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Liam O'Dell
Jun 29, 2022
Transport secretary Grant Shapps 'drives train' in promotional video
Department for Transport/YouTube
After commuters had to endure a week of travel disruption due to train strikes, you’d hope the UK’s transport secretary Grant Shapps is getting to work to ensure rail staff receive better pay and no further industrial action is taken.
Of course, Mr Shapps would rather drive a train and make another promotional video for the Department for Transport’s social media channels - but we can dream, right?
Sharing the video to Twitter, the Hertfordshire MP wrote: “As union bosses waste time touring television studios, I’m getting on with the job at hand and modernising our railway.
“This £1bn investment will replace outdated Victorian infrastructure with cutting edge digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line.”
The minute-long clip begins with Mr Shapps pulling a lever in a train simulator to get it moving forward, before explaining the “outdated” signalling system which splits tracks into sections and only allows “just one train, in any one section, at any one time”.
“If a train has to slow down or stop, it quickly creates knock-on delays right down the line.”
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Detailing the new system, Mr Shapps said drivers on the East Coast Main Line will instead have a screen in their cab updating them with the latest information.
“All of which signals a very bright future for Britain’s railways,” concludes the transport secretary, before going back to pulling levers and pushing buttons to make it look like he’s actually doing something.
Needless to say Twitter wasn’t very impressed with the Department for Transport’s latest promotional video:
\u201cTook his eyes off the track before coming to a complete stop. Flunked it.\u201d— Robin CF (@Robin CF) 1656492266
\u201cMan who has conducted literally 100s of TV interviews defending the conduct of Boris Johnson attacks Mick Lynch (who he refuses to meet) for 'wasting time touring television studios.'\nSatire is dead.\u201d— Andrew Lewin (@Andrew Lewin) 1656492149
\u201cAlternative translation: while rail workers campaign publicly for working conditions and livelihoods, I\u2019m dicking around on a train simulator and doing a video about how great I think I am and taking credit for other peoples work.\u201d— Gary Brannan (@Gary Brannan) 1656492078
\u201cSadly this latest Shapps social media post is lacking the Oscar-worthy content that his previous videos had. Not surprising considering he\u2019s using this video as a way of attacking union bosses.\u201d— Matt Grant (@Matt Grant) 1656491027
\u201cThere is no Victorian signalling on the ECML. There hasn\u2019t been for decades.\u201d— Jo Reggelt (@Jo Reggelt) 1656492086
\u201cIn today's "Tories cosplaying as real people doing real jobs" @grantshapps pretends to drive a train.\n\nTo see @pritipatel pretending to be immigration officer or @BorisJohnson pretending to drive a dumper and a forklift or carrying boxes look for precious chapters of the series.\u201d— Tomasz Ory\u0144ski (@Tomasz Ory\u0144ski) 1656490998
\u201c@grantshapps Really, because it looks a lot like you're having a play around mate.\u201d— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP) 1656490583
And we regret to inform you that this isn’t the first time that Mr Shapps has been the star of a bizarre video to promote a policy from his department or some travel upgrade.
Just last month, the transport secretary released an unusual clip of him sporting some sunglasses, all to encourage people to buy discounted rail tickets through the ‘Great British Rail Sale’.
Hopefully with this latest video about rail signalling, he’ll soon signal his departure from the cabinet. We can dream.
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