A railway to be proud of

You might think that in this time of constraint I would be recommending to government that it cut spending on transport infrastructure. Indeed a number of environmental groups are suggesting governments do just that.

One of the longer term projects that I fully support is a high speed network for Britain. It will have to be built in stages: the first stage being London via Birmingham to Manchester and Glasgow/Edinburgh. However, I think the national government should signal that its intention is to have a network linking all the important cities of Britain and Ireland. I would include Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dover (for the continent), Dublin, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Nottingham. You might consider other cities or not even include some of these on my list (I would like to know why).

Each city would be linked to the others directly: for example, the people of Nottingham would be able to travel not stop to Leeds (onwards to Newcastle and Edinburgh), Norwich, London (onwards for Dover), Birmingham (onwards for Bristol and Cardiff) and Manchester (onwards to Belfast [for Dublin] and Glasgow).

There would be a new tunnel across the twenty-two miles of the North Channel enabling a central Dublin to central Edinburgh journey time of just over two hours. I suspect that the Stranraer to Glasgow section would be one of the last to be built but as current demand is low. However, the Stranraer to Carlisle section would make a centre to centre journey from Dublin to London quicker by rail and than by air.

I would also make the new stations in the city centre. I know that the railway people say that it costs too much to build a station in the middle of a city. The London Birmingham link should go from Bank to New Street no less – and not via Birmingham or Heathrow airports but the fastest possible route that is feasible and within the constraints of the environment.

I would ensure that the London station was a through station. None of this London centric nonsense that everyone wants to go to London and not through it (the same logic delayed Thameslink for years). Build a line so that people in Birmingham can get to the European capital in three hours and they might just jump at the chance. That might be the reason why the Westminster politicians are against the idea.

This is the time when we need to think bigger – not to hide in a hole and mope.