Railtalk
Go to a conference on railway investment, read Network Rail’s business plan, or just listen to a ministerial speech and it is a fair bet that sooner or later you will hear that some aspect of enhancement or renewal is unaffordable. For example, Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy livened up this year’s George Bradshaw address with some illustrations from the 1972 Ladybird book about people working on the railway.
One painting showed work on overhead line installation, with men using ladders to climb from the working platform on top of a wiring train onto a portal. This brought home the point that health and safety on the railway has improved immeasurably compared with 40-odd years ago.
But commenting on this illustration, Sir Peter said ‘some commentators complain we’re too expensive these days, and that it costs too much to electrify lines. It was certainly cheaper in the past because the way it was done was unsafe and cost lives. It costs more to do it properly, with modern plant and ways of working, and so it should’.
Really? This is what was said about the High Output Plant System (HOPS) when it was ordered in 2011. ‘The special train will work overnight at a significantly higher rate of…
