Grumpy Git
On Moderation
All we need to do is elect Tory MP's in all 650 seats and the jobs a good 'un. Railways for everyone!
All we need to do is elect Tory MP's in all 650 seats and the jobs a good 'un. Railways for everyone!
That's lovely but how does it form part of any Oxford-Cambridge route, whether road or rail? It seems perpendicular.Its the northampton to Market Harborough line:
https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/...om-northampton-to-market-harborough-1-9120150
Scaring children ready for Halloween?why else did Grayling come and do a photoshoot about reopening Colne to Skipton?
Many closed railways will have a BCR, well over 2, (minimum for rail)when social and economic factors are accounted for.
Currently the Oxford -Cambs expressway has a BCR of 1.2 , east west rail 7.6 , witney Oxford 2.2 ( both rail and busway ).
It is not a matter of magic money trees, it’s how you choose to spend the existing capital budgets.
I rather think the £8bn expressway, which has zero public support ( and is a political liability), could be better directed effectively to other projects.
The latest costings are about 100% up on initial estimates, pushing the BCR to .6 now.
Perhaps he thinks they will use Motorail to go between Northampton and MH? I doubt he would be more than vaguely aware of where these places are. When Ken Clarke did his stint as Transport minister, he said it was like one long geography lesson.That's lovely but how does it form part of any Oxford-Cambridge route, whether road or rail? It seems perpendicular.
Yes, let's scrap HS2 and use the money saved to reopen branch lines in marginal constituencies! I'd vote for that.
Thought it was Labour who had "The Magic Money Tree".....now it appears to be the Tories.
Maybe they could spend some of this "magic" money on pensions instead.
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You may have misunderstood BCRsGiven that both an expressway and a railway involve building a long line of infrastructure, someone needs to be asking why the BCR is so low. If it's down to exhorbitant costs for the railway, these need to be attacked. Alternatively, does the calculation flatter motor transport too readily.
I Remember David Cameron promising to re-open Bere Alston Tavistock Okehampton prior to the 2015 election, believe mr Shapps when it happens.
You may have misunderstood BCRs
The Rail Scheme is 7.6 that’s incredibly high, the road Scheme is 1.2 , appallingly low.
Rail is expensive, but road bids are now even worse than Rail, after the Aberdeen Western Bypass disaster , contract prices up 30%.
£560 million for the Birdlip Scheme south of Gloucester, estimated at £300m .
We could reopen a lot of Railway for that.
Rail offers a better return now , in a way it did not 10 years ago .
Good luck telling those who have a house built on the old track-beds they have to move, (unless it's BoJo's dad of course)
It would still be helpful to be clearer what the ‘Rail Scheme’ and the ‘Road Scheme’ actually comprise.You may have misunderstood BCRs
The Rail Scheme is 7.6 that’s incredibly high, the road Scheme is 1.2 , appallingly low.
Rail is expensive, but road bids are now even worse than Rail, after the Aberdeen Western Bypass disaster , contract prices up 30%.
£560 million for the Birdlip Scheme south of Gloucester, estimated at £300m .
We could reopen a lot of Railway for that.
Rail offers a better return now , in a way it did not 10 years ago .
Is Central Manchester a Tory marginal?Exactly Rob,
And I'd rather have a definite yes to even something really simple like wiring Man Vic to Stalybridge, or on a grander scale 15/16 at Man Picc, rather than wibble about even more studies into reopening closed branch lines.
Is Central Manchester a Tory marginal?
The trouble is, railway schemes and projects quickly add up to costing £ billions. The Skipton to Colne route has been put forward for re-opening for at least twenty years, without anything physical actually happening on the ground. All the money for railways seems to be going on HS2, Crossrail and the Trans-Pennine route upgrade at the moment.
I hope some lost lines are rebuilt eventually, but I think the NHS and schools, etc, will be lobbying for funding as they seem to have various problems at the moment. Some, uninformed / non rail user members of, "Joe public" probably think that railways should look after themselves through the fares they collect.....
Quite. The proposed study gets the headlines, fanfare and publicity. The results saying either there are no benefits, or if there are but it’s on a list, less so.Didn't Shapps' predecessor promise the same thing two years ago? It turned out that he really only meant that there should be a feasibility study of Skipton - Colne reopening.....
These announcements are becoming a bit like the announcement of the first cuckoo in Spring, as regular as clockwork everytime we get a new transport Minister.
We've heard it all so many times before.
I'm really only interested in an announcement of a funded programme of reopenings.
Feel free to re-direct me to a specific East-West Rail thread but does anyone reasonably know how much the full scheme, including right through to Cambridge with effectively wholly new construction probably from somewhere west of Bedford, including new or re-modelled stations or interchanges there and around Sandy, 100mph, electrification, freight loops, station car parks and so forth is going to cost yet?
I wasn’t even aware that the final route has been nailed down.
And this is supposedly one of the most ‘advanced’ ‘schemes’.
The Rail Scheme is 7.6 that’s incredibly high, the road Scheme is 1.2 , appallingly low.
It would still be helpful to be clearer what the ‘Rail Scheme’ and the ‘Road Scheme’ actually comprise.
Is there perhaps a document that you can link to?
It was downgraded to 90mph (and no wires), but also capacity reduced by 1-2tph from what was proposed just prior. So, no.Apart from wires, that is exactly what Bicester Bletchley will be.
That would be interesting where the former trackbed disappears at a bridge abutment on the side of the road next to Market Harborough station, heading at first or second floor level for several blocks the flats on the others side. I wonder who those people vote for.to be fair, you could tunnel under the houses or route around them
Closer reading suggests he wants to look at reopening lines rather than anything concrete.