KHOODEELAAR! telling the UK Crossrail scam-peddling daft Department for Transport [cabinet] Minister: The challenge for Hammond and his team at the DfT politically is this: have they the intelligence the sense and the credibility to ‘change’ the status quo of lies and fraudulence that have assisted the big business scam up to now in the way that it has been promoted at the expense of the other, more urgent transport economic priorities in, around and about London?

2150 Hrs GMT

London

Friday

04 June 2010

Editor © Muhammad Haque

KHOODEELAAR! Campaign against “Big Business agenda of looting the public under pretexts of big infrastructure projects - typified by Crossrail, London…” updating challenge to Big Biz propaganda outfit railnews.co.uk to show evidence that justifies the multi £Billion expenditure on the scam. However railndews co.uk continues to fail to publish ANY critical comment about CrossRail. As it has failed to publish the Khoodeelaar! campaign Organiser’s latest critique posted on railwnews.co.uk earlier today [Friday 04 June 2010].

The refusal and or failure on the part of railnews.co.uk to publish such critical comments merely add substance to the  already well-founded call for the scrapping of Crossrail. Of ALL the ‘projects’ that are being promoted in any part of the UK at the present time, only Crossrail is treated as being beyond any rigours of analysis, of accountability or answerability.

This is seen most clearly in the robotically delivered utterances ‘for Crossrail’ as mouthed by Boris Johnson. Just in the same way that they are still being delivered by the predecessor robot Ken Livingstone. For the past six years and five months, Khoodeelaar! has collected evidence and published the findings as based on the originally gathered evidence showing that CrossRail is not rationally backable. And it is not.

As was seen during the  formal period when the ‘CrossRail Bill’ was rubber stamped [into the notional statute book] through the two Houses of the UK Parliament, the evidence that showed Crossrail to be less important than the priority needs of the current tube and related rail networks in the London region  was prevented from being put to MPs and peers.  

Equally, evidence of design flaws seriously adversely  affecting the environment and the communities in London was prevented from being put to the MPs and the Peers. Evidence of economic calculations and planning about CrossRail showing that the scheme was a deeply flawed one, was also prevented from being put to the MPs and the Peers. The MPs and the Peers thus became stooges.

It follows that the 'Crossrail Bill' was a sham. As is the CrossRail project. And even the then Opposition Con Party backed the promotion of the Sham scheme. Thus it is a scam. Not a scheme. Unless they can show evidence that proves that CrossRail will produce overwhelming economic benefits to the ordinary people, the scam should be scrapped forthwith and the losses should be cut.

The challenge for Hammond and his team at the DfT politically is this: have they the intelligence the sense and the credibility to ‘change’ the status quo of lies and ft6duelenec that have assisted the big business scam up to now in the way that it has been promoted at the some of the other, more urgent transport economic priorities in , around and about London?

 [To be continued] 

_______

Quote 

Muhammad Haque 

to 

railnews.co.uk

"Why are you continuing to make a special plea for 'Crossrail'? After doing this for years without carrying a single item of credible evidence to justify the diversion of £Billions of public money towards it, don't you think it reasonable and fair to ask that you produced evidence that shows that the additional costs, debts and diversion of scarce public paid for resources are credibly outweighed by the verifiably predictable and guaranteeable economic and social returns on the scam? I have pointed out to you a variety of external and non-partisan sources that have all cast doubt on the veracity of the Crossrail scam. You have chosen to suppress that evidence. How can that have been a service to transparency and ethical debate on an issue that involves the spending of £Billions of public money – borrowed a few times over and lasting for decades at the expense of ordinary people? Whoever may be in office at the DfT must show due rigour in assessing the priorities and regardless of my party political and ideological distance from any incumbent there, I think that they should be allowed to apply the principles of democratic answerability for their allocations of resources in the name of the UK public objectively, rationally and above all as based on and as justified by overwhelming evidence. You are seeking to deny them that democratic option, if your treatment of Phillip Hammond’s move is a reliable guide of your own purpose. Why?

UNquote 

Muhammad Haque 

to 

railnews.co.uk 

Friday

04 June 2010

____

Hammond orders review of new trains plans

Posted: 4th June 2010 | No Comments

Philip Hammond: NAO report may have reinforced his doubts

THE transport secretary has ordered a comprehensive review of rolling stock orders, casting fresh doubt on plans for Thameslink and even Crossrail.

At the same time, the National Audit Office has published a report which is critical of the soaring cost of new trains.

Philip Hammond is already making cuts of £683 million in the Department for Transport budget in the current year, as part of general departmental economies ordered by the Chancellor which are intended to save a total of £6.2 billion.

But the DfT share of these economies is not nearly enough to account for rolling stock orders, which include the vehicles outstanding under the High Level Output Specification (or HLOS) as well as the fleets for Thameslink and later Crossrail. The total cost of these orders would have been at least £4 billion, with new rail vehicles now typically costing at least £1.5 million each.

The ambitious proposals for a next-generation intercity fleet had already been put on hold by the previous Labour government, and the chances of these plans being revived are now looking very slim.

Mr Hammond said Labour's plan for more trains would now be 'rigorously reassessed', to see if they still offered value for money for taxpayers.

"Since that announcement was made in 2007 the growth in passenger numbers has not materialised and costs have soared, leaving Labour's plans in tatters," he explained.

The transport secretary's doubts appear to have been reinforced by today's report from the National Audit Office, 'Increasing passenger rail capacity', which says that the predicted growth in passenger numbers has not materialised because of the economic downturn.

Mr Hammond added that ""significantly fewer new trains will be delivered for the money committed than were promised to passengers".

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