SIGNAL FAILURES
Approval ratings
ALTHOUGH Great British Railways is meant to be the network’s “directing mind” from 2027, will government ministers give up the gift of announcing rail upgrades when it suits them politically?
Network Rail (NR) used to be given money every five years for programmes of operating, maintenance and renewal activities (OMR) and upgrades, or “enhancements” in industry-speak. But in 2018, the then transport secretary Chris Grayling decided all future enhancements would go into a secretive “pipeline” for the government to pick, announce and fund ad hoc.