So the recent well placed sign “If you vote Conservative, expect more of this.” , opposite where the bus replacement service stop, as a result of a broken down train, during the recent general election was true.

The rolling stock on the First Great Western Line is over thirty years old, and in desperate need of updating.

Hopefully the plan to build a high speed network will help with this, as if First had the same as Virgin or Cross , they would tilt on the corners and as a result take them faster. Also be more reliable.

However most delays suffered, by me and other commuters, on the main line and London Underground (not including the very rare and possibly made up cattle on the line from ), seem to be down to signal failure. I'm guessing, as some parts the tracks still on rotting wood, the infrastructure is older still.

If the following cut effect Rail Track or the being done to update and extend the London Underground are effected the sign will have been proved true.

And my fellow commuters will be doomed to walk from Baker and in the Rain.

So we have had our first taste of the long expected costs in public expenditure with the Department of Transport subject to a £683m or a 5% cut in its budget. Out go some road projects and some of those, long believed to be mythical, 1,300 extra rail carriages we were long promised but few could reconcile with individual train operating ' .

Transport for London's budget gets cut by £108m which could be easily be offset (but won't) by dropping the removal of the western extension of the congestion charging zone, scrapping the replacement Routemaster programme (now widely known as the Borismaster) and the move to withdraw articulated buses. Instead we are likely to see increases. Before the election the Government were announcing transport schemes left right and centre – bus rapid transit for Leeds, tram extensions in Birmingham – whether they are among the victims of the £309m cut in grants to local authorities is not yet clear.

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(via @cbuchanancubed)