Tag: alexander

• Gaslighting the public about a target that doesn’t exist

  The Department for Transport has released a written version of what it called Debrief Drop In Sessions that took place just after the Road Investment Strategy was released last month, including a sort of explanation as to why National Highways will be expected to do so little to improve safety.

  It follows comments by a senior National Highways official last month, in which he admitted that the company had not bothered with its target for the last (2020-25) RIS, because it depended on matters outside its control.
  
  As I have pointed out, what is described in the RIS as a “KPI Target” is not a target at all, but a requirement that it at least try to meet a level of casualty reduction:

  National Highways must demonstrate it has done all it reasonably can to achieve a 7.5% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the SRN by the end of 2031, based on the 2022-24 baseline.

  

  It’s worth pointing out that transport secretary Heidi Alexander misrepresented this in her introduction to RIS 3, where she referred to:

  setting National Highways a target to achieve a 7.5% reduction

  One stakeholder at a Debrief Drop-in asked:

  Why is the safety target so unambitious, given previously the target was for zero harm by 2040?

  The answer goes back to the idea that National Highways can only control what it can control:

  (more…)

  2026.05.05

• A pointless distraction?

  Unsurprisingly, Heidi Alexander’s announcement that she has “tasked HS2 Ltd to explore options to remove complexity that could cut billions in costs and reduce delays” has fallen flat with people who know what they are talking about.

  The DfT said:

  HS2 was originally commissioned to run at 360km/h, which would have made them the fastest conventional high-speed trains anywhere in the world. However, no railway in the UK, or globally, is currently engineered for 360km/h.

  This means that HS2 would have to wait for HS2 tracks to be built before testing any trains – an approach which could increase costs and delay the completion of the project.

  There’s an interesting use of language of possibility here, with “would have” suggesting that trains at this speed are not going to happen and “could” admitting that the increase in costs and delay might come to nothing.

  

  RAIL magazine reports:

  Plans to change the specification of HS2 to reduce the top speed are unlikely to save money, according to engineers.

  Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis said:

  (more…)

  2026.03.25

• Alexander: Mass transit may not mean trams

  Heidi Alexander has cast new doubts over whether West Yorkshire’s plans for “mass transit” will ever amount to anything more than “a few better buses”, in what appears to be an ongoing battle between her department on one side and chancellor Rachel Reeves and mayor Tracy Brabin on the other.

  The Yorkshire Post (paywall) reports:

  Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has refused to guarantee that the planned West Yorkshire mass transit system will include a tram network.

  It adds:

  It comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that civil servants could overrule Ms Brabin and turn the mass transit system into a bus network, with West Yorkshire Combined Authority asked to set out an alternative business case for buses. The Department for Transport is the ultimate body which will sign off the plans for the scheme.

  It also comes after the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), led by Brabin, refused to disclose a “peer review” of the scheme by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) on the grounds that it would damage public confidence in the scheme.

  

  The Yorkshire Post article shows Alexander not only repeatedly refusing to commit to the trams that Brabin and Leeds MP Reeves have been pushing for but also refusing to back Reeves’ insistence that “mass transit does not mean a few better buses”:

  (more…)

  2026.03.16

• A small error

  A baffling announcement from the transport secretary has shone a light on her department’s determination to make the facts (or predictions) around carbon emissions fit Labour’s policy of expanding aviation in a climate emergency.

  A written statement to parliament from Heidi Alexander begins:

  On 19 February I wrote to the judge hearing the above claim in respect of my ongoing duty of candour in those proceedings.

  

  There is no reference before this, or indeed anywhere in the statement, to any claim or proceedings, although Alexander does later make equally baffling references to:

  an order of the court from 10 December 2025

  and to having

  apologised to the court and the parties and submitted a statement from a senior official in the department to explain the error and correct our position.

  At no point does she say which court but, unpicking all this, it looks as if the case is the legal challenge to Alexander’s decision to back expansion of Heathrow. You can tell this because she protests that

  (more…)

  2026.03.03

• Alexander the not-so-great botches West Midlands Metro extension

  The Express and Star reports that:

  The Midlands Metro tramline will open for passengers in Dudley at the end of August – more than two years late.

  At a meeting of Dudley Council’s Communities and Growth Scrutiny Committee, council leaders faced questions on what help was available for traders affected by the delayed works.

  The Metro had been earmarked for a 2024 opening and later for a launch in the autumn of 2025. It was later announced the opening would be delayed until the start of this year.

  

  The extension to Dudley is the first phase of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension, which is being built by the Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) on behalf of Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).

  Last October MMA said:

  Work on the first phase of the route, between Wednesbury and Dudley town centre, is nearing completion ahead of opening next year

  TfWM has now confirmed in a statement to journalist Peter Plisner:

  (more…)

  2026.01.28

• Rail electrification shelved, Alexander confirms

  The transport secretary has confirmed that Labour has no plans for further electrification of the rail network, for affordability reasons, once again giving the lie to the rail minister’s claim that the government is giving rail funding it needs.

  The FT (paywall) reports Heidi Alexander as telling the Rail Industry Association summit that any further electrification is “not affordable right now” and that the government is “only supporting projects that are fully costed and affordable”.

  She said:

  We are keeping further electrification of the line under review, which I believe is the responsible thing to do.

  

  Alexander also said this had “allowed us to make commitments elsewhere,” the FT reported.

  It’s not clear whether her comments go further than what she said in July when claiming that the government was “greenlighting over 50 rail and road projects”.

  She told MPs in relation to the midland main line electrification scheme phase 3:

  The costs of the scheme were substantial, and we had to prioritise other schemes that deliver more tangible benefits to passengers sooner. However, we will keep the electrification scheme under review as part of our pipeline of projects for future funding.

  But because of ministers’ double speak where “under review” appears to mean shelved and “greenlighting” to mean not shelved, it seems to have been clear for some time that Labour has shelved electrification to spend money on other things.

  But what is clear is that Labour is not “backing rail with the funding needed”, as rail minister Lord Peter Hendy claimed.

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  2025.11.10