The rail industry was asked nearly 20 years ago what would best increase capacity in our existing infrastructure and this is what they cam up with. Faster, more frequent services on a high speed line that frees up paths on old mainlines for more local services and more rail freight, as these are at capacity right now
Sure, you can argue that it wasn’t a perfect plan, but it’s what we have. Framing it as “high speed travel to London” is what the press have been doing for 15 years and is disingenuous.
Of course it doesn’t matter because even before this latest idiocy the plan had been gutted down enough that a lot of that extra capacity wouldn’t have appeared, and we instead have spent billions extra tunnelling under fields near rich people’s homes so they wouldn’t have to hear trains every now and then
My local conservative council has done the same. No new services, no bus route or transport, no local shops, just the cheapest way for developers to maximise their profit and shove more cars on the already overfilled roads
They spent the entire time complaining that they were forced to by central government, and their hands were tied. I’m extremely pro new housing but it just makes me sad when they build these soulless empty estates with tiny streets that end up jammed with parked cars (because no transport and driveways take up space that could be used to sell more houses), with naught but maybe a small co-op if the developers were feeling generous.