The 130-page Government document published today, which includes the full Queen's Speech, uses the word 'roads' (in the sense of road-building) just once. The new code word from the Conservatives is 'infrastructure', which appears 46 times.
It says one bit of HS2 Phase 2 will definitely go ahead, from Lichfield to Crewe. This will cut the fastest (and most expensive) service from London to Crewe from 90 minutes to 55 minutes.
Crewe has a population of just over 70,000. The railway is the biggest employer; the town is also home to the HQ of Bargain Booze and a manufacturer of ice-cream vans.
Monday, 14 October 2019
Thursday, 10 October 2019
Working together.....
WSP, transport consultants, have taken the largest slice of the £3m set aside by former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, to make the case for a new off-line dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate.
Bosch are the biggest makers of car parts in the world.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the largest hire car company in the world, judged by fleet (2 million vehicles) and revenue.
Friday, 4 October 2019
On or off ?
At the end of June, we reported the written words of Maria Caulfield, MP for Lewes, on the A27 between Lewes and Polegate "I have made clear that I would like to see any funding to dual the existing road and improve access for all road users and not for a new road as some in Eastbourne would like".
Though Maria is currently PPS to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, it's still not confirmed that a formal bid has been made to the Department for Transport to fund such a scheme.
In a masterfully-opaque response to a Freedom of Information enquiry, Mahmood Azam of Highways England says their strategic outline business case was present to the Government at the end of January.
"While the study considered off-line improvements which included small sections of online widening, it did not produce cost estimates or benefit cost ratios for an intervention to dual the existing A27 between Lewes and Polegate, or for an intervention which involved only online improvements to the existing A27 on its current route. "
Though Maria is currently PPS to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, it's still not confirmed that a formal bid has been made to the Department for Transport to fund such a scheme.
In a masterfully-opaque response to a Freedom of Information enquiry, Mahmood Azam of Highways England says their strategic outline business case was present to the Government at the end of January.
"While the study considered off-line improvements which included small sections of online widening, it did not produce cost estimates or benefit cost ratios for an intervention to dual the existing A27 between Lewes and Polegate, or for an intervention which involved only online improvements to the existing A27 on its current route. "
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