Rebirth of England.

A five-year term as prime minister seems long, but Cameron now feels that this term is not enough compared to what he wants to do.

This is also because more than three years have passed in his five-year term as prime minister, and there will be another general election in less than two years. Therefore, from now on, Cameron needs to consider preparing for his re-election.

For this reason, he really hopes to push for the smooth progress of the High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2 - of course, it would be best if some small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK could obtain orders in this "huge" project.

This meeting with Barron was because he had heard that His Royal Highness the Duke had proposed that if the EU anti-monopoly agency could not make the other party a commitment to acquire the other party, he would rather give up the relevant EU subsidies and cooperate with China to allow it to participate in most of the HS2 project. So he specifically communicated with Barron.

"We are currently in consultation with the EU and believe that there will be an acceptable result in the end. As for the EU's high-speed rail construction fund, Your Highness, if the EU does not subsidize the UK's high-speed rail plan, then in the next EU budget, we will reduce the funds we hand over..."

Cameron said:

"Although I have promised to hand over the leadership of the High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2 project to you, in the contracting and procurement of this project, we still need to consider companies within the EU, especially British companies..."

"I will definitely consider this, Mr. Prime Minister. Even if we cooperate with China, the specific subcontractors and procurement projects will not exclude British companies. But at least when facing the EU, I need to show my attitude."

Barron did not need to pretend with Cameron. He told him directly that if he took on this project, he would also bear great operating pressure. Naturally, he needed to consider the investment and final return. Only if it could make a profit would it be a healthy business project and have the conditions for future replication.

Similarly, because he took over the investment in this project, the British government can save a lot of money on the construction of high-speed rail.

The operation of High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2 itself will be of great strategic significance for transportation in Britain and exchanges between the north and the south.

If the government hopes to use this to boost related domestic companies, it can use part of the saved funds as subsidies for these companies to enhance the competitiveness of British companies in participating in the HS2 project.

For Barron, he is very clear that cooperation with China will definitely greatly reduce the total investment of High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2. If you make a comparison, you can find out how outrageous the cost of the HS400 project, which is currently estimated to have a total investment of nearly 2 billion pounds.

High-speed rail line 2 is divided into three sections, roughly forming a Y-shaped route...

Birmingham is the middle hub, one section is from London to Birmingham, and then extends from Birmingham in two directions to Manchester and Leeds respectively.

According to the latest plan, the total length of the entire High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2 is about 531 kilometers. Based on this calculation, even if the budget has not increased significantly now, the cost per kilometer is as high as 0.75 million pounds (about 7 million Chinese yuan).

Compared with China's Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway, which opened in 2011, its total length is 1318 kilometers, nearly 2 times longer than HS2.5. Its cost per kilometer is only 1.3 million Chinese yuan, which is less than one-fifth of the current estimated cost per kilometer of HS2.

The most important thing is that the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway started construction in 2008 and opened to traffic in 2011...

I can only say that there is no harm without comparison...

Even considering that the cities connected by HS2 are all important cities in the UK - London is the largest city in the UK; Birmingham and Manchester are both important transportation hubs in the UK, and the self-proclaimed second largest city in the UK, and the Leeds region is also the second largest region in the UK after Greater London...

After this high-speed rail line is completed and put into operation, there will be acceptable profits.

Of course, if we only rely on the revenue from train tickets, it would be good to be profitable in 50 years...

However, if the operating income of high-speed rail stations along the route and the operating income of high-speed rail vehicles are calculated, the profit expectations will increase greatly.

This is also one of the reasons why Barron was willing to take over this project.

In addition, controlling the operation of such an important passenger route in Britain will also bring him other benefits.

……

"We have reached an agreement with Scottish Electric (SSE) and British Electric will complete the acquisition of the company for £75 billion..."

Although the acquisition of Scottish Electricity was initially questioned by some politicians, such doubts were quickly allayed.

Three of the five MPs who had initially opposed the acquisition of South Scottish Electricity by British Power, a subsidiary of United Power Group, quickly changed their attitudes after friendly negotiations and expressed support for the acquisition.

As for the remaining two congressmen, scandals broke out between them in the media last month. Eventually, they had to resign from their positions under pressure from public opinion. One of them even has to face charges from the prosecution and is likely to face jail time.

After completing the acquisition of Scottish Electricity and South Power, British Power's share of the British domestic electricity market will reach 40%, making it the largest electricity group in the UK.

This acquisition was also welcomed by residents in northern Scotland - after merging with South Scottish Power, British Power announced that it would build a new LNG power station in the region to increase local electricity supply. At the same time, due to the decline in international energy prices and British Power's overall synergy advantages, they will reduce electricity prices for residents in northern Scotland by 5%.

This is the first electricity price reduction in the region since 2007, which naturally makes local users welcome this merger.

After discussing the acquisition of British Electric Power, Talulah Riley glanced at Barron and said:

"Your Highness, the House of Lords will hold a meeting next week. The Speaker has written to me hoping that you will be able to attend..."

Well, if it wasn’t for Talulah’s reminder, Barron would have almost forgotten that he was still a member of the House of Lords.

The main reason is that Barron himself does not need to "punch in" to attend meetings like some members of the House of Lords to get subsidies...

Therefore, unless there was something important, he would rarely attend meetings of the House of Lords.

In fact, he may have done this with the intention of saving seats in the House of Lords' meeting room.

After all, although the number of members of the House of Lords was reduced during the Blair era, the number of members of the House of Lords has now exceeded 760 again...