this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
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That's due to corruption, not because ~~AVEs~~ high speed rails are hard to build (and the UK is much flatter than Spain..)
I understood that some stupid old laws were involved too, allowing any random village to veto infrastructure like this (sounds good in theory, but doesn't really work in practice)
Also modern ones, such as animal protection laws requiring a 900m tunnel to protect bats, at a cost of £100 million.
I don't think it is (only) corruption. I blame two things, on one side there is no meaningful and certainly no long term political support for high speed rail infrastructure, neither in politics nor among voters on the other side legislation is seriously anti-rail development. Laws are tough on any infrastructure projects, causing overheads larger than the actual construction costs (possibly even multifold larger) but they are especially hostile against rail projects and even against operating rail.
Geography isn't even part of that equation, it is an entirely different debate. (California is not so different from Spain, dry, mix of mountains and flats etc)
If only. It’s the universal western sickness of every change being up for endless debate, hearings and vetoes while doing nothing is seen as the default. Of course doing nothing is just as much a choice as doing something…
And yet it’s likely to get much worse, after we recover from seeing what happens when you DOGE it. The only bright spot here is the more illegal actions can be eventually walked back in court. That doesn’t undo the damage, but we’re going to need more laws like that