Time for an exciting new Eye feature - Railway Khazi Watch!
Our first entry is via the Hammer Man...
I found this sign in the salubrious traps at the National Railway Museum's workshops (those of a sensitive disposition may wish to stop reading here! Ed).
A new tome from Eye favourite Michael Williams is to be published on the 13th May.
Steaming to Victory tells the tale of how Britain's railways won the war against Hitler's Germany.
Agreeable promo video here:
Michael kindly donated a bottle of champagne as a competition prize for readers of this blog.
Unfortunately it arrived at Eye Towers... err... empty !
Good to see Simon Burns MP acknowledging the herculean efforts of his own employees!
Despite East Coast operating on a railway that last received significant investment in the 1980s and sweating a train fleet with an even older age profile our Burnsy is apparently peeved that the state owned operator isn't run by Beardie Rail.
Mr Toad opined in the House of Commons yesterday that East Coast performed ‘reasonably well’ but it is ‘plateauing’. "What it needs is an infusion of innovation and a stimulus, which I believe only the private sector can do".
Quite so minister, quite so.
And all those franchises in revenue support are clearly a testament to the private sector's skill at both innovation and stimulus!
Meanwhile the searing intellect that resides in the Honourable Member for Poop-Poop claimed he 'did not accept the premise' of an ORR report which last week announced that East Coast made the second highest TOC payment into Treasury coffers.
Still, a pleasure to see that Third Degree Burns is keen to throw good money after bad whilst belittling his own workforce.
Bad news for fans of good Route MDs!
Dyan Crowther, MD of NR's LNW Route, confirmed at yesterday's meeting of the Rail Freight Group that she is now a 'freight geek'!
Eye hopes this isn't the end of a promising career.
No matter.
On the upside that leaves the RfG with only 9 more Route MDs to convince...
UPDATE: This from Loose Coupled...
I think you'll find that the new Sussex Route MD is already aligned...
Good to see that the DfT is making the franchising process as simple as possible!
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