A World Class Railway

Read and weep:

*** 05/08/08 14:10 #QCTDA03 *** CREATED

SUMMARY: POO HIGH ST LC CCTV FLR

SOURCE: TSID, CCF, CCIL

FULL DETAIL: CCIL REF 320760

13:14 Advised by Poole signaller that he has no CCTV picture from High Street LC. He has tried swapping the cameras and monitors to no avail. Unable to lower the barriers until an attendant is onsite due to the volume of pedestrian traffic over this crossing.

1W29, 1105 Waterloo to Weymouth trapped.

13:20 1W31 1135 Waterloo-Weymouth will be held in platform 4 at Bournemouth pending developments at Poole.

13:33 Advised by Poole signaller that he now has the CCTV picture

1W31 1135 Waterloo-Weymouth will be held in platform 4 at Bournemouth pending developments at Poole.

13:33 Advised by Poole signaller that he now has the CCTV picture and trains are on the move again. Signaller had tried hitting the monitor to no effect but the late shift signaller has just arrived and hit the monitor a bit harder, now has a picture again.

START TIME: 1314

LINES AFFECTED: UL/DL

TRAINS AFFECTED: 1W29/1W31

EQUIPMENT INVOLVED: CCTV

REPORTS REQUESTED Y/N: NO

*** 06/08/08 01:47 #QCIAM05 *** AMENDED

*** 06/08/08 08:46 #QCTDA10 *** AMENDED

FMS 131870

End of report

What is it with those late shift boys?

CoCo - Rosco response

Angel Trains issued the following terse statement at 12:18 today:

“Angel Trains is studying the document and will be responding to the Competition Commission in connection with the proposed remedies in due course”. ENDS

And here is the missing last line of the release:

"Yesssss... Mr Brown, Ms Kelly, Dr Mitchell - your guys took a hell of a beating!"

Competition Commission Report

The CoCo's Provisional Findings into allegations that the ROSCOs abused their market position was published this morning at 07:00.

Section 20 of the Provision Findings Summary gives a flavour of the rest of the document.

20. This lack of alternatives arises from the factors identified in paragraph 10. Some of these factors arise from the DfT placing restrictions on the choice of rolling stock in franchise ITTs, or because of obligations to retain particular rolling stock as a result of section 54 undertakings. We expect that the DfT’s Rolling Stock Plan will result in further limitations on the TOCs’ choices when negotiating with ROSCOs as the DfT seeks to influence the deployment of existing and new rolling stock to enhance capacity on the network.

Who will carry the can for this embarrassing debacle?

Perhaps the same Civil Serpant who originally promised he could shave £1bn off Rosco annual lease costs and when he couldn't suggested taking this to the CoCo in the first place.

We suspect not.