Dawlish Discussion

Network Rail has told the government it hopes to reopen the railway line destroyed by storms at Dawlish before its target of mid-April.

Rail minister Steve Hammond said he had been given a "commitment" that "if they can beat that date, they will".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-26335125

a "commitment" that "if they can beat that date, they will"

Utterly meaningless. Might as well say, "directly."

or dreckly

I would suggest that in these situations, commitments only become meaningful if the 'doers' have a financial stake in making it happen on schedule or better!  'Acts of God' (e.g. more wrong sort of weather) excluded!

@Clive.

Why don`t we look on the bright side, NR finish early, or on time,
and then the trains can run again. And then everybody will be happy. Hopefully!!
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26361280   Looking good - Nothing like commiting to loadsa loadsa concrete to solve the problem :)

Some extra detail from the new civil engineer which may be of interest - At the main breach, the track bed channel apparently will have a 2m high wall to the front and a 3m high retaining wall on the landward side.  The hole has now been backfilled with 5000m3 of mass concrete to a depth of 3m against a shutter of concrete vehicle barriers.  These have been tied together vertically and horizontally into the concrete with steel bars.  Not quite a 'Berlin Wall' but all sounds very beefy to me! 

Explanation from the BBC about the concrete...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26361280