Up North they're not very fast, the rail network has a lot of tight bends that makes it unsuitable for high speeds, particularly around the coastal areas, this

Up North they're not very fast, the rail network has a lot of tight bends that makes it unsuitable for high speeds, particularly around the coastal areas, this is even after giving up a lot of legacy routes and stations to improve efficiency. We don't do planning very well in the UK. Liverpool city centre is a prime example of poor road planning in particular. Complete spaghetti.