So. Jamie Burles will be succeeding Ruud Haket as MD of Greater Anglia.
Currently a bid director at parent company Abellio he will join the TOC after completing work on the Thameslink bid in April 2014.
With Ruud due to depart for Keolis in January, Adam Golton will be holding the reigns during the interregnum.
If the clog fits...
A big Eye welcome to Greater Anglia, the former NXEA franchise now operated by Abellio.
So how goes the new franchise on its second day?
Putting aside the the non-availability of its website for most of yesterday and the revelation that 30 services have already been cancelled this morning, all is well (shurely shome mishtake. Ed).
The new franchise's captive commuter customers will of course also be delighted by Clog Rail's cost saving measure that saw 9 Class 317/7 units returned to ROSCO Angel before the franchise even started.
Passengers on routes from Liverpool Street to Ipswich, Witham, Colchester Town, Harwich International and Norwich are already benefiting from trains formed by 2 x 321 units rather than the usual 3 x 317/7 units.
No matter. How else will they get to work?
At least Clog Rail has improved communications with its people. Station staff have received an email instructing them to "prepare for customer anger" as short formed 8 car trains trundle into stations rather than the usual 12.
Meanwhile, the Captain of Netball continues her crusade against Network Rail bonuses, curiously omitting to berate her own officials for deliberately consigning hard pressed East Anglian passengers to overcrowded journeys.
But then populist grandstanding is so much easier than meeting passenger needs.
UPDATE: This from Fen Boy...
Knowing Eye's love for bustitution I'm surprised you didn't pick up on this other DfT inspired East Anglian transport triumph.
The Go Whippet website yesterday afternoon had a message informing would-be travellers that services over the Busway were "suspended for the rest of the day".
One can only assume that there were "operational difficulties" as a result of the 4-6 inches of snow that had fallen in the area overninght Sat/Sun.
Thank you DfT for dumping a hugely costly guided busway on us that falls over at the hint of snow.
Good to see that Abellio is on top of all this timekeeping stuff.
This screen grab from their Greater Anglia website taken at 12:10 today:
By Eye's reckoning the start of the franchise is now a mere five days away, give or take a couple of hours..
No matter.
On the plus side, if Clog Rail use the same widget for their timetables then services will arrive almost a full month before booked time.
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