Possibly an ever so slight over reaction there?
There is probably little traffic between Carlisle and Southend itself - how many domestic routes has SEN got?
So if SEN is being used as a London Gateway, then the time benefits over the West Coast Main line aren't great. Of course, this relates to city centre to city centre travel and not everybody does that! I seem to remember this was discussed at great length early in this thread...
Changing subject, can somebody reminder me what nav aids CAX has (seem to remember not much) and whether there are any plans to upgrade?