Great Western Coffee Shop

None of us knows where we will be in ten or twenty years time, or what shape the world will be in, but over the last few day's I've jotted down a few notes ... rather too many to post up as a forum thread.

See back from the future (http://canber.co.uk/?q=node/33) and feel free to add your alternative visions here!

The realism of Melksham having as good a service as what you quoted in 2032 is highly unlikely Graham.  :P

Likewise HST2 is now very much on the horizon. And I notice the "Portsmouth express" avoids Southampton... can't see Eastleigh being that busy...

I would be gobsmacked if we ended up with services exactly as I wrote in that fictional piece ... interesting, I found someone else's view on how the railway system (elsewhere in the world) will be in 2032:

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov07_02Rail-t1-body-d15-d5.html

and a possible 2031 route map for the Oxford / Milton Keynes area:

http://www.eastwestrail.org/downloads/Maps/schematic_milton_keynes_south_mid.pdf

Population development won't - I don't think - be in proportion right across the South West; it's certainly not planned to be that way and as this is "fresh air" speculation, there are some more (and some less) likely things in there.  The regional Portsmouth to Severn Tunnel service goes via Gosport and Eastleigh to keep journey times sensible ... (and there are some other fairly controvertial changes that you haven't highlighted too, Tom!)

Journey time via Eastleigh is slightly longer than via Southampton....

I hope/doubt we don't/will have Euros.

And the Passport control idea was interesting...

And less likely than Paris Hilton falling over a shoelace.