Wolmar - Saviour of the Railways?

Exciting news from the World's Greatest Living Transport Correspondent!

According to Wolmar's twitter feed...

My report for co-ops UK on co-operative solutions for the rail industry is now available online.

Wolmar's report even contains these encouraging words from former Secretary of State, Lord Adonis...

I doubt there is anyone better placed than Christian to make the case for reform given his enormous depth of knowledge and would advise anyone with an interest in improving Britain’s railways to study his proposals carefully.

No doubt an invite from Petrol-head to join the High Level Group is already winging its way to Wolmar...

Eureka - a timetable with no clothes!

A word on today's exciting announcement that the new, improved, East Coast main line timetable will not now be introduced until May 2011.

Yawn!

Remember, you read it all here and here first!

UPDATE: This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...

A Network Rail spokesman said: "We have been measuring punctuality in the same way since 1996 and no matter how you slice it we are more punctual than ever. There are now more trains on the network. We are certainly better than British Rail ever was."

Today's NR press release says: "The DfT has also asked us to look into the possibility of running a sub-four hour service each weekday from London to Edinburgh and back. We understand the benefits to passengers of reducing journey times, especially on a long-distance route such as the East Coast Main Line, and will always try to make the best use of the capacity available on such a busy route. Over the coming months we will consult with the eight passenger and freight train operators that use the East Coast Main Line to understand what is involved in attempting to introduce sub-four hour services and come to a decision that delivers the most benefits.”

So we'll take that as a 'no' then.

1991 ECML summer timetable, the first after electrification the 06.30 from Edinburgh arrived in London at 10.33, an end-to-end average speed of 97 mph including stops at Newcastle and York.

There was a Northbound 15.00 train from Kings Cross running a minute faster.

Subsequently the headline time came down to 3hr 59 min.

"Better than BR ever was"?

Prove it.

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

It would appear that the open access lot aren't happy with the Noble Lord's shiny new timetable.

Apparently Grand Central are already consulting My Learned friends!

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

And Network Rail were not exactly amused to find that the agreed wording had changed overnight and that the noble lord had unilaterally committed them to 'facilitate' the sub 4hr London-Edinburgh journey time which is nigh on impossible in a clock-face timetable which assumes all trains run to the same timings.

And as for Adonis' pledge to reinstate the Flying Scotsman, doesn't he know it left Kings Cross at 10.00?

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

People are getting a little over excited about this election winning pork-barrel timetable.

If everyone just calmed down they would realise it will all be forgotten after the 6th May...

NatEx reinvogorated in the New Year!

The formerly-doomed National Express is playing hardball, is spinning or has taken Lord Adonis' shilling.

This from the BBC...

Rail fares for National Express East Anglia are either being frozen or being reduced, the train company has said.

Eye awaits confirmation from Readers, Passenger Focus or Barry Doe (to whom we wish a speedy recovery).

UPDATE: This from Passenger Focus...

There will be some increases peppered around but broadly it appears to be true!

Good for them!

Whether restrictions have changed is something we are still looking into...

Mystic Adonis anticipates High Speed Two report

Telegrammed by Le Flaneur
Do not trust him gentle maiden!

According to a DfT press release, embargoed for 01.00 Wednesday 30 December:

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis has predicted 2010 will be the year of high-speed rail in the UK on the day he received what could prove to be a landmark report for the future of transport in this country.

High Speed Two - the company set up to advise the Government on the development of high-speed rail services between London and Scotland - delivers its highly-anticipated report today.

But what did I see whilst strolling along Victoria Street this very day, 31 December?

Outside No 55. the former home of the Strategic Rail Authority and now containing the offices of HS2L, but reports and engineering drawings galore, bearing the HS2 logo, being loaded into vehicle.

When asked where the load was going the driver replied 'Marsham Street, Guv'.

So why did the Noble Lord claim to have received the report a day early?

Presumably to avoid it being lost in the New Year's Eve news dead spot.

The Fat Controller brings out the SLC2 big guns!

Regular Eye readers will recollect that the proposed new timetable for the East Coast route has run into a spot of bother.

Known as SLC2 it was due to be introduced, to great fanfare, at the December 2010 timetable change.

And for this date to be achieved it needed to be set in stone, with all parties agreeing to it, by the 8th of January 2010.

All was going swimmingly until, alas, the Noble Lord himself took an interest.

For some inexplicable reason it now appears that there has been a degree of slippage.

Sources close to the Department indicate that SLC2 is now more likely to be implemented at the May 2011 timetable change rather than at the December 2010 target date.

No matter.

Even May 2011 is looking highly optimistic, judging by this letter from the 'independent' Office of Rail Regulation to Network Rail requesting a review, and if necessary amendment, of the East Coast RUS.


As any fule kno a Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) seek(s) to balance capacity, passenger & freight demand, operational performance and cost, to address the requirements of funders and stakeholders".

As the timetable is the physical embodiment of the balance achieved by the RUS, presumably the former must follow the latter?

So is anyone now brave enough to suggest when SLC2 might actually be implemented?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Pat Bell...

Mr. Lee wants an answer by 8 January 1010?

Railways won't have been invented for another 815 years.

You have to applaud ORR for being ahead of the curve!

UPDATE: This, surprisingly, from the late Sir Arthur Bryant...

But if the railways had been invented King Harold could have taken his army on the LNER to Stamford Bridge, duffed up Harald Hardrada, then returned (taking refreshments on route) and caught the Southern electric to Hastings, arriving in good time to repulse William the Bastard as he tried to land.

Spot the difference - BRB(R) land disposal

Using your skill and judgement can you spot the difference between the following two events which occurred today:

1. Railway land for possible station pulled from auction

2. Railway land with station car park sold for £360k

Evidently a station on the never never is more important to rail users than a overspill car park in the here and now.

What a perfect example of the government's transport policy - announce endless new schemes for the future but ignore the problems of today.

Eye salutes all involved.

Lord Adonis flogs off Kings Lynn station car park

Not many outside the industry know that the British Railways Board still exists, albeit in a residuary capacity.

Known, surprisingly enough, as British Railways Board (Residuary), it is the repository for much of the former nationalised industry's liabilities, in particular claims relating to industrial disease - asbestosis, emphysema and other unpleasantness suffered as a consequence of working on the railway.

It is also tasked with the management and disposal of the industry's remaining land and buildings, which are surplus to the needs of the operational railway.

In most cases this relates to disused tunnels, bridges and viaducts, old track formations, abandoned goods yards and the like - which today's railway has no interest in.

Where possible BRB(R) tries to sell these disused assets off - raising a couple of bob in the process for HMG and getting shot of the liability at the same time.

The BRB(R) is chaired by Doug Sutherland, the former SRA's finance director, and he reports directly to the Secretary of State.

So far so good.

And mostly the BRB(R) does indeed do a pretty good job.

But there are exceptions.

Take the overspill car park at Kings Lynn for example.

Almost four years ago a 96-space overspill car park was built on a plot of land owned by BRB(R).

The BRB(R) has now decided to sell that land, complete with overspill car park, and it has been entered into a Residential Auction to be held by Allsops next Tuesday the 15th December (Lot 83)

The sale could raise as much as £400,000 for the Treasury, which in these fiscally challenging times is not be sniffed at.

After all the BRB(R) is merely fulfilling its remit.

However, according to the BRB(R)'s website:

Land is only disposed of when it has been agreed with the Department for Transport that there is no need for it to be retained for future railway purposes.

Surely a well used overspill car park serving a busy station like Kings Lynn is very much a railway purpose and it ought to be retained for use today, let alone in the future?

Therefore, it is unimaginable that the Department for Transport (prop. Lord Adonis) could have sanctioned the sale of the land to a developer who will not have the interest of rail passengers in mind.

So Eye wonders whether the Noble Lord is paying lip-service to modal shift or whether he continues to be badly advised?

The buck stops with you My Lord - what will you do?

UPDATE: This from the saintly Driver Joseph Locke...

After reading your item on the Kings Lynn car park, I turned to the alliteratively titled section 6.46 ("Prioritising projects and programmes") of the Pre-Budget Report.

The section where it promises to save £170 million by (among other things) increasing the capacity of station car parks.

I wonder if the BRB(Residuary) has read it yet?

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

Forget whether BRB(R) has read it.

Has the Department for Transport, they approve land sales.

East Coast blows sugar up the Noble derrier...

This with a bowler tip to Anon.

Read carefully...


We are not worthy!

UPDATE: This from A N Other...

As it took over a year to get the EPOS to work at all, I expect we may have this treat for a while.

Of course it may be easier just to change the plaque on the Marsham Street door.

Lord Adonis plays the Fat Controller with SLC2

Good news for all those upset by the proposed SCL2 timetable due to be introduced on the East Coast Main Line in December 2010.

The new timetable was due to be signed off by the ORR in the next couple of weeks.

Alas.

Word reaches the Eye that no less a figure than Lord Adonis is now taking a close personal interest in its provisions.

Indeed, he has shredded the latest version saying it was "not good enough" and told all involved to go back to the drawing board and deliver a timetable with a sub 4hr Edinburgh to London journey time.

Presumably the Office of Rail Regulation will wish to prove its independence by standing firm against such blatant political interference?

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

Lord Adonis does indeed want a sub-4hr London-Edinburgh headline journey time.

Current journey times
Journey times	Fastest	Slowest	Average
London (Kings Cross)-Edinburgh	04:13	04:56	04:31
Edinburgh-Aberdeen	02:35	02:42	02:38
London-Aberdeen	07:07	07:12	07:08

Indicative future Super Express journey times
Journey times	Fastest	Slowest	Average
London-Edinburgh	04:06	04:32	04:12
Edinburgh-Aberdeen	02:27	02:27	02:27
London-Aberdeen	06:37	06:53	06:41

So the above table, released in a written answer by Moley won't go down well.

Glasgow will lose East Coast Main Line services!

Much excitement in the media this weekend over suggestions that Glasgow will come off the East Coast franchise map.

The story prompted a strong denial from the Noble Lord in the Sunday Times:

Lord Adonis, the UK transport minister, last night dismissed claims that direct train services between Glasgow and London on the East Coast Main Line were about to be axed.

Adonis said that he knew of no such plan, insisting that he would not withdraw rail services from Glasgow.

But what's this?

The Noble Lord claims that he has no knowledge of such a plan.

Shome mishtake shurley!

Why it was only two years ago, when the last East Coast franchise failed, that exactly the same plans were submitted by officials.

The fact that they were vetoed by the then minister doesn't mean that such plans have gone away.

Indeed, after a second high profile franchise failure on the same route, these plans now make even more sense.

By removing the need to serve Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen there would be considerable operational savings (fuel, traincrew and rolling stock).

Better still it may be possible to free up some East Coast 125mph trains so that ScotRail could run their own premium service within Scotland.

Class 180s anyone?

So Eye confidently predicts that when the East Coast franchise is eventually re-let Edinburgh will be as far is it goes.

Adonis - Dark Lord or Angelic Light

This has to be one of the most extraordinary public statements made by a Transport Minister!

This from the Grauniad...

Transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said "For reasons of carbon reduction and wider environmental benefits, it is manifestly in the public interest that we systematically replace short-haul aviation with high-speed rail".

Of course he did caveat it by saying:

"But we would have to have, of course, the high-speed network before we can do it."

Bearing in mind the aviation industry's relatively slick lobbying machine this is either going to cause one hell of a stink, or even the airlines now know the domestic game is up!

My Lord Adonis - so much to do. So little time.

UPDATE: And here is the official response from Stephen Hammond, Shadow Rails (sic) Minister...

“I am glad that (Lord Adonis) has finally accepted our argument that high speed rail can provide a viable alternative to thousands of short haul and domestic flights. Now that he has undermined his Government’s case for expansion of Heathrow, the next Conservative policy he should force Gordon Brown to adopt is to cancel all moves to build a third runway at Heathrow."

Excellent, that's Cross Party consensus achieved on High Speed Rail.

Now all that's left is to find the lolly...

UPDATE: This from a yet to be convinced Mr Saltaire...

According to the Daily Telegraph Lord Adonis wants to shift 46m passengers from short haul air to high speed rail.

That equates to 126,000 passengers a day (on average, not accounting for peaks and troughs).

Which is the equivalent of 301 fully loaded Pendolino type trains a day.

Based on a headway that allows a clock-face timetable with departures every twenty minutes, only 54 trains could depart from a London terminus heading north each day (assuming an eighteen hours a day timetable) meaning that a maximum of 22,600 passengers could be moved north and a similar number south = 45,200.

Even doubling the number of carriages in each train leaves you woefully short of capacity (and this assumes all trains are fully loaded and takes no account of peaks and troughs in loadings).

Computer say "No can do!".

Maybe the Government should invest the £30bn in researching teleportation… this seems more feasible.

UPDATE: This from Sim Harris over at Keeping Track...

Not sure Mr Saltaire is juggling with the right figures.

I hope very sincerely indeed that the trains on our eventual High Speed domestic network are significantly more spacious than Bendydildoes.

Some figures to consider: seats on a TGV Duplex (8 vehicles) -- 516; Eurostar (18 veh) -- 770.

Also, the Adonis figure is very broad brush: I would have thought that the short haul routes which are most likely to be effectively replaced by rail are London--Manchester, London--Glasgow, London--Newcastle, London--Edinburgh and London--Leeds/Bradford.

Rail is never going to wholly supplant air between London and "outstations" like Inverness/Plymouth/Newquay/Belfast (unless the British LGV network is going to exceed even the dreams of Steer Davies Gleave).

A 225km/h ECML (surely not an insurmountable problem with ERTMS) would also help to mop up some of the London--Leeds/Newcastle/Edinburgh traffic.

If a viable operator can be found, of course!

UPDATE: This just in from Tom West in the Dominions...

516 people in eight vehicles?

770 spread over 18?

Lightweights all of 'em... here in Toronto, the local trains carry 2,100 in twelve (double-deck) carriages!