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Nope. Best practice is "within three months", current practice is six months to a year. Which makes the 30 month delay even more suspicious; he probably wants to cancel it, but to formally do so he needs to reject the order.

To be fair to TfGM, they have been incredibly frustrated at rail problems in Manchester recently, but, at least when it comes to Platform 15 and 16, there's literally nothing they can do until Chris Grayling makes the TWAO order.

FWIW, Werrington Junction's TWAO only took eight months from inspectorate's report to approval.

Someone who’s got the PDFs to hand might be able to confirm, but I believe that the Platform 15 and 16 were listed as essentials if the chord was built, as opposed to the other plans such as an Ardwick flyover.

The regular idiots on Twitter are already adding the entire MML wiring cost onto HS2 as a result of this.

Theoretically, it could allow Leeds terminators on the ECML to run through, but I doubt there's any operational reason to do so (apart from possibly freeing up Platform 8 at Leeds). If the Y&S services were split from the Calder Valley services once again, it would allow electrification of the...

DfT guidance says they try to work to the three month deadline for TWO projects. I did have a look at previous TWOs, and the turnaround time in reality seems to be around six to nine months. That the Barking Riverside project had its planning permission application, public inquiry, inspector's...

So thanks to the magic of the Freedom of Information Act, the DfT have confirmed that they've had the inspector's report into four-tracking Piccadilly to Deansgate since February 2016 and yet Grayling hasn't issued the TWO yet. Surely it should've been issued by now?

TPE getting bi-modes may actually be a blessing in disguise, as it does allow for use of the Calder Valley line as a diversionary route without the urgency of electrifying both lines. I mean, obviously it would be preferable to see Calder Valley electrified this side of 2030, but the bi-modes...

We are talking about a man who, as Transport Minister, carelessly opened his ministerial car door and sent a cyclist in a cycle lane flying. And then a month later, defended in Parliament comments he made just days before sending said cyclist flying implying that cyclists weren't proper road...

Is this the Platform 15/16 project that was essential to the Ordsall Chord working at full capacity from this December but has been waiting for the best part of two years for Chris Grayling to sign the TWO?

I'm not suggesting we rip up any wires or third rail; we just leave the core unwired. Because as we all know, electrification is expensive, and so is boring the required tunnels through Central London, and after all, aren't bi-modes more economical than electrification?

The £64,000 question that should be asked whenever alternatives to electrification are proposed is "would it be acceptable to use on Crossrail 2?" Because obviously, Chris Grayling is not going to raise the ire of his constituents by mandating bi-modes in the CR2 core. (The question also...

It's fine, the Transpennine route becoming a "digital railway" will clearly solve most of the problems, with bi-modes solving the rest.

Brighouse station, being south of the River Calder, is actually in the neighbouring village of Rastrick.

Well, we know Crossrail 2 has an eye-watering price tag of £30bn, and electrification has the potential for massive cost overruns. Surely, the way to keep down costs is to run bi-modes through Central London. What's good for the Northern Labour-voting goose is good for the Tory MP for Epsom...

Additionally, the often mooted "well what about reopening the GCML?" argument for an alternative to HS2's alignment through the Chilterns misses the point that, with allowances, that's exactly what HS2 is going to do.

It wasn't explicitly planned, but it was pretty much an implicit wink-wink-nudge-nudge assumption on all sides that the connection would exist (because otherwise, what would be the point in the station in the first place?).

Mostly I'm going from memory of the original Northern Hub document from 2010, which I believe discussed diverting Norwich–Liverpool via the Marple lines and some TPE services via Ashburys and Mile Platting. It's very possible that the ITT is different.

Mostly for the Airport services; instead of the ~10 min time penalty from crossing the throat, they can go around the long way to Ashburys in the same amount of time. The Norwich–Liverpool service is probably getting diverted through Vic at the same time. This also allows 9–12 at Picc to get...