This from the Wimbledon Guardian...
Mr Hammond said: “I am disappointed my campaign to prevent the split of the line at Kennington has not been successful."
Not half as bloody disappointed as we are that you didn't get a Ministerial post.
Perhaps that nice Derbyshire MP, The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin, would consider Stephen Hammond for the new Transport Select Committee?
Just asking like...
This from Disgusted of Welwyn Garden City...
Sir
What's all this tosh about the East Coast Main Line having capacity problems when 15 minutes at my local station this morning produced only two FCC EMUs bimbling along.
I had promised my toddler grand daughter IC125s racing by at line speed, MTUs snarling and IC225s at the ton?
I blame Elaine Holt for (cont' p94)...
This from the DfT website...
Secretary of State, Philip Hammond MP
Telegrammed by Our international Correspondent
Publicity hungry railtour operator Steam Dreams got itself into The Thunderer this morning, with this offer of help to air travellers becalmed by Icelandic volcanic ash:
Additional capacity was made available on alternative transport from Scotland to London, including an extra 7,000 seats on Virgin Trains. The tourist firm Steam Dreams, which runs steam train trips for enthusiasts between Edinburgh and London, also offered an extra 50 seats to passengers who were unable to fly this morning.
Steam Dreams Chairman Marcus Robertson is himself no slouch as a spin doctor and has a reputation for attending the opening of an envelope.
But a big bowler raspberry to Times hackette Joanna Sugden for not enquiring more deeply into what Marcus was peddling her.
The Steam Dreams train, 1Z31, was booked to leave Edinburgh at 09.34, and after two lengthy water stops and a change of kettles in York, arrives at Kings Cross at a convenient 20.00 tonight.
A lugubrious 10 hrs 26 mins for 394 miles, an average speed somewhere south of 40 mph - pretty much in line with Eurostar's special Christmas timings and rather worse than the booked time in 1938 of 7hrs 20 mins offered by the pre-war LNER. Even a National Express coach promises to do the trip in 10hrs 5 mins.
The 1955 Modernisation Plan? What's that, then?
UPDATE: This from Gresley the Younger...
Love the comment on the SD story about ash clouds, was on R5 Live too!
But factually incorrect, the 1938 timing for Edinburgh to London steam hauled was 6 hours.
Of course, that was at 90mph without all these electric new fangled thingys to get in your way, hence the ten hours schedule today, and no water troughs as the track-circuits don't like them!
Fastest in preservation was eight hours (April 2009) but that was Clarkson powered, snigger!
This just in from Clarence Spad Life President, Young Railway Poets Society:
LINES WRITTEN AT READING STATION ON WATCHING A BEDWYN WORKING BEING RELEASED ONTO THE BERKS AND HANTS JUST BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF A LATE RUNNING TRAIN TO TAUNTON: THEREBY ENSURING THE LATTER TRAIN WILL CONSEQUENTLY RUN TEN MINUTES LATE AND THE BEDWYN SERVICE WILL HAVE TO WAIT AT NEWBURY UNTIL THE FAST TRAIN HAS PASSED
My premonitions were right.
Norman has got the job.
Jim who has worked
For forty years on Platform 4
Told me that in 1962
Sue Thompson
An American singer
Had a hit song called Norman
I have listened to it on Youtube
It is very catchy
I am sure
Once Phil hears it
He will soon be humming it to his new
Parliamentary Under Secretary
'Clarence is the Rilke of Reading Station,' Wordsworth
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