From that article again:
"Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the route of the proposed rail line ploughed through rock-solid Tory constituencies on purpose given that the constituents were unlikely to vote Labour anyway."
It's high speed rail! They go in straight lines! The article helpfully includes a map of the planned route, looks like a straight line to me:
And as the General Election results map shows, you'd be hard pushed to draw a straight line - or any sort of line, come to that matter - starting from London (the little red patch in the south east corner) that doesn't go through 'rock solid Tory constituencies' (i.e. the blue bits):
Saturday 14 August 2010
It's a conspiracy, maan!
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5 comments:
It all depends where you draw the straight line from.Why start at London? Why do all roads lead to London?
There is a good argument for running high speed line down the east side of England linking up with the Channel Tunnel over an airport island in the Thames estuary ,with the existing London Paris line serving as a spur off that.The country is more easderly /European in orientation, now west coast ports like L'pool losing population fast.It is also very difficult,I believe,to go south from Yorkshire without changing trains.Surely there is some point in dispersing future population outside London for house price inflation reasons.
DBC, according to The Daily Mail logic, there should be no new railways or roads in the southern half of England.
So the North can look forward to lots of lovely new stuff being built - bullet trains from Hull to Liverpool stopping at Leeds and Manchester, and the people in 'solid Tory constituencies' can get round by horse and cart :-)
Well,maybe not a completely straight line, Mark.
DBC, sounds like you are talking about the old Great Central Railway, built to the continental loading gauge and largely disused (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Main_Line).
@bayard
Many thanks for the steer towards the Great Central Railway with its mission to link up with a Channel Tunnel so many years ago.On the face of it,it appears to be still too far west for my preference and going into London (although at the interestingly small but perfectly formed Marylebone ,where I used to hide in the bar instead of doing an early job).I believe Chiltern Railways runs out of there now,running, in the past, right up to the old Wembley Stadium. I wonder if this station is still there.
I still believe that London Birmingham and Manchester should be on spurs off an eastside line.
But the old Great Central Line does look the best choice of London orientated routes.
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