Grow Heathrow - Welcome Squatters?

We don't need any new roads or railways, we just need to fix the ones we've already got, and then to bring them into the 21st century.

See this route here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Coatham Road, Redcar&daddr=Marton Road, Middlesbrough&hl=en&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=7.208896,21.643066&geocode=FapkQQMdxY7v_ylX09MID_B-SDEeZAb4A4o6HA;Fd1_QAMdpFbt_ymxWFxNVOx-SDFSXGj9xNuXJQ&oq=marton road&mra=ls&t=m&z=12

Locally to me, that's a very important route. It connects the ever grown town of Redcar to Middlebrough and the other major towns of the north east. For years it was fit for the job, because Redcar didn't really have enough going on to need anything better, but in recent years with the twon growing both residentially and commercially, it got to the point where it just wasn't working.

Its fine now. No new road was built. I think planners often get it wrong, but this time they didn't. A few roundabouts have been binned, and the minor roads that used to connect on those roundabouts now no longer do, but they were hardly used anyway and there's other suitable junctions for them a few hundred yards along. The modifications have really opened up the route, without occupying any more land.

Granted sometimes it will be necessary to occupy land. For example the Channel Tunnel was a worthy project I think, but in those situations compulsory purchase is not the morally right. I say they should either getting affected home owner to agree (maybe financial incentives way above the market value of their home+relocation costs), or they have to find another place to put the project.

 

I tend to think that just using what is already there is a non starter.
We need high speed link from north to south and from east to west in order to get to places faster, the existing ones are OK but if you stop at every station and use existing track its not high speed.
Lets face it "high speed" only works over long distances, the short runs we have down here in Kent are pointless without extensions that cover the whole country.

Railways like straight lines, so some compulsory purchase is bound to happen, but as FC says it should be well thought out from day one, without years of hesitation.