Cyprus Gives In – Four months on from the announcement and officials have just agreed to a 47.5 percent haircut with international lenders on deposits exceeding €100,000 in the Bank of Cyprus. This will allow the bank to come out of administration but then it will face new problems as account holders look to move their money elsewhere. The bank is already closing branches and firing staff but worse could lie ahead.

DAB Radio Hangs On – The Goverment’s decision on the future of DAB radio has been pushed back until December – the latest possible date that still meets the 2013 target. Considering the volume of radios still being sold it seems highly unlikely that the DAB will reach the targets promised by its promoters. Even with all the Internet radio / Freeview / Freesat included volumes are still below target. Another compromise (fudge) coming up.

HS2 and Short Memories – An enormous range of benefits are promised if high speed trains run north of London. But few seem to recall that this has all been promised before. When the first high speed links were agreed part of the justification was the links north of London. And this got further than a promise with someone (the taxpayer I guess) funding new high speed trains to run to Leeds, York, etc. These trains were actually built and then tested on the East Coast Mainline. However there were always technical issues that stopped them going into service. And eventually the northern Eurostar plans were scrapped – along with the promised economic benefits. Soon some ex-Eurostar trains appeared on regular service with GNER on the London-Leeds services – issue free.

In the real world the East Coast Mainline still has “slam-door” [Type 43 Inter-City 125] diesel trains in regular operation. Trains that pre-date the original electrification of the line in 1988. But at least there is some progress here. Hitachi Super Express trains are planned to be built at a new factory at Amazon Park, by Heighington railway station Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Construction of the factory should now have started with train production beginning in 2015 and aiming to be in normal service on the Great Western Mainline by 2017 and the East Coast Mainline by 2018. Some £5,700 million has been committed to a construction programme involving over 800 carriages / power cars.

The biggest improvements for passengers would come about not through HS2 or even these Super Express trains – but through more carriages and the elimination of pinch points on the network; where fast services are blocked by stopping services running just ahead. This would need some longer platforms and more four track sections – but would benefit far more actual travellers than HS2. Current restrictions mean that the new trains are only planned to have nine or ten passenger carriages – whereas existing Eurostar trains already have eighteen.

Smart Meters – Over recent days British Gas has launched its advertising campaign to convince customers that their new smart meters are going to be a big consumer benefit. It will be interesting to see how many are convinced. But, given the numbers that claimed they did not know what they were doing when they bought useless insurance and investment products, British Gas may get plenty of takers. The lawyers will be lining this one up for the day when all the current mis-selling cases stop raking in the fees.