Chapter 902 It’s too difficult
In terms of acquisitions, it is mainly the above three items.
"In addition to these, I need to gain autonomy for the High-Speed Rail Line 2 project. I don't want to be pointed out by the government in terms of selection of construction parties and financing in addition to normal supervision. I need your full cooperation with me on this project. If the project decision-making can meet these requirements, then I can ensure that the project can be completed with quality and quantity, and it may even be completed and opened to traffic ahead of schedule.”
To be honest, Barron really doesn’t want to say much about the efficiency of this project led by the British government. It is simply the most intuitive manifestation of the decline of Britain...
So since he took on this project, he naturally didn't want that kind of thing like "not good at work and talking a lot of nonsense" to happen later.
Before Barron was reborn in his previous life, Europe's so-called "high-speed rail plan" had almost become a joke, and the British high-speed rail line 2 was one of the biggest jokes...
Since before the new century, the EU has had plans to build high-speed rail networks in various countries and interconnect them, and has also dedicated special funds for high-speed rail construction.
And before the rise of China's high-speed rail, there were only four companies in the world with high-speed rail construction technology, namely Germany's Siemens, France's Alstom, Canada's Bombardier and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Among them, Europe accounts for two - to be precise, it should be three, because in addition to Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom, Canada's Bombardier's railway department is mainly located in Germany, and it mainly comes from acquired German companies.
As a result, on the one hand, the railway track specifications, dispatching systems... and even voltages of EU countries are different. It is not easy to connect and maintain unified dispatching. Moreover, each country also has its own considerations in terms of interests, which has resulted in cross-border high-speed rail docking within the EU. It's a complete failure.
In addition,... how should I put it, sometimes the biggest obstacle to Europe's development is the European Union.
Well, this is not nonsense. Originally, in the original time and space, facing the merger of China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation and becoming the world's largest rail transit group, Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom were preparing to merge their railway businesses to become a European railway consortium. Yes, as a result, this plan that had been reached was rejected by the EU antitrust...
This has caused European rail transit groups to begin to lag behind China's CRRC Group in terms of scale effect and research and development. In the end, they can only rely on the EU's trade barriers to defend their markets in Europe.
But in the global market, the former "Big Four" in the high-speed rail field are no longer able to compete with CRRC.
The reason why Barron put forward these conditions is that he needs to take control of Line 2 of the British High-Speed Railway and needs the British government to provide him with support. In addition, from France, he will also use Alstom to persuade the other party to provide support.
In addition to needing them to fight for interests with the EU, the government also needs support from the government when dealing with domestic environmental protection, animal protection and other organizations.
Speaking of which, environmental protection and animal protection in Europe and the United States are fundamentally a business.
The purpose of these organizations is not all for the slogan of protecting the earth, but for the right to speak in this field, so as to obtain benefits.
With such demands flooding in, it can be said that many European constructions are hindered by them.
For example, when Tesla was building a super factory in Germany, environmental protection and animal rights activists were in a state of ecstasy.
When Tesla built a factory in Germany, it encountered resistance from local environmental protection and animal protection groups... because they believed that Tesla's construction of the factory would pose a threat to local water sources and wildlife, including a species of cat that was in its hibernating period. Endangered bats.
In addition, there is a forest area of 92 hectares near the Tesla factory site, and they prevent Tesla from cutting down these trees...
Coincidentally, also in Germany, when they were building the German High-Speed Railway S21 project, this 200-kilometer high-speed railway had been planned since 1994, but it had not been built until the rebirth of Barron, that is, thirty years later. good……
Well, you can find that when Europe and the United States are carrying out these constructions, the plots of being obstructed by environmental protection and animal protection are similar. First of all, when the S21 project just started in 2010 - well, you read that right, 1994 planning, 2007 It was approved in 2010, and construction started in 2010, but it has not been completed more than ten years later. This is the European speed - it was also because some trees needed to be cut down, and then environmental groups began to organize people to demonstrate and have a fight with the police. "Beautiful scenery"...
This protest lasted for several months, and naturally the S21 project could only come to a standstill.
Then in 2012, two endangered animals - this time lizards - were discovered along the project line, so environmental protection and animal rights groups got into action again and continued the previous process, with protests, confrontations and then "beautiful scenery". The project was forced to stop again...
Well, this time the work was suspended for 15 months.
In the end, the German Railways had to spend 15 million euros to find experts to catch the lizards one by one and then resettle them, so that the conflict was stopped.
Therefore, Barron can foresee that this kind of plot will definitely have to be repeated during the construction of the British High Speed Rail Line 2 project.
At the very least, he needs to leave funds to “spend” environmental and animal rights activists.
Because even if his influence in the UK is enough to deal with these environmentalists, this kind of protest-confrontation-compromise plot has to happen again. After all, it is impossible to give money directly and those environmentalists will stop making trouble...
The premise for them to "make trouble" is their presence in such incidents. To put it bluntly, they will not miss any opportunity to "make trouble" and stand firm on the moral high ground first. Therefore, they will still make trouble, but at least the time to solve it will be much shorter, and it will not last for several months.
If the government promotes such a company, it is naturally impossible to be as "flexible" as Barron in dealing with environmentalists, so the timeline of the whole plot will naturally be extended.
At this point, you can understand why Chinese environmentalists and animal protectors did not miss any opportunity to "appear on camera". In addition to the funding from various foundations, they also saw their overseas "peers" jumping up and down and eating well. I don't know how envious they are...
"I can give you the greatest support, Your Highness, but some things should not be too ugly..."
After understanding Barron's demands, Cameron was actually relieved in his heart. Although he did need to give considerable support, it was at least within his acceptable range.
The only thing he was worried about was that those environmentalists and animal protectors who were very troublesome would not find any handle to criticize him in his next general election.
"In addition, is there no problem with the funds?"
Although Cameron knew that among the private enterprises in Britain, only the one in front of him had the strength to take on a project of the scale of High-speed Rail Line 2 alone, he was still a little unsure about the funds.
"No problem, I have my plan..."
Barron said confidently:
"Of course, I know that we can apply for relevant high-speed rail construction funds from the EU, and we cannot miss the benefits in this regard."
"Of course, we will try our best to fight for it from the EU."
Cameron also supports this. After all, Britain pays so much money to the EU every year, and it must try its best to get some back in this matter.
