tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638543736544799966.post3438847466199777019..comments2023-10-17T14:32:04.734+01:00Comments on Thoughts of a Trainspotting Mathematician: What is... the Intercity Express Programme? (and what does it mean for the Great Western Main Line?)Dave McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16226892437669224991noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638543736544799966.post-17477008856774579242014-06-18T01:29:28.593+01:002014-06-18T01:29:28.593+01:00From John Gallon, via email:
"It's not j...From John Gallon, via email:<br /><br />"It's not just a case of fuel saving; there is also a significant financial cost when you have an expensive diesel power unit sitting unused for large parts of the day while it is lugged from one end of the country to the other.<br /><br />"I believe that the current decision not to use the obvious way of doing things by hooking on a self-contained diesel power unit where the electricity finishes stems from an incident during the West Coast PUG which considerably delayed Sir Humphrey and has entered the collective Civil Service memory. I understand that there was an opportunity to survey the platforms at Crewe from the first-class windows for some time while a recalcitrant Cl. 57 was persuaded to hook onto an electric set for a drag round a blockaded section of line - I have it in the back of my head that it took getting on for 20 minutes but I could be wrong.<br /><br />"It was therefore decreed that such moves carried an unacceptable timetable penalty and must not happen. This is despite many of said Civil Servants with no doubt very good liberal arts degrees and no understanding or background in anything to do with technology or engineering coming into London every day on part of the network which sees many joins and splits in less than 2 minutes and where the exact same diesel loco onto electric set used to take place several times a day at Bournemouth to take the pre-Weymouth electrification portion forward.<br /><br />"We really have lost the plot in the way that we currently manage and control our railways."Dave McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16226892437669224991noreply@blogger.com