Great Western Coffee Shop

From Conservative Home (https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2020/04/george-bathurst-nationalisation-should-be-a-stepping-stone-to-a-better-private-railway-network.html)


I am personally in agreement that current changes will help us towards a better railway setup, but can we please leave the options on the table and not assume that there because some elements of the current system have failed, the answer must be changes along the line suggested by Mr Bathhurst.   The current less than ideal situation if, of course, the fault of our of fashion politicians from the last millenium, further messed up by a Labour government:


There is a common frustration with just how long it takes to get rail improvements, and Mr B knows about that


[snip] - Seven paragraphs on the Windsor Link proposals

He goes on to explain why the system is currently as it is


Ah ... I wondered why it was so complex  ;D


Mr Burke goes on to suggest that 'judge' and 'jury' are too closely linked and tells us to solve that ...


I find myself far from convinced that we would end up with a network - rather we could be back to the very early days of railways where construction of local lines was by the local businessmen, who then discover that it wasn't as profitable / easy as they had hoped and contracted operation of their line to a mainline company, then were bought out by that company.  I do find myself agreeing with the looking at ideas, but I'm unconvinced that "individuals regardless of background" can have the same overview of the picture of what can be done and would work  as those who have been in the industry for many years.     Far better, in my view, to combine the ideas as skills to add together the elements to produce a bigger and better whole to take us forward.  And, yes, that may mean that ideas such as the Windsor Link don't make it, or don't make it in the form that the borough leader wants for people within the borough.  Better, maybe, to link north - south via Heathrow?

With respect to a fire in London, I am not sure that the building planning system is necessarily a suitable model.

I know this is going off at a tangent, but what's the motivation behind the Windsor Link?  Looking at their website https://windsorlink.co.uk/, other than it being an interesting thing to do, I've not picked up just why it is being pursued? 

grahame - Both you and I have campaigned for many years for rail and public transport improvements, and have had various technical proposals confirmed as credible and viable by key industry players over that period.

However, as far as "been in the industry" is concerned, the closest either of us have come is to both having been TransWilts Community Rail Officer at different times. So what does that make us? - "individuals regardless of background" or "those who have been in the industry for many years" ?

Just found the main thread and this -

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5883.msg243301#msg243301

The Windsor link is an interesting example of do you choose to live in X and work in Y because the commute is easy. People in Slough tend to work on the estate, London, LHR or other parts of the Thames Valley especialy if they travel by train. But probably not South of the Thames.

People from Windsor tend to use either the Slough line to get to London and the  Waterloo line if they work near to a station on the line, or else a car to the M4.

There seems to be little demand for a Slough to Staines, Richmond link.

Whether it would encourage people from Richmond or Staines to work in Slough is debateable.

Now the Western Rail link to Heathrow is far more interesting, if LHR ever gets going again (I actually heard a plane the other day).

Plus of course Bourne End  Wycombe to link South Bucks with Aylesbury, Milton Keynes.

Not sure I've put this very well.

We are neither ... but then we are both.

Please excuse the enigmatic answer. "Individuals regardless of background" is the wording from George Bathurst. That might appear to advocate taking a proposal from a solitary person who's just seeing just their daily journey from (say) Belford to Berwick-upon-Tweed for a service every 30 minutes and giving it the same credence as the input from someone (or a group) who's background or experience  has encouraged them to think through what traffic levels might be and what the issues would be.

I'm all in favour of people asking.  I started as an individual in 2005, asking - but rapidly built up a background of knowledge, and moved on from asking as an individual to asking with a whole lot of others as a group, with successive cycles of asking each better informed and with a more substantial support group.

A property scam masquerading as a railway “great idea”, by some opinions.  A solution to a non existent problem that has apparently been rejected by the DfT.   

I suppose it keeps his name in the papers, by being regularly regurgitated, even though it’s never likely to happen...

Paul

That's exactly the conundrum our society faces. On the other hand we distrust those who run the public services we use, on the other hand we are (rightly) suspicious of a substantial proportion of those who put themselves forward as representatives of the public when representatives on consultation groups, user groups and the like. Sadly they are not all Graham Ellis - some are mini Donald Trumps! But can you think of a better system that does not involve a Soviet style selection by the powers that be to ensure that only approved "People's Representatives" get appointed?