Rail 639: No regrets over demise of Intercity Express
There is something to be said for tightening our belts. Having lots of money swilling around inevitably leads to waste and the discipline of a smaller budget can often lead to better governance. This is well illustrated by the decision by Lord Adonis to postpone the Intercity Express Programme to replace the 125 HST sets. While this move has been forced on the Department for Transport by the continued banking ...
High speed could be expensive distraction from existing railway
Towards the end of this month, we will get the government's White Paper based on the work by the HS2 team which will set out a route between London and Birmingham down to the last few inches. Everyone apparently wants a high speed line. The Tories, the Libdems and belatedly Labour have all embraced the idea. Environmentalists say it will be green, the CBI says it will be good for ...
Rail 638: No dead, no injured, too much fuss about Eurostar
It could have been a lot worse for the 152 passengers and crew when ice led to an engine failure. Indeed, they were lucky to escape alive but strangely the media coverage of the report into the incident was relatively muted - a few interviews with the heroic crew and a bit of technical explanation, but with only very minor injuries and no dead, the matter was soon forgotten.
That, of ...
Rail 637: Heathrow and High Speed Rail are not compatible
If, as has been suggested to me, the minimum cost of a high speed line between London and Scotland will be in the order of £50billion or more, the case for building it will have to be exceptionally strong, especially given the current pressure on the public purse.
Such a sum would involve doubling the level of spending by Network Rail for a period of ten years. The fundamental question, therefore, ...
America needs to focus on high speed rail
President Obama has repeatedly insisted that there is no reason why Europe or China, rather than the United States, should have the world's fastest trains, and since coming to office he has committed the country to developing a high-speed rail network of its own.
Yet the $8 billion set aside for high-speed rail in his 2009 stimulus package, split among 31 states, includes only two genuine high-speed rail projects - ...
Highway engineers crash out
If you were hoping to come to a meeting tonight at Arup's offices to hear me speak about rail privatisation to the London Branch of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, you will be disappointed. The meeting has been cancelled for reasons that reveal all too well why Highway engineers frequently create street environments that are cluttered, ugly and not fit for purpose. Unlike the implication in the email ...
