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...
This from Ruud Haket, currently MD of Greater Anglia...
I’d like to tell you that I have accepted the offer of a new role as Chief Operating Officer of Keolis’ UK business, so I’ll be leaving Greater Anglia in the near future. We’re still working out my leaving date and the Abellio team will now start the recruitment of a new Managing Director, so I’ll let you have more details about both of those things as soon as I have them.
Interesting...
Good news for fans of Mk3s!
This from the Railway Gazette:
Porterbrook Leasing has awarded Railcare a £5m contract to undertake the C6 scheduled overhaul and additional corrosion repairs to 111 locomotive-hauled MkIII coaches operated by Abellio Greater Anglia on London - Norwich services.
The work is scheduled to start in October 2013 for completion in July 2016, with five coaches undergoing overhaul at Railcare's Wolverton plant at any one time.
Good news indeed.
But what's this?
A number of cryptic messages have reached Eye suggesting that sales of soup have been rocketing in areas around Milton Keynes and Glasgow!?!
This from I Remember Alborough...
This was the sight that greeted me as the train was ready for boarding at Liverpool Street on Friday.
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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.
Abellio has published the names of directors of its new Greater Anglia franchise which starts on February 5th.
They are:
This from Ithuriel...
According to the Beeb:
Colchester MP Bob Russell said any company running trains in East Anglia had to be an improvement on National Express.
The Dutch company Abellio will take over the Greater Anglia franchise in February 2012 and run rail services from London to Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire until 2014.
That was, presumably, before Tony Miles' revelation that Abellio is funding its staggeringly generous premium profile by withdrawing nine Class 317s from routes where NXEA had added them.
Just as well the Department is changing the measurement for overcrowding.
UPDATE: This from a Meinheer Hertz van Rental.
I can explain these apparently generous premium payments.
It is the Dutch state saying thank you for the food you dropped to us at the end of the war.
So congratulations to Abellio for winning the Greater Anglia franchise.
Meanwhile Eye understands that there is growing concern within the Department about how the news reached the market.
Sid Spiv, Director of Leaks at the DfT, said "My team has worked extremely hard to ensure that the winner of this franchise was well known before we had to go through all that boring, old, official announcement stuff. Even the Guardian had it two weeks ago for God's sake. Therefore, I find it completely unacceptable that scarce government resources were wasted on making a formal announcement this morning. Mark my words, heads will not roll for this."
A clearly angry Mr Spiv ended by saying "Did I mention that Virgin will get their franchise extension?"
Much chitter-chatter in the industry over who might have won the Greater Anglia franchise.
Despite the announcement not being due for another two weeks The Grauniad felt confident enough on Tuesday to predict:
Continental Europe's grip on the UK rail industry is likely to extend to the Greater Anglia rail franchise after the Dutch national rail operator emerged as the frontrunner for one of the routes connecting to the 2012 Olympics.
Good news indeed for Abellio!
However, Eye has been struggling to understand how the DfT, normally so careful about water-tight franchise bid processes, had allowed market sensitive information to apparently seep out from Marsham Street.
Happily, Eye can exclusively reveal that this was not the case!
As became clear today via the BBC...
Dutch National Railways is introducing emergency plastic bags for passengers to urinate in as part of its first-aid provision on some commuter trains.
Spokesman Jeroen von Geusau told the BBC "When you have to wait three or four hours on a train, then it is quite logical you have some people aboard who need to go to a restroom," he said.
Given recent performance on the Anglia Route only a sadist would think of awarding the franchise to another bidder.This from Manchester Guy...
To paraphrase Lady Bracknell:
Failing to be shortlisted for one East Anglian franchise may be regarded as a misfortune.
Not being shortlisted for both looks like carelessness...
Or does someone at DfT have an agenda?
This from Dean Finch...
Dear Colleague
I am sorry to report that National Express has not been short-listed by the Department for Transport to bid for the short Greater Anglia franchise, due to run from February 2012. We are seeking urgent clarification from the Department for Transport to explain this decision.
We are naturally very disappointed. We believe we submitted a very positive and high quality pre-qualification document. We are also proud of the significant improvements delivered since we started running NXEA and the on-going industry-leading performance of c2c.
In the meantime we will remain focused on delivering services for our customers, including the introduction of new trains on West Anglia.
We have had a very strong start to the year across the rest of our business. I am confident we can maintain this momentum for the rest of the year and look to many other opportunities in the coming months.
Please cascade as appropriate.
Regards,
Dean Finch
Group Chief Executive
Sources suggest that Go-Ahead, Stagecoach and Abellio have prequalified for the Greater Anglia franchise.
So farewell National Express!
More to follow...
UPDATE: This from the DfT...
SHORTLISTED BIDDERS FOR GREATER ANGLIA
They are:
For Greater Anglia
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