My guess is that this is a way to convince governments to build high-speed rail networks, talk in terms they understand on the basis that they are vote winners. Think of the political mud that can be slung if you refuse to invest in regions in order to safe-guard the future.
The engineering firm Atkins published a report that suggests a huge overall gain can be achieved by building a high-speed network all over the UK. One quote that caught my attention is this from Network Rail...
‘The challenge is to look at the developing and changing demographics, and demand along particular corridors, and see what fits best. High-speed travel is likely to be one of a multitude of ultimate solutions. As we develop our plans to build a bigger, better railway over the next few years, we will look at this in more detail.’
In other words we don’t like the idea of non-government organizations putting there nose where it is not welcome. Its back to using helicopters again then.
Railways of the World 