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Oh Dear: Axe to fall on rail network

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    Oh Dear: Axe to fall on rail network

    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/tra...icle341731.ece

    Ahh, progress...

    "Ministers are preparing ways of closing or "mothballing" large sections of the railway network, according to an official document which was slipped out without publicity last week.

    Dozens of branch lines and secondary routes could shut, in what would be the biggest rethink of the network since the Beeching report in the 1960s, which led to the closure of 4,000 miles of railway and nearly half the nation's stations. Loss-making services would be transferred on to buses, as a means of reducing the £6bn-a-year subsidy.

    An army of consultants will decide whether lines should stay open or close.
    ",

    More traffic jams eh.

    Milan.

    #2
    An "army of consultants", eh? <toot-toot>

    Where do I sign up? <ker-ching>

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      #3
      An army of consultants will decide whether lines should stay open or close.

      Music to my ears.

      Pruffocks extensive knowledge of the UK Rail Sector (eg having taken the Hamilton to Glasgow train on the 19th Sep 1987) stands me in pole position as a consultant.

      My daily rate is a mere 834 Guineas, with a discount for cash only payments.

      I think my service proposal represents tremendous value to the overburdended UK tax payer.
      Last edited by AlfredJPruffock; 30 January 2006, 12:53.

      Comment


        #4
        The debt of Network Rail, the not-for-profit company that runs the track, will soar to £20bn by 2008. It will need £1bn a year just to service this debt.
        Does anyone know what the subsidy and debt levels were that Bozo Byers and Blair used to justify renationalising Railtrack?

        Comment


          #5
          Debt levels were fine so long as the Govt paid - but since they were main people who paid they were able to refuse to pay which would automatically mean default for sucker of a company that chooses to depend on donations from single party to such an extent.

          Comment


            #6
            What were they then?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by milanbenes
              Mothballing
              From the New Labour Dictionary: -

              moth·ball - (môthbôl, mth-)

              To destroy or put irretrievably beyond use anything of any public good.

              To missapropriate any public asset for the good of the party (or for the good of Mr. John Prescott in particular)

              To muck-up, ****-up and generally mismanage and abuse the common wealth and assets of the nation.

              (esp.) Destroy the railways because of doom-brain Prescott's hatered of his former opponents in ASLEF and RMT.

              You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

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                #8
                "We can't be much of a government if we can't get trains to run on time." - John Prescott, 1997

                He makes the Chuckle Brothers look intelligent.

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                  #9
                  If we had a TGV network London to Brum would be 40mins journey time!

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by NoddY
                    If we had a TGV network London to Brum would be 40mins journey time!
                    Assuming your train didn't fly off the track into the south midlands countryside.

                    Comment

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