Best way to spend £106BILLION ??

[Beebo]

I'll take the 106 billion and then hand the entire job to the Chinese, who are currently building high speed rail at under $1m per Km (would be less than £1m per mile)
That way the entire network could be built for less than £1 billion, and I'll keep the change

I doubt the Chinese have to buy the land first, which adds huge costs.
Plus, how much are they paying for labour?

 

[Archie_tect]

Maglev... keep saying it, you never know someone might have a lightbulb moment.

 

[clid61]

Cigarettes and Alcohol

 

[Kryton521]

New Parliament building in York? Maybe replace the tainted and now poisoned HoLs, [little worth except as a butt of jokes!].

Personally, I'm for HS2, closely followed by public execution of politicians and "consultants" who've lied, cheated and stolen from the money pit it's become.

 

[lane]

Don't worry about the 106 billion it's extra rail capacity and faster. Might not be the best value in the world but rail is good. What should be stopped and reallocated elsewhere is road building costs. How much will be spent on new and improved roads over the next 20 years?

 

[srw]

It's welcome. But it's about 25 years too late and doesn't go nearly far enough. We opened the channel tunnel in 1994. We should have had high-speed rail from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham via London direct to Paris, Brussels and Berlin, and a rapid route from the northwest to the southwest within 15 years. Look at what France, Germany and Spain have achieved in the same timeframe.

Instead, 26 years later we're just about getting around to starting building a high-speed rail track from Birmingham to the wrong station in London, and it'll probably be another 26 years before we get around to extending northwards. I don't suppose I'll live to see the high-speed lines we need to the southwest.

 

[NorthernDave]

Apparently I'll be able to from Leeds to London in just 1h 21m, as opposed to the stated 2h 11m it takes now, according to the HS2 website.
We'll overlook the fact that there are existing services that take under two hours now on the antiquated, poorly maintained and over crowded ECML, where we've had trains capable of 140+ mph since the 1970s that are restricted to a maximum of 125mph (and significantly less in places) due to the poor infrastructure. I wonder how much time would be saved if the existing direct line was finally upgraded to modern standards, rather than building a new line that goes via Birmingham?

 

[Brains]

It's welcome. But it's about 25 years too late and doesn't go nearly far enough. We opened the channel tunnel in 1994. We should have had high-speed rail from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham via London direct to Paris, Brussels and Berlin, and a rapid route from the northwest to the southwest within 15 years. Look at what France, Germany and Spain have achieved in the same timeframe.

Instead, 26 years later we're just about getting around to starting building a high-speed rail track from Birmingham to the wrong station in London, and it'll probably be another 26 years before we get around to extending northwards. I don't suppose I'll live to see the high-speed lines we need to the southwest.

It's not 25 years too late, it's over 50 years late.

In the mid 60's all the European countries made (Beeching) cuts to their (Victorian) rural rail network, but all the others trimmed the rural lines rather than wholesale cutting as was doe in the UK.
The rest of Europe then all put the money saved into the main line network and upgraded it to high speed rail during the 1970, all except the UK which put the money into the road system.

A story I have head, first hand, so I believe it, was when Margret Thatcher and Presided Mitterand signed the deal to build the Channel Tunnel the first part of the deal was signed in Paris. The entire party of French and British politicians then all went to Gare du Nord and one of the brand new TGV trains was bought in and the entire party blasted across the French countryside at 200 mph to Calais. where they all got out and got on a ferry to Dover.
They then got on a traditional slam door British Rail train to London travelling at speeds of upto 65mph.
The French thought this was a great joke, the British showing off old rolling stock and were a bit disappointed that it was not a steam train at the front.
Thatcher did not get the joke.
When Mitterand asked about the new line between Dover and London, her reply was "what line ?'"
Up until that point the idea of a new line had not even been considered!
Hence although the tunnel opened in 1994 the line (HS1) was not discussed until 1996 (after Thatcher had gone) and consequently did not open fully until 2007, 13 years late.

 

[tom73]

Apparently I'll be able to from Leeds to London in just 1h 21m, as opposed to the stated 2h 11m it takes now, according to the HS2 website.
We'll overlook the fact that there are existing services that take under two hours now on the antiquated, poorly maintained and over crowded ECML, where we've had trains capable of 140+ mph since the 1970s that are restricted to a maximum of 125mph (and significantly less in places) due to the poor infrastructure. I wonder how much time would be saved if the existing direct line was finally upgraded to modern standards, rather than building a new line that goes via Birmingham?

This is whole point fix what we have if we have to build bit's to do it then let's do it. You just have to look out the train windows even though a lot has been built on or sold off. We still have a heck of old lines sidings ect next to current lines that can be bought back at the some time.
For rail, startup space , active travel networks even green corridors or what ever is needed. At the same time improve and integrate active travel routes to stations and placers along the lines.
Is it not the case that a good bit of the northern section of HS2 will just run on the current lines and over all it's not much different to now ?
York one of the biggest stations in the UK with about a 1/3 of all the Uk's train passing though it every day wont benefit. It's all main line once it hits Church Fenton.
Much of the engineering , maintenance , steel even the clips holding the rails to sleepers is all up north as it is. So the know-how and means are all ready sat waiting.

 

[classic33]

Have a massive street party.

 

[Oldhippy]

Social care and real sustainable transport options.

 

[Speicher]

They've already started work on Platforms 0 and 00 at Leeds though.

How do you gauge that as a success?

 

[Seevio]

Would £106 billion be enough to build a substantial wall along the entire length of the English/Scottish border?

Hard to say. Prices have probably gone up a bit since roman times.

 

[classic33]

How do you gauge that as a success?

Same guage as the rest of the track.

Never said it was a success, the entrance for the HS2 platforms was put in on the opposite side of the station.

 

[tom73]

Same guage as the rest of the track.

Never said it was a success, the entrance for the HS2 platforms was put in on the opposite side of the station.

They have to separate them some how from the ones in the cheep seats.