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Our roads are an ongoing problem, having to maintain and widen them, building more and more over limited countryside.

Why can't they build a container railway line up the centre of the country with spurs wherever needed for large towns en route.

This takes the heavy lorries off the roads freeing up lots of space and the damage they cause.There was talk of building a fast rail link for passengers at a fantastic outlay, but why ?

Ban heavy freight from the roads and set up a rail network and distribution depots nationwide. This frees road space,lessens damage,and pollution.

I can't see any drawbacks, apart from objections from motor transport companies, but the long term benefits for the country would out weigh all that.

I can see benefits to that.

Or as an alternative. Turn every railway line into a road for freight trucks and coaches.. Train tracks are, by design, very inefficient. Nose to tail trucks and coaches would use the space better.

We could get on with driving our cars on the freed up roads.

Either way a drastic solution needs to develop

The trouble is most of the shops are not located next to railway stations you would still need lorreies to do local deliveries the additional logistic costs make it uneconomic - each contaimer still needs either one large or several smaller lorries and vans to get the stuff to the doorstep or shop back door. I live near large tesco, nisa and asda distributions centres, they rail freight some of the stuff in but still have fleets of lorries delivering to the stores not to mention all the stuff that can't be transported by rail that comes in by road. At least the much maligned out of store shopping centre has the benefit of keeping of keeping lorries away from town centres.

We curently have a government that is ideologically opposed to anything that smacks of socialism like integrated transport policies, remember when locakl authorities used to run the bus services and the like?

The idea is to keep the bulk of the heavy lorry traffic off the roads, supermarkets have distribution centres because it make economic sense, why not the whole country ?

A dedicated rail network would be more efficient and financially more attracive, especially if they put a premium on artics using motorways.

It makes a lot more sense to rail freight goods up and down the country than spend all those billions putting in a high speed rail for moving a few people.

Bruv;1483859 wrote: The idea is to keep the bulk of the heavy lorry traffic off the roads, supermarkets have distribution centres because it make economic sense, why not the whole country ?

A dedicated rail network would be more efficient and financially more attracive, especially if they put a premium on artics using motorways.

It makes a lot more sense to rail freight goods up and down the country than spend all those billions putting in a high speed rail for moving a few people.


What makes you think there isn't? Every night there are thousands of lorries on the motorways taking stuff from one distribution centre to another for redistribution locally. You send a pallet or a parcel from one end of the country to another it goes to a central distribution depot gets put on a lorry and taken to a local distribution centre near the ustomer where it is put on a van and taken to where you sent it. It would quite simply not be practical to end it by rail to most parts of the country because there are no railways. Unless yoiu have a government willing to spend the money putting in the infrastructure. More people would travel by rail if it was actually cheap and convenient and reliable like it is in many european cities where they think public transport is an esential service not something benefitting the conomy and not something that should necessarily be in private hands like the tories and new labour do.

I must have failed to explain in the first post.

Instead of spend spend spend on roads going nowhere fast all clogged with articulated lorries carrying stuff to main towns for distribution,spend on a permanent network for freight, railways would suit that purpose best. We live on an island that is basically long and thin, so a central mainline running up the centre with stops and spurs at critical places would solve so many road problems. It would take a lot of investment and a change in the road transport industry, but long term it could be as advanced as the Victorians building sewers and water distribution that has stood the test of time.

Bruv;1483868 wrote: I must have failed to explain in the first post.

Instead of spend spend spend on roads going nowhere fast all clogged with articulated lorries carrying stuff to main towns for distribution,spend on a permanent network for freight, railways would suit that purpose best. We live on an island that is basically long and thin, so a central mainline running up the centre with stops and spurs at critical places would solve so many road problems. It would take a lot of investment and a change in the road transport industry, but long term it could be as advanced as the Victorians building sewers and water distribution that has stood the test of time.


Well apart from the mountain ranges running east to west separating north from south (that's why there are east and west coast rail liness) I suppose it must seem that way if you live in kent.



We used to have such a network but not enough people used it to make it economically viable and the political will to invest in the future was never there and still isn't IMO. One large 44 ton lorry equates to 30 vans or 6 7.5 tonners. It's just not terribly practical you need good connecting links to get to the main hubs and doing that by rail just isn't practical you would still need large numbers of lorries and vans to deliver the stuff locally it would arguably add to the congestio

The road links to the north of scotland and round newwcastle and in wales as well as large chunks of the undustrial estates were not built by the westminster government but by eu regional development funds. Leaving aside the pros and cons if eu membership for a moment there is no way tory and new labour givernments would have invested that kind of money in developing the regions, come to that in the present climate of privatised must make a profit utilities large parts of the ountry would not have received thuings like electricity, telephones or TV for the simple resson it was not economically viable despite the undoubted benefits and browth in the economy it brought. I'm sure there are parts of rural kent that has very few people living there just imagine life withouit nationalised utilities and whether they would recive electricity or gas supplies.

Heven't been to kent for many years I try to avoid the south east or anywhere near london as much as possible.

The whole current debate about whether you have more austerity or spend on infrastructure and services to encourage industry is a very old one as it stands fascist economics holds sway the verfy concept of investment of the nature you sugget has them gibbering in shock at the very idea.

Why John Maynard Keynes's Theories Can Fix the World Economy - Businessweek

gmc;1483896 wrote: Well apart from the mountain ranges running east to west separating north from south (that's why there are east and west coast rail liness) I suppose it must seem that way if you live in kent.




Yes of course. we lead such an enchanted, fairytale life here in Westeros. We know nothing of what goes on in Winterfell.

You have a strong tendency to reinforce some need to extend this North/South divide, like us in the privileged South, know nothing of the world. I worked in Edinburgh, years ago and guess what ! We all had the same interests/desires/fears/concerns/troubles/ambitions.......Remarkable just how similar we were and just how insignificant this perceived difference is. Rich is rich and poor is poor where ever you live. It's tiresome.

Must dash. Ive got to polish the Bentley and make sure the staff have cleared the leaves off the drive

Snowfire;1483900 wrote: Yes of course. we lead such an enchanted, fairytale life here in Westeros. We know nothing of what goes on in Winterfell.

You have a strong tendency to reinforce some need to extend this North/South divide, like us in the privileged South, know nothing of the world. I worked in Edinburgh, years ago and guess what ! We all had the same interests/desires/fears/concerns/troubles/ambitions.......Remarkable just how similar we were and just how insignificant this perceived difference is. Rich is rich and poor is poor where ever you live. It's tiresome.

Must dash. Ive got to polish the Bentley and make sure the staff have cleared the leaves off the drive


Actually I was replying to bruv - there is a very good geographical reason why we don't have railways running down the middle of the country it's just not practical. The point about the regional development fund is germane as a westminster based government would not have made the same kind of investments the likes of ukip always argue that the meney we received was just our own being given back to us - it's not that simple.

The simple fact is all the wwealth and power gets concentrated around london and the south east to the detriment I would suggest of everybody else.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/proj ... ed-funding

It is not an imagimnary divide and most people in the soujth east have probably never ventirted much outside their own areas to visitr the rest of the country.

Surprised you don;t have a man to valet your bentley rouynd here there are numerous poles runnimng car cleaning services

It's a dream, an ideal, like your Socialist Independent Scotland, the Roman's straight roads, and the Victorian's long sighted sewage system.

My son still has a cesspit in Kent, I have a son that lives in Greenock and a daughter in Perthshire, her water fed from a burn.

I was born and brought up in London of working class parents in a council house,and now live in Kent.

I do live in the real world.

I am thinking 'outside the box' 'pushing the envelope', thinking what might be a long term national project to improve the infrastructure of an island country.

A central super freight railway from the main inward ports to the main points throughout the country would alleviate wear and tear and ease congestion plus being a much more efficient system of distribution.......in my opinion.

I fail to see the necessity for a High Speed rail link carrying a few businessmen with all the cost involved, especially when the country's roads are creaking under the strain and forever under repair due to massive bloody lorries churning them up.Whereas an integrated high speed national distribution network with hubs strategically placed for local delivery has lots of benefits.

Remember, the railways were originally created with the transportation of freight in mind, until Dr Beeching came along with all his Government Cuts which, surprise, surprise, were under a Tory Government.

Nothing really changes, does it.

Perhaps we should consider redeveloping the Canal Network?

FourPart;1483909 wrote: Perhaps we should consider redeveloping the Canal Network?


Along side the rail network ? Good idea.

Bruv;1483902 wrote: It's a dream, an ideal, like your Socialist Independent Scotland, the Roman's straight roads, and the Victorian's long sighted sewage system.

My son still has a cesspit in Kent, I have a son that lives in Greenock and a daughter in Perthshire, her water fed from a burn.

I was born and brought up in London of working class parents in a council house,and now live in Kent.

I do live in the real world.

I am thinking 'outside the box' 'pushing the envelope', thinking what might be a long term national project to improve the infrastructure of an island country.

A central super freight railway from the main inward ports to the main points throughout the country would alleviate wear and tear and ease congestion plus being a much more efficient system of distribution.......in my opinion.

I fail to see the necessity for a High Speed rail link carrying a few businessmen with all the cost involved, especially when the country's roads are creaking under the strain and forever under repair due to massive bloody lorries churning them up.Whereas an integrated high speed national distribution network with hubs strategically placed for local delivery has lots of benefits.


I've never suggested you don't live in the real world but IMO putting all the freight on the railways is just not practical, we do actually have central distribution hubs where goods are collected and re-shipped to the hub nearest to where the goods are to be delivered and those lorries pick up stuff to go back. It's very fast moving and flexible insisting it all goes on rail is just not feasible IMO. It's nothing personal I just don't agree with you Though I would agree wholeheartedly we could do more and need to plan ahead rather than build a new fast link get the existing ones working properly, there's something wring when it's cheaper to fly than it is to get a train to london.

There is a case for re-opening old regional railways and taking some of the commuting cars off the road but then you need other reliable public transport to get people to where they need to be and that requires joined up thinking and integrated transport policies which we did actually have at one point then it all got privatised and now we subsidise the rails more than we did when it was natuionalised except now public companies are being propped up. Spend a week in vienna their system is great one ticket gets you on trains trams and buses you just walk on and off without long waits in between.

Incidentally i doubt an independent scotland would be socialist in the way you seem to suggest, it was after all a scot that gave the world capitalism to think about just not the kind we are stuck with. Your son has my sympathy for living in greenock, nice views though.

Don't ubnderstand the need for hbigh sp[eed trains for businessmen have they nor heard of tele-conferencing why waste time on trains whn you donl;t have to

How's the weather in Italy Satria?