Recent content by Matt P

I think it is highly unlikely that Oswestry will ever be part of the national rail network again. The construction of the A5/Oswestry bypass with a level crossing as opposed to a bridge, coupled to the growth in road traffic since the road opened have made it all but impossible, at least without...

The Directive requires tendering of public service obligation type services, i.e subsidised services. Not all services. Liberalisation of services that can run on a commercial basis is via open access. The tendering process in Germany has resulted in contracts being awarded to the private...

Not dissimilar to how London buses were privatised with a public sector body setting fares, service frequencies etc and a private sector operator providing the service in return for a fee. This would be not unlike the much later London Overground example you mention. In this alternative...

The later EU Directives required liberalisation. But they do not require privatisation of the state owned operator. So there is absolutely no reason why ended up where we are is inevitable. It is the result of a series of political choices that trace their origins back to the outcome of the 1992...

Two reasons in my opinion. First, maximising competition at every level, due to a political ideology that believed that the public sector was inheritently inefficient. Second, to completely destroy BR, either due to the reason above and/or to make it extremely difficult for a Labour...

I'm not suggesting HS2 shouldn't have been built at all, but this data would suggest to me that a programme of investment in the MML (and WCML and ECML) would have been a good idea, alongside a HSL project? I think it definitely is a bit of a Cinderalla route compared to WCML and ECML but I...

But the Strategic approach wont actually relieve capacity constraints at Kings Cross because the Eastern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, or capacity constraints at the southern end of the ECML (or MML for that matter). So HS2 promised the gold standard and won't now deliver. I understand the...

A Berlin Hbf approach, with some routes utilising tunnels to access a Low Level station. I am not persuaded by the idea of people having to take a tram from Curzon Street to New Street for onward journeys that could be made via a change within the existing New St Station. That seems a step...

I personally think much of phase 1 made sense. My main observation about HS2 overall is that it seemed designed as a largely stand alone rail project rather than an enhancement to the existing. New stations in Birmingham, and Leeds are what stood out to me most in that respect. I recognise that...

For me, the simple answer is no. The reason is that the UK does subsidiary badly. Even with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments, the UK is still highly centralised, particularly as England has no political body or bodies with powers equivalent of the German Lander parliaments. German...

I thought it was floated as an idea by Railtrack in the 1990s? 1769891014 Nope. This is a 'what if' the formation wasn't in use for light rail, and also whether 4 tracking it would be a more viable proposition that the former LMS route.

4 tracking of the Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street line has, if I recall correctly, been mooted on occasion as a solution to rail capacity constraints on the West Midlands, in tandam with Birmingham to Coventry. Both would appear to present significant challenges due to the amount of...

The split was inevitable but the privatisation of Railtrack was not. But Railtrack (which was initially state owned prior to being floated) sitting outside of BR was not inevitable. The EU Directive didnt require that. Some EU countries did separate out infrastructure and operations, giving...

I don't think privatisation can be credited as being the trigger for WCRM or Thameslink. Thameslink had been at the planning stage by BR prior to privatisation and was inherited by Railtrack. It was delivered under privatisation but that is, at least in part, due to the time taken for the...

Which is pretty much how Deutsche Bahn is structured, with the only difference being DB's 'sectors' don't own the infrastructure, there is a separate DB company that does.