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Title: Ruth Kelly Speech - Rail Electrification And New Lines Being Looked At Post by: Lee on September 25, 2008, 09:42:11 From Campaign for Better Transport (link below) :
http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns/public_transport/rail/blog Quote from: Cat Hobbs In Ruth Kelly's resignation speech at the Labour Party Conference today, she said the Government is considering electrifying the rail network and opening new railway lines. Good news - we've been saying it should do these things for some time. Electrification of key sections of track will make the network more efficient and reliable, helping to achieve a 7 day railway: that's better for passengers. And large scale electrification could reduce rail's carbon footprint even further and reduce our dependence on oil. But electrification must not be used as a justification for building coal-fired or nuclear power stations; the electricity needs to be generated safely and sustainably. Groups like Save the Woodhead Tunnel will be pleased to hear the Government is finally investigating the possibility of new railway lines. Ruth Kelly's successor should start by taking a look at our list of lines that should be reopened. However, let's not get too excited by this announcement. We need timescales for how long the Government will take to do this. We need to be sure that big investment in the rail network won't come at passengers' expense - through higher fares. The priority now should be encouraging local and regional authorities to use the new pot of money available from the Government (the Regional Funding Allocation 2) to reopen lines and stations. Why wait for the Government to do it? Title: Re: Ruth Kelly Speech - Rail Electrification And New Lines Being Looked At Post by: devon_metro on September 25, 2008, 16:36:38 Anything to get a few votes :)
Title: Re: Ruth Kelly Speech - Rail Electrification And New Lines Being Looked At Post by: Btline on September 25, 2008, 17:35:32 They have no cash left.
Title: Re: Ruth Kelly Speech - Rail Electrification And New Lines Being Looked At Post by: Lee on September 25, 2008, 20:26:24 Cat Hobbs CANBER article link.
http://canber.co.uk/?q=node/40 Title: Re: Ruth Kelly Speech - Rail Electrification And New Lines Being Looked At Post by: Lee on October 09, 2008, 23:56:19 The biggest programme of electrification in the history of Britain^s railways could get the green light next spring ^if the sums add up^ according to the government^s most senior railway civil servant (link below.)
http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/westminster-watch/2008/10/08-villiers-electrification.html Dr Mike Mitchell, Director General-National Networks at the Department for Transport, was speaking to a conference of The Railway Forum, the industry^s top-level pressure group. Without referring directly to last year^s government White Paper on the future of the railways ^ which seemed to ignore electrification and suggest trains in future could be powered by hydrogen cells ^ Mike Mitchell said the benefits of electrification, including gains for the environment and lower train operating costs, ^are not lost on us ^ but there only finite sums of money available.^ But he said the Department for Transport was working closely with the industry on developing a possible rolling programme, and on driving down the costs of installing electrification. But Dr Mitchell was more downbeat about development of new high-speed lines, pointing out that Britain was a more compact country with less distance between major centres than others, such as France and Spain, that have developed high-speed services. He added that high speed was not necessarily the right solution because ^ as speed increased ^ energy consumption also increased. But he said Network Rail was looking at the options ^and we are ready to listen.^ This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |