New HS2 farce

[TheOstrich]

A Tenner? You 'avin a giraffe?

A standard class single fare is £34. First Class £43. And that's Scottish Government-subsidised, I suspect.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey- ... raTime=0#O

Joking aside, railways ain't cheap no more, and that's a big part of their problem. Going back to HS2, you'll need very deep pockets if you ever want to travel on that. And if the current LNER trials of so called 70Min Flex fares are rolled out nationwide for Inter-City fares - a strong possibility - any rail travel outside urban areas using what we have always accepted as fully-flexible walk-on fares will become ruinously expensive as the rail operators move to an airline-style booking and reservation system. It's getting to be that driving or flying are become viable alternatives, certainly for business class, so, in passing, there's yer green credentials straight out of the window ......

Cost of fares, travel restrictions and unreliability are the main reasons I haven't used rail since 2020 and now drive everywhere.

[Workingman]

Well, OK, it was a few years back, when God was in short trousers, but it is a good ride.
It's still only £14.90 one-way and that's what I was talking about. It's not that much more than a "meal" from one of those chain "restaurants" or a meal-deal from a supermarket.

Depending on where you are going - A to B - the coach is now a good and cheap option. Megabus and National Express have good coverage, certainly to and from cities and larger towns. I use either to get to the Brum meets for less than £20 return and the times are only about 30 minutes more than the train for the end-to-end journey. The coaches used are first class - recliners, good legroom, aircon, USB, WiFi etc.

For open journeys I also tend to drive, and I make and take my own drinks and sarnies / wraps / tacos.

[Suff]

The rail line north to Inverness from Perth is single track with sidings. You are in the lead and always have been....

On the other hand it is one of the most scenic rail lines in Great Britain. It is probably the best couple of hours you can spend on a train and all for about a tenner.

I'm not going to argue with that. Especially when you go over the Drumochter pass where Mrs S and I have walked all the Munro's around it. Spectacular.

[cromwell]

There is some vague speculation that Starmer might resurrect HS2a and HS2b as part of the "Great Infracstructure Leap Forward", but it's nothing more than chatter, they can't afford it, unless Rachel Reeves decides to strip us of all our State Pensions next ....

I'm bumping this because of the phrase "The great infrastructure leap forward".
In the near future Rachel Reeves is due to "force" UK pensions funds to start investing in UK infrastructure projects.
I wouldn't mind betting that some of this infrastructure is for Ed Miliband's net zero plans.
Namely miles and miles of pylons, acre upon acre of solar farms, battery farms, wind turbines.

This does not fill me with confidence.
Just look at the farce of HS2. Cost over runs, massive pay for the people in charge, massively behind schedule and delivering virtually nothing of it's original aims.

It won't be the state pension maybe, but I can't see that forcing pension funds to chuck cash at white elephants is going to do much for their investors or for the people who have a private pension with them.

[Workingman]

I thought Reeves was talking about civil service and other public sector pension schemes of which there are said to be £400bn of funds in the pot. They are a sort of pay-as-you-go system with the reserves held by the treasury and annual increases are based on the CPI. There is no "investment" element to them

Mind you, we will have to wait and see what the actuality is as it is all media speculation at the moment.