Network Rail has been fined £14 million because works carried out over the Christmas and New Year period at Liverpool Street Station, Glasgow and Rugby were not completed on time.
What is the point of fining a public sector company? It is taxpayers' and passengers' who will have to pay. It may be possible for NR to pass the fine on to its consultants, but I doubt if that will happen.
The reason for the over-run, apparently, is the shortage of qualified people to put up the overhead electric wiring, like those in the picture. If there was even a small rolling programme of electrification, there would have been more trained staff available, but it turned out that workers were being poached between sites by team leaders desperate to get the work completed.
The Guardian has published a couple more articles against HS2, one by specialist rail commentator Christian Wolmar, and another today by journalist Simon Jenkins. The main arguments in favour will doubtless be wheeled out by the commentators: the need for capacity and the disruption caused by upgrading existing routes. HST itself will severely disrupt services to Euston during the construction period. Capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost by a variety of measures, provided that it is accepted that the additional traffic will run at existing speeds. It is not generally known that the Midland main line is, or was, four track all the way from London to Trent Junction, between Nottingham and Derby. This is because the additional tracks are separate, having been added for coal trains which trundled down to Brent sidings, on the edge of London, from a collection point at Toton in Nottinghamshire, where the Midland Railway build a huge marshalling yard. Beyond Derby, the main l...
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