Monday 11 January 2010

Weardale and East Lancs receive Golden Eyeballs

Eye is delighted to announce the award of Golden Eyeballs to the following:

The Weardale Railway

and

The East Lancashire Railway

Both railways provided a special "snow service", free of charge, to their local communities during this week's adverse weather.

Magnum cum laude and good effort!

DB retains interest in doomed Eurostar

This from Bloomburg...

“Our goal is to go with the ICE to London, but only if we make money in the medium term, otherwise we’re not going to touch it.”

No ICE in Chunnel. Continent cut off.

First for pisspoor Thameslink performance

From the Velopodist
Does Railway Eye have any idea why so many FCC trains failed all of a sudden today?

The TOC is running a very restricted version of its already restricted insufficient-drivers timetable.

The press office say the problem is that the traction motors conked out after Wednesday's snow.

They say the Thameslink route imposes special strains on the trains.

Is this poor performance down to defective Class 319s...

Or defective management?


UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

On the Thameslink route FuCC have been running a 2 train per hour service since Friday, it would normally be 12tph.

Of course an OHLE failure last night didn't help.

UPDATE: This from the Waterbaby

Can we officially confer the title of "the Misery Line" upon the Tooting - Wimbledon - Sutton route?

FCC gave up running trains this way on January 7 apparently due to the 'poor weather', effectively closing the line until further notice.

Somewhat inconveniently, Southern trains between Dorking and London through Sutton and SWT trains through Wimbledon seem to be running broadly normally.

Given the Sutton loop sits entirely within Zones 1-6, what price some TfL TLC?

The contrast with the new rolling stock and increased frequencies coming to both the dilapidated GOBLIN and North London Lines is all too stark...

UPDATE: This from Thameslink Tommy...

The high casualty rate amongst the Class 319 fleet strengthens the case for ordering a replacement Thameslink fleet and quickly.


No doubt the provinces will be delighted to receive these knackered hand-me-downs.

UPDATE: This from Flatcap and Whippet...

We're not complaining about getting the 319's tup North

They can join our queue of knackered 323's waiting to be fixed on shed.

Waterloo to be moved 50 miles north - Shocker

Good news for the worthy burghers of Milton Keynes!

Evidently the town's 1980s built railway station just isn't smart enough for the new home of Network Rail and a much grander edifice is set to replace it.


Or so it would seem judging by this page on ATOC's website (with a bowler tip to A Frog):


Of course there is no surprise that the ATOC sleepy heads haven't yet noticed this pictoral howler.

What with their depressing habit of defenestating anyone with even a scintilla of railway knowledge...

UPDATE: This from swlines via Twitter...

Moved further north than that actually... it's moved all the way up the Far North to delightful Wick!

UPDATE: This from cbuchanancubed via Twitter...

Every station on the network is Waterloo on this website - station investment fund is making good progress!

UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...

See as the third rail advances into the howling wastes of the North.


Spread the Holy Word to The Heathens, My Son.