On the wrong track

There is no right time to undertake major repairs of the nation's railways.

Bank holiday, Christmas and Easter are chosen as much commuter and business travel is reduced. But this causes problems for leisure travel, and those wanting to visit family and friends.

Yesterday, BBC News In Depth pages, looked at the engineering work on the railways, and in particular, work to replace a junction just north of Milton Keyens on the West Coast Main Line (WCML).

"The £26m project they'll be working on this Christmas is one of the biggest scheduled across the country: Hanslope Junction, a crucial part of the West Coast Main Line, which is wearing out.

Each day almost 500 trains use it and an increasing number of faults are causing delays, the repercussions of which ripple throughout the network. Now, the whole thing, comprising four tracks, is to be re-laid.

It's a giant and complicated jigsaw puzzle of 130 separate track panels - not something that can be done when trains are roaring up and down. So, it will leave passengers with no trains between Milton Keynes and Rugby and Milton Keynes and Northampton not just late on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day (as is usually the case) but up until the morning of 5 January. It means no direct trains linking London Euston with north-west England and Scotland for 11 full days.

It's a similar story up and down the country, with other projects, too, like updating signalling technology. In all, 5% of the rail network will be shut down over the festive period - part of a £160m engineering project organised by Network Rail."

The WCML is wearing out and is full. Full of express, semi-fast, local and freight services. If only there was some project that would help ease this.

HS2 is being built, but just as a high speed branch line from London to Birmingham, the most important and financiially rewarding parts north of Birmingham, and the Y junction to Leeds and Manchester have been cancelled.

Instead of HS2, Labour, the Conservatives and the Greens tell us that the WCML should be upgraded. This is upgrade work, and will close the line for two weeks. Two decades ago when the WCML was upgraded, it took ten years and ten billion pounds, and barely kept up with growth, and delivered a decade of blockades and closures for those who use the line.

HS2 gave the nation a generational oportunity to massively increase capacity, but without any of the blockades and closures. But rhe Conservatives kept changing the project, adding to costs, and then pulled the plug. Labour has not reversed that, nor has it said it will.

HS2 can unloack national growth, as express services swithing to HS2 would free up capacity for additional services on the WCML and much more freight too. Freight could be taken off the roads, delays reduced and increase efficiency.

But not now.

21st century trains running on a 19th century railway.

When it can.