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I'm not sure it's a false dichotomy, you could have Cambourne served by heavy rail and metro, but it might cause a drop in the cost/benefit of both, and the document suggests that since the commuters from Cambourne are mostly headed to the West Cambridge site and Science Park, so using heavy...

I believe they are also useful if the branch is rarely used, as one of the turnouts is not traversed constantly and thus requires less maintenance.

I am sure it all is, but I haven't read most of it, in common with the vast majority of people. Saying there is no excuse for not knowing things is quite a hurtful attack to make on someone who I hope is demonstrating a willingness to learn, and a reasonably open mind. I don't know what you do...

But isn't that the fault of the government, not the industry themselves? It's all down to what is considered important enough to think about.

I don't know, the rail network is building new lines, and trying new services, and London is getting all sorts of things done. There is even discussion about changing the fare structure. I live in hope.

I would argue that the reason the mobile networks work well is that I can choose from different networks to call my family, in a way that I can't choose a different rail company to take me to visit them.

As, I said, tricky. I have no answers. But I am behind you on the last comment 100%.

Having read through your message, I can see some of the problems with my initial post, but I take issue with the whole thing being wide of the mark, I think there are still some valid points. This is interesting, I never knew the details of how it worked, but I suspect I am not the only one...

I see your point, that's why I said it was from another age. Letting it die however might be a problem. Not much comes by post, but some of it is essential, and I think it might be made more useful and profitable by forcing internet deliveries to use it for the final delivery, as squizzler...

I'm not sure about this view. Some of it is interesting, nationalising Facebook or Google never occurred to me, but I can see the point, having monopolies of communication and information accountable to no-one but the shareholders is maybe dangerous, but the railways are becoming more...

That is interesting, I never really though about US rail and bus, they never seem to be big things over there. And I thought the size and layout of the country does not lend itself to long distance rail. I'm guessing you are not a fan of our bus system? If so, I agree, I don't know why people...

Because my main point was the difference between the extreme positions, and the US is extreme capitilism. I know that most of western Europe uses a different system. I have never experienced it, but I have family living in Germany, and they have never had problems, so I assume it does work well...

It's not comparing to road that is important, at least to me. It's the fact that we pay money in taxes to give a particular business the stuff that most other businesses would need to pay for in start up costs, i.e. a site to operate from. I still maintain that is a subsidy for them, and it...

I never said it would be, I just meant that it is a lie that it could never be. And nationalised infrastructure can be more efficient, just compare the prices and results of the NHS, and the American health system. Some people take it on faith that private companies are better in every...

Ignoring the costs of enhancement work is a bit disingenuous, as that is needed to provide growth. If companies need the government to provide infrastructure for them to run on to produce profit, then the money spent on that infrastructure is a subsidy. I don't know what the plan is for HS2 once...

I know nationalism isn't necessarily perfect, but the problem I have is that the rail network as a whole is not and will never be directly profitable, it has to be subsidised to work, produce economic benefits, and in some cases a social or environmental good, even at a cost. The current system...

That's a good point, I wonder if anything could be done to mitigate that. And is that a likely failure mode? I can imagine the failure of a servo to start moving is much more likely than a mid point stop, but I have no evidence of this. Maybe someone else has an idea?

The Todmorden Curve was £10m 4 years ago, although that was much shorter, and was reinstating a previously lifted line. The Ipswich Chord also included 4 bridges and 2 embankments. My guess is a price between these two (plus inflation). Whether it's worth it is a different question. My feeling...

Looking at the mechanism diagrams, it looks to me that the cannot fail stuck, as if the cam fails to move, the blades can still be lifted by the other motors, leaving the failed motor where it is, since the cams are not connected to the tie rod (is that the right name?). It would even be able to...

I thought Bletchleyite meant dropped from the X5 route, once the Western section of EW Rail was completed.