Chris Dillow makes sense: "If people are prepared to lend to government at less than 1% real interest, let’s bleed them dry, because cheap money won’t last forever; infrastructure spending should be undertaken now, whilst it's cheap." The construction collapse will have the same effect on labour costs, which we can offset by removing the … Continue reading The last word on why the deficit doesn’t matter
Category: Transport
Local press exclusives on specialist topics are seldom the most reliable or accurate commentaries you'll ever find on anything ever. Nonetheless, I'm concerned by the East London Advertiser's current alleged scoop on Crossrail. The ELA claims that: Crossrail chiefs fear the deteriorating economic climate, spiralling Olympic costs and the election of Tory Boris Johnson as … Continue reading Don’t axe Crossrail – double it!
I'm not sure Boris would approve: (photographed by me at Kings Cross St Pancras station, 14/5/08 at 2215) Update 19/5 - Veroniq has come up with a much better headline: "And the London Underground is not a political movement"
A non-Londoner asked me on Saturday what I thought Boris Johnson would be like as London mayor. I said that I really didn't know, which was the main reason I hadn't voted for him (I also can't stand his Wooster-ish public persona, but I'm quite happy to vote for someone I don't personally like if … Continue reading How big is Boris’s tent?
Congratulations to BAA and BA for the successful opening of Terminal 5 - it's taken less than a week of live passenger testing to get the whole thing working pretty much as it's supposed to. If you think that achieving that kind of switchover in that kind of timeframe with the kind of really-rather-minor chaos … Continue reading Trebles all round
In 1988, the UK government sold off its 100% stakes in British Leyland and British Steel, flogging the former to BAe and the latter on the stock market. So it's nice to see them reunited under common ownership 20 years later...
There's an occasional debate on whether photography is allowed on the Tube, generally sparked when a staff member harrasses someone for doing it. The answer is crystal clear: photography is indeed permitted on the Tube without express permission, as long as you don't do anything dangerous like using a flash, or sell the pictures you … Continue reading Photography on London Underground is permitted
This is good: spoof Tube announcements, from the woman whose voice is used on the real ones. My favourites include "will the gentleman in the pinstriped suit", and "passengers should note"...
The largest number of people ever carried by a Boeing 747 was 1,122. NB while these passengers were Ethiopians, any use of 1980s playground jokes is nonetheless strictly frowned upon.
It's truly an autumn of Finally Approving Transport Projects That Should Have Happened 10 Years Ago. As well as Thameslink 2000 and Crossrail (both of which approval I've somehow failed to write about - bad me), we're now getting the Camden Town station rebuild. As regular readers may be aware, I approve of all of … Continue reading Hooray for London