Rail Sector Deal - the PM offers some clues

Word reaches Eye that the great and the good are meeting tonight to discuss what a Rail Sector Deal might look like.

The original announcement of possible Sector Deals in January, managed to, ahem... overlook Rail, in favour of:

• Life sciences
• Ultra low emission vehicles
• Industrial digitalisation
• Nuclear industry; and 
• the Creative industries

No matter!

Happily Number 10's original announcement made clear that:

"This is not an exclusive list and the government is prepared to work with any sector which can organise behind strong leadership to address shared challenges and opportunities".

So far so good.

And with almost perfect timing for tonight's RDG/RSG discussions, Theresa May made clear at today's PMQs that the Industrial Strategy would be regionally focused "tailored to the needs of particular parts of the country".

Surely the PM had the rail industry in mind, with places like Derby, Doncaster and the North West having vibrant rail clusters with the capabilities to become global centres of excellence!

One can only hope, therefore, that said 'particular parts of the country' are well represented at tonight's dinner?

Oh dear

Following the previous post an angry email reaches Railway Eye.

It reads:

"Not content with using Derbyshire taxes to fund schemes that solely benefit the south, like Crossrail and the Olympics, it now appears that Londoners are determined to bugger up Duffield's local road network as well!"

By way of explanation the provincial gentleman was kind enough to furnish an article from last Friday's Derby Evening Telegraph.

The Fact Compiler doesn't understand the problem. L21 could have powered the hamlet of Duffield for a week!