After a week at home I’m back on the rails & heading for Birmingham. I’ll be based there for the next couple of days as this years Railtex exhibition is at the NEC. It starts tomorrow & should be a fascinating event. From what I’ve seen so far it promises to be the largest ever. There’s a whole host of presentations on matters such as rail electrification & Hs2, plus train builder Hitachi has something to say on their vision for high speed rail. Railtex is always a good event to catch up with friends, colleagues & keep abreast of developments in a diverse & growing industry.
In the meantime, we await the announcement of the new Tory transport team & who will be appointed Transport Minister. Whoever it is will have a busy time! There are some huge schemes & big ticket items for the department to look after.
Meanwhile, Labour have to choose their shadow team. I suspect the industry won’t be sad to see the back of Michael Dugher as his grandstanding & attitude made him few friends. It would be good to see Labour match the Tories pledge to get more women into senior roles & give the job to the talented Lilian Greenwood…
Expect some blogging & lots of pictures to appear over the next few days. After B’ham I’m back in London for another event that combines two loves – beer and trains!
Paul Bigland 
I do not want a women in a role because she is a women, neither do I want a person with a different coloured skin in a role because of that.
I want the best person in the job and I am afraid that because people are chosen simply because they are women or have a different coloured skin is the reason why we have such useless people running things