The railway's not exactly done a great job of proving it can deliver large projects within the promised budget, has it...
Replying to this one to get back to the gist of this.
Controversially but though I don' like or agree with a lot of its decisions, I'm pleased we have a Treasury. Someone needs to assess ht value for this or that proposal, and as stated here, the rail industry has not delivered reliably- it has shot itself in the foot. GW electrification; Crossrail; Jubilee line extension going back ... etc.
Forumites keen for expenditure- unfortunately the Great British electorate voted in the present government. Beeching reversals are what they want- a return to the good old days pre-Beeching
If you want more expenditure, you can pay for it.
The government has also undertaken through the COP process to cut emissions. Best chance for rail is to convince government how rail is critical to achieving that. Boris 'arranged' the Union Connectivity review 'process' to get him off the hook of an Irish Sea Garden Bridge. Maybe something similar can be made to happen regarding reducing internal flights to make way for more international flights for Global Britain while removing the need for him to lay down before the Heathrow bulldozers driven by his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituents.
Surely a rolling programme of pre-electionlow-key electrification with British technology Birtish made (blue wall NorthEast/ Midlands) battery or hydrogen local/regional links can be promoted pre-election.
Two points, which argue each way on this:
a. Other European railways have found ways to borrow funds on their own account, without them scoring against central government's budget deficits. The UK has taken a much more formal line on this, a stance which goes back to MacMillan and mid-50s (I remember him, but not them!) when capital funds in the markets were very scarce (hint: post-war recovery!)
b. Please understand that, within government, it does seem that the cost overruns on Crossrail, GWEP and HS2 have set back the cause of rail investment very considerably. These have been hugely damaging, however good the rationalisation that TfL/NR/HS2 can provide about them. The Decarbonisation Strategy is just one of a number of things affected by this.
I guess I might give credibility to someone who had at least tried to run a railway