New Government Being Formed - Transport Implications

[LNW-GW Joint]

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is confirmed as the new Transport Secretary.
She is MP for Berwick upon Tweed and has had mainly a defence and trade background in government.
I can't find any reference to her views on rail.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade since 2021.
She served as Secretary of State for International Development in 2020.
A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 2015.

There will need to be a new appointment for a Rail minister in the DfT, as Wendy Morton is now chief whip.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is confirmed as the new Transport Secretary.
She is MP for Berwick upon Tweed and has had mainly a defence and trade background in government.
I can't find any reference to her views on rail.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There will need to be a new appointment for a Rail minister in the DfT, as Wendy Morton is now chief whip.

Shes spent a decade trying to get the A1 dualled through Northumberland tells you all you need to know as well as being an accountant. So unless Truss has told her that the magic money tree can spread the love to the railways im not confident the industry has optimism to move forward until another spell of navel gazing takes place

 

[WatcherZero]

Longer than that, she seems to have spent the mid 90's until 2015 campaigning for the A1 that runs from London to her country manor Netherwitton Hall dualled, after becoming an MP in 2015 her husband divorced her in 2017 because she spent too much time in London.

 

[Philip]

without getting too detailed, why do you think that?

Intercity travel across the WCML is already well served (the current disruption aside) and journey times are already good. On the other hand, the examples I've mentioned are well known bottlenecks largely preventing an expansion in capacity for local-medium distance routes, which is badly needed in both cases. The layout of Manchester-Bolton and Wolves-Birmingham also creates a tightrope effect for the intercity services which do run along these lines - any delays to the local services often holds up the expresses. Other sections of the WCML don't suffer this problem as much, because of the quadruple track.

 

[DC1989]

Why is there media silence on the fact that Truss had an affair with Kwateng. You think it would be front page news

 

[SynthD]

Why is there media silence on the fact that Truss had an affair with Kwateng. You think it would be front page news

The news of Truss’s affair with her mentor didn’t sell papers. People stopped caring, you can’t make her appear interesting that way.

 

[Bald Rick]

Intercity travel across the WCML is already well served (the current disruption aside) and journey times are already good. On the other hand, the examples I've mentioned are well known bottlenecks largely preventing an expansion in capacity for local-medium distance routes, which is badly needed in both cases. The layout of Manchester-Bolton and Wolves-Birmingham also creates a tightrope effect for the intercity services which do run along these lines - any delays to the local services often holds up the expresses. Other sections of the WCML don't suffer this problem as much, because of the quadruple track.

Ok, so you 4 track Birmingham - Wolves, somehow (at a cost of several billion as it would have to be entirely in tunnel). How many extra services would you run? Answers greater than “0” will need you to show detailed working…

In any event, by far the most congested part of the WCML is the 4 track section from Wembley to Hanslope Jn.

 

[eMeS]

...

In any event, by far the most congested part of the WCML is the 4 track section from Wembley to Hanslope Jn.

Living close to that part of the WCML, and spending time videoing the traffic, I am amazed!

 

[D6130]

Why is there media silence on the fact that Truss had an affair with Kwateng. You think it would be front page news

That's news to me! It's well-known that she had an affair with her then mentor - Mark Field MP - during her unsuccessful 2005 campaign to gain the Calder Valley constituency from Labour. How many affairs has she allegedly had?

 

[brad465]

That's news to me! It's well-known that she had an affair with her then mentor - Mark Field MP - during her unsuccessful 2005 campaign to gain the Calder Valley constituency from Labour. How many affairs has she allegedly had?

If the answer is "quite a few", she really is going for the Johnson continuity candidate in every possible way.

 

[Busaholic]

That's news to me! It's well-known that she had an affair with her then mentor - Mark Field MP - during her unsuccessful 2005 campaign to gain the Calder Valley constituency from Labour. How many affairs has she allegedly had?

I agree! Private Eye generally has its ear to the ground, but I don't recollect any hint, let alone mention. She did co-author a book (or diatribe) with Kwarteng and others whose names I forget.

 

[GusB]

I agree! Private Eye generally has its ear to the ground, but I don't recollect any hint, let alone mention. She did co-author a book (or diatribe) with Kwarteng and others whose names I forget.

That'll be Brittannia Unhinged Unchained, penned by Kwarteng, Patel, Raab, Skidmore and Truss, presumably.

I haven't read the whole thing - only the sample made available on Kindle - but even that was enough to induce nightmares.

 

[Jurg]

Will the new Transport Secretary work to resolve the rail strikes, or continue to follow Shapps's path of using the TOCs and Network Rail as proxies in a war against trade unionism?

Time will tell, but this tweet from a few years ago may give a flavour of her stance on industrial relations:

 

[KM1991]

I do very much like Mr Shapps a lot unlike many of you, but it is good as confirmed that he’s on his way out.

I just hope Lisp Truss has the common sense to choose someone who will actively take an interest in improving our railways, and hopefully signs off refurbishments and new stock when they’re badly needed.

You like a multi identity, self obsessed, hypocritical, pathological liar? And you want him in charge of Transport? Have a word.

 

[Philip]

Ok, so you 4 track Birmingham - Wolves, somehow (at a cost of several billion as it would have to be entirely in tunnel). How many extra services would you run? Answers greater than “0” will need you to show detailed working…

In any event, by far the most congested part of the WCML is the 4 track section from Wembley to Hanslope Jn.

Adding extra services isn't the only goal, improving reliability of the existing ones is also important. If a new line was dug through a tunnel to Wolverhampton then you can put all the expresses on this so that they don't get held up by the local West Midlands and TfW services. You could then add more local services to the existing line, because of the extra capacity from removing the expresses.

 

[AlterEgo]

Shes spent a decade trying to get the A1 dualled through Northumberland tells you all you need to know

To be fair that does need dualling; it's Britain's principal road linking London with Edinburgh and I was shocked to find it single carriageway for much of its length up to Berwick!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2022 ==

Why is there media silence on the fact that Truss had an affair with Kwateng. You think it would be front page news

Did she?

 

[SynthD]

Did she?

https://twitter.com/M0kujin/status/1567435439887220739

I’ve seen a better copy of the image. But the Tories have hidden this on Google by having many more affairs and sexual scandals and crimes so I can’t find it.

The Health Secretary had her wake up alarm at 8am.

 

[Andrew*Debbie]

A job he loved, apparently.


https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1567195630149242880

Graham Eccles reply tweet is priceless.

 

[PeterC]

Who is Lisp Truss ?

The girlfriend of the programmer who built the auto-complete system on most mobile phones

 

[Mikey C]

To be fair that does need dualling; it's Britain's principal road linking London with Edinburgh and I was shocked to find it single carriageway for much of its length up to Berwick!

Agreed. Wanting a major bottleneck road that her constituents rely on to be dualled is hardly something which only a rabid pro road/anti rail MP would campaign for

 

[Busaholic]

That'll be Brittannia Unhinged Unchained, penned by Kwarteng, Patel, Raab, Skidmore and Truss, presumably.

I haven't read the whole thing - only the sample made available on Kindle - but even that was enough to induce nightmares.

Being an ex-bookseller (and for other obvious reasons) I find the idea of burning books abhorrent, but I'm all for chucking some in the recycling bin after the most cursory inspection.

 

[och aye]

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is confirmed as the new Transport Secretary.
She is MP for Berwick upon Tweed and has had mainly a defence and trade background in government.
I can't find any reference to her views on rail.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There will need to be a new appointment for a Rail minister in the DfT, as Wendy Morton is now chief whip.

I wouldn't be surprised if the A1 dualling project suddenly starts to progress from a glacial pace to hyper-speed now.

 

[DarloRich]

Shes spent a decade trying to get the A1 dualled through Northumberland tells you all you need to know

It needs doing!

To be fair that does need dualling; it's Britain's principal road linking London with Edinburgh and I was shocked to find it single carriageway for much of its length up to Berwick!

That and the A66 need dualling all the way

 

[Trestrol]

I wouldn't be surprised if the A1 dualling project suddenly starts to progress from a glacial pace to hyper-speed now.

Good as many have said it desparately needs doing. It's literally a country road in some places and quite dangerous with people trying to overtake slow moving vehicles.

 

[ABB125]

It needs doing!

That and the A66 need dualling all the way

Good as many have said it desparately needs doing. It's literally a country road in some places and quite dangerous with people trying to overtake slow moving vehicles.

Indeed.

Supporting and campaigning for road investment does not equal anti-rail. One can vehemently support both.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Supporting and campaigning for road investment does not equal anti-rail. One can vehemently support both.

There does seem to be this thing in transport enthusiasm that you can only support one mode. Yet the only mainstream mode I don't use is the motorcycle, and that's true of a lot of people, so why wouldn't I support providing for all the ones I use?

 

[Bald Rick]

Adding extra services isn't the only goal, improving reliability of the existing ones is also important. If a new line was dug through a tunnel to Wolverhampton then you can put all the expresses on this so that they don't get held up by the local West Midlands and TfW services. You could then add more local services to the existing line, because of the extra capacity from removing the expresses.

I’ll ask again, as you didn’t answer. How many extra services would you get through adding two tracks from Wolverhampton to Birmingham? Remember to show you detailed workings, including platform occupancy at both New Street and Wolverhampton.

As a side point - spending a few billion on a tunnel is rarely a good use of cash to improve performance by a couple of percentage points.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There does seem to be this thing in transport enthusiasm that you can only support one mode. Yet the only mainstream mode I don't use is the motorcycle, and that's true of a lot of people, so why wouldn't I support providing for all the ones I use?

Thats fair enough but AMT hasn't shown much interest in public transport in her constituency and has previously been opposed to government ownership of railways and buses. Anyhow we will have to see how things play out over the next few weeks and months and hopefully given RMT have asked her to reset the relationship she will at least meet Mick Lynch to hear what he has to say.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2022 ==


Separately Kevin Foster has been appointed as new Minister of State in DfT. Not clear if hes taking Wendy Mortons rail brief though.

https://twitter.com/transportgovuk/status/1567585401279242246

 

[Bald Rick]

Thats fair enough but AMT hasn't shown much interest in public transport in her constituency and has previously been opposed to government ownership of railways and buses. Anyhow we will have to see how things play out over the next few weeks and months and hopefully given RMT have asked her to reset the relationship she will at least meet Mick Lynch to hear what he has to say.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2022 ==


Separately Kevin Foster has been appointed as new Minister of State in DfT. Not clear if hes taking Wendy Mortons rail brief though.

https://twitter.com/transportgovuk/status/1567585401279242246

MP for Torbay. @MarkyT may have a view.

His most interesting attribute appears to be having a wife who is 28 years his senior. Fair play to both of them!

 

[Philip]

I’ll ask again, as you didn’t answer. How many extra services would you get through adding two tracks from Wolverhampton to Birmingham? Remember to show you detailed workings, including platform occupancy at both New Street and Wolverhampton.

As a side point - spending a few billion on a tunnel is rarely a good use of cash to improve performance by a couple of percentage points.

The newly built fast lines could take up to 8 trains per hour for Stafford and beyond with the correct signalling, which is 3 more than the pre-pandemic timetable. These can use the high-numbered platforms at Wolverhampton, with the locals and Shrewsbury services using the low-numbered ones.

For the existing slow lines - 3tph for Shrewsbury, 2tph to Walsall via Wolverhampton. So in total up to 13 trains per hour however that compares with now.