Don't forget the Thameslink Programme(£6bn), scheduled for completion 2018, the likely development of Crossrail 2 ( £27–32 billion, at 2014 prices) and the East London Line Extensions completed in 2010 at a cost of £1bn. London and the South East are worth it. The North has , after all, been promised the £0.6bn Northern Hub which is more than a fair share of this capital investment, I'm sure anyone would agree.

In a rare moment of congruence, absolutely correct; using it once a year to travel from Leeds to London to gawk at some clocks and bridges is hardly sufficient justification for your average Northern Monkey to get all excited about HS2.



Your next point is nonsensical - the government should not do anything more to increase the cost of using a car; that's just further hammering the average joe trying to get to work. What they should do, is reduce the necessity of using the thing, by investing in a transport network that provides a viable alternative.

A suggestion given we've now voted to leave the EU , instead of repatriating foreign nationals can we instead send back all black Audi's imported into Britain , and their Moron drivers as well , this morning at 5 past 7 driving over Thelwall viaduct on the southbound M6 , in fog with overhead signs warning of roads being salted due to black ice , one of these complete d1ckheads past me at around 100 miles an hour , I'd also send back most of the Volkswagen golf drivers as well

The predicted future is that relatively few will chose to own a car - just hire by the hour. Already happening.

There was a letter in the IMechE newsletter that sums up my views; If I want to get to London 20 minutes earlier I'll get an earlier train, not spend £50billion.



That being said, we do need more trains. Richard Branson can't tweet images of free seats for all of us.

Totally agree, or better still invest in the infrastructure here that will 'allow' me to leave home twenty minutes 'later' to get on the original train and by way of explanation it's not use cutting twenty minutes from in my case Piccadilly to Euston if the standard journey time from home to Piccadilly of say half an hour can't be relied upon and takes me an hour.



In short invest in the north, get it working and then link it up......possibly