No it doesn't. It seems you and others cant get over this reversing Beeching obsession and just want a pot of money to build pointless railways lines to pointless halfhorse towns! Why is it posters here seem very happy to spaff money up the wall when it is to do with trains? We need to focus on schemes that actually have a solid case not fantasy stuff that wont ever pay out.
lets start with Bedlington/Ashington and go from there. In doing that lets acknowledge how much this will cost and behave accordingly.
but it wont do that will it? I repeat: This money is going to pay for 2 or 3 stations, several studies and a nice thick booklet of ideas. That is it. It is welcome but not massively helpful in "rolling back the Beaching Cuts"
Spot on. See above!
As I've said, we already have a nascent set of proposals in the Connecting Communities report. Why 'spaff money up the wall' when we can select the best from these, just as we select the best cases for the new stations fund.
I'm presuming that there will be some way of properly administering the £5 billion bus and cycleway fund, so there's no reason there can't be for a new connections fund.
An argument against poor administration, does not negate the merit of the fund in the first place.
Just on a point of order it is:
£80bn on HS2, over the next 15-20 years, of which only £40bn or so is actually confirmed for the next 12 years.
£5bn for buses and cycleways over the next 5 years
£25bn (not £28b) for the strategic road network to cover new roads, enhancements to existing roads and renewal over the 5 year period from 1 April.
£28.9bn for Network Rail rail to cover new lines, enhancement to existing lines, and renewal over the current 5 year period.
Point taken - I'm recounting the figures I've seen reported.
It's worth bearing in mind that the strategic road network is only a proportion of roads, and in the context of £29 billion spent on the existing rail network over the next five years, £5 billion over a similar period to achieve a permanent step-change in the coverage and reach of the network seems entirely reasonable.
Only if you start from a position that re-connecting various small rural towns is an end in itself (rather than one of a long list of means to improve use of public transport).
Some people are obsessed with such things, sure, but the idea of setting aside five *billion* quid just to spend on putting an expensive/inflexible form of mass transportation between the kind of small towns that struggle to sustain a commercial minibus service would be an obscene waste of public money.
Funny how some enthusiasts are outraged at the idea of a franchise change meaning staff get new uniforms after "only" seven years, but are fine at the idea of spending billions to bring heavy rail to areas where the population density is more suited to Dial-A-Ride.
I don't misunderstand them - their approach is transparent - hence the kneejerk reaction to suggest that heavy rail comes to some backwater village/town (that would be lovely for them to visit on a summer holiday) rather than looking at a list of where heavy rail might be more suited.
Hence the reason that any thread like this will quickly fill up with mention of quaint scenic routes like Skipton - Colne, Tavistock - Okehampton, Uckfield - Lewes, Penistone - Hadfield, Tweedbank - Carlisle (every time!) … rather than looking at where demand is in the twenty first century (and therefore, if we *must* open new lines, rather than just use that as one option available), suggest places like Skelmersdale (which might not be as tourist friendly as some of the lines that always get suggested but would put many more bums on seats than trundling around rural Devon.
Build railways to where large numbers of people travel on predictable patterns - that's what heavy rail is best at. If you want to connect Tavistock to Okehampton then buy a second hand Optare Solo and run it (though you might want to take some of the seats out first).
Small and medium sized rural towns require decent public transport too. And nobody's suggesting that the £5billion on buses and cycle routes isn't a good thing, so I don't know where you get this idea of prople only being interested in heavy rail.
Secondly, if you don't understand why people tend to prioritise expenditure on being able to actually get somewhere, rather than fancy uniforms, then you should be on a fashion forum, not a transport one.
Thirdly, I refer you to my earlier point about selecting the best cases for reconnecting towns.
