High Speed Line to -somewhere or other-
According to The Times today, plans for a 'high-speed' rail network in the UK are currently on hold because of disagreement about the precise routing into London.
The so-called 'Labour plan' being promoted by the incumbent government involves the line (from the north) having a major 'hub' station at Old Oak Common (west London) before terminating at Euston Station in central London. An 'ordinary' rail loop from Old Oak Common would feed Heathrow Airport.
The so-called 'Conservative plan' promoted by the probable next government favours the line instead serving a major hub at Heathrow Airport (extreme west London), with a spur terminating at Euston and the main line passing through Stratford International (east London, where the Olympics will be) as the existing 'HS1' high-speed line to the Channel Tunnel.
Diagrams of the respective plans here
Now in my opinion, there are 2 major objectives for any high-speed line; from the point of view of someone such as myself residing north of London. For any 'high-speed' line to be any use there would need to be:
1) Direct trains to central London (read 'Euston')
2) Direct trains to mainland Europe (read 'Channel Tunnel')
Each of the proposed plans at present allow one and not the other of these objectives.
There are similar problems in siting any high-speed station in Birmingham too; there are proposals for HS lines going through the existing New Street Station, plans for the major terminal to be placed at Birmingham Int'l Airport instead, and plans for the line(s) to bypass the city entirely.
Previously a new 'Birmingham Grand Central Station' was proposed, on the site of the former Curzon Street Station immediately east of the city centre; on land now allocated by the council to parks, government offices and the like. This proposal would have bypassed the continued capacity problems at New St while providing HS links (almost) right into the city centre. Alas; this plan was rejected and now New St Station is going to have an entirely cosmetic makeover.
All of these disputes reveal a lack of direction about what these HS lines are actually for. Are they intended for domestic intercity rail travel? As massvely overengineered airport links? Are they intended as direct links to Europe? Seemingly nobody knows, and until that somewhat important point is decided any further 'planning' is pointless. Trains, especially high-speed trains need to have their routes set in stone at a very early stage. A 200mph train is utterly pointless if it needs to stop at various stations along the route because nobody could decide where best to place the major terminals. They need to travel long distances in one shot to be worthwhile, and the UK is already 'small' in relation to the distances covered by other countries' high speed trains.
I personally like the idea of sleek trains bombing around at 200+mph, but the fact that nobody knows what the point of them would be makes me wonder if there is a point to them at all.
Fuel duty rise & the cost of motoring
On the 1st September UK fuel duty is to rise by £0.02/litre to £0.5619/litre (on both unleaded petrol and diesel). Currently, both fuels are available in the West Midlands for £1.029/l (US $6.28/US Gal) pump price. The final pump price includes VAT (currently temporarily cut to 15% from 17.5%), which is applied to the price including the fuel duty.
I'd like to take this opportunity to outline how this taxation adds up, over a year, for the typical car or lorry (semi-truck, for Americans).
Note: Today's GBP-USD exchange rate is $1.6266/£1. 1 UK gallon is 4.55 litres. 1 US gallon is 3.75 litres. All 'gallons' are UK gallons unless otherwise stated.
Cars:
I'll assume an 'average' car to be a 1.6 Ford Focus (petrol), which I am reliably informed achieves an average of 37mpg, and travels 12,000 miles per year.
Per year, this car will use 324 (UK) gallons of petrol, which at 4.55L/gallon comes to 1,476 litres. At 1.049p/litre (next week's price), this comes to £1,548.32 annual fuel cost ($2,518.50). The fuel duty (tax) alone comes to £829.36 ($1,349.04). The VAT (at 15%) is £201.95. The actual tax-free cost of the fuel is £517.01 (or 35p/litre, or $2.14/US Gal). Depending on which way you like to look at it, this means that 66% of the pump price is tax, or that fuel is taxed at a rate of 200%.
For those who prefer a per-mile figure, fuel comes to 12.9p/mile, fuel taxes are 8.5p/mile and untaxed fuel is 4.4p/mile.
Added to this is the annual Vehicle Excise Duty (commonly known as "road/car tax") which for this car is £150/year. This tax is levied, basically, on the official fuel consumption of the car (full details here) and for some cars (with the worst fuel economy) can be up to £405/year.
In total, running this car costs £1,181.31 in (fuel and road) tax alone, per year.
Lorries/trucks:
For these calculations, we'll assume a 40-tonne (gross) articulated lorry, travelling 60,000 miles per year at an economy of 10mpg.
Gross mass is the maximum combined mass of the vehicle and load combined. The 60,000 mile per year figure is from page 8 of this. 10mpg is an optimistic figure for a 40-tonne lorry, and is a fudge based on the economy of a lorry that I know very well. I have seen figures claiming average economies as low as 6.7mpg, but I'll assume 10, which makes the tax figures following lower than in reality.
At 10mpg this lorry will consume 6,000 gallons (27,300 litres) of diesel per year. At pump price, this comes to £28,637.70 /year. Of course, (most) businesses reclaim VAT so a more accurate figure is the VAT-free cost of £24,902.35/year. The fuel duty alone comes to £15,339.87 per year.
Do you want some per-mile figures as well? Pump prices: 47.7p/mile, VAT-free: 41.4p/mile, fuel duty only: 25.6p/mile, untaxed fuel: 15.8p/mile.
There is VED to pay as well, for this lorry it's £1,850 per year.
In total, in fuel tax and VED alone, this lorry costs £17,189.87 per year in tax.
For both vehicles, annual testing fees, maintenance and other costs are extra. The lorry costs do not include the cost of (and taxes on) the driver, depot, safety compliance, etc etc etc.