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All across the Great Western territory / Diary - what's happening when? / Re: 14 Dec 2021, 16:00, Tuesday Club final meeting
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on: December 11, 2021, 20:36:48
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You might want to reconsider that grahame - Emerging thoughts are that government is going to go hell or high water to give people "the Christmas they didn't get last year", followed by a lockdown that could effectively last until Easter sees enough progress made of a Omicron-tweaked vaccine rollout.
Hope I am wrong, obviously, but I would keep going for now if I were you.
Do you have a source or citation for those "emerging thoughts" re: a 3 or 4 month lockdown? (I might nip out and buy a couple of hundred toilet rolls!) I do indeed have a source for those "emerging thoughts". .....and I'm sure that having opened that particular box, you'll tell us who it is, in order that we can consider its credibility/bona fides and how to plan accordingly? (You little tease you!)  I'm afraid that I genuinely can't tell you my exact source, just as I am sure that ChrisB - who is spot-on regarding the transport operator lockdown preparations going on behind the scenes - won't be revealing his exact sources either. I will reveal exactly what it was my source told me though. They said that the optimal date based on the likely number of cases that lockdown should be implemented to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed is 18 December, but unless the figures are such that their hand is forced, the government will hold off until the New Year to "give the people their Christmas". It is felt that an Omicron-specific vaccine will be required to effectively combat the outbreak, and thus it is likely to take a number of months in total for first such a vaccine to be made available, and then for it to be rolled out sufficiently among the general population. As I said, I hope I am wrong, and I was indeed out regarding the timing of the introduction of Covid passports in the UK▸ , so nothing is set in stone. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Diary - what's happening when? / Re: 14 Dec 2021, 16:00, Tuesday Club final meeting
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on: December 11, 2021, 18:55:29
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You might want to reconsider that grahame - Emerging thoughts are that government is going to go hell or high water to give people "the Christmas they didn't get last year", followed by a lockdown that could effectively last until Easter sees enough progress made of a Omicron-tweaked vaccine rollout.
Hope I am wrong, obviously, but I would keep going for now if I were you.
Do you have a source or citation for those "emerging thoughts" re: a 3 or 4 month lockdown? (I might nip out and buy a couple of hundred toilet rolls!) I do indeed have a source for those "emerging thoughts". |
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Storm Barra
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on: December 09, 2021, 10:51:14
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OK before we start dusting off the wrecking balls, deciding who's going to have their houses knocked down and spending tens of millions of £ of other people's money, let's remember that storms of this severity with these consequences are a once in several years event.
It seems to me really simple - there is normally at least a few days warning of these events - so when this warning comes through, GWR▸ instigate a contingency plan of;
1) Warning people not to travel unless absolutely necessary and offer full refunds for those who've booked.
2) Run bus replacement between Newton Abbott and Exeter and similarly warn people of the limitations
3) Don't run trains which can't cope with these conditions through the affected area
I must admit that i never previously credited you with such boundless optimism for the future, TG. Have you ever considered a career in the No10 team? I suspect that a number of vacancies may open up shortly. On the "other people's money" quote, I have a question - How many supporters of alternatives to the Dawlish status quo could reasonably be described as "taxpayers", and are they all members of a lower tier of "taxpayer" with lesser rights and status compared to "taxpayers" who support the Dawlish status quo, or who have no particular interest or opinion on the matter? |
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Storm Barra
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on: December 08, 2021, 15:48:31
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Didn't Network Rail judge it to be "expensive but feasible" ? Is the plan to knock down anything in the way? If so, what specifically gets bulldozed?
I've done an in-depth survey (alright, a quick shufti at Google Maps), and the only physical barrier seems to be West Devon's council offices, which they have said they would happily relocate. Some of the trackbed has disappeared into farmland, but actual demolition work isn't likely to take more than a morning. I am afraid it is not quite that simple, as the photos in the anti-reopening blog piece I linked to last night showed. So, aside from the council offices we also have: Housing at the old Tavistock North Railway Station.  Housing blocking the route at the end of the Tavistock Viaduct.  Other issues the anti-reopening folk point to include loss of cycle/walking paths, impact on rural dwellings and farms, including the former Brentor railway station, impact on wildlife, the need to replace Meldon Viaduct, and the impact of new modern replacement bridges and associated permanent way and other infrastructure on the landscape and tranquility thereof. None of it insurmountable in the face of precedents such as the Borders Railway of course, but perhaps not a given either. I'm afraid it will take another sea wall collapse, rather than just a dew hours of disruption once or twice a year, for the inland route to get seriously back on the agenda.
Perhaps not right now, but the Network Rail Resilience Study was conducted well before the Okehampton reopening, and if Bere Alston-Tavistock follows relatively swiftly, and given that a dedicated bus link is now already established between Tavistock and Okehampton in the middle, then suddenly the prospects and business case for full reopening may start to look very different. |
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