Jack Taylor wrote:

Hear, hear! We are repeatedly told that we have a rapidly
growing railway, both in passenger and freight terms, and
yet there is complete reluctance to invest in the
infrastructure that will perpetuate the growth (such as the
reinstatement of removed loops, redoubling of singled
"slow" lines such as on the Midland main line and
restoration of mothballed diversionary and secondary
routes). The establishment of the SRA has only worsened the
problems - never was the word "strategic" less appropriately
used. According to this month's "Modern Railways" one of
the loops on the GWML is the latest casualty of cutbacks,
which will further restrict lower speed movements on that
route.

Agreed. You would think that MML and GNER would see the sense of
setting up a DBFT, like Evergreen II, to rebuild the missing
infrastructure. While the franchise length may not be enough to recoup
the obvious benefits immediately, if they continued to retain the
franchise they would certainly reap the benefits long-term.


Unfortunately, since accountants were given carte blanche
to take over the management of British industry we have
seen this myopic approach adopted in many areas, the only
figures of interest to these people being the current
year's balance sheet. The sooner that 'broader thinkers'
return to the fore and long-term, joined-up thinking is
employed, the better. If the current mentality had been
prominent in the nineteenth century then we wouldn't have
a railway system at all!

Again, agreed. Fortunately the Chiltern management have repeatedly
demonstrated that they are long-term thinkers, and AFAIK the
accountants have been firmly banished to their cubicles over at Laing
Rail, if Evergreen II is any indication of such.