In message , at 19:38:20 on Thu, 31 Oct
2013, Mizter T remarked:
The PAC report acknowledges that the first stage of Thameslink was
delivered on time and under budget which seems a reasonable
performance to me.

Which timetable though? In 1996 they said construction would start in
2001 and be finished by 2006. Railtrack was still promoting the 2006
date in 2000.

The end of the WAGN franchise was even delayed to 31 March 2006, to
synchronise it with the new service pattern (and the merger of the GN
and Bedpan services). Oops.

The project timetable as per the current project - i.e. the one that
the previous government gave the go-ahead for in 2007.

Riiight - so any project can be on-time as long as you ignore all the
delays and keep on re-writing the timetable.

Previous project timetables were aspirational only

A fascinating comment given the "aspirations" in the news today (for HS2
and other future rail projects).

I suppose the 24tph is "aspirational only" as well?

- they were all reliant on the government saying yes, which it didn't
actually do until six years ago.

Like announcing funding three times, it seems we can now announce
go-aheads multiple times.
--
Roland Perry