St Ives guided busway a triumph says no-one!

More splendid news from the deeply flawed St Ives Guided Bust-way!

This courtesy of Cambs24:

CAMBRIDGESHIRE County Council has confirmed a further delay in opening the St Ives-Cambridge guided bus link, which should have opened last April.

The likelihood of the troubled scheme's opening, even partially, this side of 2010 is practically zero.

Regular Eye readers will recall that the misguided busway, built on the route of the mothballed line from Cambridge to St Ives, has already exceeded its £116.7m budget.

Bus mad Cambridgeshire County Council has, of course, only itself to blame.

The county council decided to ignore local campaigners who had suggested that the mothballed railway could have been reopened for a mere £50m, and in far less time than it has taken contractor, BAM Nuttall, not to deliver the guided busway.

One piece of good news though.

Cambridgeshire County Council was recently named Transport Authority of the Year... at the UK Bus Awards.

Trebles all round and no shit Sherlock.

ECML delivers step improvement from day one!

PPM for the last day of National Express East Coast - 100%

PPM for the first day of nationalised East Coast Main Line - 76%

As DafT sows, so shall it reap!

ATOC January fares announcement

Hmmm... that didn't work then.

Channel 4 News: Rail companies 'mask' fares hike

Sky News: Train company chiefs have been accused of masking the full extent of the annual rail fares' increase in the New Year.

ITN News: Train company chiefs have been accused of "masking" the full extent of the annual rail fares' increase which will see passengers paying an average of 1.1 per cent more for their tickets in January.

Daily Telegraph: Rail passengers face fare rises of up to 15 per cent from January as train companies try to disguise the biggest inflation-busting increases.

The Grauniad: Atoc normally gives separate figures for the regulated and unregulated increases. But today the association would not say what the average unregulated fare increase would be, merely lumping the two figures together to make the 1.1% rise.

Daily Mail:The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) was also criticised for not publishing - as it usually does - a company-by-company breakdown of the increases.

ThisisWiltshire.co.uk: Train company chiefs were accused of masking the full extent of today's announced annual rail fares' increase which will see passengers paying an average of 1.1 per cent more for their tickets in January.

Eastbourne Herald: Rail firms accused of hiding increases

Etc...

Mind you the Murdoch rags have been spectacularly quiet.

Adonis has Cameron moment on Saturday

Good to see that state owned East Coast Main Line has already overcome any rolling stock shortages.

Lord Adonis celebrated the start of nationalised East Coast Main Line by travelling to York on Saturday, aboard the 08:00 Kings Cross - Edinburgh (1S07) .

He then returned from York to London at 11:00 aboard 1E06.

Happily both journeys took place without incident.

But better to be safe than sorry.

As is evident from these two mysterious empty trains that also ran on Saturday

5Z07 08:04 Kings Cross – York
5Z06 10:55 York – Kings Cross (dep 11:02)

Eye wonders what on earth they were for?

Perhaps they were tasked with carrying the Noble Lord's official papers?

UPDATE: This from the Shunter...

The Noble Lord will soon be getting ideas above his station.

Not even Her Majesty the Queen has a 'spare' train in tow.

East Coast Main Line to Glasgow or not?

Last week the Eye prophesied that when the East Coast Main Line franchise is returned to the private sector it will not operate services beyond Edinburgh.

It appears that the Eye was wrong!

Judging by this cryptic statement from Elaine Holt picked up by The Herald on Saturday this may happen sooner rather than later...

Speaking yesterday before taking over from National Express just before midnight, Elaine Holt, chair of East Coast, said services would continue to Glasgow but they may be run by a different operator. However, she stressed that discussions over the route’s future were still active and no decision had been made.

Now what does that mean?

Fact Compiler "deeply sorry" - Shocker

The Fact Compiler today apologised to the literally millions of people, now mostly dead, who were in any way hurt or offended by the following:

The death of Sir William Huskisson, the Tay Bridge Disaster and the BR Modernisation Plan.

The Fact Compiler said he was "deeply sorry" and that he hoped the apology would help "heal the pain".

Sid and Doris Bonkers welcomed the apology saying "This is a moment - a significant moment - in the history of the railways. The recognition is vital if people are to recover."

Lord Adonis is expected to jump on the same bandwagon shortly.