Thanks John : But No Thanks
The Standard (Evening Standard, London Standard) was a big circulation London Daily ...
... which closed its daily print publication in 2024 having declined to the loss-making status of a freebie. 
A weekly 'magazine' edition appears every Thursday.
It does provide an on-line collection of adverts interspersed with odd news items and the above is a YouTube posting.
It is misleading! (There's a surprise!).
The '4 major projects' are not new, they have been grinding on for years. The projects were not 'revealed' in the budget because they are well known amongst weary but ever hopeful London train travellers.
What has changed is the non-bombshell announced by Jolly Johm Heeley on Wednesday, last. He is Chancellor of the Exchequer at the moment.
He did not actually 'give the go-ahead'.
What he did announce was a new and "easier" way in which these projects could be paid for.
In simple terms it allows Local Authorities to spend money they haven't got on big capital projects and pay it back using money from fare payers when they start paying fares. This has always been a possibility but hitherto needed an Act of Parliament.
There is also a scheme for biggie mayor's to get their hands on a slice of national tax revenue. Terms and conditions are not clear at the moment!
Whether London can afford the interest charges on the debt is not a consideration for Jolly John!
Jolly John being jolly
Jolly John digging himself into a bit of a hole!
So don't expect the Bakerloo Extension, The West London Orbital and a rebuild of Stratford to happen yet awhile.
The Highs And Lows Of Sratford
(That's Stratford International)
Astute readers will, like fbb, remember that South Eastern trains' Javelin services call at Stratford's not-yet-international station. In order for them to do so, Notwork Rail's lads had to construct an extra layer on the platforms built for the lower step height of Eurostar trains.
You can see the original pre-cast concrete platform edge with the extra bodge on top.
It is all because of well thought out advance planning.
So will there have to be changes to platforms and to the Javelin trains.
Thankfully, no! The station was built with four platforms to cope with all the trains from Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow etc to Paris, which never happened.
It is all because of well thought out advance planning.
We presume, therefore, that Chunel trains will use Platforms 1 and 4. Maybe someone will do a bit of painting before trains start stopping. At the moment it looks like something from a 1960s Communist satellite nation.
At least the platform will be at the right height for the trains!
Bonus!
And even better news!
So that's all right, then!
Talking Of Long Term Plans ...
... VERY long term!
The Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) is a proposed link between Glasgow City Centre and Glasgow Airport. The original plans for an airport rail link were proposed during the 2000s to directly link Glasgow Central station with Glasgow Airport in Scotland. The link was intended for completion by 2013 and would have had a service of four trains per hour via Paisley Gilmour Street railway station.
fbb thinks the above is the most recent effort - he certainly remembers a wide selection of previous proposals!
It is all because of well thought out advance planning.
Not Well Thought Out?
Clearly the Metcalf workers' cottages will not fit on the narrow door frame (see yesterday's blog) The best that can be done is to create a cardboard "painting" which will be far better than any fbb attempt to paint a back scene of housing.
So the big porch has to go ...
... and be split into bits ...
... with these bits repurposed ...
... into a narrower porch-like entrance.
Will it work?
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Darwen Developments delayed "a demain!"
Next Variety blog : Sunday 1st November
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