Party Conferences(silly season) promises so far on transport issues

duncanp said:

There are rumours of a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, which is when Boris Johnson is supposed to be giving his speech.

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Bantamzen said:

I like your thinking....

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but having a vote of no confidence is EXACTLY what Johsnon wants! Why give in after all the hard work to hold him to account?

Meerkat said:

Blast it through to J13 with a parallel new East-West rail route that gets rid of the level crossings.....

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the problem is lots of the available land is set aside for new homes. The roads away from Standing Way aren't to bad actually and if the 421 dualing is sorted out you have routes to both junction 14 and 13 with ease.

Plus a new line will mean i cant get the train to work...................

DarloRich said:

but having a vote of no confidence is EXACTLY what Johsnon wants! Why give in after all the hard work to hold him to account?

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I was really just musing over the idea of an "incident" that stopped Conservative MPs getting back for the vote, I wasn't suggesting the vote itself is a good idea.

Frankly I have now no idea how we dig ourselves out of this mire, one way or another BoJo seems to have put the skids under any possible sensible route out & without another twist of this tale I'm now holding my breath for the crash out. It all feels rather like a scene from Doctor Strangelove...

DarloRich said:

but having a vote of no confidence is EXACTLY what Johsnon wants! Why give in after all the hard work to hold him to account?

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It's not exactly what he wants - he wants an election. A vote of no confidence doesn't necessarily mean an election at this stage - under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, a VONC starts a 14 day period during which a vote of confidence can be passed in an alternative government. If the anti-crashing out on October 31st can get their act together to support such an alternative government - and I'd assume there'd be no VONC called if they hadn't come to a plan to do just that - they could bring it on by calling a VONC. In which case I don't think it would matter whether the MPs could get back from conference or not.

Full electrification of the North Transpennine Route and upgrading of all stations along the route to modern standards?
Sorry, delete that, that was the 2011 announcement.
Somehow I don't think there will be any announcement at conference this year that most of the route won't be electrified and that the DfT thinks disabled access at stations is not important so it won't happen.

According to a source who attended the Conservative conference, the 2040 "diesel" ban could be brought forward to 2035 if there is a strong enough case.
Additionally, Andy Burnham attended (yes, the Conservative conference) for a discussion about more devolution to TfGM for local public transport. Something I'd support, given that no tram/train combined ticket exists for peak travel (outside of Zone 1).
Design work for NPR has been ongoing for years but the scope of works still hasn't officially been announced . Surprising given Boris has been on a spending spree of late

Is 15/16 just too expensive?
Would have been a big ‘we do like the North and green travel’ announcement and there is a plan fairly ready to go isn’t there?

td97 said:

Design work for NPR has been ongoing for years but the scope of works still hasn't officially been announced . Surprising given Boris has been on a spending spree of late

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Maybe spoke too soon...
Watch out for this. Especially regarding Manchester-Liverpool

Prime minister Boris Johnson is set to support Northern Powerhouse Rail in his closing remarks at the Conservative Party Conference, New Civil Engineer can reveal.

It is understood that Johnson will use the Northern Powerhouse Rail project as his flagship announcement in today’s closing speech in Manchester.

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www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/boris-johnson-set-for-big-northern-powerhouse-rail-announcement-02-10-2019/

Geezertronic said:

Labour seem to have found a forest full of magic money trees for most of what I heard...

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The Conservatives have found their own magic money trees by adopting nearly all of Labour's proposals to increase spending on schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

The difference is Labour's plans are portrayed as "spending" by their supporters in the press while the Tories' is seen as "investment".