Rail improvements value for money

 The government has announced £794m of investment in rail infrastructure. The headline improvements are reopening to passenger traffic a line between Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Ashington and reopening Bicester to Bletchley, a link in the east-west rail route. 

Assuming the distance covered by the latter is 19 miles, the cost of the scheme works out at £40m per mile on the government's own figures. The last significant motorway construction in the UK cost £138.4m per mile and that was ten years ago. One can add at least £30m to that figure to bring it up to date, allowing for RPI inflation over the decade. So rebuilding the railway costs 75'% less than making new motorway for at least the same benefit.