Very sad. The first batman I saw on the big screen as a kid.

Great thread, simon! Very clear explanation.

Alternatively, a flamingo got together with Bruce Wayne and this is what hatched.

HS2 WAS the innovative idea to improve capacity. Signalling improvements and electrification add capacity but they're not a step change in letting you run many more trains. A new HS line taking fast trains from a mixed line let's you run more closely spaced slower services on that mixed line.

Goes without saying HS2's failure is entirely political, not technical.

I think that episode and the episode where a juvenile on death row isn't pardoned serve as bookends on what the show's views of the principles of the office were.

A lot of pricing on the UK's railways serves to artificially damp down demand. The easiest way to get prices down is to run more trains. For that you need more capacity. So you have to build new (preferably high speed) lines.

Ah fair enough. I'm sure that the discourse will run on and on, much to everyone's annoyance.

At this point I think he doesn't care anymore what the consequences are. He's never going to face an electorate again.