On Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:42:06 -0700 (PDT), Paul Corfield wrote:

On Monday, 24 July 2017 15:59:57 UTC+1, Recliner wrote:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/transport-secretary-chris-grayling-gives-backing-to-crossrail-2-a3594416.html

The £30 billion Crossrail 2 project took a major step forwards today as
Chris Grayling confirmed that he supported the scheme.

Why has everyone fallen for this guff from Grayling? He said a few vaguely supportive words but has not given any go ahead nor committed any money.

Think about where we were recently - TfL delivered the Strategic Business Case to the DfT for approval. Nothing happened. We had an election. Nothing happened. The Mayor, business leaders, London Assembly all start shouting "why haven't you given the go ahead to CR2?". Nothing happens until we get this meaningless statement which

a) does not mention the business case approval at all
b) does not guarantee any funding at all
c) makes the next round of consultation conditional.
d) sends TfL and the Mayor away to do more work on a completely different funding package.
e) sends TfL and the Mayor away to "make the scheme affordable" as clearly it currently isn't affordable if your name is Grayling
f) sends TfL and the Mayor away to confirm the route (i.e. cut it back)
g) sends TfL and the Mayor away to remove uncertainty about the safeguarding (e.g. scrap Chelsea station, stop wittering about an eastern branch).

All yesterday's nonsense does is get the pressure off the DfT for a few months, avoids the DfT making any commitments at all, gives the Mayor and TfL a funding requirement that is the complete opposite of what they submitted (they wanted to borrow and hypothecate future revenue streams). There is no mention about a Land Value Capture Tax that was rumoured to be Grayling's preference for review but the lack of government majority no doubt means this can't be taken forward as legislation would be needed.

The demands from Grayling for "up front" funding from TfL is a way of trying to force the Mayor to scrap his fares freeze and implement higher than inflation fare increases to create an annual funding stream. Alternatively or even additionally it may also mean the TfL precept being increased vastly or TfL's activities being scaled back even more to generate funding for CR2. This is payback for every time the Mayor has said "give me Southern to run", "let me run South Eastern", "government operation of trains is useless", "you have to freeze rail fares as I've done on the tube and DLR". Grayling hates all this so time to show who's boss.

I know I am being very negative here but Grayling hates everything Khan stands for. However he holds the power here as CR2 cannot proceed without government funding nor can changes to NR services to implement CR2 proceed without DfT sign off. I am sure there are a thousand other issues which also need DfT / govt support. This announcement is actually an exercise in power by Grayling as I am sure Khan understands all too well. However he has no choice but to do what Grayling wants otherwise he has to give up on CR2 and then he'd be in the firing line - a result Grayling would no doubt be delighted with.

Is it true that Grayling will insist on diesel operation to avoid having to pay for electrification?