In ancient Rome, when a returning consul led his victorious legions in triumph through the streets, a slave was posted to stand behind him in his chariot repeating ‘Remember, you are only a man’. And as we hail the multiple endorsements of a rolling programme of electrification in the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP), published on 14 July, that slave can still be heard repeating ‘Remember, they haven’t authorised anything yet’.
But as we regroup our campaigning forces for the next big push, the industry can take satisfaction in the replacement of Chris Grayling’s ‘anything but electrification’ policy in the aftermath of the Great Western aberration to the relatively weaselproof: ‘We will deliver an ambitious, sustainable, and cost-effective programme of electrification guided by Network Rail’s Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy’.
