Minister rails against train delay in House of Commons

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From ITV News Anglia:

Why me? Mr Lansley was the only cabinet minister to miss the historic meeting Credit: PA^▸ (Public Address)

Government minister and South Cambridgeshire MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Andre Lansley has spoken up in the House of Commons to attack "failings" on the rail network which meant he missed out on the Queen's appearance at Cabinet.

The Queen sat alongside members of David Cameron's Government on Tuesday, believed to be the first time a monarch has attended Cabinet since 1781.

But Leader of the House of Commons Mr Lansley was absent, telling MPs instead of meeting the monarch he spent 105 minutes stranded at Letchworth Garden City station in Hertfordshire. He said: "I have an insufferable knowledge of Letchworth Garden City railway station, where I spent an hour and three-quarters. If anybody was to ask me if I was sympathetic to a debate on recent failing in performance on the East Coast Main Line or First Capital Connect, I would be very sympathetic to that."

[Southern Stag]

Of course the problem is the OHLE equipment which was installed somewhat on the cheap. I doubt we're going to see the government funding the replacement with OHLE up to modern standards though

[paul7575]

Of course the problem is the OHLE equipment which was installed somewhat on the cheap. I doubt we're going to see the government funding the replacement with OHLE up to modern standards though

It isn't being ignored though, work is underway now.  They have funded replacement of all the weak links in the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) OHLE hardware. There's quite a few details about it in the current CP4^▸ (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014) enhancement plans.

I'll try and find a link later, I'm on a mobile at the mo...

Paul

[Electric train]

The failure at Hitchin was the "Neutral Section" in the OHLE on the DN Cambridge unfortunately the damage was not just limited the DN Cambridge it also affected the headspan equipment in the station area (headspan is a wire construction that supports the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") contact wires across multiple tracks) some of this damage was not apparent on the first day this resulted on the second day the DN Slow being out of use.

Headspans have a problem if one wire is ripped down it effects all the other lines, for the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) west of Hayes independently mechanically registered system is being used

There is a major Power Supply Upgrade project between Woodgreen and Doncaster part of this and the grade separation works will remodel the OLE in the Hithin area but I doubt they will have the funds to replace the headspans

[JayMac]

My heart bleeds for Andrew Lansley.

Not.

(I also note that ITV News Anglia gave his forename a Gallic twist. Mon Dieu! I wonder what he thinks of that?)