Network Rail upgrade delayed by government

[pre65]

The government says it will delay or cut back a number of modernisation projects planned for Network Rail.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin says rising costs and missed targets make the £38.5bn plan untenable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33270586

[Beeyar Wunby]

Yes and this comes closely on the tail of the news that ERTMS is to be set back "50 years".

Interesting how a Tory government lays ALL the blame at NR's door. This is a systemic failure....and it was the Tories themselves who privatised the railway and made it 40% more expensive than European railways.

After all the election promises of expansion, it seems that they want to hit the railway with their drastic austerity measures, and drop all the blame on NR.

Stanchions have already started to be erected on the MML, so I hope that this is only a delay. This country needs these long-overdue improvements. The buck stops with the government, so if it doesn't get fixed it will be their responsibility - not that an MP was ever taken to task over anything.

BW

[pre65]

Network Rail 'too big', says Sir Richard Branson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33281468

[Beeyar Wunby]

Thanks for the link.

Originally Posted by Dicky

Sir Richard added that "ideally" the train operators should manage the track they use.

He knows, you know.

I don't really care who owns the railway, but I'm convinced that it should be split into regions, with each region running infrastructure & trains.

Also the insanity of Delay Attribution has to end. Train Operating Companies paying top Lawyers and Accountants to fight each other every week just to argue who is going to pay for every minute 'lost' is crazy. TOC A pays compensation to TOC B who pays TOC C, who then ends up paying it to TOC A... is the sort of Orwellian madness that only a politician (in the last days of his fading empire) could have invented.

Lets investigate and fix the delays, not spend taxpayers money arguing whose fault they are.

BW