Cross rail will be ace. They can spent what they want on it. 

HS2 on the other hand is a total cluster fook

Which allows me to shoehorn in my annual reminder that this amount was the cost of an entire tram system for Leeds and deemed "too expensive". 

can't people in Leeds just ride their whippets on the way to the gravy factory / flatcap mines or where ever they work?

And here's cookie's annual response. 

A bit off-topic, but is Leeds designed to take advantage of muppets (like me) who take a 7-quid taxi ride to get to some place that is a 2-minute walk from the train station?

PP - most taxi drivers at the station will refuse to take you. They've been queuing for 30 minutes and want a decent fare. 

I had a night out in leeds fairly recently, first time in about 8 or 9 years. Very aggressive. Seemed everyone was out for a scrap.

They're just angry at the lack of investment in a decent public transportation system. 

I don't think we really want to go down the route of measuring the friendliness of a city by the attitude of its taxi drivers. Do we? 

. 

i've found northern taxi drivers to be consistently friendlier / better than those unmitigated aunts who drive black cabs in london.

One in Hull told me about when some lad stepped into the road and mooned him. "So, I ran him over".

heh

Why we keep ploughing billions into Londons transport infrastructure which is already by far the best in the country when London the South East is already full and we should be encouraging people to work in other places which have abysmal public transport is beyond my understanding - or rather it isn't, most policy makers live in London and the South East.