The Bolton News welcomes your letters for publication in The Bolton News print and online editions.
Contact us by email if you have a comment to make about any of our stories, or an opinion about anything you want to get off your chest to a wider audience.
I will try to explain the situation with regards to Northern Rail.
Yes, Northern Rail is foreign owned - a joint operation by Serco (French) and NedRail (Dutch). And yes, they do have a lot of the oldest rail stock in the country. Is this the problem created by Northern Rail?
No, it isn't. Firstly, they inherited the stock from First North Western (in the North-west region) and from Arriva trains (in the North East).
advertisement
These two previous operators also had the same problem as to what is happening with Northern Rail now and it is totally out of their control.
The problem solely rests within Ruth Kelly's department - the Department for Transport Rail Division. Any purchase or rental of carriages and engines has to be approved by the DfT.
So far every attempt by Northern Rail and by its two predecessors has been completely refused while the money has to be used to invest in new stock etc for the South East region! I honestly do feel sorry for Northern Rail as they do want to replace its aging stock - but aren't being allowed to.
The question here, is why do they keep being refused by DfT, and more especially why hasn't Ruth Kelly intervened to try to sort this out.
Ruth Kelly does not give a damn about the public transport in this region one iota, just as long as she can get to work from her London flat. It seems to be a case of I'm all right jack, typical Labour!
Yes, the north region is going to get extra carriages after 2012 (funny how that will be after the Olympics!), but the extra carriages will be for the whole north and not just the Manchester region. So not much of an improvement there, to be brutally honest!
Ruth Kelly can fend for herself. Otherwise, most of what Chris Amos says is fair comment.But the practice of giving investment priority to London and the South East for new rolling stock goes back for decades. It was standard practice as reflected in actual procurement programmes when the railways were still nationalised - the last new rolling stock anywhere outside the SouthEast was around 1990 (Class 158 Diesel units), and much of the rolling stock in the Northwest dates from around 1982. For the whole of its existence, the so called Strategic Rail Authority had a similar policy, and the Transpennine Express franchise let around 2004 (from memory) was the first and only franchise to specify a significant new rolling stock order as a condition of the franchise. And don't bank on any of the projections in the White Paper or the more recent Rolling Stock Plan being translated into actual procurements. There are no guarantees at all that this will ever happen,and various indications suggesting that it probably won't.
Ruth Kelly can fend for herself. Otherwise, most of what Chris Amos says is fair comment.But the practice of giving investment priority to London and the South East for new rolling stock goes back for decades. It was standard practice as reflected in actual procurement programmes when the railways were still nationalised - the last new rolling stock anywhere outside the SouthEast was around 1990 (Class 158 Diesel units), and much of the rolling stock in the Northwest dates from around 1982. For the whole of its existence, the so called Strategic Rail Authority had a similar policy, and the Transpennine Express franchise let around 2004 (from memory) was the first and only franchise to specify a significant new rolling stock order as a condition of the franchise. And don't bank on any of the projections in the White Paper or the more recent Rolling Stock Plan being translated into actual procurements. There are no guarantees at all that this will ever happen,and various indications suggesting that it probably won't.
Posted by: Bolton Reader, Bolton on 4:21pm Wed 7 May 08
Most of the problems lie with the civil servants who never leave their desks in Whitehall and seem to think they know best for us in the NW.
By the way the head of the RailDivison was formerly by First Manchester Buses and used his axe to great effect on public transport in this area. He has given First quite a few "contracts" and increased the size of others where his former employer First is involved as well as allowing new stock for them.
Most of the problems lie with the civil servants who never leave their desks in Whitehall and seem to think they know best for us in the NW.
By the way the head of the RailDivison was formerly by First Manchester Buses and used his axe to great effect on public transport in this area. He has given First quite a few "contracts" and increased the size of others where his former employer First is involved as well as allowing new stock for them.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
The Bolton News welcomes your letters for publication in The Bolton News print and online editions. Contact us by email if you have a comment to make about any of our stories, or an opinion about anything you want to get off your chest to a wider audience.
Search for thousands of Jobs,
Homes & Cars in the Bolton area
Print
Email this
Comment
