Government to blame for scrapping of rail upgrade – Euro-MP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 9th Oct 2002

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne has expressed disappointment at today’s announcement by the Strategic Rail Authority to scrap plans to introduce Phase 2 of the West Coast Main Line upgrade, which would allow 140mph trains to run on the line.

Commenting on the announcement, Liz said: “The Strategic Rail Authority have been all over the place on this issue. Last year they put back plans to introduce the upgrade, a few months ago they postponed it ‘indefinitely’ and now they have finally admitted that it won’t be built at all. This hardly suggests that there is much strategic thinking going on.

“The SRA and Alastair Darling have got to stop prevaricating and blaming everything on Railtrack. If the government had got a grip on this issue years ago, we would not now be in this situation. The only real losers in this are the passengers. I just hope that after years of delay and disruption, they will just keep their promises this time.”