Recent content by Simon11

The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail was published on May 2021. I was working on the design for GBR from around 2021/2 which is now over five years ago!

Would be a great opportunity to stick in electrification infrastructure too albeit our Government and GBR are not ready nor prepared.

Or we decide not to increase the defense budget? The extra £10bn given is not going to make a massive swing in a war and likely end up in a 'black' hole with very little to show for it. I'd rather we either spent it on things that will actually help the country day to day or decide not spend...

Haha, I was thinking how on earth is Docklands Light Railway going to be supporting this!

A couple of thoughts: Considering this is an enclosed venue and having looked through lots of news articles, why is no one asking how on earth someone with a gun even managed to get into the main room? An Airport seems more secure than the evening dinner with Trump.... Does make you wonder. If...

Does anyone know which Gas plants are still producing energy today and if possible, share the reason for it? I presume the plants would be in the South East where existing infrastructure cannot transfer enough renewable energy to?

Unlikely- most of the senior staff that they bring in will be from the bid team who understand the operation well and of course have worked on all the ideas/ initiatives that will then need to be delivered having spent nearly half a year working on the bid.

I would have a guess that having seen the Network Rail report done a few years back and current political situation, they are likely to struggle to get the investment to cover the costs of upgrading several level crossings, building a new station plus car park. Would easily be several £million...

Happy to be corrected but I am under the impression that the GWR relief lines are more congested than the fast lines. So it isn't straightforward to throw Heathrow Express services on the reliefs to compete with Elizabeth line, freight and other services with differing speeds and stopping patterns.

Its worth noting that Heathrow Express track access are secured till June 2028 (happy to be corrected if wrong). Services are currently contracted out to GWR who are likely to have their contract handed back to GBR in 2026. There are quite a few options for who would operate it for the next...

I launched this product when working at c2c over a decade ago and still have the first ever ticket! Make sense changing this products as travel habits change and introduction of contactless.

I don't quite understand why they haven't considered having an emergency timetable up their sleave which doesn't provide a service on the sections with leaf-fall issues on high-risk days? Its much better to can the service on very windy and wet days for a few days/ 1-2 weeks than to destroy the...

Still looking in really small 'pots' of savings by looking at hedge funds extracting money from water and health sector. And the money 'lost' here is likely to support peoples pensions pots. There are also parts of our hard earned tax money getting spent on: -> The annual cost of the State...

It could become a very slippery slope if you give TfL staff PRIV. Give it a few months and I could quickly see Mainline staff wanting TfL benefits for free travel....... While free to issue, it will result in lost income that has to come from somewhere.

It would be really interesting to find out which parts of London and type of workers are being heavily affected by the strikes. I would expect people in services, retail and low wage, they are likely to be mostly impacted and the type of people Union's try to protect. However, for lots of...