Want to see where £1.5 Billion of your money is going?

[highlandsflyer]

Come the revolution I will be building new railway lines. Here, there and everywhere. It is amazing they still debate putting in new lines and schemes to compel businesses to exploit the environmental benefits in a time when airport expansion is needlessly being pushed through.

I may even think about making the stations multi use, containing such things as places of worship/meditation and the like. To be used by all who wish, regardless of creed. Minarets would certainly make fine adornments, so suitable too for star gazing.

 

[phill77]

It's such a shame the railway line from Kettering to Cambridge was closed.

A lot of the east-west rail links through Northants suffered in the 50s/60s - the powers that be were obviously too short-sighted to see the potential for Felixstowe's docks to expand in the container age. This does seem to have been a big flaw of Beeching etc. - the inability to see that small to medium sized places might expand significantly over time due economic trends and/or population shifts and more than justify the provision/retention of a rail service as a result (Portishead in Somerset springs to mind as an example; station-less since 1964 but now suffering heavy road congestion due to Bristol commuter traffic).

David

Ahh, but in the 50s and 60s they thought we would all be in flying cars by now...

 

[legrandefromage]

Not quite.

Maybe:

 

[David B]

Re: Re:

Also, to get back on-topic in a succinctly ignorant way: I hate motorways, they are ugly and give me migraines. Surely building railways is cheaper?

Certainly takes up less land - there's a bit of the M1 near Rugby that runs parallel with the main line from Euston, with the motorway occupying way more space. Plus railway stations are a far less soul-destroying retail experience than motorway service areas.

David

 

[David B]

It's such a shame the railway line from Kettering to Cambridge was closed.

A lot of the east-west rail links through Northants suffered in the 50s/60s - the powers that be were obviously too short-sighted to see the potential for Felixstowe's docks to expand in the container age. This does seem to have been a big flaw of Beeching etc. - the inability to see that small to medium sized places might expand significantly over time due economic trends and/or population shifts and more than justify the provision/retention of a rail service as a result (Portishead in Somerset springs to mind as an example; station-less since 1964 but now suffering heavy road congestion due to Bristol commuter traffic).

David

Ahh, but in the 50s and 60s they thought we would all be in flying cars by now...

I blame that Tomorrow's World lot - always up to no good, whether it was getting everyone's hopes up about the future of travel, or smearing strawberry jam all over your CD collection.

David

 

[highlandsflyer]

Re:

I see railway stations as the natural centre of so many places. They are the obvious location for goods distribution. Buying everything online could truly mean from the line. Every railway station should have a post office.

 

[legrandefromage]

Traveled from Peterborough to Ipswich today along the A1 and A14. The only pinch points were the bits between Spittals interchange at Huntingdon and the one lane madness that has always been the Girton slip road.

Easy drive during the day but on the way back...

Lorry lorry lorry lorry lorry. Thats all it is. One HGV will do 48mph, one will do 53, one will do 52, one will do 57 creating mobile roadblock after mobile roadblock

Then you'll get the guy texting at 57mph in the outside lane or the lady in the Octavia nearly wiping out the Mini next to me as she pulls out into the outside lane at St.Ives, to overtake... Nothing! She pulled out and sat at the same speed as she was in the first lane, about 54mph causing another mobile roadblock and the mexican brake lights all the way down behind her.

I pass the texter by undertaking:

Highway Code - 268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions, you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

Dont know what that constitutes if the driver in front is out on his own and travelling waaay below the speeds of the traffic in front, behind and rapidly passing on the left...

Going back to the mexican wave brake lights, outside lane is chock full of cars with two HGV occupying the inside lane with a good quarter mile between them.

Outside lane is travelling at around 55mph with constant brake/ accelerate/ brake etc, empty inside lane trundling along at at constant 57mph.

Its all too much. I hate that road and only use it if I have to.

 

[Brent Trimble]

He is right...I bought myself a Cannondale Prophet yesterday, couldn't choose between that or the new Marin Iqbal.

I love it when subjects go off topic it's so much more interesting than cycling talk. I agree with the comments made