It’s late and I have just spent 3.5 hours on a ‘cross country’ train from Birmingham to Newcastle so I may have said this before. Infrastructure needs to be seen as a complex integrated network of trains, internet, public transport, housing and so on. When I was on the train to Leeds to Halifax on Tuesday evening I was listening to two people talking about transport infrastructure and how it was becoming an issue for the whole of the UK economy. This brings out the following points:

1. Why does it take 3 hours and 30 minutes to travel from Newcastle to Birmingham (distance 211 miles), yet it takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel from Newcastle to London (distanct 275 miles)?

2. Why is R.Branson lauded as a great businessman?

The Victorians created networks of railways, postal services and sewage systems among other things. All of these have been allowed to be deliberately run down (in the case of the railways), face an uncertain future (post office) or are becoming increasingly inefficient (sewage and water systems which ‘leak’ huge quantities of fresh water every day).

What hope for the future of the networks being created at the start of the 21st century? These are after all going to be critical for the well being of future generations. If they end up like the UK railways I would recommend you do all your surfing now while you can.

Final random thought on this; if anyone is checking this for my Christmas present list, this is one of the things at the top of it Infrastructure: A Field Guide . Now if only I had the time, I would very much like to write the UK equivalent…