AS the engines settled down for the night in their shed, there was great excitement. Some were even peep-peeping their whistles.
‘What’s all the fuss about?’ asked Thomas.
‘Haven’t you heard?’ said Gordon. ‘The Government has announced a massive expansion of railways for the North – it’s called the Northern Powerhouse Railway.’
‘Where will it be?’ asked Thomas.
‘It’ll be a major new £45billion rail service across the North that is faster and more frequent, transforming commutes for Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York, with services running on to Newcastle and Hull,’ Gordon replied. ‘At least that’s what the Fat Controller told us when he read out a letter from the Government.’
‘But we’re on the Island of Sodor – how will it affect us?’ asked Henry.
‘I bet they’ll upgrade our bridge to the mainland at Vicarstown,’ said James. ‘Then we’ll be part of the Powerhouse. Oh boy, I can’t wait to get steaming along there!’
‘Talking about waiting, how long will it be before this Northern Powerhouse Railway is built?’ asked Thomas.
‘Erm, let me think what the Fat Controller told us,’ said Gordon. ‘Oh, I remember. It won’t be started until after 2030 and probably won’t be finished until the late 2040s, possibly 2045 or 2050.’
‘Two thousand and fifty!’ gasped Thomas. ‘But that’s 24 years away. How can they take that long? The first Liverpool-Manchester Railway was built from scratch in just four years and the London-Birmingham line took only five years – and that was nearly 200 years ago.’
‘Hmmm,’ grumbled Edward. ‘I wonder if this Powerhouse railway will ever be built.’
Gordon said: ‘But the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, promised: “This is actually going to happen”.’
‘Yes, but nothing will be started until after the next election and by then Reeves will be back working in the Complaints Department of Halifax Bank of Scotland,’ said Edward.
‘It’s ridiculous,’ said James. ‘We’ll all be obsolete by 2050!’
‘No, they can always upgrade us,’ said Henry, who himself had undergone an extensive rebuild. ‘They could convert us all to electric.’
‘But once the Powerhouse railway gets going, they’ll have new rolling stock,’ said James. ‘They won’t want second-hand trains. We’ll be made redundant and probably scrapped.’
An air of gloom descended on the shed and some of the engines mournfully released steam. Then they heard Thomas say: ‘Don’t worry.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked all the engines.
‘Well,’ said Thomas. ‘At the rate it’s going, the HS2 line won’t be finished by 2050 and it’ll be even more billions over budget than it is now. If it ever does get completed, they’ll be glad to use all of us on that.’
Peeps of relief echoed round the shed and all the engines slept soundly.
