I heard a joke on a radio 4 show on Friday called "The News Quiz". Can't remember who made the joke, but it went along the line that while we are planning to build a new line that can run trains at 250mph, other countries have been doing this for years. So finally the Government are dragging us into the 1980's!!
Now the joke got a big laugh - and so it should have done. But while it sounds a great joke, the truth has a rather bitter taste to it. Here we are in 2012, and the UK is finally being dragged into the latter half of the 20th Century.
If we had gone the right way about things, the Government would have announced at least HS4 this week, rather than just the second one.
In 1994, when the tunnel opened, HS1 should have been up and running at that point. In 2003, when HS1 finally opened, we should really have been celebrating the opening of HS2. And who knows, this week we could have been in awe at the sight of HS3 running (wherever that may be), and the route for HS4 was being confirmed. Just imagine how much fun that would have been.
If we had started this process some twenty years ago, just imagine how far we could have gotten. A high speed rail link from Scotland, North Wales, South Wales, and the West Country? Maybe even a tunnel through to Ireland?
Now that we are about to start on building HS2, we shouldn't let the grass grow under our feet. We need to start planning HS3, or 4. But we need to start now.
We've wasted enough time already.
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