Wednesday 31 December 2008

Gongs

Announced in HM the Queen's New Year Honours List:

CBE
Robert David Holden. Chief executive Officer, London and Continental Railways Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry. (Hertfordshire)

OBE
Michael John Glover. Arup Fellow and Technical director and Deputy Project director, Channel Tunnel Rail Link. For services to Engineering. (Sevenoaks, Kent)

Wayne Spence. Service Delivery assistant, Temple Meads Station, Bristol. For services to Passenger Transport. (Bristol)

MBE
Bernard Godfrey Rainbow. Chief Locomotive Inspector, Severn Valley Railway. For voluntary service to the Rail Industry. (Birmingham, West Midlands)

Robin Kingsley Prince. Operations Standards manager, Victa Railfreight. For service to the Rail Industry. (Maidstone, Kent)



Missing resolution

The ATOC media machine cranked into life yesterday and issued a release headlined:

"TEN NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS FOR RAIL PASSENGERS IN 2009" (regrettably not yet posted on the ATOC comms website).

Aside from the fact that it's somewhat cheeky to impose resolutions on passengers (rather than making you own) there did appear to be something missing from the list.

Where is ATOC's New Year's resolution about allowing photos to be taken at stations without fear of harassment or intimidation?

Economic & Efficient

Network Rail continues to focus on Driving Down Cost as can be seen in the picture below.

Iain Coucher writes...

"Japan is an 11-hour flight... so, I did some reading on the plane... this seemed to amuse the DfT..."


Presumably the joke is funnier if your flight is paid for by the taxpayer?


Double Standards?

The Fact Compiler has been beseiged by emails from furious NR staff.

Whilst the Eye had it's bottom spanked by the NR press office for questioning whether Iain Coucher in the picture below was appropriately attired, NR's own staff remain to be convinced.

This from an internal NR S&T forum...

"An S&T Team was spotted from a moving train by Mr Coucher not wearing hard hats. Each member of the team have received a Form 1. Therefore A photo of Mr Coucher on Connect not wearing a hard hat came as a surprise, I hope a Form 1 is on it's way to him!"

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