The Shinkansen turns 60 this year. Meanwhile here in the UK we’re paying some of the highest rail fares in the world for journey times between major cities that are often longer than they were during the Victorian era.

GDgarethdennis.bsky.socialOct 20, 2024 8:23am

Forget the nonsense about reviewing costs on Phase 1 of HS2, today's real news is that this government has announced in no uncertain terms that it will not be progressing with Phase 2 to Crewe, Manchester or Leeds. Craven. Short-sighted. Hugely damaging.

As a country, we English have an almost perverse obsession with talking down things that other countries would be proud of. The utter conviction the 2012 Olympics would be a disastrous money sink, as one example. Luckily we were committed to that, or we’d probably have binned that one off too…