Digital railway's missing link

The latest organisation trying, belatedly, to get inside the digital railway bubble are civil engineers Balfour Beatty.

What, Eye ponders, do a bunch of chaps in rigger safety boots and hard hats know about the digital railway?

Eager to find out we followed the instruction at the foot of the press release (below).

Mark Bullock, Managing Director, Balfour Beatty’s rail business said, “The Digital Railway will be transformative, bringing the UK’s railways into the 21st century. Making the Digital Railway a reality calls for a shake-up of the way the rail industry does business by better connecting the constituent parts, aligning the objectives of multiple stakeholders and bringing track and trains closer together. This will require robust planning and coordination, funding and a concerted effort to address the skills shortage.

Above all, the new approach will have to be more collaborative and more inclusive. Although the challenges are significant, the potential prize is great. The industry must come together to unlock the benefits of the Digital Railway and Balfour Beatty is committed to making this happen.”

ENDS

To read the paper in full, please click here and get involved in the conversation using #ExpertEngineers

Alas, link was there none!

Perhaps a good old fashioned analogue fax address would have been more reliable?

Balfour Beatty loses Comms Director

This from GorkanaPR...

Duncan Murray, director of corporate communications at Balfour Beatty plc, is to leave the global infrastructure company towards the end of June.

No names yet for a successor.

Eye wonders if BB will be approaching Comms professionals from amongst its client companies?

UPDATE: This from The Major...

According to the above: 'BB will be approaching Comms professionals...'

Would that be BB the highly respected infrastructure company or BB the soi disant veteran observer who is, frankly, a bit rubbishy?

I think we should be told.

UPDATE: This from Brennan-Brown, the soi disant veteran observer himself...

Please can you stop calling me the soi disant veteran observer, it's not big and it's certainly not... (sadly, owing to pressures of space, Eye is unable to reproduce in full this latest missive from the soi disant veteran observer. Ed)

Balfour Beatty and the sin of omission

Telegrammed by Our International Correspondent
Balfour Beatty has just released its half year accounts for 2010.

Lots of profits, and rightly the report celebrates BBs successes - and is frank about problems, such as Barking Power Station revenue being a bit, er, pants.

BB is one the few remaining UK business good news stories, a company from over here that is doing rather well over there, especially since it bought Parsons Brinkerhof and with it a footprint in US High Speed Rail.

The report liberally name-checks clients and projects as diverse as Coventry Street Lighting (a PPP), Singapore and Denver Mass Transit systems, Southampton City Council, Heathrow Terminal 2, Birmingham Hospital (another PPP) and the western extension of Hong Kong metro.

But not a word about about the company's current work for London Underground subsidiary Metronet as well as that for the national infrastructure owner Network Rail

Why so coy?

Or is involvement in the UK rail industry now viewed as the kiss-of-death for Blue Chips?

PAC blasts "naive" DafT over Metrodebt debacle

So the Public Accounts Committee has lambasted the Department for Transport's role in the Metronet debacle.

This from the Local Government Chronicle:

PAC chairman Edward Leigh said: “The taxpayer has lost up to £410m as a result of the Department for Transport’s inadequate management of the risks arising from the Metronet contracts for upgrading the infrastructure of the underground.

Mr Leigh called the DfT’s assumptions about management of the contract “flawed from the outset” and “naïve”, while the belief that lenders would exert strong influence on Metronet’s governance and financial health was undermined because the DfT shouldered 95% of their risks.

No shit Sherlock.

Meanwhile Eye awaits a suitably contrite apology from Metronet's former shareholders: Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy and Thames Water.

But we won't hold our breath.

McNaughton to Balfour Beatty?

***Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, services and investment Group announces the appointment of Andrew McNaughton to the new role of Chief Operating Officer and to the Board of Balfour Beatty plc. The new appointment becomes effective from 1 January 2009.***

UPDATE: The Fact Compiler is grateful to a reader for the following observation:

"The McNaughton in question joined Balfour Beatty in 1997... so it can't be the good prof - unless he's been moonlighting for the last decade!"

Shame - was looking like such a great story...