Beyond the usual channels

摘要

UK railway projects traditionally struggle to stay on track and within budget; it's been the case with HS2, the East/West link, the Edinburgh/Glasgow line electrification, and countless others. That Crossrail has received considerable praise for hitting its milestones and keeping its costs under control is quite telling; the idea that things will go wrong is now more or less embedded into our expectations. It'd be unwise to reduce this to any single issue: one person may argue that it's a matter of governments pursuing overambitious projects in an unrealistic way; another may argue that it's a matter of poor timetabling, and both may be correct. But while the industry skills shortage is not the sole problem that UK railway projects face, it is a problem that has become very difficult to ignore. Can anything be done about it - and if so, what?