A couple of points to cover:
Coathanger are there REALLY no initiatives in The Midlands that you can come up with rather than focusing on more sublte negativity ?
I'm not sure whether implied criticism of yesterday's initiative is representative of Midlands folk in general, hopefully not as you would have to be blind not to realise they are faced by the same issues. I feel sure many in Birmingham might want to relook at HS2 and reinvest that money in the Midlands network generally. HS2 is constantly put forward as a panacea for all the North ills despite it being two generations away........ if ever !!!
There are plenty of projects I would like to see go ahead in the Midlands, however I was conscious that this was a Manchester thread so didn't want to push that here. Equally, there are plenty of projects not just in the North and the Midlands, but also the South West, East, Scotland and Northern Island that surely are worthy of investment?
To be honest I'm broadly supportive of HS2. Although its almost exclusively quoted as "a line to London", another way to look at it is a high speed rail network linking Birmingham to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, East Mids & London. None of these cities (except London) will have such a direct link to the other cities on the HS2 network. For instance, is it unlikely there will be direct trains from Manchester to East Mids, or Leeds to Crewe. Of course not all trains will call at Birmingham, but a great many will originate and terminate there, and there will be services originating at Birmingham that will go to all the other stations.
That sounds like a brief from Sir Humphrey. ..
"Money ?
Oh come , come , what on earth are you poor misguided fools worried about, their's barrel loads of the stuff, my dear old things, but you really need to tell us where to spend it chaps".
Patronising tosh !
(And where exactly did he agree to more spending ? I missed that one ).
I don't know for certain what Grayling is saying, but it sounds to me like he's saying to the North "you come up with proposals, come to us, and we'll decide whether or not to fund it". That is instead of the current setup where central government draw up proposals. Wouldn't you rather have people who are local to the projects, who know what is needed where, prioritize projects and go to government to get funding in that order?
In fairness to the West Midlands, it is pretty much entirely the Birmingham Metro area, which has an elected Mayor and the "Midlands engine" equivalent to the "Northern Powerhouse".
The difficulty they have is that they are one (Birmingham) whereas the North is at least five (Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle).
On the contrary there is more to the Midlands - it's called the EAST MIDLANDS! and includes the likes of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby! The North has Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield & Newcastle, and wants them to be connected by high speed rail. The Midlands has Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester & Derby plus a number of smaller cities (e.g. Coventry), which need to be connected together as well. HS2 will go straight from Birmingham to Toton (in the Middle of Notts, Leic & Derby). It would be relatively easy to build spurs from the HS2 line to each of these cities, which would greatly improve journey times between each of those cities.
Again, I'm conscious this is a Manchester thread, but to highlight I'm not oblivious to the needs of the Midlands a few facts (by rail):
Leeds to Manchester, 43 miles, 49 mins (fastest), 53mph (average speed), roughly 4tph
Leicester to Birmingham, 40 miles, 50 mins (fastes) 48mph (average speed), roughly 2tph
I don't know what the trains are like between Leeds and Manchester, but the trains that operate between Leicester and Birmingham are often 2 or 3 carriages only so are always packed. Problems down here can be just as bad as up North.
As I understand it the Pacers are being phased out no - no need to send them down South. May I also remind poster that not all trains down South are swanky new ones. Indeed I've used some on the South West network that look just as bad as those I have seen on the news up North.
The key point here is whether or not money will indeed be spent in the regions. If the article in the post is accurate, Grayling was quoted as saying central government
will provide funding for projects.
