Tuesday 17 October 2017

Alun Cairns has his Theresa moment.

You could be forgiven in thinking that the Gods have turned against the Tories.
moment After Prime Minister Theresa May's disastrous conference speech which saw her being handed a P45 by a prankster , a persistent cough and parts of the scenery falling off comes a a photo shoot  of Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns at London Paddington yesterday morning for the first of the new £5.7 billion Intercity Express fleet of trains.

As the Wasting Mule point out  

 Unfortunately, for him, photographers captured the Cabinet member standing on his tip toes for a photo in front of the new express.

 
During a photo shoot, Vale of Glamorgan MP Mr Cairns faced the daunting task of standing next to the 6ft 4ins tall Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. 

 So he appears to have tried to raise his height by standing on tip toes.
 



Mr Cairns may well be hoping that this actually may bury the real story that  the Hitachi bi-mode Intercity Express Train – which passengers have been promised will be a faster, more modern train, with increased capacity, greater comfort and better connectivity – later ground to a halt, delaying services on the network as a result.


Hitachi said the service had experienced some "technical challenges".

The new hybrid trains, which have a top speed of 125mph, are designed to replace the existing InterCity 125 trains as part of the UK Government’s Intercity Express Programme.

According to the rail website Realtime Trains, the service was 25 minutes late setting off. It arrived at London Paddington 41 minutes late.

The boss of Hitachi trains Europe later revealed that faulty air conditioning was to blame.

Managing director Karen Boswell explained that "an air conditioning issue" resulted in water entering the carriage rather than being discharged outside.

She said: 

"We can and will do better. Our depot teams are as a matter of priority investigating the root causes of today's technical issues, and we will ensure that these are corrected as quickly as possible."

We wanted the electrification   of the line and  instead got a second class service which on yesterdays performance could be worse than the current one.

How long before we a told that the government have spent so much on a project that does not meet expectations that they can't replace it with what we want. 

Its  almost a metaphor  for this government  policies  especially Universal Credit   with staged Photoshoots that hide the truth and promises of a modern Britain more efficient delivering better services  that ends up delayed and leaving people wishing they were better of before.





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