DafT phones a friend

This from the Railway Gazette...

Rotherham tram-train replaces Penistone scheme

Now there's a surprise!

Penistone too difficult so DafT changes the question.

Will the dysfunctional Department ever see a rolling stock procurement exercise through to a successful conclusion?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Look on the positive side.

At least Sheffield to Huddersfield passengers won't have to stand cross-legged on a train with less seats and no loo (cf the current pacers).

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

The Fact Compiler is losing his touch!

Has he not noticed the following paragraph at the end of the Department's press release:

The project partners are still planning to test tram-trains on the Penistone Line between Sheffield and Huddersfield via Barnsley at a later date after work concluded that, electrically-powered tram-trains are more economically viable for use in the UK than the diesel equivalent which was being proposed for trial on the Penistone line

Interesting.

Electrically powered tram-trains.

And yet the freight line upon which these are now supposed to run is not electrified.

And as the spec' for the tram-trains appears to have changed does not this mean the procurement process will have to be rerun?

Either way it would have been cheaper to cancel the entire project.

Unless, of course, you have the mindset of an 'insurgent'...

Scorched earth policy revealed

Lord Mandelson suggests this government should have the mindset of "insurgents" rather than "incumbents".

So what Improvised Economic Disasters will Mandy and Brown leave behind for an incoming administration?

This from Spycatcher...

Travelling in a cab with a Treasury wonk recently, I congratulated her on getting the Crossrail Act passed.

It was easy, she said, to take the short-term political credit for getting it onto the statute book, as the inevitable cost overruns on the £16bn project would land on the desk of the next government.

“Just like they did to us with the Dome” she added.

Charming!

2009 Railway Garden Competition #XXVI

This from Shiny Shoes...

Derby and Crewe - always great rivals.


Hanging gardens no exception!

Happy anniversary

A day to gladden the hearts of all railwaymen!

On this day in 1830, at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, William Huskisson MP interfered with the operation of the railway and paid for his audacity with his life.

Sadly it's been a bit one sided in the wrong direction since then.