It was only a matter of days ago when news broke that the Labour Party was "shelving" the £28 billion pledge of green matters should they be elected as the next Government, so why do you think that they will view railways any differently to that?
You are right BUT if the Labour Party were to choose between HS2 and Green matters it would simply be down to which one attracts the most VOTES !.
I doubt there are many votes in HS2 or anything even peripherally associated with it now.
You didn't actually listen to that announcement did you? What they said was that all spending would be committed based on hard numbers, and no promises of spending would be made that aren't compliant with the fiscal rules. That sounds sensible to me. As the fiscal rules allow for capital spending funded by borrowing there's no reason to believe rail and other capital spending won't be available, subject to the rules.
Sir Keir Starmer is well versed in understanding matters of major financial implications and is well aware that a General Election is many months away and any new incoming Government would want to see the actual financial situation when they came to power. The wording to which you so allude is a perfect example of "politic-speak" and at the age of 78, I have had the opportunity to have heard many such statements over the recent decades by both of the two major political parties.
I seem to recall the two Andys Burnham and Street, at a joint press conference, stressing the importance of a high speed rail link between England's second and third cities, but agreeing not to make claims as to which was second and which was third.
You claimed that a review of railway policy would be "shelved". I'm pointing out that you've got no evidence of that, you're simply making things up so you can criticise Starmer.
Arguably you could say they're joint third and the second is just a very big gap!
Again, forget "shelved" - have they said anything about opening one in the first place?
They haven't put forward a detailed policy platform as yet if that's what you mean no. Why would train services be the top priority for that, when we don't yet have a clue when the new government could take office?
On the contrary, there are votes for the Reform Party which would hang on the immediate cancellation of Phase 1 of HS2, let alone anything involving Manchester, which I think remains their policy.
The point is that the idea of Labour commissioning a review into rail that will say "we need to build Phase 2" is nothing but a fantasy at the moment.
There appears to have been confusion in the mind of a contributor, who for some strange unknown reason read the emboldened part of my original posting above as referring to a £28 billion pledge on some railway matter....
Equally a fantasy to believe the current Tory policy is going to stick around.
I don't think anyone thought that.There appears to have been confusion in the mind of a contributor, who for some strange unknown reason read the emboldened part of my original posting above as referring to a £28 billion pledge on some railway matter....
Yes, obviously Labour will have a rail policy that differs in at least some areas to that of the Tories. That doesn't mean that rail policy will inherently involve reinstating Phase 2, however.
Of course not. By definition given they don't want to commit to it unless they find it works well.
People have claimed a lot of things, including that HS2 is the only solution to the problems facing capacity on the WCML etc. I'm just asking people to temper their expectations.
The tunnel was 2B, with passive provision by 2A.
The bard himself would have penned a thought on what has occurred.....2b or not 2b, that is the question...
You have to then get that traffic through Victoria and across Ordsall Lane, which when you factor in TRU is challenging to say the least.
rfg.org.uk
The linked webpage says that the Carrington terminal is a proposal by the voluntary campaign group Railfuture. AFAIK this proposal is not endorsed by the Rail Freight Group or any other rail industry body.Carrington site is a possibility.
North West Freight challenges and potential solutions - Rail Freight Group
The North West is a hugely important region for rail freight. In a recent webinar, three speakers gave us an insight into the activities and challenges of the region. Peter Walley, Strategic Rail Officer, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), discussed the authority’s Freight Routeing Study...
