Wednesday 25 April 2012

Villiers vignettes - another apology

This from Cruella, given in the House yesterday...

Theresa Villiers (Minister of State (Rail and Aviation), Transport; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)

I regret to inform the House that there was an inaccuracy in the answer I gave to parliamentary question 98207 on 5 March, Hansard, column 411W and subsequent comments made by the Secretary of State for Transport in debates held on 8 March, Hansard, column 1035 and 23 March, Hansard, column 1049 about how many miles of railway track were electrified between May 1997 and May 2010.

The correct answer is approximately nine route miles were electrified between May 1997 and May 2010, not 39 route miles as previously stated. This total does not include newly constructed railways.

How lucky we are to have a quality department of state like the DfT.

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

How long, oh Lord, how long?

How many more times does Theresa Villiers have to apologise to the house  for errors in data provided by her officials before the light dawns that perhaps said officials are not exactly on top of the job?  


UPDATE: This from the Lancastrian...

Further to the debate on electrified mileage...
 
Readers in possession of the relevant Quail maps or sectional appendices might care to add up the route mileage of Kidsgrove-Crewe (electrified in 2003) and Pelaw-Sunderland (electrified in 2002).