Matthew Yglesias » Fighting Recession With SUPERTRAINS

Oct 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am

Fighting Recession With SUPERTRAINS

UK Transportation Minister Geoff Hoon knows how it’s done:

In a statement to MPs, Mr Hoon, who took over the transport brief earlier this month, said: “In order to stimulate Britain’s economic growth and support our position as a leading world economy it is essential that we make the right long-term investments in our transport infrastructure and that we plan for future growth, in a way which is consistent with reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall.” [...]

Mr Hoon said he wanted to “accelerate” the work his department was doing on both long and short-term planning for the future of road transport, with more hard shoulder-running to increase capacity, and rail.

Note also that UK residents have the privilege of living in a country with a non-insane right-wing political movement. Thus:

The Tories, who have pledged to build a high-speed rail line and scrap Heathrow’s third runway plan, said the “non-announcement” was “empty words”.

Ah to have such complaints from our GOP.

Comments
33

Filed under: transportation, UK,

33 Responses to “Fighting Recession With SUPERTRAINS”

Captain Haddock Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Well the Tories are not made up of a bunch of snake handlers and witch hunters. The GOP would be against transit because Jesus never rode the subway.
rea Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:02 am
Man, that picture of Hoon is shocking! He seems to have aged quite a bit since Blind Melon broke up–drugs will do that to you, I guess.
jpeeps Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am
Fine words from Hoon – but they’re still cutting 10%+ off the budget:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7699242.stm
LOLxner Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am
All Ur SUPRTRANZ r belong to me!
James Gary Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:24 am
Man, that picture of Hoon is shocking! He seems to have aged quite a bit since Blind Melon broke up–drugs will do that to you, I guess.

Really? I think he looks remarkably well-preserved for someone who’s been dead since 1995.
Lance Knobel Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 11:47 am
The reason Britain now has a “non-insane” Conservative party is because they tried insanity for an incredibly long period of time (1978-2003), and found that after a period of success the country both hated them and thought them ludicrous.

It took them three general election losses to figure out they needed to move to the center. The Republican party will certainly need at least two losses to work it out, if the angry gnashing of teeth by the crazies is any indication.
Jumperface Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Lance Knobel could not be more right.
Guy Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I’d like to point out that California is also trying to fight recession with SUPERTRAINS.
Vermando Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Yes, yes, beat this one to death! Please! I would give anything for an adequate high speed train system in this country!
El Cid Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Matt Yglesias:

If you haven’t seen / downloaded them already, you may want to geek out on the BBC’s broadcasts in their “Nation on Film” series the BBC Transport Films.

A Nation on Film Special [The British Transport Films]

After World War Two, the Government paid film-makers to produce work that would persuade people to use public transport.

Some critics called their productions expensive propaganda, but the British Transport Films unit (BTF) produced some of our finest post-war documentaries.

The filmmakers were young, talented and ambitious – they were striving for success in the film industry.

Their films weren’t just about public transport – they captured a picture of post-war Britain when the age of steam was still near its height.

The head of the unit was Edgar Anstey, a leading figure in the British documentary movement.

The films captured the joys of rail travel

Anstey and his team were creative with their brief – making high-quality documentaries, commercials, travelogues and natural history films.

Many of the films were shown as ’shorts’ in the cinema.

The films captured images of life in post-war Britain – sometimes transport was given only a brief mention.

They often highlighted beautiful locations, and since most people didn’t have cars, the only way you could get there was by using public transport.

Eventually the unit won an Oscar for a natural history film, and several members of the team progressed to great success in the feature film industry.

They included including Billy Williams, a camera assistant, who went on to become an Oscar-winning cinematographer.

Celebrating modern railways

In many respects the films were about PR and spin, rather than being pure documentaries.

In the BTF’s vision of Britain there was little room, for example, for stories about over-crowded trains and dirty old towns.

They would go to great lengths to make locations look as attractive as possible – which often involved waiting for the sun to shine.

When it came to a story about the end of the tram there was trouble in the unit.

Some thought it was an important historical moment to capture on film, but Anstey was not happy as it didn’t fit with his vision of celebrating a ‘modern’ public transport system.

Also, when it came to the Beeching cuts, the unit followed their paymasters and produced a film entitled ‘Reshaping British Railways’.

Classic journeys

Nation on Film talks to some of the filmmakers who worked for the unit and tells their story – from the unit’s creation to their Oscar-winning success.

Following Nation on Film viewers have a chance to watch one of the unit’s classics in its original form.

‘Elizabethan Express’ follows the summertime express from Kings Cross, London, to Waverley Station, Edinburgh.

The film, made in 1954, celebrates the glamour of steam, and became popular because of its stunning images and use of rhyming commentary.
BruceMcF Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Vermando Says, on October 31st, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Yes, yes, beat this one to death! Please! I would give anything for an adequate high speed train system in this country!

Hell, never mind the HSR, even an adequate 110mph train system would be great here in Ohio. Sure, California needs true HSR, because of the distance between LA and the Bay, but east of the Mississippi, even 110mph will go quite a long way toward protecting regional travel from the next oil price spike.
Mixner Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Sure, California needs true HSR, because of the distance between LA and the Bay

The fantasy never dies. There’s about as much chance that California will get HSR as that Matt will vote for John McCain.
skiddie Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I (gag) agree with the Tories on this one. Why Labour is promoting such inconsequential plans vis-a-vis rail is beyond me. And I second the admonition to watch the British Transport Films– they’re currently being broadcast on BBC Four (and most are available online out of the UK), and are just fantastic. They give a great idea of how people saw public transportation, and what they valued in mass transport.
El Cid Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 4:19 pm
skiddie: The earlier series on the “Twenties In Colour” and related were some of the most astounding, beautiful documentaries I’ve ever seen. I am shocked they do not plan (as far as I had read) the series on disc.
James Wimberley Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I hate to say it, but the Tories are plainly right that Hoon is not actually announcing anything significant here.

Mixner in #12: I’m no expert on Californian politics, but if Proposition 1 passes, then California is committed to a HSR plan, isn’t it? The last poll in July showed a clear majority in favour, and that was before the financial crash, so that big infrastructure spending is now more attractive, not less. Once you spend the first $5bn the rest is inevitable.
Mixner Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Mixner in #12: I’m no expert on Californian politics, but if Proposition 1 passes, then California is committed to a HSR plan, isn’t it?

No. The proposition merely authorizes the sale of bonds. Funding for the project would have to be appropriated by the state legislature through the normal budget process. And actual spending of any appropriated funds would then be subject to a number of severe conditions and restrictions. The biggest obstacle is probably the requirement to obtain tens of billions of dollars in additional funding from the federal government and the private sector. Then there would be all the environmental and local community opposition to overcome. The chances that the thing will ever actually get built are close to zero.

Once you spend the first $5bn the rest is inevitable.

Once you’ve spent $5 billion, it’s “inevitable” that you’ll spend $45 billion? What is that idiot smoking? The proposition doesn’t even authorize anything close to $45 billion.
James Wimberley Says:
November 1st, 2008 at 6:17 am
Mixner: I put the argument briefly in the link, but here’s to repeat it. Once you have opened the first stretch of high-speed line – Fresno to Palmdale, or Paris to Lyon – then (a) the objective economies of networking increase the rate of private and social return on extending the line to say Marseille or LA; (b) the regions left out of the high-speed network (Sacramento, San Diego, Flanders, Aquitaine, Alsace-Lorraine) see a growing locational disadvantage and lobby like crazy to get in on the act. The vested interests of construction and equipment companies provide a third positive feedback loop: the prospect of $45bn or even $10bn in contracts finances an awful lot of lunches in Sacramento. How do you think the US interstate highway system got built?
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Matt Yglesias

Fighting Recession With SUPERTRAINS

33 Responses to “Fighting Recession With SUPERTRAINS”

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