@1d7ca1eb Sounds a good plan! I was just about to write a further reply to add that many politicians in England north of London (including Birmingham) are of course rightly very annoyed that the money has all been squandered on more long tunnels to London than really needed (to placate NIMBYs), and that there have been many rail improvements in England too (especially by local PTEs), but for “national” projects it’s always London first and not spread properly fairly. 

 @9944ffcd 

Suspect the primary reason is cost-disease from too many layers of private companies skimming off a profit and then sub-contracting the actual work.

Combined with a complete refusal to actually govern from the government. You can hire a contractor to lay a track but if you hire a private managers to manage it and set the prices they will fuck you.

Nibyism is number two though I reckon.