Victorian Vs Current Rail Projects

[edwin_m]

I am afraid that isn't correct. You dont necessarily have to stop after each GRIP stage.

If only the world if public funding were as simple as people here wish! What you are asking is for the politics to be taken out of what is a very political process. Government wont give up the ability to "re proritise" what they want to spend money on and to limit thier choices in the event of economic change.

It simply wont happen.

Yes sometimes you can go through several GRIP stages at once, but in my view the time it takes to get projects under way is much more about the gaps between the stages of development than about the time it takes to do those stages.

Other countries seem to have much more effectively taken the politics out of rail enhancement - just look at Germany's steady 200km per year of electrification against ours that jumps all over the place. I'm not hopeful that anything will change in this country, but that's not a reason not to suggest it.

 

[HSTEd]

I'm afraid the Treasury is simply far too powerful.
It should be broken up into a taxation and debt ministry and a far weaker public budget ministry.

It should not have total control over all elements of the public finances.