Navpi,
We have been told throughout this thread that the railways are good enough to get people from all over the north to MAN. Obviously, as you have outlined, this is not the case and a short shuttle flight, in comfort with bags already checked is a much better option.
I am not sure that the commuters unlucky enough to use Southern Rail to commute into London would agree with your comments about a 20 min max wait. Rail travel seems to be an issue over the whole of the UK. Crossrail is an answer to the overcrowded GWR and the services from Essex. These have, for many years, been massively overcrowded and suffered from cancellations. I used it do this daily and wouldn't wish it on anyone. I have also commuted from Leeds to Manchester and that was also crowded but nothing compared to the daily commute into London and the hell that is the tube.
All these projects, Crossrail, HS2, HS3 etc. are aimed at transforming the railways. Yes, London may be the first in line but I am confident they will all happen. The problem is everybody wants better transport but nobody wants to be inconvenienced by it's construction, nobody wants to pay for it and everybody wants their daily commute to be first in line for upgrading. If we could only get on and build these large projects without endless consultations driven mainly by politics, greed and NIMBYism then we would be a lot further down the line with a national upgrade and be doing it considerably cheaper.