Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Khoodeelaar! Told the BBC SO! That they have a duty of truthfulness. To tell the truth always. What the BBC does is to hide the truth. It vacillates, prevaricates on telling the truth. Except the occasions like now, when masses and masses of travelling public are involved. The BBC cannot hide the truth. Yet even as it caves in and retails the truth, it still fails to address the central issue: that Big Business hype about providing capacity, accessibility, speed is all lies…. As being illustrated in the stories the BBC is having to run.



1700 Hrs GMT 
London 
Tuesday 
20 April 2010. 
Editor © Muhammad Haque. 

Khoodeelaar! Told the BBC SO! That they have a duty of truthfulness. To tell the truth always. What the BBC does is to hide the truth. It vacillates, prevaricates on telling the truth. Except the occasions like now, when masses and masses of travelling public are involved. The BBC cannot hide the truth. Yet even as it caves in and retails the truth, it still fails to address the central issue: that Big Business hype about providing capacity, accessibility, speed is all lies…. As being illustrated in the stories the BBC is having to run. 

Like this one today:  “No more flights to leave on Tuesday


Some flights have been operating from Belfast City Airport

Belfast International and City airports have said no more flights will leave on Tuesday, even if restrictions on airspace are lifted.
The air traffic control body Nats said restrictions on airspace above NI and Scotland could be lifted at 1900 BST.
Some flights were able to leave Belfast City on Tuesday morning, before the flight window was closed at 1300 BST.
The International said airlines had advised them there would be no flights before Wednesday morning.
"Ultimately the decision to operate rests with each airline under guidance from the Met Office and NATS," said an airport spokesperson.
"So our best advice remains for intending passengers to refer directly to airline websites."
At 1500 BST, Nats said based on the latest Met Office information, parts of Scottish and NI airspace would open from 1900 BST to 0100 BST on Wednesday.
Restrictions will remain in place over the rest of UK airspace below 20,000ft.
Nats also allowed for "overflights" - flights that pass over UK airspace at an altitude above 20,000 feet - allowing for many flights between Europe and the Middle East and North America.
It will also allow flights between open airports in Scotland and northern England, and those open in mainland Europe.
The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and the new cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK. The eruption had abated for a time on Monday morning.
Nats, said the situation was "dynamic and rapidly changing".
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said airports were "taking advantage of the window of opportunity" as the impact of the volcano ash cloud temporarily lessened, but stressed that passenger safety would remain "paramount".
Stranded
He added: "In the meantime I think it's important that everybody knows that if they can get to a Channel port we can get them across from Europe to the United Kingdom."
     
TUESDAY'S AIRLINE DISRUPTION
BA - no short-haul services on Tuesday, but 12 long-haul flights
EasyJet - flights to/from northern Europe, including UK, cancelled until 0100 BST on Wednesday.
Ryanair - flights cancelled to/from the UK, Ireland, and much of northern Europe until 1300 BST on Wed 21
Flybe - flights scheduled between Aberdeen, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Newcastle from 1005 BST
bmi - plans to resume UK domestic flights from Heathrow at 1900BST and from regional UK airports from 1300 BST
bmibaby - Certain internal and European flights operating, some cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday
*All passengers are advised to check with their airline before heading to the airport
This is the sixth day of flight cancellations across the UK.
It is estimated 120,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of Northern Ireland airspace.
Thousands of passengers remain stranded with planes grounded across Europe.
Ryanair have said all flights between the UK and Ireland have been cancelled until 1300 BST on Friday.
A statement from the company said this was to allow for extra flights from the UK and Ireland to continental Europe on Thursday.
This would allow passengers to get to mainland Europe and make their return journeys via road, rail or ferry. Onward travel from Madrid will be at each passenger's own expense.
Flybe did operate a limited service to some Scottish airports from Belfast City. But flights for the rest of the day are cancelled.
EasyJet said flights to and from Northern Europe, including UK flights, would be cancelled until 1800 BST on Tuesday.
     
EXPERT ADVICE
Latest health advice
Air passenger rights
Q&A: Volcanic ash cloud
Travel latest
Aer Lingus said all flights scheduled for Tuesday are cancelled.
BMI plans to resume some flights from Heathrow at 1900 BST, but all flights from UK domestic airports are cancelled until at least 2359 BST.
Jet2 and Thomson flights will continue to be cancelled until Thursday at least. Passengers are advised to check airline websites for updates.
Aer Arann said its flights from Dublin to City of Derry Airport are cancelled.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has announced that Dublin Airport will remain closed for all inbound and outbound commercial flights until 1900 BST.
Shannon Airport is expected to reopen from 1300 BST but the authorities said no flight would depart this evening.
Cork Airport remains closed and a further update will be provided later.
More than 6.8m passengers have been affected so far and 63,000 flights have been cancelled since Thursday.
Experts say the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano system could jam aircraft engines, as has happened in previous incidents of planes flying into plumes of volcanic ash.” 


[To be continued]


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    KHOODEELAAR! re-citing Simon Jenkins [28 April 2009]: "Crossrail will eat money. Kill it, Boris, and save the bankrupt Tube instead"



    FROM the London EVENING STANDARD, URL below


    accessed at 1640 Hrs GMT on Tuesday 20 April 2010


    Make do and mend: Engineering work on the Waterloo and City line.


    The Underground is teetering on the brink of insolvency
    Crossrail will eat money. Kill it, Boris, and save the bankrupt Tube instead
    Simon Jenkins
    28.04.09

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    Kill Crossrail. Kill it now. Offer it up as London's gift to public sector sanity, while there is still time to avoid millions of pounds climbing into billions on a project that London does not need. What London needs is a fully working, modernised Tube. So kill Crossrail to save the Tube.

    Crossrail, with a completely new rail tunnel from Paddington to Liverpool Street, has few friends. It has been stopped and restarted too many times to count over the past quarter-century. When Gordon Brown said in 2007 that "it will definitely proceed", sceptics sensed the cold hand of death grip its throat.

    When Whitehall set out a tripartite funding package for the line in 2008, the caveats and qualifications grew in number. In an interview in February the transport minister, Lord Adonis, warned the world that, if Londoners do not raise their two-thirds share, "the Mayor understands that Crossrail will collapse ... ".

    Mention Crossrail to Boris Johnson and his normally open, cheerful visage changes to that of a parent just told his kids are on drugs. He starts to shake. When reminded that he once said Crossrail was "one of those times you have to say, get in that hole and keep digging" the look becomes a rictus.

    At a farewell dinner at City Hall earlier this month, the outgoing head of Transport for London, Tim O'Toole, hinted at his known private view that Crossrail is capital madness. He pleaded with his colleagues to fight instead for the existing Tube, now teetering on the brink of insolvency. TfL executives know that continuing with Crossrail will eat money and distract management for a decade.

    It would yield nothing but bad news stories, while severely disrupting traffic in central London just when it will be recovering from the water mains chaos. Test drilling is already upheaving St Giles.

    Crossrail is no longer a railway that makes sense. Back in the Eighties it was way behind the Jubilee line and the then (and now) top priority, a new northeast/southwest line from Hackney to Chelsea and beyond. Lines were needed to fill the Tube-less no-man's-lands of Greenwich and Chelsea/Fulham.

    It took Margaret Thatcher to force through the Jubilee line to help the Reichman brothers build Canary Wharf. Chelsea/Hackney has no such power backers.

    This project's only real friends have been in the City, eager to fend off the "threat" from Docklands and garner the bulk of the 900,000 extra office jobs predicted for London a decade ago. Nobody expects that need now. The Central line's parallel capacity can easily be increased by station improvements and better management.

    Crossrail's backers have duly fallen back on that catch-all for any extravagant project, "urban regeneration". But that involves taking the line far out to the east, at further cost. For all the efforts of consultants to prove otherwise, this line is neither profitable nor a priority for economic renewal.

    Boris Johnson now has a golden chance. He knows the capital must tighten its belt somehow - especially after he failed to curb the gargantuan appetite of the Olympics (costing more than half the £16billion total for Crossrail).

    Johnson has already had to end his predecessor's costly fantasies, the Thames Gateway bridge, the Cross-river tram and the Dagenham light railway extension.

    The Government has offered £5.6billion to the Crossrail budget. The rest must come from a raised London business rate (£3.5billion), borrowing against so-called train access charges (£2.3billion) and £2.7billion from TfL, this time borrowing against future fares.

    Given the recent history of Tube finances, these figures are wholly unreal. TfL is close to technical bankruptcy. Borrowing against future revenue is mad, especially when it has already been assigned to meet Crossrail's running costs. Has London learned nothing about dodgy accounting from the past five years of such projects?

    Meanwhile the City Corporation is offering a meagre £200million, on top of which is budgeted £150million from City businesses and, once upon a time, £230million from the airports authority, BAA. Lord Adonis claims this amounts to a further £750million, which is inconceivable. The truth is that Crossrail is another financial pig in a poke.

    The Government has already poured £2billion in extra guilt money into the Tube to finance its public-private partnership (PPP), the sunk cost of this now largely aborted scheme. No minister or official has ever taken responsibility for it - indeed the official, Shriti Vadera, has been rewarded with both a peerage and a ministry.

    In addition, the Government has pledged a huge £39billion to TfL over the next decade, a sum higher than anything conceived during nationalisation. This, it says, will have to embrace the completion of the PPP scheme and Crossrail. But the latter is not formally ring-fenced.

    This is the Mayor's great opportunity. He has a £1.4billion hole in his transport budget already and must somehow fund £3billion of debt left over from the Treasury's collapsed Metronet infrastructure company.

    Adonis said last November that there was no way he would plug this hole, despite it being one of the Government's own creation. He could hardly have given a more direct indication of his willingness to see Crossrail crash.

    Johnson could now argue that the £5.6billion for Crossrail be switched to other Tube projects, such as resignalling the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines and replacing Metropolitan line stock, projects that may anyway have to be postponed to meet the cost of Crossrail. Cancelling the latter would relieve the Tube budget of a tidal wave of uncertain costs now advancing down the track.

    This would enable Johnson to declare himself the saviour of London's Underground railway, after a decade of mismanagement and financial chaos.

    By liberating himself from Crossrail and demanding that London be allowed to keep its transport grant, he could begin to reconstruct TfL's finances and meet its voracious appetite for new signals, stations and rolling stock. He could declare a clean slate.

    Johnson need not fear the Government on this: if ministers wanted Crossrail they would have paid for it. He need not fear the City.

    He can use the recession as an excuse to put this white elephant to sleep while garnering the popularity of restoring London's transport system to sanity. But first he must kill Crossrail.

     
    Reader views (37)  Add your view
    The private sector should fund Crossrail. The bankers in the City, if they want it so much, should pay up instead of dumping the costs on the taxpayer. I am really quite angry at the way the same people who are demanding cuts in government spending want the government to spend vast sums on something for their benefit.

    Corporate Welfare scams are rife in the US, I fear we are heading towards a similar situation here in the UK.

    A Mickey Mouse economy funded by the taxpayer, that's where we are heading.

    - Gary Wintle, Canvey Island, UK, 19/03/2010 01:23
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    A 'public transport' system is there to serve the needs of that public; the need for profit, though desirable, is therefore secondary. There are over 20 'service' providers in the greater London area because of privatization, this is a truly ridiculous situation. Stop wasteful advertising and 'poets of London Transport' and the plethora of give-a-way brochures and bring back the ROUTE MASTER BUSES!!! Give Londoners credit for common sense and stop making inane announcements!!!!

    - Peter Jackson, London E1 0ND, 17/05/2009 08:47
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    We know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.Decades of timidity, underinvestment and cheap political expediency have made our public transport the shambles it is today.Why do we always go for short term gain and long term pain, and if you don't believe me ask the citizens of Muswell Hill who would have had a tube line to central London had it not been for blinkered cost cutting in the 1940s.

    - Mick Isaacs, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    If you want clean, easy to install and maintain mass transport systems, then look at trolley buses, not Crossrail.

    - Cap, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Excuse me, but there are many areas of London without a decent tube connection, including the busy and popular commuting areas of Muswell Hill and Highgate. A simple light rail extension in the above case would solve the problem. However, money was diverted from a proposed project in order to fund the Docklands light rail link in the 1980s, in what would appear to have been an alleged act of favouring the emerging south east of the capital. The mayor should either improve transport in London, for the sake of the Olympics if nothing else. But does he really care?

    - Mark, Venice, Italy, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    The tube is overcrowded at rush hour, that is well remarked upon.

    How then do you come to the conclusion that the solution lies in better signalling and new stock? We need more room to move people about. Crossrail will do this.

    - David, London, United Kingdom, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Remember the main Crossrail construction will take place between 2011 and 2017. There's plenty of time for the economy to recover and for money to be found.

    As for the tube upgrade project, the recent report by the London Assembly transport committee suggested some ways to close the funding gap, the size of which is yet to be confirmed.

    Boris needs to hold his nerve and find ways to keep these long term projects active. They have the potential to transform the public transport system and improve London's conpetitiveness and quality of life for decades to come.

    - Kev, Bromley, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    We should ditch Crossrail but also stop Tube upgrades, as an overused public transport shows this country is not very aspirational. Put the money into making it easier to drive around London, build more express ways and show that owning a car is something people have worked hard for and be proud of.

    - Kimberley, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    The London-wide coalition of residents opposed to Crossrail agree with Simon Jenkins. The £16bn Crossrail must be killed for the sake of London residents, taxpayers and tube farepayers who will be exposed to another environmental, economic and transport mess of a kind that Boris Johnson will be responsible for should he choose to continue with this black hole of a transport scheme. Those who want Crossrail should take responsibility for it in its entirety including any costs which later need to be underwritten, pay for it with their own money and also keep the harm to the areas that want Crossrail as a transport scheme. Any takers?

    - The Coalition, London UK, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    With the Thameslink improvements, there's honestly no further need for Crossrail and it should be cancelled asap. The job losses in the City and especially at Canary Wharf will also greatly reduce the numbers wishing to travel.

    - John Buckeridge, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Crossrail is essential for London's future and at least some of it will be built. If Boris wants to save money he should start by ditching his vanity projects. About £1bn could be saved by scrapping the 'new routemaster' (£150m+), scrapping the needless replacement of near-new bendy buses (£100m pa), not scrapping the western congestion zone (£50m+ pa), and reinstating the Venezuala deal (£30m pa). Add it all up - over the 8 year life of the Crossrail project Boris has already thrown away £5bn. And he has the nerve to talk about the 'largesse' of the previous administration!

    - Paul, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Tell me who these people are that need crossrail?

    - Ray, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Crossrail is vital to London, the South East, the whole UK.£36 billion in benefits to the GDP, 14,000 jobs created, many more other jobs also created as a result to service this great project.

    Yes, of course invest in the existing Tube network but as well as Crossrail not at its expense.

    Regeneration, modernisation and investment are a damn sight better that stagnation.

    - Luke, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Boris should be congratulated on holding his nerve on Crossrail. London desperately needs to make itself attractive to future business and investors, or we'll never get out of this slump. The sooner the tunnel-borers get digging, the better - and maybe in the current climate some of the costs can be brought down. And then Crossrail 2.

    - Simon, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    ' We should ditch Crossrail but also stop Tube upgrades, as an overused public transport shows this country is not very aspirational. Put the money into making it easier to drive around London, build more express ways and show that owning a car is something people have worked hard for and be proud of.'

    Kimberley: Your village called, they want their idiot back. Drive home please....

    - Nick, London, UK, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Stuff Crossrail, i want a Cross Bridge. Trying to get across the river in east London is a nightmare.
    A new Thames Gateway bridge is a MUST.

    - Mr S.Port, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    You can upgrade the Tube to get more capacity out of it - but at the cost of years of misery whilst the work takes place. Much better to build something entirely new and separate which will cause much less disruption, and which will serve the whole country. And even in a recession those new tunnels will be well-used.

    Crossrail (and indeed 'Superlink') provide so many more journey oportunities which simply increasing Tube capacity would not. It will be a piece of infrastructure which will last for centuries.

    - Stephen Lawrence, Cambridge, England, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    I've commented on this piece on my South London blog, http://southeasteleven.blogspot.com/ by making the suggestion that were Crossrail to fail, the money could be ploughed into extending the tube network across South London into Camberwell and Peckham.

    - Three Wheeled One, SE11, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Simon Jenkins is absolutely right, Crossrail is a white elephant already, is not needed and does not create the missing transport links that London actually needs. Nobody commenting here has actually given a good, sound reason for it to continue, only the usual nefarious rubbish about regeneration which is wholly unevidenced and which does not stand up to the most basic scrutiny.

    Boris should kill off Crossrail now and spend the money on the Tube which desperately needs it.

    - Matt, London, UK, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Is the coalition of residents a coalition of not very intelligent people? "An economical, environmental and transport mess"? And that is their description of a proposed new electric undergronud mass transit system in a dense world city with traffic that chokes its narrow streets! Cross Rail sounds like an intelligent solution that is long overdue to me; anyway it will be there being used by millions for 200 years with or without Heathrow. Instead of counting pennies to give token tax cuts to those who do not use urban mass transit systems thus polluting the city and reducing everyone's real quality of life the Mayor of London should be planning for the next major transport infrastructure, Cross Rail 2. These undergruond mass transit systems are additions to an over-capactiy underground network they are not competing forces! You need to first allieviate capacity on the underground if you want to have any hope of improving existing infrastructure. Trying to work around a live over-capacity system in engineering terms is a very costly exercise. Just look at the West Coast line upgrade for evidence of that!

    - P Marsden, London UK, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Disagree with Simon Jenkins entirely. What London needs is both Tube improvements AND Crossrail. The Central Line runs at full capacity much of the day. More trains can run from the east and from the west without having to turn around at their edge of central london terminus.

    So Crossrail is costing £16 billion and the Olympics £8 billion - the Olympics lasts for 3 weeks, Crossrail will last a lifetime - I know which one represents better value for money.
    London has to continually evolve to maintain its status of being a great city.

    - Sa, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Crossrail needs to go ahead, the South East of London is horrifically underserved in terms of public transport. The DLR extension to Woolwich was very much welcomed but crossrail is needed for the South East. Isn't it funny how the only ones against Crossrail live in areas already covered by the tube? I guess that's people though isn't it, intrinsically selfish?

    - Tony Smith, SE London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Crossrail will provide new transport options, helping the city grow in new directions and relieving existing infrastructure. What will upgrading the existing network do for those large swathes of the capital without a tube service? The line won't be ready for many years - by which time the economy will have recovered and we will all be complaining about the same old capacity problems.

    It's not about the City fending off the Wharf - if anything, the Wharf needs Crossrail more, since the Jubilee Line is at capacity. Crossrail is about keeping the capital moving and competing with other major cities around the world.

    - Brockley Nick, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    I appreciate that these are data-free comments, but I have never understood why cross-rail as a concept got past the post. I do not doubt that it would be nice to have, but it does seem that we may be bringing Victorian Railway Technology to solve undefined 21st Century problems and paying for them with today's money....which we haven't got! In 10 year's time are we still to sit at desks in front of screens in Cornhill or Eastcheap? or even Canary Wharf? If so, if your lifestyle is dependent on such activity move to Essex or Suffolk or Kent or Surrey. Note also that from my experience the flow of traffic around the M25 is East to West in the Morning and the reverse in the evening. What use is Crossrail to these travellers. Lastly Heathrow is yesterday's accident and we cannot assume it will dominate our commercial lives in the future. My advice is leave your Mum and Dad down the Thames Valley and move East.

    - Ray, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Why not kill the Olympics and save the tube AND Crossrail?

    - Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Kimberley's comment is (unintentionally?) hilarious. We should stop funding the tube so people come in by car? 6 million cars should come into london on a daily basis should they? How much pollution would this cause? Where would they park?

    - James, Vauxhall, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    We need to continue with this or it will never be done. It should be complete by the end of the next decade, just as we're coming out of the pains of debt and just when, hopefully, The City will be back on its feet again. I can see no more perfect time for this to arrive, and I believe it will provide a huge boost when it does.

    - Liam Houghton, Westminster, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    "Back in the Eighties it was way behind the Jubilee line and the then (and now) top priority, a new northeast/southwest line from Hackney to Chelsea and beyond."

    According to one of Christian Wolmar's books (The Subterranean Railway I presume) the Jubilee Line was actually rated third in importance and benefits for the capital.

    The top two were actually Crossrail and Chelsea/Hackney.

    Why was the Jubilee Line Extension built? To help out the private sector developers of Canary Wharf...

    That section of the book is a particularly fascinating read...

    - Bods, Merton, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Ray: "Tell me who these people are that need crossrail?" 200 million passengers in the first year of Crossrail operation. These are people being taken off the existing tube network - relieving congestion and overcrowding for us all. And Crossrail will integrate seamlessly with the Tube network, increasing capacity by 10%.

    Sa, London and Luke, London: Spot on! Disagree with Simon Jenkins entirely.

    Yes, the costs are big, but even the most conservative estimates predict that Crossrail will offer outstanding value for money - and a legacy which our children will thank us for.

    Hold your nerve Boris!

    - Matthew, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    I live and commute in London and what's desperately needed is more capacity, it needs relief from tube overcrowding. This is what Crossrail can provide. It's not a case of either or, London needs a revitalised tube and it needs teh extra seats Crossrail will provide.

    - Andy, London, England, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    London needs fast efficient transport from West to East across London to compete with other international cities.
    People need to stop thinking of immediate benefit and think long term, if people thought like this we would never have had a tube network in the first place.

    - J, Berkshire, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    You may be interested to know that Crossrail is this year 20 years old in that the first design contract was let in 1989. Since then it has been redesigned at least 3 times and contracts are currently going out to redesign it yet again. If (and its a big if) construction contracts are eventually let it is likely that the contractors will redesign it again - at least in part. By then the cost of the design work in total will have run to hundreds of millions of pounds if not a billion. Crossrail should be renamed Gravyrail.

    - Tunneller, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Nick: New trains - better design, faster acceleration. New signalling: more trains can operate.
    Add the two together and you get more capacity. That is why so much is being spent on new signalling so that more trains can run on the existing track.

    - Paul, Kings Cross, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    1) Chelsea and Fulham are on the tube already.
    2) Hackney is going on the tube from next year- on the East London or the Elizabeth line as I hope they'll call it.
    3) Greenwich ( which he Simon is right to say isn't on the tube) wouldn't be helped one jot by a Chelsea/ Hackney line at all anyway.

    - Lee Jones, London, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    The long branch of the Metropolitan Line from Paddington to Hammersmith via Ladbroke Grove could form the basis of an alternative Crossrail.

    In this option, the line from Paddington to Stratford would follow the same route as the present proposal, but as a tube instead of full-size main line dimensions. At Stratford, the line would join end-on to the Jubilee Line and the trains would run back to Stanmore.

    Thus the service would run from Hammersmith to Stanmore ie Hammersmith - Paddington - Bond Street - Liverpool Street - Stratford - Canary Wharf - Waterloo - Bond Street - Baker Street - Wembley Park - Stanmore, so the route would be like the Greek letter alpha, crossing over itself at Bond Street.

    This would have most the advantages of the Crossrail, and none of the disadvantages, at a fraction of ther cost, and existing proven types of stock could be used.

    It would also allow more frequent services on the Paddington to Hammersmith route, at present restricted due to the capacity of the busy northern arm of the Circle Line between Paddington, Baker Street and Aldgate.

    - Henry Law, BRIGHTON England, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Scrap the £16bn Crossrail mess! London's coalition of residents remain concerned about the wider implications of the bottomless pit that is Crossrail. Boris Johnson continues to be a great disappointment. The City should pay for Crossrail rather than rely on Londoners to get it out of the pit it has created

    - The Coalition, London UK, 17/05/2009 07:47
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    Unless we're all going to go back to coal-mining, the biggest economic activity of the future will consisteven ,more than now, of information transfer in one way or another, plus the physical services that enable it. The model of shunting huge numbers of people into the same tiny spaces each day has been obsolete for a couple of decades or more, and was always something planners tried to avert. When the new towns were being planned before and after the war, nobody would have believed that the lucky residents would immediately jumnp into congested transport to get back into the Smoke. There's nothing that says financial services have to be carried out in one office antheap to get the job done; if anything the Crossrail money should be spent on upgrading the internet, which is apparently dangerously close to crashing due to undercapacity.

    - Mdj E10, london uk, 17/05/2009 07:47
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      1045 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 20 April 2010. Editor © Muhammad haque. The Khoodeelaar! Manifesto 2010 includes the most up-to-date list of evidence of how the so-called FOURTH ESTATE in the UK [the supposed free press and media] operates as a stooge to the political party and groupings stooged to the agenda setting BIG BUSINESS MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Also included are the most representative evidential snippets from the regional and national parties as illustrated by the Welsh nationalist party and the Scottsih Nationalist party? The SNP for instance is the one that has made contradictory statements on Big Business. In our analysis, not seen anywhere else, this is mostly due to the personal hold that Alex Salmon APPEARS to have on that party. We refer here to Alex Salmond’s utterances broadcast live on the BBC News Channel in the past 20 minutes. He is at once for Scottish independence as he is for a United Kingdom. He is against Big Projects as he is for high-speed trains. Alex Salmond in the context of our Manifesto also exposed his untenable ambivalence on Crossrail. Instead of focussing on and citing Crossrail as another crass instance of ‘London politics’ wasting £Billions and blaming Scotland for the hyper-brainwashing lie that Scotland took away all, of London’s money, Salmond behaved as another tout for Big Business by echoing Adonis and HIS propaganda couriers. Not good enough [To be continued ]



      1045 Hrs GMT

      London

      Tuesday
      20 April 2010.
      Editor © Muhammad haque. 

      The Khoodeelaar! Manifesto 2010 includes the most up-to-date list of evidence of how the so-called FOURTH ESTATE in the UK [the supposed free press and media] operates as a stooge to the political party and groupings stooged to the agenda setting BIG BUSINESS MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Also included are the most representative evidential snippets from the regional and national parties as illustrated by the Welsh nationalist party and the Scottsih Nationalist party? The SNP for instance is the one that has made contradictory statements on Big Business.  In our analysis, not seen anywhere else, this is mostly due to the personal hold that Alex Salmon APPEARS to have on that party. We refer here to Alex Salmond’s utterances broadcast live on the BBC News Channel in the past 120 minutes. He is at once for Scottish independence as he is for a United Kingdom. He is against Big Projects as he is for high-speed trains. Alex Salmond in the context of our Manifesto also exposed his untenable ambivalence on Crossrail. Instead of focussing on and citing Crossrail as another crass instance of ‘London politics’ wasting £Billions and blaming Scotland for the hyper-brainwashing lie that Scotland took away all, of London’s money, Salmond behaved as another tout for Big Business by echoing Adonis and HIS propaganda couriers. Not good enough [To be continued]


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        KHOODEELAAR! Ethical manifesto against corruptocracy that is subject to Military Industrial Complex [=MIC] Big Business agenda scams as typified in London by CRASSLY conceived Crossrail. Our manifesto is about restoring democracy. A manifesto for democratic recovery. Note to all wannabe ‘leaders’ spiel-makers and scriptwriters and ‘professional political commemorators’ [!!!!]: Don't nick this phrase. We are watching every single one of the ‘grandstanding’ ‘election’ performers on stage in the UK Now. We are later today beginning the online launch of our manifesto to end the deficit of democracy, which we believe is the real cause for the becoming deficit. We reiterate to UK G Brown and to UK D Cameron and anyone else that may be fabricating a scenario ‘in Government’ post 6 May 201 as stills scheduled [bar a volcano interruption of greater magnitude than hitherto experienced] Scrap Crossrail and thereby bring about one, the first, evidence that you have connected with reality and have recognised that the objective conditions of the 'UK economy' [note our use of the quotation marks around those two words! Telling, isn't it!] Do not support a crass scam like the Crossrail one.....


        0750 Hrs GMT

        London
        Tuesday
        20 April 2010.
        Editor © Muhammad Haque.
        Khoodeelaar! Manifesto 2010 due to be launched starting today, Tuesday 20 April 2010.
        The factual evidential ‘preamble’ at 0750 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 20 April 2010.
        This [later today Tuesday 20 April 2010] edition of the Khoodeelaar! Manifesto for sustained democratic recovery will of course be ahead of any counterpart that has been even conceived of by the ‘main’ parties in the UK and in any regions.
        Despite their alleged differences on policy, they are in agreement in the overwhelming majority of fields and areas of what they keep referring to as politics.
        We do not recognise that.
        What we find on evidence is corruption.
        And as corruption predominates, we prefer the term we have evidentially contextually devised: corruptocracy. It is at once antithetical to democracy and to genuine universally legitimate representative conduct.
        They, the main players faking it to be ‘democratic election’ and participating in it, flaunting it, trading in it, banking in it, banking on it, exploiting it, investing in it, profiting from it AGREE on the perpetuation of the democracy deceit.
        Their entire futures depend on that perpetuation.
        Our manifesto is addressing the bankruptcy caused and created by the democracy deceit that is implicit and explicit in all the other manifestos.

        We also base our own futures – note this word deployed repeatedly by UK g brown during the televised broadcast via the BBC on Monday 19 April 2010 – on the continuation of their perpetuation.
        Unlike them, we are not motivated by, far less inspired by any concept of career. We are on the ground. We are in affinity with everything ordinary. There is no spin. No stunt.
        No flaunting.
        No bragging.
        No staging, far less upstaging.
        We are, among and of and with the ordinary people in the communities across the formally defined constituencies, and electoral wards in our thoughts and in our observations and in our views.
        We do not think a manifesto to be a trick to use to con or hoodwink or mislead or mesmerise the people. 
        [To be continued]