Cui bono?
Who got the money?
Three useless UK.gov 'catapults' put in Last Chance Saloon
The UK government’s network of "Catapult" innovation and technology agencies – which fall under its under the R&D spending umbrella – show poor governance and dubious value for money, a report by Ernst and Young has concluded. Three of the seven catapults have been put in the Last Chance Saloon - funding should be halted if …
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 12:05 GMT John Styles
I rarely actually get angry about these things but the concept of a transport catapult was an absolute ****ing (can't remember if I am allowed to say ****ing here) disgrace if you recall for example that
a) it takes us decades to tentatively do the experiment of a tram-train for Rotherham when this is established technology in Germany. Why? Maybe Plank's constant is different in the UK for some reason.
b) in my lifetime we have failed to successfully link bits of Watford with other bits of Watford (can't find a good link but basically the faffing has lasted a lifetime, responsibility was pushed back to TfL and the mayor unsurprisingly thought there were better uses for the money than the ludicrously high sum to build one viaduct across a road)(you might well say that this wasn't a terribly sensible project even at non-ludicrous sums of money but in that case best not to waste millions with nothing to show for it)
c) in general as per Edinburgh things cost far more to do in this country than anyone else in Europe
etc.
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 12:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
in general as per Edinburgh things cost far more to do in this country than anyone else in Europe
That's not the case. You'll find examples of the reverse as well. Crossrail worked out well, and the new Berlin airport is a fiasco, for example. Every country has it's screwed-up projects, they just don't get as much visibilty outside national borders. Do you think the average Frenchman or German knows anything about the projects you mentioned?
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 12:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
While I am with you on the subject of "rage against idiocy", a catapult should have had nothing to do with any of that.
All of the things you mention can be literally bought shrink-wrapped on the continent. You can buy an expensive version (German) or the actually better and cheaper (Czech) version of a tram/train. You just need to have the route, the planning approval and the budget. The Germans (or Czech, which are actually owned by the same Germans) will do it for you.
The catapult is supposedly there to provide initial launch services for stuff that is new. From that perspective, a transport catapult in UK is an oxymoron. It should have never been established. It is the wrong country to do that. UK just about barely manages to get well established transport stuff done in 3x the money and time everybody else. Doing new? You gotta be kidding.
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 23:07 GMT Roland6
> it woud lhave to run on the UK gauge.
and which gauge are you referring to?
Whilst many trams/trains do use 4 ft 8 1/2 in between the rails, there are many other gauges that dictate whether rolling stock from one part of the network can run on another part. If memory serves me correctly, the two tram lines in Dublin were originally designed to different gauges, preventing rolling stock from being used on both lines...
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Wednesday 29th November 2017 16:15 GMT Roland6
Re: Luas (tram) lines
"Dublin's two Luas light rail lines from the city centre to Sandyford and Tallaght are being built to different standards, the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has acknowledged."
[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/luas-lines-being-built-to-different-standards-1.364183 ]
The issue is that the 'gauge' isn't just the distance between the tracks but also such things as curve radius and loading...
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Wednesday 29th November 2017 08:45 GMT Roland6
And therein lies the issue in a crowded
citycountry. You can't just barrel through a route and say "fuck you" to the various property owners along the way.You can if you are the government...
HS2 is just the latest example: Government, in private, chooses a route and then simply offers property owners a compulsory purchase valuation based on questionable valuations and if you object well we'll simply call you a NIMBY and proceed regardless...
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 13:06 GMT Notwork
To fail, first you have to try.
The fact that some of them fail at least shows we’re willing to put some money in and take a risk. This is the problem with the public sector, 2 failures out of seven and someone takes a bullet for wasting public money. In the private sector 5 successes out of 7 R&D projects would represent a fantastic return on an R&D budget.
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 14:30 GMT lglethal
Re: To fail, first you have to try.
You're assuming that the money in those 2 failed projects actually went to R&D spending and not to, I dont know, paying exorbitant management salaries, holding meetings in expensive locations with little to no purpose, and other unrelated items.
The fact they are being asked to come up with plans NOW says a hell of a lot about how they were operating previously. It's a shame that those catapults which are working well, will probably be tarnished with the same brush as the dogdy failing ones...
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Wednesday 29th November 2017 10:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: To fail, first you have to try.
In my experience it was:
'paying exorbitant management salaries, holding meetings in expensive locations '
to ask for significant sums of money for 'matching in kind investment' for no real identifiable added value owing to the lack of objectives other than to match the public sector investment and avoid this sort of report.
Currently the shortlisted groups for the axe seem to be redefining themselves to catch the next buzzword.
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 13:36 GMT RoyBoy
Satellite Application Catapult
like most things in life, simply throwing money at a "thing" won't make it a success. I deal with Satellite Application Catapult and must say that both the people and work that's being done is nothing short of fantastic. This organisation is a real asset to UK plc and from what I know, they have had targets to archive in terms of ROI and have blown them out of the water!
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Tuesday 28th November 2017 19:32 GMT Insert sadsack pun here
This doesn’t surprise me. I work for a large fairly well funded consultancy and attended a company workshop at the Digital Catapult in St Pancras.
The purpose was to work out how we could do our work better and more profitably. As I remember it, the day consisted of inspirational videos about fintech and airport POS systems (of marginal interest to us) and then us being asked how we could fix our own company (maybe Sandy from finance could pull his finger out and invoice some clients).
In other words, the usual consultancy toss, not very digital, and certainly no reason for the taxpayer to fund our session (partially?).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
