New Government Being Formed - Transport Implications

[LNW-GW Joint]

So Liz Truss is to be the new Prime Minister, and we will know her cabinet ministers by the end of Tuesday perhaps, after the rituals at Balmoral.
I know there is speculation about the future of Grant Shapps as Transport Secretary, but we will just have to wait and see.
It is predicted that Kwasi Kwarteng, a close Truss supporter, will be Chancellor.
He's the current Business and Energy minister, but had a spell on the Transport Select Committee 2010-13 in the Cameron coalition era.
This timescale covered the West Coast franchise fiasco and its subsequent investigations.
I thought he was one of the better-informed members at that time, and will have some grasp of the rail industry.
So given that the Transport/Treasury axis is critical to the future of rail, he may be more of an ally than Rishi Sunak was.
But the rail industry is not exactly flavour of the month.
More will no doubt emerge tomorrow.

 

[DanNCL]

I’ve heard a rumour of Shapps becoming Tory chairman and Penny Mordaunt replacing him at the DFT…

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The BBC is reporting that Transport is one of the portfolios that is not yet confirmed, but it does look as though Grant Shapps is out.
Liz Truss now en route back to London as PM.
Both she and Boris were flown from Northolt to Aberdeen and back by the RAF - in Dassault Falcon business jets with American engines.
These are now the prime movers in the UK's VIP fleet, replacing BAe 146s.

 

[Mikey C]

The BBC is reporting that Transport is one of the portfolios that is not yet confirmed, but it does look as though Grant Shapps is out.
Liz Truss now en route back to London as PM.
Both she and Boris were flown from Northolt to Aberdeen and back by the RAF - in Dassault business jets with American engines.
These are now the prime movers in the UK's VIP fleet, replacing BAe 146s.

I hadn't realised the 2 "Queens Flight" 146s had done already. One has gone to the Duxford Museum, the other to South Wales Museum at St Athan

There were rumours that parts of HS2 might be at risk, with the money spent to improve the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans, but I'm not getting too excited/concerned at this stage

 

[Bletchleyite]

There were rumours that parts of HS2 might be at risk, with the money spent to improve the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans, but I'm not getting too excited/concerned at this stage

I'm not sure how you could do that, given that NPR and Phase 2B are closely integrated, and it'd be pointless dropping Phase 1 now as it's almost built! I suppose 2A could be dropped but that'd mean the Trent Valley rather busy and adverse publicity along the lines of "but but that's how many billion for 5 minutes off Birmingham".

 

[Trainbike46]

I'm not sure how you could do that, given that NPR and Phase 2B are closely integrated, and it'd be pointless dropping Phase 1 now as it's almost built! I suppose 2A could be dropped but that'd mean the Trent Valley rather busy and adverse publicity along the lines of "but but that's how many billion for 5 minutes off Birmingham".

If the idea is to appeal to northern voters, how would scrapping the Birmingham-Crewe section help?

 

[camflyer]

I hadn't realised the 2 "Queens Flight" 146s had done already. One has gone to the Duxford Museum, the other to South Wales Museum at St Athan

There were rumours that parts of HS2 might be at risk, with the money spent to improve the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans, but I'm not getting too excited/concerned at this stage

I suspect that there could be a rebranding of the projects so that later parts of HS2 become part of NPR (or whatever it is called this week) though any major downgrading would be very worrying.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Any cutback to HS2 is merely trimming the cost:benefit rstio and effectively confirming the "only 5 minures saved" arguement against it. HS2 is vital for improving the green credentials right across the country and the sooner the DfT and the treasury get a grip of that fact, stop dithering and get on with it the better.

Remember we dithered over HS1. while france had their channel tunnel rail link open for business on day one of the tunnel opening we messed about with temporary terminals, over-engineering trains so they would a. fit our infrastructure and b. operate on suburban slam-door era signalling, speeds and shoes! That cost time and money that could have been spent getting the route open many years earlier. Looks like history will repeat itself while HS2 gets pruned and plans are "revisited"

Whoever gets the Tran Sec job will need to get on with and prioritise sorting out the rail dispute mess Grant Shapps has helped to create. The current "nationalised" privately operated railway "contracts" cannot stay as it is, the passengers are getting a raw deal and the effect it is having on rail staff is profound. Nationalised or privately operated doesnt really matter, what matters is a 24 hour minimum service level that benefits passengers over and above which commercial fredom to expand and serve appropriate markets should be encouraged. Franchises dont work, an eye needs to be kept on the future and franchises dont do that and neither do the current service contracts. I hear the words "shareholder value" banded about when justifying the "cost" of operating the rail industry but how does shareholder value provide a train service to passengers thst costs money to operate?

 

[och aye]

Hopefully no more Shapps as Transport Sec! Also I hope the Great British Railways name gets ditched for something more simplistic, and also the planned National Rail logo "update" is also ditched, as the old saying goes If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Has the new PM been seen on a train, or on a cycle?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I'm not sure how you could do that, given that NPR and Phase 2B are closely integrated, and it'd be pointless dropping Phase 1 now as it's almost built!

Phase 1 is a long way from being completely built, but most of the civils contracts have been let, and some key elements (tunnels, station sites) are well under way.
It's a pity HS2 hasn't announced the start of tunnelling the Northolt section of the London tunnels, making 5 TBMs at work.
Cancelling at this stage would be unlikely, but the spend could be endlessly slowed from now on, to save annual spend (or be diverted to NPR).

NB BBC now reporting that Rail Minister Wendy Morton is likely to become Chief Whip - so a very short time with the rail brief.

 

[LYuen]

If the idea is to appeal to northern voters, how would scrapping the Birmingham-Crewe section help?

Crewe-Manchester section is better not to be pursued unless it include a clear plan to relieve the Castlefield corridor bottleneck. Both HS2 and NPR only outline how to get to Manchester, ignoring that there is no extra room for additional onward connection from there. Infrastructure investment might appeal to voters during the envision, but I am very sceptical if HS2B bring any benefits to Manchester at all.
Fix Avanti and TPE would be an instant pill to appeal.

 

[jfollows]

The BBC is reporting that Transport is one of the portfolios that is not yet confirmed, but it does look as though Grant Shapps is out.

I noted in https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...n-as-party-leader.234267/page-44#post-5836899 that the Guardian reported that Kemi Badenoch was offered Transport but turned it down because she thought she could get a better job than that, so that implies initial thinking is for Grant Shapps to be out of Transport, but Kemi's refusal could reverse that decision of course.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Crewe-Manchester section is better not to be pursued unless it include a clear plan to relieve the Castlefield corridor bottleneck.

I'm not clear what Castlefield has to do with HS2. It operates into a separate station at Picc and doesn't go near Castlefield. 2B West's main purpose is to relieve the local lines south of Manchester to allow for improved local services, e.g. a Merseyrail style service at Levenshulme/Heaton Chapel and on to Hazel Grove, a possible later new Longsight station and reinstatment of services via Denton.

 

[Western Sunset]

Road building was mentioned twice in her first speech.

 

[TO123]

Shapps is outta there, finally

 

[AlterEgo]

Anne-Marie Trevelyan apparently mooted for the job. There’s a name to Google…

 

[Deepgreen]

It doesn't matter which of these clowns is in which nominal post, they were/are all complicit in Johnson's government of lies. There is no strategy, no policy, just repeated lurching from disaster to disaster, while pumping unimaginable amounts of money into the pockets of their chums and supporters.

 

[bramling]

Shapps is outta there, finally

Thank goodness.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Anne-Marie Trevelyan apparently mooted for the job. There’s a name to Google…

Looking forward to Williams-Shapps plan being rebranded to that mouthful

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Shapps is outta there, finally

A job he loved, apparently.

It has been a privilege to serve as Transport Secretary; a job I loved. Now I look forward to being a strong, independent voice on the backbenches, developing policies that will further the Conservative cause and the interests of my constituents in Welwyn Hatfield.

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1567195630149242880

 

[PGAT]

Road building was mentioned twice in her first speech.

The last thing anyone needs in the long run is spending more money on roads

 

[Bletchleyite]

A job he loved, apparently

Unfortunately loving a job doesn't make you any good at it!

 

[LowLevel]

Hopefully that's the end of his style of puerile adverts and soundbites.

 

[Sleepy]

Hopefully now what's my name this week has gone the deadlock in industrial dispute can see some movement !!

 

[camflyer]

Road building was mentioned twice in her first speech.

Understandable from an MP from Norfolk.

 

[43096]

The last thing anyone needs in the long run is spending more money on roads

That rather depends if you think electric vehicles are a solution for de-carbonising. If the railway continues with the sort of limp efforts it has made so far at extortionate cost, then the attraction of new roads with low/no carbon vehicles is obvious.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Hopefully that's the end of his style of puerile adverts and soundbites.

Hopefully whoever gets will at least get out a bit more he spent the last three years hiding in his home office doing video interviews with the williams-shapps plan on the shelf behind him. Seriously though we need someone who is going to build bridges with the unions as the industry needs to find a way of working together that reflects the new paradigm it finds itself in.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I do very much like Mr Shapps a lot unlike many of you, but it is good as confirmed that he’s on his way out.

I just hope Lisp Truss has the common sense to choose someone who will actively take an interest in improving our railways, and hopefully signs off refurbishments and new stock when they’re badly needed.

 

[ComUtoR]

I just hope Lisp Truss has the common sense to choose someone who will actively take an interest in improving our railways, and hopefully signs off refurbishments and new stock when they’re badly needed.

Who is Lisp Truss ?