The British Gazette » Extend the M11: An alternative to the High Speed Train.
Above, (click on the image to expand it) is a map showing the British Gazette's proposed extension of the M11 motorway. Currently the M11 terminates just to the north west of Cambridge. We think it should extend as far as Grimsby in Lincolnshire.
To spend £32 billion to shave 30 minutes off the rail journey from Leeds to London – and on a service that only those currently travelling First Class will use – is profligate lunacy and in these straightened times feckless irresponsibility.
Our proposed route for the M11 extension is that the three lane motorway should run roughly north north west to a point west of Chatteris and then roughly north so as to bisect the A151 between the villages of Moulton and Whaplode, then roughly north skirting Algkirk to the east and Kirton to the west, skirting Kirton End to the east and then north past Gipsey Bridge to the west New Bolingbroke to the east, Mareham-le-Fen to the west and Revesby to the east thus bisecting the A158 just under two miles east of Horncastle centre. Then roughly north to the west of Louth bisecting the A153 south west of Raithby, the A157 to the east of Welton –le-Wold and the A631 to the east of South Elkington, terminating at the 90 degree bend on the A18 north west of North Ormsby. We also propose that the stretch of the A18 running from that point to Junction 5 on the M180 should become a three lane motorway and that this be the M180 extended.
What would be the effects of this investment in the roads of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire? Dramatic.
Such investment would have the following benefits.
The construction of the motorway would boost the UK economy far more than the High Speed Train as sadly, most of the equipment and the billions of £ such equipment will cost will go to German firms. Building a motorway will ensure British jobs for British workers – and Irish of course!
The project would have an immediate payback so far as the national balance sheet is concerned due to the fact that the considerable costs of construction will be more than offset by the increase in property prices and land values in Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire is an area of generally low property values. Check this out by surfing onto the Rightmove website (Google Rightmove) and see what you can buy for £300,000 in Skegness and compare it with what £300,000 will buy where you live.
Since you Dear Reader as a UK taxpayer are now in the position of final guarantor of UK Bank Debt this is important. Why? Obvious. Many people in places such as Skegness will have mortgages. Were the value of their houses to increase – the homeowner's equity would increase and the bank loan to value ratio would decrease strengthening the bank's balance sheet.
Then of course there would be the increased trade and investment along the route. Grimsby and the towns either side of the motorway would experience a boom. This would mean people would become richer and pay more tax. Which will help the Chancellor of the Exchequer pay of the country's mountainous debt!
Of course there is a problem. Building the motorway and the subsequent traffic would release quantities of the well known and deadly planet destroying and polar bear exterminating gas, CO2. Oh Dear!
Slice off Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (the money loss areas) and create a grid system across what's left. This will be both quicker and cheaper to build and will provide the benefits mention. We can fund this with the money saved by getting rid of those areas.
We could also get the aforementioned populations to build it – after we cut them off – as cheap labour.
Nice idea but there is no way this will ever be built; to start with it cuts right through the Lincolnshire Wolds area of outstanding natural beauty and secondly it looks like it has been drawn on a map with a ruler – no concept of gradient etc. Living in the Lincolnshire Wolds, I know the proposed route and it goes through some mega valleys.
To improve our fuel situation the removal of all speed bumps, and maintaining roads better would allow for higher tyre pressures.
This would cut down on braking and re-acceleration. With less rolling resistance we would see much lower fuel consumption and without loss of comfort.
We need joined up thinking and progress, not short term junk science inspired blockheads.