On Mar 24, 7:44*am, wrote:
This is New Labour's proposal but is it the same as the Tory's
proposal?

We can't be too premature as there is an election to come anytime
soon.

Indeed, after the Euro election, if the result is as bad as is being
predicted, we may even have another new PM.

Harperson doesn't strike me as the train spotting sort.

The odds of any of this happening are extremely low. Nonetheless, it
is fun to brainstorm it. :-)

The odds of any of this happening are extremely low. *Nonetheless, it
is fun to brainstorm it. *:-)

I was just pointing out that an awful lot of water has to pass under
the political bridge over the next year or so.

Most commentators, at the moment, seem to be of the opinion that
whoever wins an election will be faced with having to unleash carnage
on public sector spending so what chance high speed rail up against
hip operations?

The chance of high speed rail being done profitably, the way it has
been done elsewhere, here in the UK are not good given our somewhat
over the top requirements on planning regulations, environmental
measures and safety restrictions.

The best chance of this happening will have to be a public private
initiative with some public sector cash to offset the cost of those
politically inspired constraints, leaving potentially a good prospect
for some money to be made by investors.

Another Eurotunnel maybe, only this time without the engineering risks
and with a healthy level of Government backing and you could well have
another of those, much missed, Government share issues we remember so
well from the 80s.

Though the sour memories of Eurotunnel and Railtrack would be hard to
erase, that’s for sure.

wrote in message
...

The odds of any of this happening are extremely low. Nonetheless, it
is fun to brainstorm it. :-)

I was just pointing out that an awful lot of water has to pass under
the political bridge over the next year or so.

Most commentators, at the moment, seem to be of the opinion that
whoever wins an election will be faced with having to unleash carnage
on public sector spending so what chance high speed rail up against
hip operations?

The chance of high speed rail being done profitably, the way it has
been done elsewhere, here in the UK are not good given our somewhat
over the top requirements on planning regulations, environmental
measures and safety restrictions.

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And utterly stupid requirement to fund the whole thing in one go rather than
doing it piece-meal like every other country does.

tim