Closure of WCML highlights resilience issues

The closure of the West Coast Main Line over January (and now into February) 2016 highlights the need for alternative routes during closures and disruption. Trains have been diverted via the G&SW and East Coast main Lines for the duration, but many passenger services have had to be replaced by buses. The G&SW main line via Dumfries and Kilmarnock is a handy alternative route between Glasgow and Carlisle, but it suffers from a lack of capacity. There are several stretches of single track, and it is not electrified. A double tracked, electrified line would allow the use of Pendolinos, class 350s and electric-hauled freight on the route.
The campaign for Borders Rail has also highlighted the fact that a fully-rebuilt Waverley route to Carlisle would allow Carlisle-Edinburgh trains to be re-routed that way, instead of being replaced by buses. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-35412900
Again, the route as built so far is single track and not electrified. In the long term, such upgrades may become necessary.

Falcon 9 is go!

History was made on 21 December 2015 as Falcon 9 became the first rocket to ever return from space and land vertically on a pad, Thunderbird 3-style. Well, almost. What actually landed was the first stage booster, while the second stage carried on into space to deploy a number of communication satellites. Up until now, multi-stage rockets have discarded their initial stages to burn up in the atmosphere or crash into the sea. Reusable spaceships have been a dream of engineers for decades. The Space shuttle was the most successful so far, but it still relied on disposable solid fuel boosters to get it into space. Space X's Falcon 9 may lead to fully reusable space rockets like the fictional Thunderbird 3, massively reducing the cost of getting into space.
http://www.spacex.com/
Rockets are the traditional means of getting into space, but the stresses of acceleration have limited rocket travel to a few trained astronauts. But what if you could get into space via something resembling a normal airliner? Reaction engines' Skylon spaceplane could be the answer. Still in development, this spaceplane could revolutionise the way we get into space.
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/space_skylon.html
While the prototype is designed to take cargo, the principal could easily be used for a passenger carrying spacecraft.passenger carrying is the principal aim of Virgin Galactic.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
Virgin's Spaceships utilise a carrier aircraft propelled by normal jet engines to take the rocket ship as far as the upper atmosphere, where it detaches and uses a rocket engine to access low earth orbit. The same principal will also be used for commercial satellite lunch.
For the latter half of the 20th century, the space race was between governments; the USA versus the USSR. Now the race is between corporations, and the demand for GPS, communication and weather satellites means whoever can get to space for the lowest price will get the most business.

Scotrail running short of trains

Even before this week's Forth road bridge closure, Scotrail was already suffering from overcrowding on many peak services. The opening of a whole new railway line to Tweedbank without purchasing any new trains to run on it has meant that the class 170/158 fleet has been spread very thin. Scotrail has for many years now operated a loco-hauled service during the evening rush hour on the Fife circle due to a lack of DMUs. Those trains will be needed now more than ever as the fleet is pushed past breaking point. Already there are reports of cancelled and reduced services as far away as Maryhill and Falkirk. Usually news of more passengers on the railway is welcome, but if trains are cancelled or overcrowded, people may be put off travelling again. Electrification of the Edinburgh-Glasgow route will bring new trains to the franchise in two years, but Scotrail is short of trains now, and simply can't wait that long. Scotrail need to hire in more trains, whether they are DMUs from another franchise, or more loco-hauled trains from DRS.

GARL revived as light rail.

Having been cancelled due to budget cuts in 2009, the Glasgow Airport Rail Link looks set to be revived, but this time as a light railway: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-34931594?post_id=10153291660636131_10153616287831131#_=_
I have several questions regarding the development:

1. Will the "tram-train" be entirely grade separated, or will there be street-running?
2. If there is street running, what will power the trains? 25kV AC is not really suitable for street running, so will it be battery-electric, dual voltage, diesel or even a Parry People Mover-style flywheel system?
3. Will there be provision for freight (ie. Aviation fuel) to use the line? Prestwick airport gets its fuel by train. It makes sense for Glasgow to do the same.

I also hope there is an interchange at Paisley Gilmour Street to serve passengers from Ayrshire. It would make no sense to have to go all the way into Glasgow Central to catch the train back out through Paisley again to get to the airport.
Edit: RailQwest are urging that GARL should be completed as heavy rail and not light rail. I fully agree with and support this stance.

P8 Poseidon fills capability gap.

Way back in the 1980s, the Ministry of Defence was trying to turn the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod into an Airborne Eartly Warning aircraft. After spending hundreds of millions of pounds trying to get the new radars to work, the project was cancelled and the government bought the Boeing E3 Sentry instead. However, the MoD apparently didn't learn the lesson. When the Nimrod MR2 became due for replacement in the 1990s, the Nimrod MRA4 programme was launched. This was to be a total rebuild of the MR2, with new engines, new wings and new avionics. However, fitting new wings to 50 year-old hand-built fuselages proved to be a problem. After spending many millions of pounds on the project, the government cancelled the MRA4 programme in 2010. However, this has left a bit gap in our Maritime Patrol capability. With Russian submarines carrying out incursions into British waters, something is needed to fill the gap. That something comes from the same source as the E3 Sentry; Boeing. The P8 Poseidon is designed to replace the ageing Lockheed P3 Orion. Poseidon is a brand new aircraft, based on the design of the popular 737 airliner. It will me much cheaper than MRA4, which begs the question, why did the government not purchase it in the first place, instead of wasting all that time on the MRA4? Probably because the P8 wasn't even in planning when MRA4 was proposed. Yes, the MRA4 was in development for so long that the P8 has gone from nothing to in service with the USA in less time than it took for BAe to rebuild the Nimrod.

Where's the dualling for the Highland main line?

A £3billion project has been started to dual the notorious A9 Perth-Inverness road, due for completion in 2025. This has been long campaigned-for by the road lobby, but is it really necessary? Yes the road is busy, but even in summer, it's not that busy. I've driven it many times and have never been stuck in traffic, except at road works. Meanwhile the parallel railway line is still single tracked in places and still features Victorian-era semaphore signalling. So where's the dualling for the Highland main line? If the railway was improved, it could take some of the traffic off the road, making it less busy and reducing the need for dualling, and it would also help the environment at the same time. The government should prioritise rail over road improvements to get people out of their cars (and freight off lorries) and onto trains.

Are the media overreacting over Shoreham airshow crash?

The tragic accident at the recent Shoreham air show has sent the popular media into a frenzy, with some calling for restrictions on flying of vintage aircraft at these events, and some asking whether air shows should be banned altogether. This seems like a typical tabloid overreaction. So let's have a reasoned debate. The cause of this particular crash has yet to be determined. Was it pilot error, or did something go wrong with the aircraft? Should vintage aircraft be performing aerobatics at all? Well, the aircraft in question, the Hawker Hunter, was built as a high performance combat aircraft. Aerobatics are what it was designed to do. But it is 50 years old now. You wouldn't take a Jaguar E-type to a drag strip and thrash it, but there's no reason why you couldn't take it for a spirited drive in the country. It should be up to the engineers who take care of the aircraft (not tabloid journalists) to judge what is a safe flight envelope for the plane to perform in.
But do we really need air shows at all? I enjoy the spectacle of an air show as much as the next man; the skill of the pilots is quite amazing. However in today's environmentally-conscious world, can we afford to burn jet fuel for fun? And what about all the smoke given off by the Red Arrows and similar display teams? Why is it OK for aircraft to emit potentially carcinogenic VOCs into the atmosphere, when other industries, such as shipping, are penalised for smoke emissions? Is it time for such polluting events to be consigned to history? Or are they simply a great way to encourage young people into the engineering and aerospace industries?