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...

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.

Head of East Coast Main Line on the wireless today

You and Yours on BBC Radio 4 today promises an interview with "the woman who has taken over the East Coast Main Line".

As Eye is unsure whether this refers to Elaine Holt or Karen Boswell he will be listening in.

Tune in at 12:00.

UPDATE: Elaine Holt confirms on-air that there are "no plans to take on any more franchises".

Looks like the Noble Lord's Cross Default threat has been relegated to the pi$$ and wind department.

UPDATE: This from a pedantic Chionanthus virginicus...

I don't wish to be pedantic but Ms Holt actually said

"...there are no plans from my perspective to take in any more train companies..." .

Perhaps there may be others who do have plans...???

It's jolly easy to be clever with Listen Again! Eye stands corrected.

ECML delivers step improvement from day one!

PPM for the last day of National Express East Coast - 100%

PPM for the first day of nationalised East Coast Main Line - 76%

As DafT sows, so shall it reap!

Adonis has Cameron moment on Saturday

Good to see that state owned East Coast Main Line has already overcome any rolling stock shortages.

Lord Adonis celebrated the start of nationalised East Coast Main Line by travelling to York on Saturday, aboard the 08:00 Kings Cross - Edinburgh (1S07) .

He then returned from York to London at 11:00 aboard 1E06.

Happily both journeys took place without incident.

But better to be safe than sorry.

As is evident from these two mysterious empty trains that also ran on Saturday

5Z07 08:04 Kings Cross – York
5Z06 10:55 York – Kings Cross (dep 11:02)

Eye wonders what on earth they were for?

Perhaps they were tasked with carrying the Noble Lord's official papers?

UPDATE: This from the Shunter...

The Noble Lord will soon be getting ideas above his station.

Not even Her Majesty the Queen has a 'spare' train in tow.

East Coast Main Line to Glasgow or not?

Last week the Eye prophesied that when the East Coast Main Line franchise is returned to the private sector it will not operate services beyond Edinburgh.

It appears that the Eye was wrong!

Judging by this cryptic statement from Elaine Holt picked up by The Herald on Saturday this may happen sooner rather than later...

Speaking yesterday before taking over from National Express just before midnight, Elaine Holt, chair of East Coast, said services would continue to Glasgow but they may be run by a different operator. However, she stressed that discussions over the route’s future were still active and no decision had been made.

Now what does that mean?

Welcome East Coast Main Line

Just thought I'd be first to say it.

Battle of the Barriers - update

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away!

This from the Daily Telegraph on the Nobel Lord's plans for state owned East Coast Main Line...

...Withdrawal of the planned gating of York station in order to maintain the existing through access for non-passengers, while accelerating the completion of gating at King's Cross to deter fare-dodgers.

A sort of glass half full moment.

UPDATE: This from Paul Scott...

Er... are you expecting the SofS to win some sort of international prize for all this - 'Nobel' Lord?

The Fact Compiler apologises. A case of posting in haste and repenting at leisure.

UPDATE: This from King Henry...

Does the noble Lord realise that by citing the pedestrian route across York Station as his reason for abandoning gating he has destroyed EMT's case at Sheffield ?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Mallins...

The Good Lord has indeed shafted EMT over Sheffield, where with over 1100 objections to their application for Listed Building Consent, the City must be poised to refuse it.

By citing through access as the reason (not something that planners can consider for Listed Building applications) it must now be accepted that barriers are not a good idea elsewhere too.

Perhaps EMT should be removing their nonsensical scheme at Derby which is an unnecessary obstacle to access across the station, in similar circumstances to York and Sheffield. The place is often full of students trying to get to and from the college on the old Loco Works site.

And as for King's Cross, they will be an ugly and dysfunctional feature of a "World Class" station, maximum inconvenience to boarding passengers and chaos when they alight - take a look at EMT's St Pancras scheme next door.

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.

First for not running trains

Eye wonders if Elaine Holt might have any spare time between now and the 13th November to fix a small problem.

Apparently her old TOC isn't running any trains on the Great Northern route this Sunday.

Something to do with driver shortages.

Surely they haven't all been recruited by DOR as well?

UPDATE: This from The Sussex Driver...

FCC are indeed short of drivers at the moment, both on the GN and Thameslink routes.

This is being compounded by First Group awarding the driving grade a 0% pay rise, backdated to April!

As I'm sure you'll appreciate, the brothers aren't exactly best pleased, and have told them to shove rest day working up their siding, hence no GN services this Sunday.

Last Saturday evening it was buses between Bedford and London because of the shortage, and so far there have been over 100 services cancelled on the Thameslink route in the last two weeks.

DOR caught on hop by Adonis NXEC decision

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Directly Operated Railways seems to have been taken by surprise by the decision to bring forward the termination date of the National Express East Franchise by a month.

Until this week DOR was working on taking over at the timetable change on 13th December.

Now it is 13th November - just over a week away.

Had they had a subscription to the Orange Peril, otherwise known as Rail Business Intelligence, they would have found on the City Page of the October 29 issue an erudite analysis of the NXEC burn rate.

This showed that the franchise was losing £1.27m a week and had £6 million left in the kitty as of 30th September.

So it was pretty clear that NXEC was going to run out of money well before 13th December.

Perhaps DOR was hoping that all those cheap advance purchase tickets NXEC has been flogging would boost revenue - despite other operators experience showing it hammering the revenue line.

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

DOR still appears to be caught on the back foot judging by their website.


It still has no mention of the momentous news...

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

I'm not surprised that DOR has been caught out.

There were 'animated discussions' and raised voices late into last night, between party spin doctors and Treasury officials, over how the renationalisation was to be portrayed.

Judging from today's low key announcement the Treasury won.

ECML to be redacted - Shocker!

An excited press release from the RMT announcing the end date of NXEC!

Of course Rail Business Intelligence and Eye readers already know that the Department plans to nationalise the East Coast franchise at timetable change.

No matter.

Railnews gives further details of the leaked document which alerted the RMT.

The piece also contains a rather natty mock up of a Mk3 in its state owned livery.

Sadly the new East Coast logo may alarm the good burghers of Lincoln and Harrogate.

And come to that the citizens of Leeds as well.

Apparently, under state control, the ECML is to become a siding!

To be fair the logo was probably designed by the Department for Transport.

And what do they know about railways?

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

At least the logo is close to First Group purple.

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

Shouldn't the new logo say 'InterCity East Coast' since Roger Ford's Manifesto is bound to be adopted after the election

NatEx walks away from Stagecoach talks

This from The Times...

National Express, the struggling transport group, has walked away from a last-gasp merger with rival Stagecoach over concerns that competition regulators could derail a deal.

State operator 'East Coast Mainline' is expected to take on the NXEC franchise at the December Timetable change.