I fail to understand why such a fuss is always made over ‘proposals’.

Newspaper headlines reporting that rail chiefs have asked for more than £500 million from the government mean very little.

The only kind of headline which actually means anything for rail services in the north is when the headline reads “Government provides £500 million for northern rail services”.

Now this could quite easily happen, but if I were betting man, I’d say that any investment which is announced by the government before the election will be dependent on them
still being in power after the election.