The upgrade work was never going beyond Bristol but many of our local Tory MPs had lauded the decrease in travel time from the south-west that the upgrade was supposed to bring.
“Work to electrify key branch lines on rail routes to Oxford and Bristol has been suspended, the government has announced.
The troubled programme has been beset by delays and cost overruns, with its budget trebling to £2.8bn.
Although a review of the works by Network Rail in 2015 led to the project being replanned on a “more efficient footing”, on Tuesday the rail minister Paul Maynard announced that four parts of the programme would be indefinitely “deferred”. These are electrification of tracks between Oxford and Didcot Parkway, between Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads, between Bristol Temple Meads and the city’s Parkway station, and of the Thames Valley branch lines to Henley and Windsor.” …
East Devon Watch 