This is the party of conpetence (pun intended). As soon as it looked likely this was going into the north, it quickly changed to “we cannot afford this”. This has been a storyline that has transcended decades. We are back to Jam tomorrow speeches for the north. There has been no attempt to replace what was lost from the EU. The Tories have very few mates in the north so why spend there.
Except most people on those intercity trains are trying to get to or from London, so it doesn’t make sense to just run Birmingham to Manchester. You have to run to London to get that capacity benefit.
Once more, it is about capacity for local trains, not intercity trains.
But to get that capacity, you’re moving the intercity trains off of the existing lines.
Yes.
And you basically can’t do that unless those trains are going to London
Easy change at Birmingham.