THE past month has been quite momentous for events that could signify the rail industry's future.
Although, in the short term, there are continuing concerns about the financial health of some train operators-and about the impact on suppliers of Network Rail's changing strategy to achieve the Rail Regulator's efficiency targets-it has become clearer how our railways could develop in the next 25 years and beyond.
In the current economic gloom, Crossrail has been the project that has had the greatest doubts as to its future viability. At £16 billion, the new east-west cross-London link was seen by many as an early candidate for the chop, or at least a lengthy deferment.
But last month work officially started with a bi-partisan ceremony at Canary Wharf that brought together Prime Minister Gordon Brown and London Mayor Boris Johnson.
The Tory Mayor said: "Construction of a railway that is crucial to the economic prosperity of this great city has begun. This will create and support thousands of jobs and relieve congestion. When the first of Crossrail's chariots glides smoothly along its lines it will change the face of transport for ever."
Standing alongside him, Labour's Prime Minster declared: "Crossrail will bring a massive economic boost to the city, creating thousands of jobs and adding at least £20 billion to our economy. Investment into important projects like Crossrail, the largest construction project in Europe, is vital to create and protect jobs as well as supporting business, so we can grow our way out of recession and ensure a strong future for London and the country as a whole."
Gordon Brown later reiterated to the CBI the Government's commitment to major infrastructure investment.
And a few days later, Network Rail produced the outline of a further significant infrastructure programme-with publication of its draft electrification strategy.
Indeed, Network Rail sees Crossrail as the starting point for major expansion of electric traction-by extending the 25kV power lines to be erected as far as Maidenhead onwards to Reading, then to Oxford, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea.
Network Rail reckons there is also an equally-good benefit-to-cost ratio to justify electrifying the Midland Main Line from Bedford to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield-and, in Scotland, the focus is on routes in the Central Belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The draft strategy makes clear the scope, too, for substantial infill electrification-linking up trunk routes, providing a wider range of diversionary routes that avoid the need for diesels, reducing bus substitution and encouraging freight operators to adopt electric traction.
Electrification will substantially reduce overall operating and maintenance costs, cut journey times, provide greater capacity and-crucially-reduce carbon emissions by up to 30 per cent compared to diesels.
But perhaps the most intriguing developments during May concerned planning for the next high-speed line.
Andrew McNaughton, Network Rail's chief engineer, who has been seconded to High Speed Two-the Government company required to come up with proposals by the end of this year for a new line from London to the West Midlands and the North-said the HS2 team was determined a new line should get built.
Referring to many countries that have increasingly opted for high-speed rail, Professor McNaughton admitted Britain is now having to play 'catch up.'
But he made it clear we should catch up with the latest technologies and specifications being adopted in countries like France and Spain. So Britain's next high-speed line, HS2, will be planned for trains to run at 400 km/h-250 mph-or 100 km/h faster than Eurostars now on HS1.
That could mean, eventually, London to Manchester in not much more than an hour and London to Glasgow and Edinburgh in around two-and-a-half hours-eliminating domestic air services.
Even with the first stage of a high-speed line, built only to the West Midlands and then connected to the West Coast Main Line, the Manchester journey could be reduced to around 90 minutes, and the time to Edinburgh and Glasgow within 3.1/2 hours-while significant capacity for more freight and regional passenger trains is released at the southern end of the West Coast Main Line.
Determination that a new line should be built is clearly shared by Transport Minister Lord Adonis. Speaking to the Institution of Civil Engineers, he said: "I am more than ever convinced that a north-south high-speed rail line in Britain is now just a matter of dates.
"As I have seen in country after country, an international high-speed rail revolution is taking place. The issue for us in Britain is not whether we follow suit, but when and how."
Lord Adonis is of a rare breed-a politician who understands and knows about railways. He has also toured the world, learning about high-speed rail.
"My instinctive view as an historian is that high-speed rail could be a revolutionary change, like the original railways of Stephenson and Brunel-not only a piece of new transport infrastructure, but a bold economic policy for jobs and growth, a bold industrial policy to drive high-tech engineering and innovation, and a bold nation-building policy to promote national unity and help overcome the north-south divide, one of our most debilitating legacies from the past."
The true social, economic and environmental contributions that railways make to society-often overlooked or disregarded in 20th Century Britain-are summed up in those words of Lord Adonis.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the deaths of the railway revolutionaries Brunel and Stephenson, (they died within a month of each other in September and October 1859).
Let us hope that, 150 years later, Britain's rail revolution has at last resumed again.