Examination of Witnesses (Questions 340
- 345)
WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE 2002
MR NICK
NEWTON AND
MR JIM
STEER
340. Take any figure, Mr Steer! Just take a
number!
(Mr Steer) I will give you a guideline.
Putting in a second track on Chiltern of ten miles has a budget
of £60 million. So, four tracking over what I would imagine
is eight or ten miles might be twice that.
Andrew Bennett
341. Do you know when two of the tracks were
taken out?
(Mr Steer) No.
Andrew Bennett: I think I will give up on this.
I just do not feel that you have any idea about the problems on
that line and really you are not convincing me that you understand
how you have to get commuter services and intercity services through
the bottleneck of Manchester and I think that people will become
very depressed when they look at the transcript.
Chairman
342. Do you have enough money to do all these
things even if you are not doing the things that we think will
make a difference?
(Mr Steer) There is the money set aside
in the SRA strategic plan and you will be familiar with the figures
providing that the regulatory settlement was the correct measurement
of the amount of money needed for operation and maintenance of
the existing network is sufficient to deliver the project.
343. Finally, who has the lead role in determining
service requirements? Is it the Strategic Rail Authorities or
the Passenger Transport Executives?
(Mr Steer) In terms of local services, the PTEs set
out the requirements.
344. Do you respond to that?
(Mr Steer) Yes.
345. How do you sort out conflicts between local
services and long distance? Do you just re-order the numbers of
minutes in an hour?
(Mr Steer) No, we go through a careful process to
try to accommodate everything. What has not happened and what
will happen under the capacity utilisation strategy is some forward
planning into that process rather than leaving it to an annual
timetable debate.
Chairman: Mr Steer, you have given us lots of
food for thought. Thank you very much and thank you Mr Newman.
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