What projects were still awaiting Grayling's authorisation when he was relieved of his transport portfolio?

[edwin_m]

Most of the cash ended up in the foundations and masts of the overengineered GW scheme, and in the repeated attempts to put wires up around Bolton.
The Select Committee report shows NR spend of 2.5-3 times the original estimates on both schemes.
The other electrifications were cancelled when Grayling refused to let NR keep on spending regardless.
Shapps is good in public, if not on this forum, and obviously has the ear of the PM - all necessary for a good rail outcome.
Not so sure about his standing with the Treasury, with the implosion of railway finances.

Perhaps in that case "undeliverable" was the wrong word in your previous. I think the schemes were deliverable for somewhere much close to the original budget, had some different decisions been made at the time. The immediate failure to do that is with Network Rail people, but I'd suggest the underlying problem was the Government approval of all those schemes in a short timeframe during the last years of Labour and the first years of the Coalition.

 

[Wolfie]

Shapps does quite well in past comparisons of SoS. People forget about how bad Ruth Kelly and Geoff Hoon were (2007-8).
Rail policy is not just down to the SoS of course, his senior civil servants are key too.
Philip Rutnam was a high flyer at the Treasury before coming to Transport, then left for the Home Office and is now in ignominy after falling out big time with Priti Patel.
His time at Transport with Justine Greening and Patrick McLoughlin, which included taking financial control of Network Rail, was well regarded at the time for the huge investments they made during the Coalition in 2012 (HLOS/CP5), but most of which were ultimately undeliverable (for which the blame lies elsewhere).
Today's Permanent Secretary, Bernadette Kelly (ex Business Dept) is almost invisible, but is probably doing all the hard policy work on setting up GBR.

Philip Rutnam is hardly in ignominy. HMG ended up forking out £334k plus £30k costs in a settlement to save Priti Patel and possibly BoZo from having to appear as witnesses at an ET.

 

[snowball]

Philip Rutnam is hardly in ignominy. HMG ended up forking out £334k plus £30k costs in a settlement to save Priti Patel and possibly BoZo from having to appear as witnesses at an ET.

What's he doing for a living now? Anyone know?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Philip Rutnam is hardly in ignominy. HMG ended up forking out £334k plus £30k costs in a settlement to save Priti Patel and possibly BoZo from having to appear as witnesses at an ET.

I know what you mean, but he won't get his peerage, or work at the top level in government again.
On rail, he will know where many of the bodies are buried, from the West Coast franchise fiasco to NR's project overruns.