Europe have these trains, America is starting to think about it and parts of Asia just got on with it ages ago. There isn't any point putting it off longer. Let's go.
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You not concerned we seem to paying ,uch more per mile than france did?
The concerns are multiple.
The fact I have used trains and the service wasnt bad enough that I ever thought it needs billions spent on it. France and Germany have more land mass so arguably it benefits them more. a 20min saving on a journey is nothing significant, There is a few specific scenarios where it could be a saver but typically the person can just catch an earlier train.
The fact some cuts have been made elsewhere and in some cases severely, the merits of business men getting 20mins of their journey time over the vulnerable getting proper care and support. More to the point we have had cameron saying we all in it together and a message put out that the country was close to going bust unless sharp action was taken quickly, this hardly supports that message and loses the government a lot of credibility.
Trains are already out pricing many people and this will outprice even more. 32billion investment in what will primarily benefit business men who are paying less tax due to tax cuts. The business case is very poor.
I can think of many better ways to spend 32billion which the government has now shown they got. Building more houses, restoring welfare cuts, building a nationwide fibre network, even tax cuts I would support over this.
Some middle men somewhere are going to get very rich out of this.
Not to mention europe's investment seemed to be done in earlier years before the recession took hold more, the article I pulled was from 2009. This rail link should be costing 1 billion not 32billion.