MML Upgrade goes Parliamental!

Clearly the East Midlands has learnt the lessons of Derbygate.

Determined not to be caught out again by Ministerial double speak local MPs are turning up the heat to secure the upgrade of the Midland Main Line (MML).

Whilst all sorts of smooth and silken words have discreetly emerged from Marsham Street about the project being a 'dead cert' for CP5, apparently not everyone is convinced.

The Tory party's potential new Robert Adley (Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan) has secured a 16th April adjournment debate on Electrification of the Midland main line.

Good effort but no cigar!

As the below shows the real improvements to the MML comes from Upgrading the route, of which electrification is but a part (click on the image to view).


Eye readers hoping to benefit from this upgrade may wish to invite their own MPs to contribute to this debate?

Meanwhile, this salutary reminder from Simon Carr of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership:

"More money has been spent on improving car parks on the West Coast Main Line in the past five years than on the whole of the Midland Main Line."

The truth that dare not speak its name...

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
This written answer given in the House of Commons on the 19th May...

Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of the cost of running the rail network was met from passenger revenue in (a) 1997 and (b) 2003; and what proportion he estimates will be so met in (i) 2009 and (ii) 2013.

Paul Clark (Gillingham, Labour)
Details of historic passenger revenue and Government support are set out in National Rail Trends which is published by the Office of Rail Regulation.

An estimate of passenger revenue alongside planned Government support for the railway up until 2013-14 is set out in the White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Railway which was published in July 2007. Copies of both documents are available in the Libraries of the House.

(It really is as bad as we all thought then. Ed)

Into the limelight steps Chris Bolt!

Doomed, recession, doomed, budget, God help us all, Darling disaster and it's all the fault of that maniacal son of the manse the OESI!

Enough!

Steady the buffs!

As Darling confirmed today that it really has all gone terribly wrong The Evening Standard picked up the following (with a Bowler tip to Sri Carmichael):

The cuts include £538 million from Network Rail by reducing its grant and cutting the amount spent on operation, maintenance and renewal of infrastructure.

Interesting.

If this is money generously gifted by DafT then of course it is free to slash and burn at will.

BUT if it is part of ORRs regulatory settlement then there may be a small, but intractable problem.

Would the ORR care to clarify?

UPDATE: This just in from the ORR...

With the Chancellor's Red Book clocking in at a whopping 268 pages, some could be excused for not picking up the following roughly half-way through:

'Saving... £538 million from Network Rail as a result of the Office of Rail Regulation setting strict efficiency targets, reducing the grant which the department pays Network Rail, delivering greater value for money from public investment in the operation, maintenance and renewal of rail infrastructure'

We at ORR however know that the devil is in the detail; and reference to our 447-page Periodic Review 2008 determinations will show just how we expect Network Rail to spend less of the UK's cash, while delivering more capacity, greater reliability and an all-round safer railway for your buck.

Goodness me. Surely the Treasury hasn't been caught out recycling old news, yet again!

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

But Network Rail's CP4 Delivery Plan, in a scanty 76 pages, makes it equally clear that Iain Coucher and chums are still wondering how they are going to close the whopping gap between what Chris Bolt says the railway ought to cost and what Network Rail's engineers say it is going to cost to provide the railway specified in the HLOS.

The general theme appears to be that something will probably turn up in the form of a big yellow deus ex machina!

After all, bonuses depend on it and ORR believes that bonuses work...

Do the math

Telegrammed from our man in 222 Marylebone Road
According to the press this weekend the Ministry of Defence has a £2bn hole in its budget.

This may lead the MoD to cancel or defer the improved Lynx helicopter so desperately needed by our gallant troops in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in Modern Railways, Captain Deltic says the difference between the amount which Network Rail says it needs for the next five years and that which the ORR says it is going to get is now £2.58 billion.

So, a matter of life and death versus the high-life and bonuses.