This from Trailer Second...
When they finally do-up the front of Derby station will they use the same radical space saving parking arrangements used in the staff car park?
Eye congratulates EMT on this novel proposal for generating additional unregulated income.
This from Class 9 Swinger...
This was the message greeting delegates at an Essex Thameside re-franchising briefing at Southend yesterday.
At least the hotelier is honest.
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
It's a pity the hotel can't spell the name of its meeting room correctly, on the logical assumption that it honours the Greatest Rail Regulator of All Time...
From a Mr Reginald Slicker...
Dear Sir,
I am sure I speak for the majority of rail enthusiasts when I say that I am disgusted by Railway Eye's relentlessly negative attitude to the InterCity Express Programme.
This train has been specified by some of the most experienced railway brains in our Rolls Royce civil service, some of whom I have had the pleasure to meet at Railway Study Association and other presentations, and it ill behoves you to make ill informed criticisms of what I am sure will be an excellent product.
We have all seen the technical superiority of Japanese cars built in Britain and I am sure that the Super Express Train will achieve the same levels of engineering excellence as motor vehicles produced by Toyota and Honda.
Yours etc
R. Slicker
Exciting IEP news.
Eye understands that Gordon Brown, Lord Adonis and (by pure co-incidence) the president of Hitachi are all in Durham tomorrow.
Could this herald a purdah-beating, pre-election announcement on IEPs for the East Coast franchise?
Shame the Tory's are likely to cancel the project just weeks after the election.
UPDATE: This nonchalant observation from Captain Deltic...
Might I point out that subscribers to the electronic version of RAIL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE will already know that tomorrow's Anglo Japanese conclave at Durham will announce that commercial close has been reached on the InterCity Express Programme.
RBI readers will also have read details of the planned initial deployment on the East Coast Main Line, plus a note on the evolving design of the train which seems to have put on weight over the last year.
What a coup to mark the 15th anniversary of the Orange Peril which emerged blinking into the daylight on my Birthday in 1995.
Although a doff of the chapeau to the inimitable Eye for being first with the news of the announcement.
UPDATE: This from Ithuriel....
Commercial close means only that DfT and Agility Trains have agreed what is to be supplied and at how much.
Does the Orange Oxymoron say when financial close is expected?
That's when the real money is likely to change hands... or not!
This from Marcus Cato...
I am delighted to see that my no-nonsense approach to town planning on the North African coast has been taken up by Network Rail in its Northern Hub proposals.
I quote from the press release:
'The Northern Hub proposes significant investment in rail over the next 10 years to build on work which is already underway. By removing historic bottlenecks – such as at Manchester - it would allow faster linespeeds, reducing journey times'.
As far as I can see the only obstacle to Network Rail applying a policy of 'Manchester delenda est' is that Human Rights Legislation now prohibits selling the inhabitants of cities into slavery.
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