Posted on 05/07/2016 7:22:53 PM PDT by Olog-hai
HS2 has been accused of “dictator-like arrogance” after demanding that more than 600 people and groups — including the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, and the Commons Speaker, John Bercow — be banned from objecting to the controversial high-speed rail scheme.
In a document slipped out on election day, the Government has applied to bar residents close to the route, anti-HS2 action groups and even MPs on the line from making parliamentary objections as the legislation to build the route passes through the Lords.
Eight MPs for seats along the proposed route, four of them ministers, are covered by the ban. It also includes a member of the London Assembly, 13 councillors on the route, all the local anti-HS2 action groups along the line, the national umbrella groups Stop HS2 and High Speed Action Alliance, and 607 local residents. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
All the people most impacted are banned.
The strategy of tyrants.
I was watching a documentary on British life in the late 50’s, how the “forward thinkers” of the time called for tearing up many of the rail lines in the UK, saying they were obsolete and inefficient. Now over half a century later the “train brains” say more rail lines are the answer.
You seem to have missed the point of the article. It isn’t a debate on the pros vs. cons of rail.
Lord Beeching led the way there, once all of the railroads were taken over by the government.
Thatcher tried her best to undo the British Rail fiasco, by re-privatizing. But all the lefties even in her own party stood in the way, and it got half done.
The funny thing is, instead of building this HS2 boondoggle, there are some of those closed main lines that could be upgraded to high speed for cheaper.
I noticed when I went to England last year that Virgin took over most of the routes in Eastern England, which is the one we took from London to York.
Things have gone somewhat in the direction of the so-called “Big Four” again, where only a few companies ran all the trains. But the state still owns the infrastructure, under the “Network Rail” government-owned company.
In the UK trains are the answer.
Most of the roads are at or close to saturation point, with little or no room to build more.
If the network was closed the country would be at a standstill the following morning.
Privatisation was an unmitigated disaster because of the attitude of the “self appointed” management in this country. Most of them have never started and run a company in their lives. Only British Telecom was a success from day one and remains so. Everything else is crumbling.
You can’t run a high stress infrastructure , in any discipline, and not maintain it at all for ten years, then wonder why it ceases to function correctly.
HS2 is not required at all. Improvements to existing infrastructure would perform just as adequately. Reopening of old lines is mostly impossible, the land was sold off and built on whilst the private ‘ experts’ where in charge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.