Government Seeking Ways to Reverse Some Beeching Cuts.

[CarlSilva]

Just a failing governmet pretending not to be usesless. nothing will happen.

 

[furnessvale]

Noting that the Transport and Works Act decision into the combined scheme to enhance the Dore Triangle and construct a new eastbound loop at Bamford has not yet been published I was unaware that the project has been 'cancelled' (as opposed to merely being 'delayed'). Has there been another announcement or withdrawal of funding or something? (Hope not.)

Checking back, you are correct. It is merely delayed but for how long, who knows.

 

[AndrewE]

Labour is pointing out that there is no funding as such.

What he wants is not an operational thing. What he wants is to quietly farm funding for branch lines off to local authorities, who can then cut them without damaging his reputation

Well if the Electrification of the MML has been put back indefinitely beyond Kettering, good luck with the wish lists. This is a day to deliver some candy because of the Brexit Bill of circa 50 billion.

Perhaps smirking Grayling is trying to gain some popularity

So the government is going to invest money into this yet it's been cutting the Network Rail budget and electrification schemes left right and centre to save money, I smell a rat.

This is nothing more than a diversion tactic to take some of the heat off the government. Very little of this will happen and if anyone is buying this you are completely naive.

The timing of the announcement, is completely, totally a co-incidence too.

8 nearly 9 years later what has actually been achieved ? Why do we think anything will actually be achieved in the next 10 years?

That would imply it's genuine and that they are aiming to do a lot of things which are new rather than re-announcing old things and offering a diversionary tactic of speculating about such things to placate the brexiteers over the exit bill.

The government has no money for new things, that's why it cut the electrification plans, how do you think they will afford all of this? It's a hook for certain people who have taken it.

I am not the only one who doesn't think the announcement is genuine or will lead to anything not already in progress, apart from juggling the ECML franchise fiddle yet again to try to find a way to make it work in the private sector.

 

[Domeyhead]

That's a very informative post and good argument for reopening only to be spoilt by the totally irrelevant final sentence.

You may not like it but you can't say it's irrelevant when this entire thread has pointed out time and again that "there is no money". There is (£12.7bn of it last year) and Panorama this week revealed how well administered it is. The Fawley reopening would only require around 0.5% of that sum.

 

[edwin_m]

You may not like it but you can't say it's irrelevant when this entire thread has pointed out time and again that "there is no money". There is (£12.7bn of it last year) and Panorama this week revealed how well administered it is. The Fawley reopening would only require around 0.5% of that sum.

Taking a pop at an unrelated item of spending that you happen to believe is wrong is a fine way to derail the discussion and alienate quite a few people who might otherwise be agreeing with you on the core issue of shortage of funding.

 

[yorkie]

If anyone wishes to discuss a particular scheme, please use either an existing thread dedicated to that scheme (if there is one; please feel free to contact us to arrange to consider reopening a closed thread) or create a new thread (if there isn't one).

I'll keep this thread open for now, but if it becomes impossible to stay on topic we will have to consider our options.

If anyone wishes to discuss Brexit, or the impact of the potential costs of Brexit on other expenditure, please use an existing thread, or create a new one (as appropriate).

I have not reviewed the posts in this thread but if anyone spots any personal insults, please do not react to them, re-publish them or respond in any way, and simply use the report button instead.

 

[The Ham]

Taking a pop at an unrelated item of spending that you happen to believe is wrong is a fine way to derail the discussion and alienate quite a few people who might otherwise be agreeing with you on the core issue of shortage of funding.

Quite, I think that we should not be spending £371 million a year on space and that it should be put into rail reopenings. Over the next control period that would be circa £1.9 billion which would be enough to reopen the line through Okehampton and another equally sized project (or two or more smaller projects), which would be enough to be going on with.

It would probably result in more jobs created and could result in areas being much better of than they are, potentially reducing government spend on welfare whilst also generating more tax receipts.

Yet it's a poor argument to make (mostly because I don't actually think that) as I don't know what difference the space budget makes to us or that is not going to be beneficial to us later down the line.

Likewise with the aid budget, as I pointed out up thread we don't know what impact cutting it dramatically would have had or could have going forward. It could be that to cut it could lead to more terrorism which means the savings would need to transferred to the police budget, or it could have lead to Ebola reaching the UK and the savings needing to be spent on health.

 

[Bromley boy]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but there's currently a BBC4 documentary, featuring Ian Hislop, available on BBC iplayer which discusses the Beeching cuts in some detail.

"Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails" is the title.

It might well be of interest to those posting on this thread.

 

[mwmbwls]

Thinking of Wisbech, Tavistock and Okehampton, all of these have been on Council drawing boards for years. I suspect that this is the case for all those on Graylings list.

Rail Magazine 841 page 9 confirms your opinion: Bristol to Portishead and Henbury, Exeter to Okehampton,Tavistock to Bere Alston, Ashington And Blyth are listed. Low hanging fruit where existing track remains in place seems to count. The exception to the rule, the Tavy link has also been well rehearsed for years but I was under the impression that the housing developments that were supposed to in part finance the link have now been built? could any body with better local knowledge confirm the current status?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

No - nothing has happened - planning permission was granted in 2015 subject to a contribution towards the rail link. Kilbride passed over the development to Bovis Homes, who have plenty of more profitable sites in Devon and Cornwall (including at Cranbrook and Sherford new settlements) and they seem to have lost interest. They have also had 'reputational issues' of late to deal with. Local rumour, suprise suprise, has it that they are trying to wriggle out of the clause - they managed to remove the requirement for a doctor's surgery and convenience store and reduced the affordable-housing quota in the last planning application.

 

[tavistock]

Cumbrian Coast, Kirkby-Wigan, Sheffield-Cleethorpes via Brigg, Knottingly-Goole, Preston-Ormskirk, Sheffield-York via Rotherham local, Whitby branch, are all open routes that I've wanted to make use of but have been unable to because of the shoddy train service. Most of these were downgraded 1970s to 1990s, post-Beeching. How about making sure that existing lines get a 7 day, morning to evening service, before considering reopening?

Kirkby -Wigan and Preston -Ormskirk should really be integrated into the Merseyrail franchise for them to make sense. The Kirkby-Wigan upgrade would then provide a third Liverpool -Manchester route via Bolton to relieve the current services, and the Preston Ormskirk through route would provide an easier commuter route for many people in and out of Liverpool.

 

[bspahh]

It would not save 'having to sort out Ely North'.
There are at least 4 other service enhancements that will help do that and 1 of those (at the very least) is unstoppable. That being the Felixstowe-Nuneaton freight route upgrade which is currently progressing in little bits.

The Fen Line User Association http://www.flua.org.uk has description of a meeting of The Norfolk Rail Group:

The Ely Task Force, chaired by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, brings together DfT, Network Rail, local authorities and the two local enterprise partnerships (New Anglia and Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough). It has successfully overseen project work, funded by GCGP and New Anglia LEPs and the Strategic Freight Network (part of Network Rail), to identify a scheme option to unlock additional train paths through the Ely area. It is due to complete in spring 2019. At this point there should be selection of a preferred option, and it will be for DfT to decide whether to fund its design, development and delivery. If a solution can be found and government decide to fund it, it could be delivered before the mid-2020s. A solution might require measures at level crossings in Queen Adelaide, a village just north east of Ely and at the centre of the Ely area rail infrastructure, where there are three level crossings on the B1382 within ½km. Therefore, in tandem with the rail work, Cambridgeshire County Council is undertaking a roads-based study to look at the level crossings. This study will report early in the New Year.

Section 7d of http://flua.org.uk/documents/Norfolk Rail Group Agenda 10 January 2018.pdf says:

Network Rail is looking to produce a business case for undertaking GRIP 1-3 work on the Ely (North) scheme – which will also include level crossing works, platforming layout etc. There are tight timescales to work towards. The hope is to submit something by the beginning of October at the latest. Any support that could be fed back by the group would be greatly appreciated, as it helps strengthen the case.