Progress - Or The Lack Of It

An interesting article in Rail Technology Magazine discusses the progress of various projects in the railway's North Of England Programme.  A number of these are now running late, and "Configuration State 5", which includes electrification Preston-Blackpool North, Ordsall Lane-Euxton Junction, and Manchester Victoria-Stalybridge, Huyton four tracks, and the Ordsall Chord has been put back a year, to December 2017.

The March 2015 update to the CP5 Enhancements Delivery Plan, which came out this week, does not fully reflect these delays, but does include notes which imply that there may be significant changes in the next (June) update.

Quality Control

A contributor kindly sent me this picture of a stanchion base at Broad Green with a nut missing, taken in October of last year.

He returned a couple of weeks ago to find it was still missing.  As he says, Network Rail's QA procedures are not working.

Let's hope nothing falls over.