30 billion makeover for Britain's railways

The Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has announced a 30 billion plan to transform Britain's railways into a high-speed transport network. . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .

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[willsham45]

2017, and I bet the system they will use will only let us go so far before needing replacing again to do that bit extra.

[GanzZulu]

@hans2406 when have the ice trains reched above 500kmh? i have never heard or seen that. the tgv can be almost as fast as maglev but only under special test conditions, and they have never achieved maglev speed on day-day commercial service. the maglev has achieved 500kmh on the track in shanghai, although its not normally done it was achieved on the maiden run of the system while it was carrying passengers for the first time. and that was only an eight minute journey, not 100s of miles.

[hans2406]

@GanzZulu So sorry, but Maglev is near death. The costs are boiling over, safety is not guaranteed. Besides, the realistic Maglev speed will be around 450 km/h, the TGV/ICE speed is already tested above the 500 km/h. Also, the TGV/ICE can also run on normal lines, Maglev can only run on elevated and specialised tracks. Maybe, just maybe, in a far future Maglev, or something entirely different will be the chosen mode of mass transport, now of course it is the plaything of private companies.

[GanzZulu]

@hans2406 the maglev is cheaper than rail, take a look at the UK ultraspeed proposal. faster, cheaper, greener than rail. the japanese are developing maglev technology, which they hope they can develop into a national system. the chinese have put in a commercially successful system, and have plans to extend the lines and create a national system spanning different cities. maglev can travel almost 200km faster than the french TGV, it just much better than the victorian rail technology.

[hans2406]

@iCarlyFanUK1234 Maglev is a dead. See what happened in China. No country in the world sees any reason to choose maglev. Already normal rail technology is nearing the top speed of in fac t much more expensive maglev technology

[iCarlyFanUK1234]

I didn't like Lord Adonis. I am not a tory but I somewhat prefer Philip Hammond. Adonis has not heard of UK Ultraspeed, the other bid for a new high speed network (maglev and surprisingly at a much cheaper price!). check out their website 500 kmh dot com. cant type web adress in comment

[tramtrackharry]

a nice little story for the journalists; they dance to the piper's tune

[legalizemarijuananos]

just bring in cheap chinese and muslim laborers and pay them 20 pounds a month.

[retromunkey]

and where will 30 billion come from?...

...you guessed it...

[TheVMFA333]

enjoy the new taxes