Chiltern re-brand

Suffice to say it has not been universally welcomed...


 

🤔🤔🤔 caps? No caps? Someone couldn’t decide! pic.twitter.com/YiyeQBlRQC

— Joanna Seabright (@JibberJabberJo) November 1, 2017

This is not a design, it is a printer malfunction. https://t.co/lzwmwcuNLj

— The Fact Compiler (@TheFactCompiler) November 1, 2017

That has to be one of the worst fonts ever designed. Gives no confidence that the company can run a street food stall let alone a raileay

— Martin Popplewell (@chrisswain132) November 1, 2017

That's just horrible. Why rebrand at this late stage of a long franchise with a well established image.

— Chris Jackson (@cmajrail) November 1, 2017

*Railway rebrand alert*... and it's... it's... so dull I'm falling asleep. Swing and a miss Chiltern, sorry. pic.twitter.com/C4dkuxWSf8

— Sam Jessup (@samjessupdesign) November 2, 2017

That is all.

Pointless Pheasants - Marylebone

Not sure what sort of raptor this is meant to be, located atop the entrance to the ladies' loos at Marylebone...

Evidently the pigeons aren't convinced either.

Chiltern unveils new Mk3 fleet

Chiltern unveiled their new Mk3s with plug doors and retention tanks today.

It didn't take the wags long to make their presence felt.

Chiltern Railways & the Orchestra of the Swan

This is quite agreeable...



Good effort.

Von Shooter flies into the sunset?

This from Chiltern's Herr Von Shooter...

I am writing to let you know that I have decided to retire from the Chairmanship of Chiltern Railways and DB Regio at the end of December.

By then I shall have had the great privilege of leading Chiltern for nearly 18 years and I will have reached the age of 63.

I have enjoyed every part of my 41 years in the rail industry but especially the opportunity to lead the teams who built Chiltern Railways.

It is always difficult to decide when to move on but, having for the last 3 years also been acting M.D. of Chiltern, I have now handed that role to Rob Brighouse who I appointed earlier in the year. He will lead a very strong team to further successes, the first of which will be the new much faster Chiltern Mainline service between Birmingham and London. We will launch this together.

Meanwhile, I would like to continue to take an active part in the rail industry. In addition I have been asked to be Chairman of the CBI West Midlands Council for 2012 and 2013.

Adrian Shooter, CBE, Chairman of Chiltern Railways

Merseyrail Royal Wedding offer

This from Rudi over at Merseyrail...

I thought Eye readers might be interested in the following:

Travel free by Merseyrail on Royal Wedding Day if you are a Kate or a William

To celebrate the royal wedding on Friday 29 April, Merseyrail will give passengers called Kate or William (or variations of that name*) free travel across the whole network for the day.

Right. The Fact Katepiler is packing his bucket and spade and is off to Liverpool!

UPDATE: This from the Hon Dave Spart...

Chiltern also announced that those named William and Kate who wish to travel to London and be arrested by the Met while trying to protest at the totally reactionary and feudal... (get on with it! Ed) ...could travel free.

Chiltern goes from strength to strength!

More exciting news from DB owned Chiltern Railways.

According to the DfT...

The Department has today begun consulting Chiltern Railway Company Limited, and relevant rail industry bodies, on a proposal to impose a Penalty of £500,000 on the company for a series of contraventions of the terms of their franchise agreement.

Chiltern accept that they have breached the terms of their franchise in relation to the late delivery of two station improvement schemes, and to two breaches of requirements in relation to timetable changes. These specific breaches have since been remedied.

A copy of the Department’s letter to Chiltern advising them of the Penalty and setting out the details of their contraventions has been published today on the Department’s website.

Villiers' franchise reform proposals, based on the 'success' of the Chiltern model, keep getting more and more credible.

UPDATE: This from Chiltern...

In reaction to the DfT’s intention to impose a penalty notice on Chiltern Railways.

We accept that, in 2009, there were four technical breaches of the franchise agreement; none of which had significant consequence for our passengers or incurred cost to the taxpayer. The most serious breaches were a 16-week delay in commissioning new lifts at a single station, and a four-week delay in installing a new shelter on a platform that already had one.

Since that time, we have successfully delivered £7.25m of investment in station improvements and car park expansions, started work on the largest privately funded passenger infrastructure project since before world war two and continued to meet all the requirements of our franchise on punctuality and service quality. Next month, we will be introducing brand new commuter trains at a cost of £1.2m per carriage.

The Chiltern Railways franchise has always been focused on delivering what our passengers tell us they want. It would be a cause for enormous regret if £0.5m were diverted from investment in improvement for passengers as a result of low impact franchise breaches.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Strange.

DfT have been spurned into action over a 16 week delay in commissioning lifts at a single station but remain silent about a 16 month absence of WiFi from the entire Arriva Cross Country network.

I suppose this is a start.

Perchance DfT is not dead but sleepeth?

UPDATE: This from Jumbo...

WSMR appears to be a gift that just keeps on giving to Chiltern's German owners.

Judging by the DfT snotogram WSMR is at the heart of this fine.

Hilariously, it would appear that the DfT only found out about Chiltern's sharp timetabling practice from a WSMR press release!

Let's just add that to WSMR's tab shall we - a cool £14m and counting!

UPDATE: This from 31154...

I notice there is a "Wifi on Trains Conference" in London on 8-9 June,

According to the blurb:

"Among the companies presenting at Train Communications Systems 2011 will be...

• Russian Railways
• Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (Italian high-speed train operator)
• WestBahn (Austrian Train Company)
• Amtrak
• Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya
• BWCS
• Department for Transport, UK
• National Express
• China Railways
• Bay Area Rapid Transit
• SJ Trains
• VR Trains
• NS Trains
• Thalys International
• Globalfone (USA)
• Icomera
• 21Net
• Nomad
• GBS (USA)

How strange, no mention of DB/Arriva/Cross Country!

No doubt the DafT presentation will reveal how successfully they've enforced their franchise commitments though?

Evergreen goes from strength to strength!

Hands up everyone who is planning to travel by rail over Easter?

Chiltern passengers - put them down!

DB to slash Chiltern services by 20% - Shocker

This from @Timetableworks, via Twitter...

Chiltern to REDUCE rail travel on Mainline by 20% !



Now that's German efficiency for you!

UPDATE: This from @ChilternRailways, via Twitter...

Hi, here's a new link.

The wrong one was put up, so this has now been removed.

The excitement of this time lapse caused a different kind of lapse... my attention!

A nice fast response by Chiltern. Done - ta.

Evergreen 3 - Berlin is in charge!

This from Globetrotter...

In your story of yesterday about the Evergreen 3 engineering works overrun, you end:

“Let's see who fesses up?”

The wait is over: Von Shooter speaks!

This arrived by flying Tweet:


And here is the link to Von Shooter's apology.

Eye wonders if Berlin insisted on this public display of contrition?

Just try reading the last line of Von Shooter's mea culpa in a cod German accent and say it ain't so...

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

The last line of Adrian's apology says:

"Once again I am very sorry for the significant disruption to your day yesterday. We will do better."

Does this mean that in future Chiltern will aim for complete disruption of their passengers' day?

Evergreen 3 - who is in charge?

So who is running Evergreen 3?

Two weeks ago Michael Lee, the ORR’s director of railway planning, said: "The risk of not completing it on time to introduce new services in May had been growing and that was behind the decision to hand project management to Network Rail."

This produced an explosion from Von Shooter who insisted Chiltern was still in charge.

Happily all this confusion will be swept away today!

Line problem between Oxford and Banbury.
Train services are being disrupted due to over-running engineering works between Oxford and Banbury.

Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice cancellations and delays of up to 30 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 14/03/2011 06:38

Let's see who fesses up.

Villiers vignettes: On empowering TOCs

Oh dear!

The Saviour of the Jammy Dodger's exciting proposals to let TOC's run whole swathes of the network appear to be crashing down around her ears.

Much noise was made by Cruella about the benefits that 'thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind' could deliver to the railway were they to take on future investment.

And the model for this great leap forward?

Behold Chiltern! Masters of multiple Evergreens... or perhaps not.

The from the Grauniad today:

A £250m upgrade of the Chiltern Line that should cut journey times between London and Birmingham by 20 minutes is beset by cost claims and poor planning, according to a confidential industry report.

Network Rail, the owner of Britain's tracks and stations, is now helping Chiltern Railways complete the project

The ORR Monitor asked a slightly more robust question about the debacle now... ahem... no longer overseen by Deutsche Reichsbahn...

Q: Does NR believe that the Evergreen difficulties raises serious questions over government proposals to "encourage operators to invest in projects that have a financial return over 15 years."

A: No, longer franchises are essential to help re-align the interest of operator and infrastructure owner so a closer, partnership approach to deliver can be achieved. We believe longer franchises will encourage more private sector investment in our railway but it’s clear that large-scale, complex infrastructure projects will need experience and expertise to ensure successful delivery.

As Blazing Saddles might say: NR 'talks prettier than a $20 whore'...

Eye salutes the new spirit of sensitive diplomacy under Huggable's leadership!

Chiltern enters Pisspoor PR Awards

According to @Chilternrailway...

Our VIPs Wills and Kate at Marylebone.


No doubt this wheeze had them rolling in the aisles in Berlin?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

What a lovely photo.

I expect Shooter will soon be getting a pre-paid jiffy bag from Brenda so he can return his CBE.

UPDATE: This from @Chilternrailway...

Ouch..possibly shouldn't have put our cheesiest photo up!

Looking forward to getting a card from you in the post ;)

Chiltern gains a Managing Director

This from Chiltern Railways...

Adrian Shooter CBE, Chairman of Chiltern Railways has today announced the appointment of Rob Brighouse as its new Managing Director.

Rob comes from London Overground Rail Operations Ltd where he is currently the Deputy Managing Director...

Adrian Shooter CBE, who is Chairman and acting Managing Director of Chiltern Railways will remain as Chairman of the company.

Is Eye alone in detecting a siren's song from Shooter's Garden Railway?

Bad branding - Banbury

No longer the 'Arrows of Indecision'!

Welcome to Chiltern's Banbury station...


...home to the 'Arrows of Indeterminate-distance'.

On-line booking challenge for WSMR passengers

This just in from Bushy...

Now, I don't like to malign our entrepreneurial friends at Wrexham & Shropshire (and their Chiltern overlords) but parts of the operation seem not to be singing from the same hymn sheet.

In a release dated 24th September 2009 Wrexham and Shropshire MD, Andy Hamilton, said:

“This comes at an exciting time for Wrexham & Shropshire... By operating as part of the Chiltern Railways business, we will be able to serve additional stations such as Leamington Spa and will benefit from the single-minded commitment of one of the world’s most successful transport companies.”

On the WSMR website home page there is a drop down menu to select the start and end point for the intending passenger's journey.

Although the site clearly says that 'Journeys to and from London and Banbury are available' it is actually impossible to book Marylebone to Banbury (or v.v) using the WSMR website.

Meanwhile, Leamington Spa doesn't appear in the drop down menu at all.

Surprisingly though, you can book on the 07:29 Leamington to Marylebone WSMR service, but only via Chiltern's site.

Given they are both part of DB Regio this isn't exactly joined up.

UPDATE: This from Yokel...

Don't worry too much about on-line booking!

Us Yokels much prefer the civilised nature of being able to get on the train without a ticket, and to pay the manager when he comes round, and all without a penalty fare!

Again, don't worry about Leamington Spa, as it is only a recent addition to the itinerary.

Quite a shame really, because when W&S trains had to pass through, it was a rare chance to travel on the centre roads at Leamington that now seem to have reverted to their empty stock and freight only use.

Whatever happened to the non-stop London to Birmingham express trains that would thunder through the centre lines of every station in between? Oh, Dr Beeching, and "rationalisation".

Nostalgia ain't wot it used to be!

DafT announces Pope Catholic - Official & Embargoed

Much excitement over tomorrow's press conference to launch Evergreen 3.

For those who can't wait Chiltern have very kindly put up a website which contains all the details.

So not much to announce then.

But what's this?

An Embargoed Press Release reaches The Fact Compiler from the Department for Transport (with a bowler tip to Steve Strong and Charles Yerkes).

As it is embargoed until 00:01 on the 15th January the Eye wouldn't dream of disclosing any details.

Other than pointing out that Chiltern have always had a 20 year franchise so obviously the release can't be re-announcing that.

Can it?

UPDATE: This from the Major...

The Fact Compiler needn't have worried.

ATOC have broken the embargo!

The below, one of their 'five a day', was issued at 16:10 today:

CHILTERN RAILWAY’S NEW LINE IS GREAT NEWS FOR PASSENGERS – ASSOCIATION OF TRAIN OPERATING COMPANIES

News provides perfect example of what train companies can achieve with smarter franchising

Responding to Chiltern Railways’ announcement of a £250m new line, Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said:

“Chiltern Railway’s project to significantly improve services between London and the Midlands is great news for passengers, and a good example of what a private train operating company can achieve under the right conditions.

“Franchises which run for 15 years or more, as with the case of Chiltern Railways, provide incentives for train companies to invest in upgrading their services and to focus ever harder on meeting passengers’ needs.

“We want to move to more widespread use of longer franchises, together with other smart franchise reforms, to free train companies to provide passengers and taxpayers with a better deal.”

Ends

Shows scant knowledge of railways and less still of PR.

No doubt DafT will be delighted.

UPDATE: And now the floodgates have opened...

This from the Tories at 18:10

Commenting on the new rail line agreement for Chiltern Railways, Shadow Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers said:

“Chiltern’s innovative investment in new capacity is only possible because of their 20 year franchise. Lord Adonis may pay lip service to longer franchises but until he is willing to make 15-20 year franchises the norm, and not the exception, passengers will lose out on private sector investment in better services, better stations and new trains.

“Only a Conservative Government can..." (cont' p94)

Frankly the Department has only itself to blame - issuing a release and embargoing it for 14 hours is asking for trouble.

DB tank directed onto ATOC lawn

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
In summer ATOC announced that the entire National Rail Enquiries call-centre operation would be outsourced, at a cost of nearly 200 British jobs, to Bombay.

But now the trade association for Train Operating Companies has been outflanked by one of its own members. `

Plucky little Chiltern Railway, owned by Deutsche Bahn (one of the worlds largest rail and logistics operators) has dumped The Trainline as their on-line retailer in favour of an undisclosed supplier which also provides a UK based call centre.

The new arrangement will come into force from 1st February 2010, according to a confidential staff briefing issued yesterday.

Under the leadership of Adrian 'Hoppy' Shooter, now happily recovered from his recent knee operation, Chiltern has gained a reputation as a bit of a pathfinder TOC - witness the successful delivery of multiple Evergreen projects compared to the WCML upgrade fiasco.

Chiltern decided on the move due to customer complaints about Trainline failings, not least the Indian call centre's preference for selling Beardie Rail inclusive tickets from Brum and Kidderminster to London, rather than cheaper Chiltern only routings.

Since Chiltern is the model for longer franchises, Exponent Private Equity (who paid an eyewatering £163 million to Natex, Virgin and Stagecoach for the Trainline in 2006) must be feeling a tad nervous.

But not half as nervous as ATOC, whose former Chairman, Adrian Shooter, acts as an unpaid 'informal advisor' to the shadow Tory transport team.

Chiltern rejects "streamlined fares"

This just in from Hymnody...

As Eye has already noticed, NFM05 content has been uploaded to "The Manual" earlier in the week.

One you may have missed, however, is a fare with a massive 46% increase!

The 1st Anytime Day Single from London Terminals to Banbury (and vv), priced by Chiltern, is increasing from £44.50 to £65.00.

Similarly, the 1st Anytime Day Return is increasing from £89.00 to a whopping £130.00!

At present, the only way to make use of 1st Class is to travel from Paddington via Reading.

But from the December timetable change it will also, of course, be valid on Wrexham and Shropshire services from London Marylebone, which will be making "full calls" at Banbury and Leamington Spa.

Probably best not to tell Lord Adonis, who used Tuesday's Grauniad to praise Open Access "steamlined fares".

UPDATE: This from Central User...

I wonder whether the justification for this is that 1st includes a sit-down cooked meal?

Is Shooter wrong?

This from Getreading...

Fuming university lecturer Kerry Renshaw has launched a petition calling for First Great Western to abolish first class tickets on journeys to London.

Alas.

As at 10:15 the petition has a mere 14 signatures!

Perhaps time for the Chilteenies to mount their own campaign to restore first class...