Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Has anyone on the website a list of these?
Never got anywhere near a request for official sign-off.Colne to Skipton ? Seems an easy one to do,Mr Grayling did visit i believe..
Well, strictly the Piccadilly and Oxford Road station upgrades and associated signalling changes.Castlefield!
Colne to Skipton ? Seems an easy one to do,Mr Grayling did visit i believe..
Let us hope that GBR does not stand for Grayling British Rail....Grayling should be made accountable for his decisions and made to see the mess his decisions have made. But no doubt some sort of political immunity will protect him. GBR can't come soon enough
Do you really think rebranding the industry will make any difference to the decision making of the DfT for which Grayling was focus for a ahort while ? We are told that Grayling sold the steelwork for Chippenham-Bristol OLE for scrap. It couldn't possibly be his own personal decision though surely.Grayling should be made accountable for his decisions and made to see the mess his decisions have made. But no doubt some sort of political immunity will protect him. GBR can't come soon enough
So you would cheerfully let Network Rail spend 2-3 times the budget set for the project, without any consequences?Grayling should be made accountable for his decisions and made to see the mess his decisions have made. But no doubt some sort of political immunity will protect him. GBR can't come soon enough
The mistake was unconditionally cancelling the electrification schemes, or in the case of some such as Wigan-Bolton just not approving them. That way the suppliers just demobilise and the hard-won learning of the last decade just dissipates. What he should have said was something like "we will agree scheme X-Y but costs have to come in under Z before we agree anything else".So you would cheerfully let Network Rail spend 2-3 times the budget set for the project, without any consequences?
As part of the "nationalisation" of Network Rail, which put its debt directly on the government's books, he made them meet the CP5 budget that had been set - and "tore up their credit card".
I don't think he had any other choice, at the time.
Having IEP bi-modes in his back pocket made the decision easier (or at least less damaging).
The consequence is that it's now drip-feed funding for enhancements from the DfT, not big-bang like CP5 and the fantasy "electric spine".
Yet under the Government logic that seems now to apply, they having found the Money Tree that the Labour Party often cited, if Grayling if still in office in the Transport role was now directed to follow their current "freedom of finance" directive, all such "on hold" projects would now be proceeding.The mistake was unconditionally cancelling the electrification schemes, or in the case of some such as Wigan-Bolton just not approving them. That way the suppliers just demobilise and the hard-won learning of the last decade just dissipates. What he should have said was something like "we will agree scheme X-Y but costs have to come in under Z before we agree anything else".
I don't think he had any other choice, at the time.
Surely the outcome would still be the same.The mistake was unconditionally cancelling the electrification schemes, or in the case of some such as Wigan-Bolton just not approving them. That way the suppliers just demobilise and the hard-won learning of the last decade just dissipates. What he should have said was something like "we will agree scheme X-Y but costs have to come in under Z before we agree anything else".
The devolution of Southeastern Metro to London Overground had been signed for (as a partnership between Transport for London and Kent County Council), and Grayling cancelled it to spite Sadiq, against even the wishes of the local Conservative councillors.
I’m not sure it was...
Wasn't this the one where Grayling wrote 'I won't devolve not because I don't trust you (to Boris Johnson) but because I don't want it to get in the hands of a future Labour Mayor' (or words to that effect)?
Well the £xx billion already committed for HS2 is not to be sniffed at.Sunak apparently told Williamson he could only have a tenth of what he asked for for the catch up fund so the catch up czar has resigned in protest. So what hope does Shapps have of getting full funding for the IRP given that backdrop
He faces some quite stiff competition there. Grayling was conspicuous as the ministers in previous governments were generally reasonably competent even if you didn't agree with their ideology. It's pretty hard finding anyone in the current administration who approaches the average competency of the May or Cameron administrations, even with Grayling dragging that average down.A few years ago Grayling was the obvious answer to the question "Who is the most useless person to have been minister of anything in recent decades?" I suggest that that distinction now belongs to Gavin Williamson.
People forget about how bad Ruth Kelly and Geoff Hoon were (2007-8).
Where?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.
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.Where?
Shapps being good in comparison with previous SoSfT is another low bar.