Since July 20 Grayling has been talking about them precisely as the new wonder discovery that solves all problems and renders electrification unnecessary. Sadly a lot of politicians who know no better may believe him.
The DfT Garyling and any other Tory Minister were spinning the line that bi modes were magic new technology and answer to life the universe and everything weren't they? So a bit go honesty wont go a miss
I'm not a fan of Grayling, but the guy is the Transport Secretary. Of course he's going to try to put a positive spin on whatever hand he has been dealt by what has happened.
We don't know what is being said behind closed doors, but the Transport Secretary will always need to sound upbeat about how things are going. Just like the Defence Secretary isn't going to complain about new tanks for the Army being imperfect. Seriously, what do you expect (from any politician/ party)?
Given the plethora of locos and LHCS that could have been purchased at much lower cost than IEP we could have at least had the full benefits of electric trains under the wires. Coupling /uncoupling times were always a red herring as Daft pretended that the time 57's and Pendolinos which were designed as emergency couplers were standard.
Well, we tried 57s and 390s from Crewe to Holyhead and it failed - services frequently cancelled - Virgin gave up... and you want to have 57s coupling and decoupling with 390s at various locations several times an hour (given the complexity of the GWML/ MML and the slow expansion to electrification)?
Plus, a lot of modern stations don't have layouts suited to this kind of manoeuvre. It might have worked in the 1980s but we don't have middle roads and headshunts to accommodate light engines.
Will Daft be proposing bi modes for HS2 & CrossRail 2? If not why not as their magic trains according to the spin.....
Sorry, you are seriously asking whether the DfT will be using diesel trains in a tunnel under London (given that the route from Wimbledon etc is electrified already)?
HS2 will be a lot easier as it'll be brand new, no possessions to worry about - and out of Network Rail's hands - if anything the problems with the GWML strengthen the case for HS2.
The cost of the initial batch of IEP's may have been expensive but later batch have been allegedly obtained at more reasonable prices
That's my understanding too.
Easy to fixate on the high costs on a small batch of new trains (just like with the NB4L) - ignoring that lots of sunk costs that make the first batch seem artificially expensive.
I get the feeling people are reading far too much into this article. Stephen Crabb hasn't suggested that the government should do one thing or another today. His comment on this point is little more than saying that an IEP running on diesel is less good in some way than an IEP running on electric. I believe this is largely correct.
His other point was to criticise Network Rail for the gap between what was promised for electrification (I don't know if he's talking specifically about the GWML, or if it's broader than that) and what has happened since then. Fortunately, there is plenty of blame to go around, so Stephen Crabb and Chris Grayling can also have their share.
Sounds fair.
With considerable regret I agree with Grayling that it was the right thing to stop the electrification, in view of the costs coming through on GW. But he would have sustained less political damage by announcing another indefinite deferment rather than a total cancellation, especially if he had quoted some current versus original cost projections showing that MML and Swansea were also going to be a lot more expensive than first thought. This would also have left some incentive to the industry to get costs down if they wanted any more work. The political damage was compounded by a clumsy attempt to spin it as a positive.
I suppose that Grayling/ Government has decided that there's more political capital to be gained from cancelling it now and then announcing a BIG NEW EXCITING PLAN to electrify the lines in a couple of years, once the dust has settled and NR has got to grips with things.
Not saying it's right, mind, just that they may be hoping that we forget this now, so that they can repackage it as a NEW announcement.
The way that the tide is going, with Jaguar Land Rover being the latest car manufacturer to announce a move from "pure" fossil fuels, the electrification will have to happen in the medium term.
Bi-mode should be a sticking plaster to gain space not a solution
Given that we'd need to order a lot of bi-mode trains to match existing diagrams, and trains are designed to work for thirty five/ forty years, what's your solution? Buy them and scrap them after a couple of years?
At least with 800/801s we can remove the fuel tanks and make them "pure" electric down the line.
When the public sector pay cap still exists, there are constant stories about funding shortages at the NHS and we are still supposedly in a period of austerity it would take an absolute idiot of a politician to plough forward with large scale electrification projects until Network Rail have proved beyond any doubt they can keep costs under control.
True.
I don't think some railway people realise how lucky the railway has been, insulated from the cost cutting that the rest of the public sector has suffered from.
