Originally published @ 11:39 pm, Tue 1st Dec 2009
The main reason for visiting Westminster was to hear Andrew Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, speaking to the London Political Committee of my trade union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA).
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association has members in a range of businesses and services, but in particular in the railways. It is now the 8th largest trade union affiliated to the Labour Party. 50 TSSA members attended.
Andrew stressed 3 main themes concerning the future of the railways, a green and efficient transport system particularly well-suited to getting people to and from main centres.
First main aim is add capacity and accessibility to the existing system. Longer trains, longer platforms and higher capacity trains. An increase in investment for railway stations had just been announced, and as a cyclist, Andrew is keen to see better cycling facilities at railway stations.
Second main aim is further electrification. At only one-third of the British network, electrification is one of the lowest in all of Europe's networks, and as a nation Wales joins only Albania as a European nation with no electrification at all. A £1,200 million programme of electrification for the next nine years has been announced and more needs to be done for the major routes, which would include the Midland Main Line, serving Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
Third main aim is the introduction of a High Speed Rail network to Britain, building on the single line serving London from the Channel tunnel (known as HS1). The growing demand for transport can be met by High Speed Rail, often able to halve journey times. The Japanese started 45 years ago and France & Italy started 30 years ago. Most European countries have high speed rail, although China are planning to have more than the rest of the world combined. In Britain, plans are being drawn up for a High Speed 2 line, serving Birmingham and Manchester and Scotland, but also exploring Heathrow, Liverpool, and Nottingham, Sheffield & Leeds. The development of HS2 line will be phased and more detailed plans are due in December for the first part of the line to serve Birmingham, to start running services in 15 years time.
Andrew's final message was that these main aims can only be sustained if we in the railways demonstrate that the railways can deliver, but if we can, then we can show that this is not so much the age of the train, as it could be the century of the train.
His vision for the railways pleased the meeting ("Thanks for being a Transport Minister who knows what he's talking about").
Meanwhile, had a quick chance to talk to Andrew afterwards and hope to meet with him again to discuss more fully the bus and rail issues in South Derbyshire.
TO BE UPDATED
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