Achilles well heeled whilst supply chain unshod

This from Hero of Troy...

Whilst the government demands ever greater efficiencies from the industry one particular supplier is making hay whilst the sun shines.

Welcome to Achilles Link-up, the monopoly that suppliers to Network Rail have to register with to supply goods and services into the company.

Plainly imbued with the spirit of the age Achilles have just announced a whopping 16% increase in fees that suppliers must pay to register their products or services on the Link-up system from October.

Achilles service director Andy Harrison claimed the price increase would help simplify the system!

After all, says Harrison, “it was not increased last year and Industry should recognise that fully implementing Link-up as a supplier selection tool will generate savings”.

With Achilles exhibiting such bare faced cheek most suppliers now know exactly how Deidamia felt.

UPDATE: This from The Archer...

With RISAS slowly but surely gaining Industry momentum I wonder if it's time for Achilles to come to heel?

Poetry Corner - Changes at First

Clarence Spad writes disconsolately...

Among my close friends on Reading Station friends there is unalloyed sadness that Sir Moir Lockhead, great helmsman of First Group's rise from Grampia, I think it is called, is standing down after twenty-one years of unequalled leadership.

Sonia Alarp, that, of course, is not her real name but one she has assumed for her new life of freedom on Reading Station says his love of animals is particularly heartwarming especially towards badgers and greyhounds.

We were particularly upset when we heard of a report by Arbuthnot, who we think are private bankers in London, saying it was time he should go and that First Group needing sorting out.

Anyone who observes First Group today could not possibly want to believe this. We are sure Tim O'Toole will not find this to be the case

TWO STANZAS ON CHANGES IN FIRST GROUP

Stanza the First (Group)

So farewell then Sir Moir
You are still so young, so craggy yet debonair
On your 65th birthday (Refer to I June posting) we hoped you would stay for ever
Just like Kim Jong Il of North Korea
But now you are both going
I suppose you (but not Kim Jong Il)
Will now retire to your farm near Aberdeen
And every time you look at your herd of cattle
You might be reminded of your former passengers.

STANZA THE SECOND

Lines re-welcoming Tim O'Toole to First Group (see my previous Opus)

A re-welcome then Tim O'Toole
It is rumoured that in the past few days
You have been humming Roy Clark's catchy
'Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone'
But I cannot believe this is true.

Will this do?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Burns...

Looking at Rail-News.com this morning, it looks like Sir Moir has already stepped down.


Does the stock market know?