Great Western Coffee Shop

With the general election over and a bit of a "where now?" element in the air as I write, it seems a good time to come up with some ideas and suggestions as to what we might like to see - not only on FGW but on rail as a whole, and perhaps on integrated transport, transport as a whole, and even changes that will effect the need for us to be transported so far ....

I was struck by a post a few minutes ago, suggesting a poster's personal view that franchise agreements should have the times that off peak fares are available written additionally into them.  Again, on a purely personal side, I thing I disagree with the suggestion in isolation as it would make for more complexity, admin expense, possible loopholes.   But what can you come up with - no holds barred, laws can be rewritten ...

Scrap HS2 using the money to invest in new rolling stock to benefit the whole rail network which would lead to further cascades of existing rolling stock.

Much longer and less perscriptive franchises to encourage companies to invest in their franchise but with strict minimum service levels to safeguard services.

A short term fix would be to order some 172s on top of the London Midland and London Overground order. Perhaps if our franchise system wasn't so controlled it would be more viable for private companies to make the investment!

I would suggest they keep Lord Adonis as the Secretary of State for Transport and continue with the current funding of the railways.

But alas I fear that a hung Parliament will mean no funding decisions will be made one way or the other just placed on hold its going to be a bit of a twilight zone, things like Crossrail trains to run as part of the December 2017 will slip to 2020 or 2021 or ............... GWML electrification will be placed on a back burner not canceled just lack of political drive

An alternative idea would be to keep HS2 but to have it under a completely seperate entity from the current network to prevent the budget for rail being spent on HS2 leaving the rest of us to suffer. Having a rail budget that is similair if not increased as to what it is now and having HS2 under a classification of its own will solve the problem of high speed rail favoured against classic lines. (In theory)

From the point of view of Bristol commuters (and others travelling further afield), I think our results locally are very positive.

In Weston-Super-Mare, John Penrose has a track record of supporting rail services; in Somerset North, Liam Fox is a very vocal supporter of the Portishead reopening; and in Bristol North West, Charlotte Leslie is very active in supporting FOSBR.

It's all well and good having those Conservative MPs batting for their constituencies, but their efforts are likely to be severely hamstrung by central government policy. There will be lots of platitudes, but precious little action. There just isn't going to be the money - we are in for a period of 'make-do-and-mend', with budgets being cut left, right and centre. I therefore see little room for improvement in local services. In fact I'd go so far as to say that Bristol City Council will look to withdraw/reduce it's subsidy of the Severn Beach Line, instead asking the operator to make it pay.

As for Charlotte Leslie, she wouldn't have stood a chance if it wasn't for boundary changes. With the Bristol North-West constituency losing Filton and Patchway and gaining the leafy 'burbs of Stoke Bishop, Henleaze (with it's Waitrose!) and Westbury-on-Trym, the seat became a straight fight between the Nasty Party and the Sandalistas. The previous Labour MP, Dr Doug Naysmith*, saw the writing was on the wall and decided to retire from parliament - and not because of any expenses scandal!

Oh, and Charlotte Leslie tried to buy my vote by bribing my dog with a wine gum.  ;)

*Dr Naysmith stood instead in the City Council election for Avonmouth ward, winning the seat by means of a lucky dip after the ballot was tied.

Given the present fiscal situation I have no doubt we are in for a period of mainly 'treading water' as far as the railways are concerned.

However my hope is that the Conservatives & Liberal Democrats are able to come to an agreement which would allow some of the more sensible/useful/cost effective rail schemes to proceed as planned - I am thinking Crossrail, GWML Electrification, MML Electrification & NW England infill electrification projects.

Implementation of longer rail franchises I regard as essential, as long as minimum service levels are very tightly specified. I would hope that in the medium term this would allow the TOC's, should they so wish, to directly purchase most of their own rolling stock thereby leading to the gradual elimination of the ROSCO's which just take money out of the rail industry in the form of an additional profit centre.

The new government should immediately stop the DfT from trying to micromanage rail timetables and pass this responsibility to the TOC's who should be regarded as the experts.

Rapid implementation of variable trunk road speed limits, together with the abandonment of proposals for road pricing would be nice - I only ever travel infrequently on the roads as a passenger (and every day as a cyclist!) but it strikes me as daft that cars are still limited to 60/70 mph when traffic levels are low, and I take the view that Fuel Excise Duty/Tax already acts as a form of road pricing. Just introduce point-to-point tolls in the few places where congestion is really bad.

And finally...the rapid rollout of a national high speed broadband network (fibre to the premises, rather than fibre to the cabinet) with a view to reducing the volume of business travel.   

 

I'm not sure I buy that argument, bignosemac: the Filton and Bradley Stoke (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b74.stm) constituency, which 'gained' the electorate in the Filton and Patchway areas, also achieved an increased Conservative majority.


I'm jealous: she didn't offer me a wine gum!  :o

Well, we can never be sure, General Election voting statistics are not collated ward by ward. However the most recent council election results for the Patchway ward returned 3 Lib Dem councillors. Could've been handy for Paul Harrod, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Bristol NW, if Patchway had remained in Bristol NW. As for the increased Conservative 'majority' in Filton and Bradley Stoke; that is only notional. The constituency is wholly new.

I'll stop now before I get bogged down in statistics - we all know the saying about statistics....... ;)

Back to what the future holds for the railway.

 I think it is highly unlikely that their will be additional investment in Devon/Cornwall, bearing in mind the expense
 of just keeping the line open.
 I would like to suggest new rolling stock and some faster line speeds.
 Perhaps some private finance package could untap the business potential of Devon/Cornwall.(http://i7.tinypic.com/63vk5dh.jpg)

No view on the points raised, Henry. Except to say what a great animated smiley/emoticon!  ;D ;D ;D

From the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8672859.stm):

From the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677933.stm):

11. Environment
The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to fulfil our joint ambitions for a low
carbon and eco-friendly economy, including:
- The establishment of a smart grid and the roll-out of smart meters.
- The full establishment of feed-in tariff systems in electricity ^ as well as the maintenance of
banded ROCs.
- Measures to promote a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.
- The creation of a green investment bank.
- The provision of home energy improvement paid for by the savings from lower energy bills.
- Retention of energy performance certificates while scrapping HIPs.
- Measures to encourage marine energy.
- The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power
stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient CCS to meet the emissions
performance standard.
- The establishment of a high-speed rail network.
- The cancellation of the third runway at Heathrow.
- The refusal of additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.
- The replacement of the Air Passenger Duty with a per flight duty.
- The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as efforts to persuade the EU to move
towards full auctioning of ETS permits.
- Measures to make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.
- Measures to promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats
and restore biodiversity.
- Mandating a national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
- Continuation of the present Government^s proposals for public sector investment in CCS
technology for four coal-fired power stations; and a specific commitment to reduce central
government carbon emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months.
- We are agreed that we would seek to increase the target for energy from renewable sources,
subject to the advice of the Climate Change Committee.
Liberal Democrats have long opposed any new nuclear construction. Conservatives, by contrast, are
committed to allowing the replacement of existing nuclear power stations provided they are subject
to the normal planning process for major projects (under a new national planning statement) and
provided also that they receive no public subsidy.

New Transport Secretary is Philip Hammond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hammond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hammond)

so apparently he did serve on one of the less specific Select Committees for a year, but apart from that does not seem to have much in the way of Transport 'previous'.

I think he was deputy shadow transport secretary at one point - not sure about recently - at the time that Chris Grayling was shadow ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8675705.stm

Conservative Philip Hammond has been named as the new Transport Secretary.

For one moment I thought we were going to get the very witty and articulate Dr Philip Hammond as our new Transport Secretary. Alas, I was disappointed.....

With many thanks to RailCornwall and Zo^ for posting their 'political news items' on other boards - I've nevertheless taken the opportunity to merge all such topics here - purely for continuity.

Chris.  :)

More details from Philip Hammond's Conservative Party profile (and overlooking their apparently inadvertent reference to his joining the 'Shadow Cabinet'  ::) ) See http://www.conservatives.com/People/Members_of_Parliament/Hammond_Philip.aspx

Perhaps the title of the thread could be amended following the merge.

Err ... perhaps ... but I think we are really still on suggestions for the incoming government.   Would it be better to peel off separate thread(s) to discuss specific policies?

Now we actually have a Government yes, as was my intention when opening the second thread.

Just annnounced - Theresa Villiers will be Minister of State for Transport (ie No 2 in DafT). Presumably a Lib Dem will be named for the department at some point - Norman Baker or Lord Bill Bradshaw? At least they know something about railways.

Remember all that HLOS/SOFA stuff - the 5 year plan for CP4 etc? 

It seems to me that all those route business plans are aimed at addressing the HLOS, which is a mechanism introduced by a Railways Act. So are changes that easy to make, or do they require new legislation?

Discuss...

Paul

Lib Dem transport spokesman Norman Baker - a strong supporter of the railways and the Lewes-Uckfield reopening campaign in his constituency - is to be a transport minister, not sure yet of exact responsibilities. His appointment loks likely to mean a Conservative will be the transport minister in the House of Lords.

That sounds more encouraging (thankfully).

Er, renationalise the whole damned lot but run it as a government-owned limited company for which the bottom line matters, not as a department of government which is funded by the taxpayer.

BR was doing quite well money-wise before it was forcibly dismantled. Since then, the taxpayer subsidy has risen, punctuality has on many lines fallen and it appears that fares in real terms have risen. Or is everybody else on long train journeys travelling on an advance purchase ticke. As far as I can see, these are the only way to make a long train journey as cheap as flying with Easyjet, Ryanair or Flybe. Unfortunately, their fares are cheap-ish up until the last week or so whereas advance train fares seem to disappear about a month before travel.