Railway Garden Competition - Wimbledon

This from a Mr Greg Tingey...

Tastefully placed between the NR & LU tracks.

Crossrail 2 announce like 'cup of cold sick' in North

Righteous fury from elected Northern Mayors over Grayling's backing for Crossrail 2 today:

On Friday, Tories say they can't afford rail schemes in the North. On Monday, they find billions more for London. Are these 2 things linked? https://t.co/SQc30hcdQd

— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) July 24, 2017

I look forward to a similar announcement on Northern Powerhouse rail, which was in Tory manifesto unlike #Crossrail2 https://t.co/QwPawQJejG

— Steve Rotheram (@Steve4LCRmayor) July 24, 2017

Welcome to the Northern Showerhouse!

RSG and RDG merge

This from the Rail Delivery and Rail Supply Groups...

WORKING TOGETHER – NEW PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN RAIL SUPPLY GROUP AND RAIL DELIVERY GROUP

• New partnership will give supply chain a stronger voice
• Move will ensure both groups are better joined-up
• RSG chair Gordon Wakeford will join RDG board
• RDG chief executive Paul Plummer will join RSG council
• RSG council remains independent and becomes RDG’s fourth ‘strategic board’

The Rail Supply Group (RSG) and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) have announced a new partnership to coordinate shared objectives better and to strengthen further the industry’s voice.

The creation of a new partnership, using the resources of RDG to better support and join-up the work of the two groups, will:

• Maintain a clearer, independent voice for the rail supply chain within RDG;
• Offer closer alignment and collaboration between train operators, Network Rail and their supply chains;
• Streamline activities and avoid duplication, ensuring more efficient use of combined resources;
• Continue to jointly sponsor groups relating to technology and skills;
• Give government and stakeholders a ‘one-stop-shop’ for relations with the industry;
• Give clearer focus on unique RSG activities around exports, imports and inward investment;

The arrangement, while maintaining the RSG’s necessary independence, will see the RSG become a new strategic board of the RDG and its chair will become a full member of the RDG’s board. The partnership has also appointed Programme Director Anna Del Vecchio as an industry secondee from Amey, who will ensure that the supply chain’s independence is maintained.

Notwithstanding the super-abundance of bullet points in the release, this is good news.

Not least because the supply chain lobbied to be part of the Rail Delivery Group when the body was first set up in 2011, following the McNulty Review.

UPDATE: This from George Ramshaw Curry (via the digital ouija board)...

Meanwhile back in the world of work the sons of Martha at the Railway Industry Association continue with the hard slog of actually helping British industry to export more, innovate, become more efficient and try and understand their domestic monopoly customers etc etc. 

Not to mention actually trying do do something about Network Rail renewals falling off a financial cliff edge in the last year of CP5.

Greening rides to rescue of the railway!

Good news for the railway via Justine Greening!

The equalities minister has announced that those over a certain age will be able to self define their gender without the need for a medical diagnosis.

Eye understands that, in recognition of this momentous change, the vibrant Rosco community has already decided to self define their Pacer fleets as IEPs.

Unlike traditional IEPs the Greening IEPs will run at much slower speeds and will lack the ability to erect a pantograph, which traditionalists claim means they are nothing more than buses on rails. A spokestree for Angbrook said "Piss off bigot, if we say it's an IEP, it's an IEP."

Similarly, RDG has now decided that all services on the national network will have the ability to self define whether they are on-time or not. A spokesfish for RDG said: "Binary concepts like 'on-time' or 'late' have really had their day. Time is fluid and can be anything we say it is." There are expected to be additional benefits to this 'huge step forward', not least the complete abolition of Delay Repay.

Meanwhile, sources close to Network Rail suggest that the infrastructure giant is also considering allowing signals to self define their status. It has long been felt that certain colours are gender laden and that the old fashioned sequence of danger, caution and clear doesn't allow 'dollies' to express their true personalities, suppressed as they are under the leaden weight of patriarchal command and control structures.

Unbelievably, Theresa May's government self defines as strong and stable.