As many people would travel on the line in a week as there would in a year in the NE
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Happy St George's Day Guest
The Elizabeth Line (Crossrail)
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Darlo1973
Striker
It's a project which has been in the works for over 15 years with tens of thousands of people involved. Who do you think should be "held accountable" and what should happen to them?
These mega-projects are almost always late and/or over budget for many reasons from everyone being too optimistic to start with, political interference and changing priorities. In 20 years time nobody will remember it was a few years late and cost more than originally promised.
We wouldn't blowing the whole £18.9 billion on a single railway line in the North East.
Though a lot of good could be done in the region with that kind of investment.
Same as the dome etc.. huge overspend but now one fo the major venues in the world
No doubt . In the most part it was paid for by private finance. Obviously covid has somewhat fucked up the general commuting public but it will be pretty much self financing which is the major difference.. spend the money but then still spend with huge subsidies.. if it's self financing it's more likely to have support
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... and the Dome is fuck all use to the population of Herrington.
People from Paris can get to it more easily than we can.
Privately owned now but it shows how a government cock up can be turned to something positive
Darlo1973
Striker
Not that much of an outlier in Europe. Ireland, Iceland, Hungary, France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark are all dominated politically and economically by one city.
It's only Germany which has a lot of similar sized cities. In the Netherlands a lot of government functions are in Den Haag rather than Amsterdam.
Indeed. Private ownership is wonderful.
It is why we have shit public transport, overpriced railways, shit telecoms, sewage in our rivers and rising fuel poverty across the nation, and a Royal Mail which is dysfunctional and corrupt. All of these things got privatised.
All Hail Maggie's free market !
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MackneyHackem
Striker
I could ride it for a weekend but I couldn’t live on it.
And a lot of financial organisations in and around Utrecht.
Darlo1973
Striker
Which is why things are built in the SE - you are within a couple of hours of a population of tens of millions in England, France, Benelux and parts of Germany which is one of the wealthiest mega-regions in the world.
That's good.
if London gets in a fight, as they have done in the past, will they expect the excluded Northerners to protect these lovely facilities for them, or will it be the armies of France, Germany and the Benelux that they will call on ?
Darlo1973
Striker
Maybe that is why London and much of the SE voted to remain in the EU as the feel more in common with their continental friends than the regions. But perhaps that's one for the politics forum...
Helvellyn
Full Back
We can all push things into the quagmire , failure is an orphan as the saying goes and the prevailing "ask no questions" culture around construction spend in this country continues. These mega-projects are almost always late and / over budget as you say, but it's not just mega-projects it is in % terms negligible the amount of work which gets done to the budgets which win tender.
Once the state is spending on infrastructure all bets are off on the size of the gravy train, these private companies take the absolute piss with it all the while their executives are raking in money few on here would care to believe; you have leadership teams signing off on hiring project managers with Prince 2 certification who clear £600-800 a day, failing the project & chucking the tax into the ether, and thats the tip of the ice berg.
Some corporate governance and consequences for these companies is what should be in play, otherwise you'll have hatchet jobs and rackets like the Carillion fiasco.
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Check the numbers.
I'll think you will find that most of the Leave votes came from the Home Counties. Professor Danny Dorling has published work on this
And also why Pret A Manger branches are distributed as they are.
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Darlo1973
Striker
We'll know leveling up is working when there is a Pret in Bishop and a Waitrose in Peterlee.
GTG
Striker
I think there is plenty of mention of that, tbf.
Given that the SE already subsidises the rest of the country through its taxes it's only fair they should be able to get to work more quickly.
The Lambton Worm
Striker
This is an interesting read comparing the North of England & Randstad areas.
What the Netherlands can tell us about why London is rich and the North isn’t
Despite being the same in population, scale and density, the Netherlands has consistently invested in transport infrastructure while the North has not.
inews.co.uk
Travelling around London has certainly improved over the years, don't know about levelling up, but still seems to be plenty of building work going on down there, you would think they would stop, and move all the cranes, tunnellers and cement mixers up to the North wouldn't you? nah ! me neither, levelling up is a load of Tory bollocks.
Anyway back on topic, got train from St Pancras to Maze Hill ( for Greenwich) last weekend, piece of piss, 28 minutes, would've took an hour+ back in the day on the tube. Same with Brighton, straight through from St Pancras, back in the day had to travel across London to Victoria. The young uns don't know how lucky they've got it today when down in London
Anyway back on topic, got train from St Pancras to Maze Hill ( for Greenwich) last weekend, piece of piss, 28 minutes, would've took an hour+ back in the day on the tube. Same with Brighton, straight through from St Pancras, back in the day had to travel across London to Victoria. The young uns don't know how lucky they've got it today when down in London
