If I were to go from Birmingham New Street to Manchester tomorrow, it would take me 1hr 28mins.

Don't get me wrong, clearly shaving half an hour off that is half an hour I could be doing something else, but is that really a priority? Is that really the biggest transport need in this country?

Electrification, dialling of tracks, skipping stations, faster trains, taller bridges etc etc..all of that is good. And High Speed Rail is good too, but not at any price.

I'm struggling to think why people would really need to get between the centres of two very different cities in two very different parts of the country quicker than in an hour and 28 mins, esp when in most cases you can work on trains if so desired and you could easily lose 10-15 mins in a taxi or car either side of the stations anyway.

Like I said, they need to bake in these new projects and do it sharpish but I think it's the right decision.

Will be interesting to see if Labour propose to reverse it in their conference next week