If ever there was a perfect example of how improved infrastructure increases land value in the surrounding area it must be the Hindhead road tunnel on the A3 trunk road in Surrey. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond officially opened the tunnel yesterday. It will be the longest non-estuarial twin-bore tunnel in the UK, and has been built to tackle congestion and improve safety on this busy route...

The McNulty committee has produced a 350 page report on whether Britain’s railways give value for money and how things might be improved. Proposed changes to fares have naturally received the most attention and comment. Matters are, however, more subtle. The railways have suffered from a series of bad technical and engineering decisions since the mid-1950s, in part due to political interference....

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has published proposals for consultation that would, through the planning system, seek contributions from most new developments in the capital towards the costs of delivering Crossrail. These will form part of London’s share of the funding package for the project agreed between the Mayor and ministers. Crossrail, will, it is claimed, bring significant benefits...

Government support for the proposed high speed line from London to Birmingham and the north is hardening. This is unfortunate. The case is based on spurious arguments about the need to increase capacity. There is indeed a shortage of capacity at the London end of the West Coast Main Line – from about Rugby southwards, but this could be increased by upgrading existing routes and reinstating...

Dodgy Dossier reports that the CBI have issued a warning that Britain’s future economic prospects will be severely damaged if the Government goes ahead with planned cuts of £30bn in road, rail and building projects. These feelings were echoed by the Chairman of the Landed Gentry Association who, at a hastily called Press Conference this morning, said,

The branch line to Swanage, now run as a working museum and cut off from the main system in 1972, is to be re-connected to the national rail network, allowing regular services from places such as Bournemouth. Network Rail gave a consortium of local councils, rail and tourism groups until the end of July to come up with £3m to fund signalling improvements to allow regular trains to run. Dorset...

These car ferries are free. They must cost a fortune to run. To whose benefit? Answer must be not more than one word long. Fortunately some of the value is captured by LVT but not as much as might be. The trouble is that other taxes are so high that they cut heavily into land values. The amount that can be usefully be raised is much less than would otherwise be the case. Still, you don’t...

East London Line – May 2010, originally uploaded to flickr by Danny McL. The East London Line extension has now opened with this fleet of new trains. With further extensions it will eventually link Highbury with various destinations in south and south-east London. There are many journeys that people will now be able to make faster and more easily. Of course this will have a significant effect...

Proposals for Britain’s high speed railway (HS2) were announced a few weeks ago. We decided to wait and see what the reaction would be. On the whole, the proposals have generated little enthusiasm outside the railway press, with the commonest view being that the investment would be better spent on improving the railways we have already got. Predictably, there has been opposition from NIMBYs...

Such is the failure of Labour that one would have expected that the Conservatives would have been firmly set to win the next election. That the opinion polls show such a narrow lead is an indication of the Tories’ own inadequacy. When all they can offer is a vote for change, one must conclude that Britain’s political classes are utterly failing the country. “Vote for change”?...