Transport infrastructure across generations

A five-year accounting horizon misses the intended life of assets procured for thirty or forty years and infrastructure built for a century. Crossrail and new railway lines are presented as examples of planning for the next hundred years. The London Underground is expected to remain useful even if working from home changes travel patterns, because people will still need to move around London. Road infrastructure also depends on an economy in which enough people can afford to own and run cars. Roads themselves predate motorcars: horse-drawn carts travel more comfortably over maintained roads than rutted tracks, and people can march faster. Their users and technologies change, but the underlying capacity to move people and resources continues to support national life. Civilian transport belongs within grand strategy because a durable network strengthens the economy and preserves options for later generations.