merlodlliw
Established Member
A bit of light hearted reading FOR BANK HOLIDAY , dont take it too serious. taken from Mid Wales Rugs newsletter
The View from Milepost 62 with Brigadier John Faviell
Dusty is not a happy cat: our Siamese friend has been poorly no doubt shes eaten something she shouldnt and has had to go to the vets. Shes looking a bit down in the dumps looking at the screen as I type. Like me shes been bewildered by the pace of announcements this March. She was somewhat bemused by the ban on electric shock collars in Wales for cats and dogs. That a cat would lower itself to be treated the same a dog! Though she does think those humans that dont understand transport should have a session on the collar to mend their ways: I have told her that no matter how stupid a human is they cannot be physically abused. So to Marchs transport announcements and some stupid humans.
No through train to London then. Hardly surprising given the inept way we organise transport in this country. For the record all regions should have direct links to the capital. Ian Wrexhams all right Jack Lucas MP, Owen North Shropshires all right Jack Patterson and Mark Telford and the Wrekins all right Jack Pritchard MP all win an award for selfish behaviour. The Office of the Rail Regulator viewed it as a profit/loss exercise rather than considering the wider network and economic benefits. In their view it wouldnt have made money and abstracted money from other operators due to the crazy way we organise rail finance. They also thought Wrexham and Shropshire were crying Wolf a bit too loudly. Another triumph for regulation, franchising and byzantine administration over common sense. That nobody outside of Mid Wales who had to given what was on offer wanted to support Arriva surely tells us something about Arriva. Lets hope their takeover by the Germans comes soon. ATW may have been
disappointed but nothing like my disappointment in the reaction of Plaid Cymru in Ceredigion. I winced at their lack of understanding of how things work and basic geography. How on earth can devolving more power over railways to Wales restore through links to London from Mid Wales? The 82 miles from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury are predominantly in Wales but the next 170 or so miles are all in England! Currently those 170 or so miles have to be accessed using English rules. You could have a High Speed line from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury and Hedd Wyn could write prose from beyond the grave but it would go no further unless London co-operated. Dogma doesnt make things work: please learn. Of course the evil English left Wales out of their High Speed plans, opting instead to plan a line in stages North of London to the large centres of population, industry and commerce in the West Midlands, North West and Yorkshire. Decades late of course, but the plan if built follows what all our more intelligent competitor nations have done. Due to the large capital investment needed theyve gone in stages from the most important regional cities to the national capital, not chosen one of the smaller ones first!
Still we will have to build a full UK high speed network eventually even if the Treasury doesnt want it, as inevitable oil price rises force a re assessment of transport. I did chuckle as the Tories, the road and air lobbies all chucked their dummies out their prams at Lord Adoniss announcement. And then the High Court ruling on the third runway at Heathrow and climate change targets what will the DfT do with no airport expansion to plan? Perhaps they could actually produce a rolling stock plan and, heaven forbid, deliver it! The big news from DfT land was that theyve found an extra 8 carriages for Northern
Rail and 8 for East Midlands Trains. Wow! A single train was that size when I was a lad.
At the same time the French regions where apparently its appalling according to some got a fleet of fifty 6 car double deck trains.
Still perhaps we could have a rolling stock plan in Wales as the Enterprise and
Learning Committee recommended. No said WAG and the big Plaid Chief, in a response
SARPA Newsletter 50 Page 11 which was a curious mix of blaming London for the Wales Borders franchise, saying nothing could be done till the end of the franchise term and proclaiming the greatness of the One Wales agreement as a panacea to all ills. Still the lack of any progress was soon explained the Assembly had a debate on road infrastructure improvement finance. That a Western European nation can even have such a debate in 2010 is incomprehensible. Waless tag as the sick man of European transport continues.
The National Transport Plan was never going to live up to Irelands Transport 21 given the lack of understanding of transport, environmental and economic issues we
have. Not only do we not have the understanding of our fellow European nations, we do not have the transport budget they provide either. The headline may have been that only 46% of the budget was to be spent on roads and that a majority was now spent on other modes. However Waless total national transport budget is roughly £200 per head of population per year of which around a quarter is spent on rail. The Republic of Ireland
Transport 21 plan spends roughly £185 per head of population per year on heavy and light rail alone. Three and a half times as much as Wales! Thank heavens our internal air link is reliable! Still were to have a daytime hourly service next year. Dusty assumes that theyve found some extra rolling stock which dont have lights timetabling with the seasons and the clocks going forward and back could be challenging!
The View from Milepost 62 with Brigadier John Faviell
Dusty is not a happy cat: our Siamese friend has been poorly no doubt shes eaten something she shouldnt and has had to go to the vets. Shes looking a bit down in the dumps looking at the screen as I type. Like me shes been bewildered by the pace of announcements this March. She was somewhat bemused by the ban on electric shock collars in Wales for cats and dogs. That a cat would lower itself to be treated the same a dog! Though she does think those humans that dont understand transport should have a session on the collar to mend their ways: I have told her that no matter how stupid a human is they cannot be physically abused. So to Marchs transport announcements and some stupid humans.
No through train to London then. Hardly surprising given the inept way we organise transport in this country. For the record all regions should have direct links to the capital. Ian Wrexhams all right Jack Lucas MP, Owen North Shropshires all right Jack Patterson and Mark Telford and the Wrekins all right Jack Pritchard MP all win an award for selfish behaviour. The Office of the Rail Regulator viewed it as a profit/loss exercise rather than considering the wider network and economic benefits. In their view it wouldnt have made money and abstracted money from other operators due to the crazy way we organise rail finance. They also thought Wrexham and Shropshire were crying Wolf a bit too loudly. Another triumph for regulation, franchising and byzantine administration over common sense. That nobody outside of Mid Wales who had to given what was on offer wanted to support Arriva surely tells us something about Arriva. Lets hope their takeover by the Germans comes soon. ATW may have been
disappointed but nothing like my disappointment in the reaction of Plaid Cymru in Ceredigion. I winced at their lack of understanding of how things work and basic geography. How on earth can devolving more power over railways to Wales restore through links to London from Mid Wales? The 82 miles from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury are predominantly in Wales but the next 170 or so miles are all in England! Currently those 170 or so miles have to be accessed using English rules. You could have a High Speed line from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury and Hedd Wyn could write prose from beyond the grave but it would go no further unless London co-operated. Dogma doesnt make things work: please learn. Of course the evil English left Wales out of their High Speed plans, opting instead to plan a line in stages North of London to the large centres of population, industry and commerce in the West Midlands, North West and Yorkshire. Decades late of course, but the plan if built follows what all our more intelligent competitor nations have done. Due to the large capital investment needed theyve gone in stages from the most important regional cities to the national capital, not chosen one of the smaller ones first!
Still we will have to build a full UK high speed network eventually even if the Treasury doesnt want it, as inevitable oil price rises force a re assessment of transport. I did chuckle as the Tories, the road and air lobbies all chucked their dummies out their prams at Lord Adoniss announcement. And then the High Court ruling on the third runway at Heathrow and climate change targets what will the DfT do with no airport expansion to plan? Perhaps they could actually produce a rolling stock plan and, heaven forbid, deliver it! The big news from DfT land was that theyve found an extra 8 carriages for Northern
Rail and 8 for East Midlands Trains. Wow! A single train was that size when I was a lad.
At the same time the French regions where apparently its appalling according to some got a fleet of fifty 6 car double deck trains.
Still perhaps we could have a rolling stock plan in Wales as the Enterprise and
Learning Committee recommended. No said WAG and the big Plaid Chief, in a response
SARPA Newsletter 50 Page 11 which was a curious mix of blaming London for the Wales Borders franchise, saying nothing could be done till the end of the franchise term and proclaiming the greatness of the One Wales agreement as a panacea to all ills. Still the lack of any progress was soon explained the Assembly had a debate on road infrastructure improvement finance. That a Western European nation can even have such a debate in 2010 is incomprehensible. Waless tag as the sick man of European transport continues.
The National Transport Plan was never going to live up to Irelands Transport 21 given the lack of understanding of transport, environmental and economic issues we
have. Not only do we not have the understanding of our fellow European nations, we do not have the transport budget they provide either. The headline may have been that only 46% of the budget was to be spent on roads and that a majority was now spent on other modes. However Waless total national transport budget is roughly £200 per head of population per year of which around a quarter is spent on rail. The Republic of Ireland
Transport 21 plan spends roughly £185 per head of population per year on heavy and light rail alone. Three and a half times as much as Wales! Thank heavens our internal air link is reliable! Still were to have a daytime hourly service next year. Dusty assumes that theyve found some extra rolling stock which dont have lights timetabling with the seasons and the clocks going forward and back could be challenging!
