Unfortunately we have the oldest railway in the world in continuous use, running mostly at capacity, with draconian planning laws, ridiculous land costs, population density, and a stupid general public.

You'd be hard pressed to find any capital project that's been built in the UK that anyone regrets, and that includes the Millenium Dome. I'm old enough to remember opposition to HS1 ("No to route 2!"), and opposition to CrossRail.

No one would argue that any of those were a waste.

Yet we've cancelled parts of HS2.

With the absurd bidding process of:

Govt: we have a budget of £10bn for this section in the Cotswolds, how cheap can you do it?

Bidder, erm, £9.99bn ??

Govt: ok!

Bidder: kerching!

Trying to find the link, but Rob Holden, HS1 boss, stated that HS2 budgets were publicly disclosed and the above is pretty much the outcome of contract firms knowing how much the Govt is prepared to pay.

Had we pressed ahead with HS2 we might have gotten an HS3 and 4, but that's vanishingly unlikely now.

> Assuming the London train even leaves the station and is not delayed or cancelled, as usual.

Apparently German trains are far worse than London right now.