In message , at 23:19:37 on Tue, 9
Jan 2018, Robin9 remarked:

I'm willing to give Mr. Grayling some slack because he recognises
Network Rail's shortcomings for what they are. I particularly
like the way he is giving the East West Rail project to a separate
company.-

Sort of. What he's said is that for it proceed, a separate privately
funded company needs to own the project. Apparently this counts as
giving his full support.-

Isn't there a billion of state money going in, too?-

Not for the bits which still need doing now (I'm unsighted as to the
amount they've spent on the bits which are by now open).

I have the impression that the project is unofficially split in
two. The realistic part - between Bicester Village Station and
Bletchley - is now going ahead with a large dollop of taxpayers'
money.

If it's costing a billion to re-open a line that's pretty much already
there, that's a disgrace. However, isn't most of that project almost
done now?

The unrealistic part - the new build between Bedford
and Cambridge - seems to be making no real progress, with
neither the route nor finance at all certain.

The finance is "certain", in the sense that (this week anyway) it will
have to be raised privately, and is therefore zero. And the various
promoters of the scheme keep making absurdly over-optimistic noises
about both the benefit and the likelihood of it going ahead.

Not only are they attempting to create a Golden Age That Never Was[3],
but they're papering-over the fact the original promise was Oxford to
Bedford in 43 minutes, now slipped to 71 minutes[1]; and almost all the
Bedford-Cambridge intermediate sources/sinks of traffic[2] are bypassed
in the currently "favoured by Network Rail" scheme C2-2 [4].

Looking at that scheme it does appear to be genuinely the least-worst,
so I don't think the route is "uncertain" should it be built.

[1] Thus longer than the 60 minutes originally promised for Oxford-
Cambridge.
[2] Including missing out central Bedford!
[3] Hat-tip to BevanPrice:
"from Cambridge, you could not arrive in Oxford before 10:29 - with
a 29 minute wait at Bletchley; return departures from Oxford were
(SX) 14:48 then 18:48; an intermediate departure at 17:18 to
Bletchley had no connections beyond Bedford. Likewise From Oxford,
you could not arrive in Cambridge before 10:32. (1963 timetable).
[4] p25 he http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/wp-co...ploads/2015/03
/Central-Section-Engineering-Summary-Report.pdf
--
Roland Perry