I blinked and it was gone

[whole diary]

[grahame]

And here in "Smoke and Mirrors" we celebrate government promises on Wednesday of reopening the railway on Leamside, of funding £100 million in Bristol and of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) re-instated to Euston.

From ITV

The government has u-turned on their pledge to reopen a disused rail line less than 24 hours after it was announced as part of Rishi Sunak's "Network North".

The Leamside Line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, was included in initial announcements about the ‘Network North’ programme revealed by Rishi Sunak on Wednesday using funds originally allocated for the cancelled leg of HS2 between Manchester and Birmingham.

However, all references to the line have been removed from the Network North website with roads minister Richard Holden confirming the government was simply “committed to looking into” the project instead.

From Bristol Live

The mystery of an extra £100 million of money from the cancelled HS2 rail project announced for transport in the West of England has deepened. Bristol Live can reveal the Department for Transport said the cash would be spent on Bristol’s mass transit ‘underground’ project - but then removed mention of it from its announcement.

And from the Press and Journal

The PA^▸ (Public Address) news agency understands that Rishi Sunak’s commitment to extend the high-speed railway to the central London station is contingent on a substantial proportion of the cost being met by private funds.

If not enough money is found, HS2 will permanently stop at Old Oak Common in the capital’s western suburbs.

[IndustryInsider]

What a incredibly sorry state of affairs.

[grahame]

From Somerset Live
Rail minister Huw Merriman MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) confirmed the project's success in a letter seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, published shortly after the speech at the Tory party conference. He said: "Further to today's announcement, I am delighted to be able to confirm that the project will be funded to delivery, subject to future updates to the project business case.

On Wellington, my bolding, with a note that HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) to Crewe was also promised and funded until the business case was reviewed, isn't it?   But I don't expect an update based on business case review on Wellington (and Cullompton?) before February 2025.

[Mark A]

At least the document still contains the word 'Waverley'. Oh, hang on, that refers to the settlement south east of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, not the proposal to complete a new railway reusing certain elements of the Scottish Borders historic Waverley route.

Mark

https://campaignforbordersrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CBR_SummaryCase.pdf

[grahame]

Heard it on other threads ... posting here to "complete" this one with the official view

From Huffington Post

Transport secretary Mark Harper has claimed a series of infrastructure projects that were suddenly deleted from official plans were just “examples” of what could be built.