Derby mafia storm the House!

Exciting news from the Home of the Railway Industry!

The Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum descended en-masse upon the House of Commons yesterday, as it schmoozed MPs, Peers and key industry players at a Parliamentary reception, hosted by Mid Derbyshire MP Pauline Latham OBE.

But what's this?

Amidst the bonhomie was there perchance a slight divergence of view between DDRF Vice Chair, Michelle Craven-Faulkner, and EMT supremo David Horne...

Perhaps Clare Moriarty should be told!?!

SWT struggles with reliability - Shocker!

This from South West Trains...

PASSENGERS TO BENEFIT FROM £40 MILLION INVESTMENT IN SOUTH WEST TRAINS CLASS 455 FLEET

• Further improvements to country's most reliable train fleet
• 91 Class 455 trains to be fitted with modern traction equipment to help reliability
• Lighter trains will require less maintenance and reduce wear on rail infrastructure
• Regenerative braking will return up to 20% of energy for use by other trains

Passengers using South West Trains are to benefit from a newly-launched £40 million upgrade of its Class 455 train fleet, which is already the most reliable in the UK.

The upgrade will deliver even greater reliability for services which operate on the Metro area from London Waterloo to Reading, the Hounslow loop and the Shepperton branch.

The 91 Class 455 trains, which are already the most reliable trains in the country, will be fitted with new traction equipment which promises to enhance performance and improve reliability even further.

The programme – which will be rolled out over the next three years – involves removing the existing DC traction equipment, including the motors, and replacing it with an even more reliable modern AC traction system.

Christian Roth, Engineering Director for the South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance, said: “Our Class 455 trains are already by far the most reliable fleet in the country, however we are not complacent and we want to make sure these excellent results are sustained and improved even further.

“The new traction motors will help us to improve the reliability of these trains for our passengers at the same time as delivering environmental benefits through the reduced electricity supply.”

The prototype train will be fitted at Wimbledon depot with the remainder of the fleet fitted at Eastleigh depot. The project should be finished by Spring 2014.

The investment is being delivered in partnership with the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, Porterbrook and the Department for Transport.

Ends

Eye wonders why this SWT release made so little of the Class 455's reliability?

UPDATE: This from the The Grim Reaper...

It seems that SWT don't know their own train fleet:

Class 458s are the UK's most reliable trains

And Class 455s don't generally operate to Hounslow or Reading (450 / 458 respectively).
 
So the press release isn't that reliable.

ATOC's loss is HS2's gain!

Good news from under pressure HS2 Ltd!

ATOC's very own 'Mr Smooth' has been poached to join the company building Britain's newest high speed railway.

“Andy Taylor has been appointed Head of Public Affairs for HS2 Ltd, the Government-backed company planning and building Britain’s new high speed rail network.

“Andy will be responsible for building relationships with elected representatives at national and local levels as the company prepares to submit a hybrid bill to Parliament for Phase One of the project, between London and the West Midlands, and begins a public consultation on the proposed route for Phase Two between Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester." 

Very good! 

But who will now fill the Taylor sized hole in ATOC's public affairs operation?