Laidlaw tells it like it is!

This via the Birmingham Post...

Mr Laidlaw criticised the fact that the bidding was mainly conducted by a relatively junior DfT team, meaning that when transport ministers were briefed by senior civil servants about it, the ministers were "in a sense talking to the wrong people"...

Quite so.

Pretty much the experience of almost everybody who deals with the department.

ECML - It's a wash out!

This from JD Bitterspoon...

Rumour has it that DOR is branching out into a range of new sanitary ware.  

 

With the timetable reliability 'plumbing' new depths, customer service generally 'down the pan', passengers increasingly left with a 'sinking' feeling, East Coast's regular customers hope that they have better luck running this bath than they do a train service.  

Hour-plus delays the third Monday in a row, and no service at all between Peterborough and Kings Cross this morning.  

An absolute shower.

Eye observes:  If DOR entered the bathroom suite market no doubt the ORR would insist the 'plumbing' was provided by Network Rail. Inevitably, therefore, the new venture would fail to 'wash its face'. (that's enough leaky old jokes. Ed)