RMweb Premium melmerby Posted October 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2011 Hi All Following Liam Fox's resignation, Philip Hammond, generally viewed as favourable to railways, has moved from transport to replace him. Does anybody know if his replacement, Justine Greening, is pro or anti public transport? No politicking please! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mod4 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 As requested by Keith please avoid political discussions and keep to answers to his question. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I'm more concerned how Hammond is going to settle into his new job, regardless of Dr Fox's personal life he was the first defense minister I as far as I could tell who actually wanted the job and had an idea of what he was doing.... As for Justine Greening; she's come from the Treasury and was an accountant/finance manager for various companies. I fear the DfT will have gotten a bean counter.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Belgian Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 This is what she records on her own website: "Like many people I depend on the District Line every day to get to work. I have lobbied London Underground to improve the service, already getting in place an extra train in morning rush hour and the installation of a lift at Southfields Station. But further improvements can be made to enhance the reliability and comfort of District Line journeys, and I meet regularly with TfL to press the case for the District Line.” JE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CUTLER2579 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Without being political,sounds a bit like looking after number one. Regards,Del Boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 This is what she records on her own website: "Like many people I depend on the District Line every day to get to work. I have lobbied London Underground to improve the service, already getting in place an extra train in morning rush hour and the installation of a lift at Southfields Station. But further improvements can be made to enhance the reliability and comfort of District Line journeys, and I meet regularly with TfL to press the case for the District Line.” JE Well if you travel on the District Line all is well; otherwise your buggered! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Endacott Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 She has been campaigning for more trains on the District Line. Gosh! She was hardly going to campagn for fewer trains in her own consituency. I think we will have to reserve judgement until we see what she actually does. Sadly, the one thing which always seems to be lacking with the transport brief is stablity. Yet again it is the Secretary of State for Transport who gets moved in a reshuffle. Geoff Endacott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.A.C Martin Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Let's try and keep it civil eh lads? One man's meat is another man's poison and all that. I'm disappointed that the transport position has lost someone who actually seemed enthusiastic about what he was working on. One would hope Ms Greening would be sensible enough to carry on the job as it was being done before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 They could make it a real coalition and invite Lord Adonis back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2011 My only fear is that given Ms Greening has spent all her life in acounting / finance / the treasuary, she like many other 'been counters', to quote Oscar Wilde "knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". With the country not looking good economically and many in her party hostile to railways (especially those members through whose areas HS2 is planned to pass), I fear that she will like many others draw back from long term investment in the railways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Why don't you all give the woman a chance? I really miss British politics, Not...... Best, Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mod6 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Despite Mod4's request I have just had to delete several irrelevant posts. Keep to the topic please or this will be locked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2011 Why don't you all give the woman a chance? I really miss British politics, Not...... Best, Pete. I am willing and hope to be proved wrong, however if you examine the actions of transport ministers over the past 60 years (of all parties I hasten to add), very few actually stand out as caring very much about the railway bit of the portflio, rather it has tended to be seen as a problem to be managed rather than something to be promoted. Mind you I believe Philip Hammond came from the treasuary too and he wasn't to bad although not as enuuasastic as his Labour predecessor. In my mind HS2 is the decider, is the transport secratery willing to face down her fellow MPs or will she cave into the NIMBY loby and perpetuate the failings of previous UK goverments in being unable to look beyond the next election Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted October 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2011 Does anyone know if the other members of the Transport Ministry team have been reshuffled, as it's them that do most of the work. I believe Norman Baker was one of them. However as mentioned above the acid test of the new incumbent will be the way she deals with HS2. Hopefully it might even give some slight rethink to allow the HS2 Bill to include powers for the routes to Leeds and Manchester, which would probably gain it a lot of support in the house. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 This is what she records on her own website: "Like many people I depend on the District Line every day to get to work... She's a regular public transport user. It may not be much, but there is some personal experience of what public transport is about. That's possibly a better appointee than one - let's say - whose main contact with transport matters is a family interest in constructing roads or supplying aviation fuel ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmisterporter Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 It makes little difference who the minister is, the civil servants who actually run the DofT are still in place, and will do their best to follow their agenda regardless. It is the headline grabbing anouncements by ministers that the media loves, not the day to day operations that trundle along un-noticed. Wasn't there a report a while back that said there were about 100 civil servants looking after the railways and 3000 devoted to roads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JohnR Posted October 15, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 15, 2011 As for Justine Greening; she's come from the Treasury and was an accountant/finance manager for various companies. I fear the DfT will have gotten a bean counter.. As was Hammond - he was shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury while in opposition, and if the Tories had won an outright majority, would surely haven taken that position instead of it going to a Lib Dem. My surprise is that Villiers didn't step up - after all she was Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in opposition, and took an effective demotion to Minister of State due to the coalition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Trevellan Posted October 15, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 15, 2011 As mentioned in another thread I was, until recently, a civil servant in DfT. In Andrew Adonis we had a strong pro-rail SoS who actually (and unusually) knew a lot about his brief. Hammond was a pleasant surprise, in that he also picked up his brief pretty quickly and proved to be intelligent and incisive. The point made earlier about the same civil servants being in place is rather moot, since it is the ministerial team which sets the agenda. Civil servants do the background work to deliver this and there is a siginificant degree of scrutiny along the way. Justine Greening may or may not prove to be a competent SoS. Like others, I share concerns about her Treasury background, but only time will tell if this will affect her judgement on transport matters. Let's just wait and see, shall we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 Despite not agreeing with his politics I credit Philip Hammond with appearing both competent and positive about rail. As stated we don't know much about Justine Greening, and the BBC website still seems to be too pre-occupied with the Fox business to have published any profile of her as far as I can see. It would be unfortunate if this was the start of the present government following its predecessors and not leaving transport ministers in post for too long. I believe and hope that the other transport ministers are still in the same jobs, as changing all of them at once would be even more disruptive. The DfT website now has a pic of Justine Greening but the other three ministers from before are still there. There is also a short profile there, which says that although born in Rotherham she now lives in, represents part of and was shadow minister for, London. With the rail industry getting more focused on HS2 and also Northern Hub, the SoS may need more involvement with the Midlands and North than in recent years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phil Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I notice from her own web page that a previous employment of Justine was a finance manager at Centrica. Anyone with energy accounts with British Gas will be aware of Centrica, and the vast profits they are making. Wonder how much above inflation ticket prices might now rise by !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I believe that one of her stated aims is to improve bus services around the country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.