Waterloo to be moved 50 miles north - Shocker

Good news for the worthy burghers of Milton Keynes!

Evidently the town's 1980s built railway station just isn't smart enough for the new home of Network Rail and a much grander edifice is set to replace it.

Or so it would seem judging by this page on ATOC's website (with a bowler tip to A Frog):

Of course there is no surprise that the ATOC sleepy heads haven't yet noticed this pictoral howler.

What with their depressing habit of defenestating anyone with even a scintilla of railway knowledge...

UPDATE: This from swlines via Twitter...

Moved further north than that actually... it's moved all the way up the Far North to delightful Wick!

UPDATE: This from cbuchanancubed via Twitter...

Every station on the network is Waterloo on this website - station investment fund is making good progress!

UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...

See as the third rail advances into the howling wastes of the North.

Spread the Holy Word to The Heathens, My Son.

So farewell Heidi Mottram!

This from the Times...

Northumbrian Water Group has hired one of the rail industry’s leading lights as its new chief executive. Heidi Mottram, managing director of Northern Rail, will join the water company... in March...

Northumbrian Water's gain, the railway's loss.

When Northern was formed it was generally held to be a basket case.

Without new trains and prevented from doing a desperately needed timetable recast little was expected of the franchise.

However Heidi won over key stakeholders, welded together her geographically vast empire and actually succeeded in growing traffic.

Eye wishes Heidi all the best and hopes she returns to the industry soon.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Geoff Brown...

Reading the rest of the Times story, I see the Finance Director is a Mr Chris Green!

Can it be long before our water pipes are painted red?

Movers and shakers

So it's all change at Network Rail London North Eastern

David Pape will relinquish the role of Route Director on Monday 19th January.

He will be replaced by Richard Lungmus currently Maintenance Director in Scotland.

Papey will continue to report to Robin Gisby, but will be undertaking project work "in the broad area of Control".

As Papey had a reputation for treating freighties with an even hand they are watching these developments with interest...

Smiling Assassin

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Reflections on the defection of the well known wrecker and trouble maker Chris Randall to Cyprus...


It is worth mentioning that the 'Smiling Assassin' was one of the dauntless three who saw off the soi disant political 'bruiser' Tony McNulty.

When he was appointed Rail Minister McNulty's PR minions thought it would be a good idea to expose the bruiser to the railway press and set up a session with the Smiling Assassin, Captain Deltic and the Media Tart .

Every question put to the slowly deflating bruiser got the answer 'What would you do?'.

A fatal ploy for obvious reasons.

As the meeting ended a battered McNulty said, 'I look forward to meeting you guys again when there's more to say'.

Alas, either McNulty had nothing more to say or the invite was lost in the post...

Bon voyage!

News reaches the Fact Compiler that rail hack Chris Randall is taking an extended break from writing about Britain’s ever-newsworthy rail industry.

The jaded scribbler is moving to Northern Cyprus, where trains haven’t run for more than 50 years.

Randall, who is taking up a news editor’s role on an English language daily in Nicosia, admits he will miss writing about Britain’s railways.

Those who have been on the receiving end of barbs in his Rail Professional column are unlikely to share that view and will be pleased to see the back of him.

Strachen to Oz

Peter Strachen is heading down under.

Antipodean railway site Rail Page offers the following from NR's intranet posted Friday:

"Peter Strachan, route director, is to take up a new position running the entire public transport system of Brisbane and south east Queensland, Australia. Peter will take up the new position as chief executive officer of Translink Transit Authority in February 2009."

The search is on for a new Midlands route Director.

Oh bugger!

Tom Harris has been relegated to the back benches.

Read Tom's blog piece here.

Below one of the comments posted to his site by 'Very much anonymous'.

October 3, 2008 at 11:30 pm

Tom, I’m very sorry to hear this news.

I’m not a Labour supporter and I won’t be voting Labour at the next election. However, I know that most politicians of any political persuasion genuinely want to do their best to help their constituents and the people of the UK. You exemplify this.

You have, from all the evidence available to me, been a conscienscious and hard-working Minister. You’ve handled a difficult portfolio extremely well and have built up a lot of respect on a personal level within the rail industry. I am sure that the industry’s journals will decry your treatment for weeks to come.

You have been courteous to and respectful of your officials. You ask intelligent questions at the right time and you have a remarkable talent to sense when you are being “fed a line”, be it by officials or by industry figures.

Your blog has opened up the political process to the average citizen more than any other. While Iain Dale and Guido write superb blogs, they don’t have the perspective that you do.

It is my sincere belief that your party will lose the next election by a large margin. However, despite my Conservative sympathies, I distrust large majorities. I sincerely hope that you will continue with both your blog and your devotion to your job and will hold Governments of both parties to account from the back benches.

More than that, after the next election, your party will need a core group of experienced but untainted leaders to pull it out of a very deep hole. You have the potential to go far higher within your party than you have managed to date. Please don’t let this setback discourage you.

Why do I say this?

Because I’ve been working for you in DfT for quite some time. Hence why I’m staying anonymous.

The Fact Compiler has nothing more to add.

Holborn woodworm horror 2

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
More on ORR chair hunt.

We note that a chair is static and squeaks if you try to move it around.

Of course, if on castors it goes shooting off in the desired direction at the smallest nudge.

Both attributes are just what DafT is looking for.

Holborn woodworm horror?

Exciting times at the Office for Rail Regulation.

The Sunday Times advises that the regulatory body is looking for a new chair.

Whither Chris Bolt?

Unperson

Don't you just love banks?

The Fact Compiler has received a communication from HSBC's very own Ministry of Truth.

It announces HSBC's new management team.

"Following a recent internal review, HSBC Rail is pleased to announce its new management team for the business. Mary Kenny has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, blah, blah, blah..."

But what's this?

Not a word about the HSBC Rail's former top man Peter Aldridge who was done over during the bank's very own night of the long knives.

Railway Eye has a longer memory.

Therefore as a service to the industry and to help the alzheimer suffering bankers of Hong Kong and Shanghai here is a picture of their former guv'nor.


HSBC may be the "World's local bank" but it's evidently still run by a bunch of wankers bankers.

Chocks away!

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
It's not just Eurostar passengers who are deserting rail for air.

Miriam Lea, Tom Harris' gamine head of rail at the DfT press desk, has been promoted to a strategic comms role in the Aviation Directorate.

Her ability to take on board the most tedious number crunching questions from the gricerati and come back with answers on everything from IEP to the mythical 1300 extra vehicles will be sadly missed.

Miriam many congratulations on your promotion, but who now will make sense of DafT pronouncements?

Spot the Crank #4

This Gentleman was recently seen shopping for a lawn mower.

Despite the very large cheque in his hand (pictured) his local B&Q were unable to help as he refused to buy the machine, insisting that he would rather have it on wet lease terms.

Do you know who it is yet?

Answers on a postcard to

Anyone Left?
HSBC Rail (UK) Ltd
PO Box 29499
London
NW1 2ZF

All Change at HSBC

***Both Peter Aldridge and Robert Marrill, Head of Customer Services and Operations at HSBC Rail have been seen shopping for new lawn mowers***

ScotRail is keen to talk to anyone at HSBC about funding for their nemesis trains.

Rosco update

The current turbulence in the world's financial markets has not left the Rolling Stock Leasing Companies unscathed.

With the price of capital soaring little new business is being written.

Earlier this month RBS managed to flog Angel Trains to a consortium led by Babcock and Brown for £3.6bn. The deal did nothing to restore market confidence in BB whose share price continued in free fall and is now worth 30% of its start of year value.

Meanwhile over at Porterbrook the world's 'Oldest Active Data Room' has received yet another spring clean as Banco Santander plays host to the latest bidder undertaking due diligence on the Derby based firm.

Only at HSBC does all appear quiet.

Indeed, so much so that MD Peter Aldridge is reported to be looking "very relaxed".

Should anyone see Peter purchasing a new lawn mower at B&Q please could they let the Fact Compiler know.

This is getting repatitive

Has the railway suddenly become CV fashionable?

On Friday it was announced that yet another Chief Operating Officer has left the system to rescue a struggling "Blue Chip" company.

First, Mark Cooper, COO of Metronet, was called-up to sort BAE's supply chain.

Then Mike Brown, Underground COO, was parachuted in to fix Heathrow.

Latest to go is Steve Peat, Tubelines COO, who has been tasked with safeguarding BAA's investment in six other UK airports.

The Fact Compiler wonders if this will be enough to convince the Government that they should be allowed to keep all seven?

Meanwhile there are nervous whispers of a railway brain-drain.