On 20 Oct 2006 09:58:37 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

Paul Corfield wrote:

On 20 Oct 2006 05:42:13 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

For all the ignorant souls such as I can you say when the Statement of
Funds Available is normally, er, stated?

It is a new requirement that flows from the legislative disaster area
that the government has foisted on itself via the latest Railways Act.

The govt have to provide the HLOS and the SOFA and then ORR have to
decide if SOFA can deliver the HLOS and if not decide that either a
smaller HLOS is needed or a bigger SOFA!

HLOS - high level output statement (for the rail network). What govt
wants to "buy".
SOFA - statement of funds available. how much is in the piggy bank that
Uncle Gordon has given the baby Alexander.
ORR - Office of Rail Regulation. The new fall guys for railway cuts -
lovingly placed in the firing line by the civil servant loonies at DfT
Rail.


Thanks Paul.

Presumably the SOFA the government is willing to provide will never be
big enough to accomodate the HLOS - but I guess by the contorted logic
that's at work here it that disconnect becomes the fault of an
independent body which is expected to deliver the undeliverable, and
will get lambasted when they continue to insist 2+2=4. Hmm, great.

We shall see. I suspect the ORR is being lined as the fall guy in this
process. However ORR aren't daft and I would expect to see some deft
political manoeuvring by all the parties as they make their respective
cases.

My long standing concern - especially when Darling was Transport
Secretary - was that cuts are definitely planned for the rail network
and the HLOS / SOFA balancing act was the way they would be imposed.
Don't forget that the line closure process and "tests" have been
substantially changed to make it easy to shut lines.

However I do wonder if Douglas Alexander is a different character with
someone of an agenda to make a positive mark. The difference between
Scottish and English rail investment is starting to become more obvious
and if there is tangilble political "upside" in Scotland as new lines
come into service then political imperatives might drive a change in
English policy. I'm also utterly bemused at Tony Blair saying we have
10 years to save the world from environmental disaster when his
government haven't got a transport policy anyway and even if they did
have one it wouldn't have any environmentally related policies in it!
Joined up policy - hah!

It's a real shame transport policy does not feature higher up the agenda
of the majority of voters.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!