Welcome to our new website.
We’ve given it a refresh and simplified the structure.
Also, with a general election just completed, we need to focus more strongly on the change that this country needs. Transport is a part of that: fares are too high and service quality is too low. Whether that’s due to profiteering by private companies or the dead hand of the state depends on your political persuasion but all parties agree that transport provision needs to improve.
The Windsor Link Railway is part of this improvement. It isn’t just a scheme to benefit Windsor but a new, more transparent and more democratic way of procuring the infrastructure this country needs. Instead of the opaque way that governments of all colours have directed rail investment over the last decades, WLR proposes a method whereby ‘unsolicited’ schemes can be judged openly on their merits. This allows for everything to be treated in the same way and fairly, from publicly-funded small schemes promoted by local councils to hyperloops supported by US investors. It removes the conflict of interest at the Department for Transport, where they are both promoters and judges of their own schemes. This bedevils investment because even when they get it right nobody believes them or they have their motives unfairly questioned. A transparent procurement process is the solution to this. Opening the system to ‘unsolicited’ bids means that ideas are treated equally, whether generated by ordinary people or by industry insiders, diminishing the influence of lobbyists. The net result will be more innovation, lower fares and better services to the public.
As part of that innovation, WLR will shortly publish it’s GRIP 2 (feasibility) report for its Phase 1. The first draft was formally submitted to Network Rail in April 2017 and the second draft, based on their feedback, is nearing completion. Stay tuned.
