I still think we need high speed lines.
At the moment there's still a division between weathly london with it's nice connections, and northern England, which was once home to a whole revelution, which is suffering from poor transport and employment but great quaility of life. Not to mention scotland from where people are leaving.
High speed lines worked in France so why can't they do the same here?
London > Birmingham > Manchester > Edinburgh
is well served already
What about Stratford (for East Anglia, Docklands (inc city airport), central London, East End, Greenwich (St Pancras, Kent, Europe and Crossrail)), M25 for park and ride, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow.
With services leaving the line to go to
Centre of London (CTRL from stratford then link to snow hill tunnel under St Pancras), then taking over gatwick express
Centre of London (Crossrail from Stratford) then to Heathrow
Kent (Domestic CTRL)
Europe (but people won't like lack of customs)
Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth (via West Coast route, combined with electrification of this important route)
Liverpool to Hull (potential corridor)
Selected scottish cities upon electrification (we need them connected)
You may notice the emphasis is on connection not timing. The extra speed will allow a wavier route.
There is also less London emphasis, and more Europe emphasis.