Blog

This is a blog where I comment on stuff I find interesting. There is no sole purpose for this blog. I may talk about life, politics, transport, music, defense, sports. Sometimes it is ten past midnight in the cold January winter and I just want to yap about something I find interesting, crazy, great, disappointing, and so on and so forth. So don't come in here expecting something consistent. Maybe at a later date. This is for people and I to get a better insight into my head. Think of it as a diary.

15/01/2026 - 00:36 - First time on here complaining about rail in the UK: didn't take long

I was hopeful about the UK government’s decision to pursue Northern Powerhouse Rail, until it was announced that it will be “finished” (if any infrastructure project has taught us) when I am 38 years old. I am 18.

And it won’t be built very well. I have done a bit more deeper reading than just looking at the headline and the measly £1 billion pledged out of probably the £50 billion it will need. This BBC News Article (Why the Northern Powerhouse Rail plan will really go ahead this time - BBC News) says that the line “will not be built to HS2 specifications”. What does that mean? Speed - fine. One of the pitfalls of HS2 was its name: High Speed 2. It does what it says on the tin, creating a route for up-to-date high speed trains; what was so badly advertised was the removal of the existing high speed services onto their own dedicated track. Even if no new services were introduced with the increased capacity on the already “busiest rail corridor in Europe” West Coast Main Line, it would drastically reduce delays and cancellations as there would be greater flexibility with paths and what trains can be where at what times. Saying that, flexibility did not work great for McLaren in Qatar 2025. Will it not use ETCS? Will it not be at the running gauge of HS2? Yes, that would make things cheaper as the track could be narrower, but then that limits any and all future-proofing. 

If HS2 and NPR was built correctly, with the originally planned rail corridor between HS1 and HS2, then the south east and the midlands and the north of the UK would be amazingly connected. Not only to itself, but also to Europe. Politicians are not brave enough to build, as they will all either be dead at this rate of completion, or we would’ve switched to a different political party in power. Or if you’re the tories, you would’ve gone through 20 prime ministers by the time it was all completed.

I’ve kept it short because its half past midnight and I have work in nine and a half hours, but from this you can tell:

• I like trains

• I am not right wing

• For gods sake just build infrastructure in this country, preferably before I die.