It's electrifying (again)

Now the longer Coalition Agreement has been published, here's the final word on the new Government's rail-related announcements (my thoughts in blue italic):

• We will grant longer rail franchises in order to give operators the incentive to invest in the improvements passengers want – like better services, better stations, longer trains and better rolling stock. Long franchises are not in themselves sufficient incentive -- they worked for Chiltern Rail, but failed disastrously with Virgin West Coast.


• We will reform the way decisions are made on which transport projects to prioritise, so that the benefits of low carbon proposals (including light rail schemes) are fully recognised. Hurrah! DfT has an institutional (and self-confessed) bias against light rail and tram schemes. They have caused local authorities to waste hundreds of millions of pounds preparing schemes which they have then rejected at the final hurdle for no apparent reason.


• We will make Network Rail more accountable to its customers. The welcome to be afforded to this measure depends on who you think Network Rail's customers are.

• We will establish a high speed rail network as part of our programme of measures to fulfil our joint ambitions for creating a low carbon economy. Our vision is of a truly national high speed rail network for the whole of Britain. Hurrah! This might also be code for not waiting fifty years before the network reaches Scotland. Maybe. Although there's a sting in the tail: Given financial constraints, we will have to achieve this in phases.


• We support Crossrail ... Hallelujah! Although there are already rumours that Crossrail will be cut back (certainly not reaching its logical western terminus, at Reading, and possibly not even getting to Maidenhead but, instead, being routed to Heathrow to replace Heathrow Connect services and enable them to weasel out of the Tories' absurd insistence that LHR has to be on the London-Birmingham stretch of any new high speed rail line).

• ... and [we support] further electrification of the rail network. Oh, oh... I am having an orgasm. This is so bloody obvious that it's insane there was any possibility it would be dumped. Of course, there is no commitment here either to the routes or the timescales. The Devil is always in the detail, and we'll see if they stick to Andrew Adonis's incredibly ambitious programme.


• We will turn the rail regulator into a powerful passenger champion. Great in principle but, again, depends how it's done. At least it's an admission that the rail regulator has disappeared into a strange limbo where no-one really understands what its primary purpose is.

• We are committed to fair pricing for rail travel. Fair for whom?

And that's it. I am struggling to see how I could have expected much more, even if I would have preferred to see some of the current programmes (like electrification and Crossrail) confirmed in their entirety, and others having some sort of indicative timetable attached to them. But so far, things aren't looking too shoddy on this front.

Whether they actually have any cash to pay for them...