In light of the recent open letter from the TOC chairmen and also Network Rail's generous CP4 settlement i was wondering what we all thought about how the rail budget is spent in this country. It strikes me that we may be spending too much on the infrastructure of the network and not enough on extra carriages to boot capacity. There has definitely been a change in emphasis in recent years towards major spending on station upgrades etc. A case in point being New St where a nice birhgt new station will be built but it will actually not be able to handle any more trains than the current eyesore. It also seems that rolling stock orders are slowing down to a crawl and if growth does continue on the railway we are facing bleak times ahead.
So my question is this. We have a limited budget (it is also probably going to get squeezed going forward) so should we be concentrating on new trains or new infrastructure (both would be better of course) or is the spending at the moment about right. If you know where money has been wasted put in your two pennies worth. For me I am still battling with Crossrail as a concept considering its price tag but that horse has maybe bolted.
So my question is this. We have a limited budget (it is also probably going to get squeezed going forward) so should we be concentrating on new trains or new infrastructure (both would be better of course) or is the spending at the moment about right. If you know where money has been wasted put in your two pennies worth. For me I am still battling with Crossrail as a concept considering its price tag but that horse has maybe bolted.