Recent content by Richard123

Mixing messages here. It was reported at the time GBR expected to "rationalise" excessive services on ECML north of Newcastle to match reduced passenger numbers. Hence additional power "no longer required". It was also reported DfT were also demanding enhancement budget cuts to cover Covid...

I'm not sure anyone has suggested unaffordable? A National Grid connection costs many tens of millions up front, and around half a million a year in annual service fees. It is big infrastructure. It was written at the time that GBR considered there to be too many trains on the northern ECML...

The WCML has seen vast spend on traction power over the past two decades since the start of WCRM; well over a billion to my memory, maybe double that in today's money. Most control periods had multi-hundred million pound upgrades in the business plan. However the technology used there is...

Portals require shorter piles (quicker to install and fewer rejections), less steel, and are less likely to suffer movement during life. Conversely, they require all line block during boom installation, and probably most significant, require the up and down teams to put their piles in the right...

Agreed - there was a time when government announcements could be trusted, but this looks like a deliberate untruth. They even managed to mention in their previous story (at the bottom of headline and story promising 7 new trains of capacity) that these seven replaced HSTs. So it's not even as...

I read (MR?) that after lockdown there was a view that passenger numbers had permanently fallen and train services to Scotland would be cut under GBR co-ordination. We know at that time, savings were being demanded by DfT. AFAIK passenger numbers on ECML are now higher than pre-Covid and...

Central government major schemes? local and central? Or all road OM&R? The bottom line when comparing annual government spend is that £4bn a year is now simply servicing debt on spending previously described as government investment, but actually merely permission to borrow.

No, it is quoted within overall government liabilities due to the ultimate guarantor. The debt is Network Rail's, and they pay commercial interest rates. £4bn this year. Examples of this in road-maintenance, renewals and upgrade are very rare; most funding is cash. If roads were funded in...

It's an argument, but not the only perspective. For example, under privatisation, much railway "spending" by government has been authorising borrowing, rather than the roads model where the taxpayer provides the money upfront. £4bn a year of subsidy is actually just interest on that debt on...

More reliable railway (far fewer train failures, less track damage) Lower cost of operation (big difference in fuel and maintenance costs) Much simpler maintenance allows better early/late service / better service recovery / fewer trainsets (but not all at the same time) Normally better...