45 odd miles is tube travel distance?!
It doesn't all have to be underground though does it? nor does it need to be over 100mph if its just doing the 45 miles or so from MK to London, so the line doesn't have to be so straight.
Is it not possible to have modern tube stock with nicer interiors and aircon?
MK and places further south are basically commuter enclaves which tie up paths on the current WCML and the stock should reflect that. It is highly irritating that it takes around 50 mins? to travel between Leeds and Manchester, yet people in Milton Keynes couldn't possibly suffer a reduction in the speed of their commute and take a tube - its the unfairness of most money being invested in London and its environs which because the transport system is so good attracts yet more people to commute. Anywhere where commuting to London takes place on a big scale counts towards being London centric in my book. On the Transpennine Express Leeds to Manchester route, there has LONG been insufficient capacity which the new loco stock will improve, but that will soon be used up and HS3 will be well the wrong side of 2030 even if it sees the light of day which I doubt. Near London, HS2 is in tunnel for a considerable stretch because they won't pull houses down or spoil the countryside, once beyond Birmingham, only an expensive area to the West of Manchester is considered worth doing anything with, everything else they just bulldoze through (such as a new cheap housing estate not too far from Rotherham).