What a deeply embarrassing thing for someone to be proud of... East West Rail's delivery model has been a failure of management and a failure of expertise.

The cost of electrification is trivial on top of the overall capex, and results in a much lower opex. As a country we desperately need to shake this idea that OLE is anything but an integral part of a modern railway, just as track and signalling are.

Not least when there's a ready supply of Class 365s that could be put to use in the interim whilst new electric intercity trains are procured...

Oh, and the additional capex to electrify would be paid off within a decade or two, even within the limits of Treasury's daft rules.

Skimping out on scope element elements isn't compromise, it's pandering to the whimsy of a Treasury devoid of vision and shackled to an outdated model of economics.

We really shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back for building a 1950s railway.

Thus far I've only seen EWR's delivery model as a means for central government - HMT, essentially - to bypass the collective rail industry's knowledge and experience. A failure, in other words.

Case in point: a letter signed by the Secretary of State for Transport sent to EWR, specifying that under-sleeper pads (they cost a little extra but extend ballast life by like 50%) were categorically NOT to be used.

My reaction when I saw this:

The SoS shouldn't know what under-sleeper pads are, let alone be telling the railway it shouldn't use them.

Don't tell the rail industry it doesn't innovate then stymie any attempt at efficiency (electrification: cheaper railway, improved pway: cheaper railway) at every turn.

Oh, and with respect to today's "announcements": https://twitter.com/RobLawrence/status/1352937014971297794?s=19

Though Rob Brighouse's embarrassment ought to come runner-up to this absolute dross being flecked out by @grantshapps:

"might potentially bypass the overhead wire technology altogether"

A few folks feel it's unfair that I'm picking on Rob and the EWR team... @ChooChooLaRue puts my thoughts down better than I could: https://twitter.com/ChooChooLaRue/status/1353006308081938432?s=19