Villiers vignettes - Crossrail opening dates

This from Ross Lydall at the Evening Standard...

Asked a parliamentary question by Andrew Rosindell, [Villiers] said that Crossrail would open in 2019 - when in fact Crossrail's official position is that it will open in "late 2018".

This is not the first time that Cruella has misled Parliament.

Which suggests that either officials in her department are 'a little careless', or the buck stops much closer to home.

Which is it Minister?

Either way, time for DfT to up its game.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Monnery, of the Essex Rail Users Federation...

Both Mr Lydall and the Rt Hon Theresa Villiers are right.

Crossrail will open between Paddington and Abbey Wood in December 2018.

The northern arm to Shenfield will not open until May 2019, so Crossrail will not be fully open until 2019.

Opening dates for west of Paddington are, of course, still in the melting pot!

The way of the transgressor...

This from The Londonist, under the following headline:

Graffiti: Tox Could Go To Jail

One of London’s most prolific taggers has been convicted of criminal damage. Daniel Halpin of Camden, better known as Tox, has at least a decade of defacement to his name. His tag, which simply states ‘Tox’ followed by the last two digits of the year, can be seen all over the country and particularly on London’s rail networks.

Eye's heart bleeds for him. No, stop laughing! Honestly, it really does. Okay it doesn't.

Two more lovely figures - this time at the ORR

Good news for fans of the body beautiful!

According to page 41 of the ORR's Annual Report, Bill Emery and John Thomas are in receipt of subsidised gym membership.

Eye would have thought that chasing down all those CP4 savings would have been exercise enough?