[ekkeke]

Congrats to Germany for this one, I wish we could do the same in the UK.

It has seemed to me that the planning system in its current state is actually badly damaging our economy and posperity. We don't build enough houses, and when we do, the infrastructure that's needed to support them takes decades to build. I've been hearing about another heathrow runway, and new trainline, etc for years and yet it seems we're no closer to having these built. Now we're stuck paying most of our income into a 30 year mortgage rather than anything useful/productive. That money could have gone into the productive economy.

[dalbasal]

Ireland is similar, though notably better or worse on various specifics. Unsurprising to most, probably. I feel it's important to recall that these are not new tendencies. Both countries (and many of our neighbors) have a history of being suck at this particular general thing.

Housing prices is, perhaps, a separate question. I think we could probably do infrastructure really well and still have increasing house prices. The way to test that theory is to do infrastructure well, so I suppose my point is moot. Availability in either case, is undeniably bottlenecked by infrastructure.

The question why our authorities aren't better at building runways, train lines or hospitals. Nominal costs, as well as execution times and other overt signs point to serious underperformance. I think that one of the big problems is that any answer to this question is inevitably high politics. Any big success case represents a loss to a relevant political side, a major political interest or whatever. Emergencies tend to give one interest dominion, while also limiting options due to time constraints. That is a recipe for getting things done. It is an excellent lesson in true feasibility. Emergency isn't a solution though.

While a lot of the focus tends to be on corruption, bad faith, and such... I think much of the reasons discussed in "Sucking at Infrastructure: Visionary subtitle about societal stuff" should be focused on innocent enough reasons. For example, I think environmental interest interest groups, parties & institutions are essential. Without this lobby, the environment gets systematically short sticked to devastating cumulative effect. Infrastructure is also a vital interest. So is housing. Monetary stability, economic prosperity etc. These are at tension with each other. Tension is inevitable. How tension is routed isn't. I think that as these tensions mature, pathways stiffen. New pathways become impossible to pave.

[Symbiote]

Crossrail/Elizabeth Line was completed this year, with roughly a 3 year delay.

Heathrow expansion has considerable opposition, the flight path overflies millions of people.

High Speed 2 is under construction.

An additional nuclear power plant was approved last week.

Britain's problems for major infrastructure are the North/South divide and a general opposition to government investment, not environmentalism.

[rich_sasha]

HS2 is many years delayed and billions (tens of?) over budget. And drastically cut down.

Not sure I'd use it as a success story.

[bionade24]

You can call it failed or success after 10 years in operation. Before that, it's still an ongoing process. Infrastructure is for the long-term.

[danw1979]

Parts of HS2 (the northern bits) won’t ever be built. From where I’m sitting in York, it already looks like a failure.

[Symbiote]

That isn't a failure of the planning system, or from interference from environmentalists.

It's a failure of government and the British democracy.

[lambdadmitry]

It's both. Look up council complaints and demands for the HS2, they're full of unreasonable NIMBY stuff like asking for the line to be put in a tunnel because it comes closer than 100m to an industrial estate. They didn't get it of course, but as a "compromise" they got high berms after a lengthy consultation/bargaining, both of which inflate the cost.

[tom_]

The UK already has 3 LNG import terminals, built about 15 years ago in response to the inevitable decline of supplies from the North Sea.

[jdasdf]

But who will protect that random species of bug in a field that is slightly different from those other species of bugs in those other fields?