Hammond Eggs: The memories of glories past...

So Philip Hammond has been on the election trail in Derby...

The Chancellor Philip Hammond has been visiting Bombardier in Derby. pic.twitter.com/LTCox6Wfg9

— Chris Doidge (@BBCChrisD) May 22, 2017

Let's hope nobody mentioned his role in the Thameslink fleet award!

Deltic throws a leg out of bed!

Oh Lordy!

What has Captain Deltic got his pistons in a twist about now?

@ClareMoriarty. @ philiprutnam @holdmch @eastcoastuk When a Transport Minister gets it totally wrong on access charges who fed him duff gen?
— Roger Ford (@Captain_Deltic) February 4, 2014

Eye thinks we should be told!

UPDATE: This from the latest edition of Rail Business Intelligence, in in-boxes across the industry this very afternoon...

The minister later appeared to suggest that the publicly-operated ICEC franchise had been made to look more successful than it actually was.

"We all know that despite a lot of talk about DOR, frankly their punctuality was the worst of the long-distance operators, we can talk about the access charge costs where they got a considerable benefit when they took over, so we’ve got to be careful about comparison from line to line’, he said.

"Once one starts to examine certain figures that people are quoting they don’t always bear up in quite the same way".

And

When RBI pointed out that East Coast was currently meeting its punctuality targets unlike NR on the ECML (RBI454 p4), Hammond replied

"although East Coast’s satisfaction rating has gone up in terms of sheer punctuality numbers against the other long-distance operators, it is a simple matter of fact that it’s the worst-performing at the moment.

"There may be all sorts of reasons for that but it is also true that their access charges, for one reason and another, are lower than others.’

"All I’m saying is that you’ve got to be very careful about comparisons and you’ve got to remember that when it was set up it was deliberately set up to stabilise the railway, to provide a service and to make sure that we did our statutory duty. It was never intended to be a long-term operation".

Oh dear!

Does the ORR know that it has been gifting the nationalised operator preferential track access charges?

Or is the minister perhaps talking through his hat?
 

Hammond Eggs - Crossrail goes to the wire!

This from the Grauniad...

"There is a process we are legally bound to follow and we will follow that process. I'm not saying there won't be [a UK supplier] but we are honour bound by the process. Everybody in the UK would like a UK supplier to win that contract. It would be a huge fillip for UK industry. That decision will be taken by the Crossrail board."

Hammond said that though the Thameslink network's 1,140 new carriages would be built in Germany there was a big benefit from the project for Britain's wider supply chain.

Quite so.

Let's hope it's not a maiden over on the 5th February...

UPDATE: This from Boadicea...

According to Global Rail News:

Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the German Railway Industry Association (VDB) have agreed to work more closely together to encourage greater collaboration with the domestic supply chain.

The partnership will strengthen ties between DB and the rail industry and involve German suppliers earlier in the development of new vehicles for the network.

A formal agreement was signed between DB chief executive Rüdiger Grube, DB’s rail technology lead Heike Hanagarth and the president and vice president of VDB Michael Claus Ecker and Jürgen Wilder in Berlin earlier this week.
 
No shit Sherlock!

No doubt RIA and the DfT are already on the case?
 

Hammond Eggs - Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides...

This from Leo Pink... 

As these written answers show, DfT continues to play the 'nothing to do with us, Guv' card when asked questions relating to Network Rail.

They should make the most of it because NR becomes a Departmental responsibility from 1st September 2014. 

Railways: Cumbria 

Mr Jamie Reed asked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what steps he plans to take to ensure that the Cumbrian Coast railway line is protected from severe storm damage; (2) what steps he is taking to ensure that rail services in West Cumbria will be less affected by adverse weather conditions in future.

Stephen Hammond replied that Network Rail own and operate Britain's rail infrastructure. Included in their plans for Control Period 5 (2014-19) is a weather mitigation strategy, to help reduce the impact of severe weather on the network.

Mr Jamie Reed asked the Secretary of State for Transport how many Network Rail delay minutes have been caused by adverse weather in Cumbria in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond replied that the Department does not hold the data at this level of disaggregation. This is a matter for Network Rail. 

Tick, tick, tick...

Lookalike - Wind in the Wimbledon edition

This from the Graun...

Stephen Hammond, the minister for buses and rail, who lives six miles from Westminster, used the government's "top up" cars 138 times in a year. These cars are at the call of ministers if an official departmental vehicle is unavailable. On 19 occasions Hammond used the service to move his red boxes unaccompanied from one place to another.

Where have we heard that before?

What is it with the internal combustion engine and Tory Transport ministers? 

Hammond Eggs - I've got a little secret

As Leonard Cohen used to sing: I've got a little secret!

A tune evidently close to the heart of Eye favourite Stephen 'Gone-native' Hammond, as evidenced by this written answer given on the 26th November: 

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 4 November 2013, Official Report, column 45W, on railways: south west, for what reasons lease costs for rolling stock are considered to be commercially sensitive. 

Stephen Hammond: The leasing costs for rolling stock are the result of negotiations between two private sector commercial entities, the train operating company and the rolling stock leasing company. Putting such information in the public sphere would give advantage to each party's competitors and hinder future negotiations between such commercial entities throughout the industry. 

Hmm... Advantage and Hinder?

Surely the name of an act in this year's DfT Christmas panto?

No matter!

Of course the real hindrance 'to future negotiations' on allocation of scarce trains is done by DfT's random-rolling-stock-cascade-generator, which inhibits the effective operation of the entire train leasing market.

A point made transparently clear from section 25 on page 9 of the summary section of the Competition Commission's 2007 'Rolling Stock Leasing market investigation'. 

Go figure!

Hammond Eggs - Sauce for the goose

This from the Yorkshire Post:

Shadow Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood said Ministers are so keen to re-privatise the route linking London, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York and Edinburgh that they redacted a prospectus for the proposed sell-off to make the line seem less successful than it actually is.

Happily Stephen Hammond was able to mount a spirited defence of privatisation:

He claimed Labour's position on the East Coast franchise was driven by “dogma”.

Errr...

Hammond Eggs - Standing up for passengers

This from the Daily Mirror...

After a leak by rail union RMT, Transport Minister Stephen Hammond yesterday admitted bidders for the rail franchise will be “free to consider such initiatives as third-class travel”.

Bidders, ministers and officials will of course keep in mind that under the PRM (Passengers with Reduced Mobility) Regulations each class of travel requires its own fully accessible facilities.

Rosco chums suggest that each PRM compliant lavatory takes up the space of approximately seven seats, as passengers forced to stand on Voyagers will no doubt be more than aware!

Good to see DfT's new, improved, franchising policy addressing capacity issues so early on in the process.

Hammond Eggs - On how not to hold a TOC to account

Another gem from the minister for rail!

Given as a written answer on the 4th November...

Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, Conservative)
It was never the intention to use the historic performance of directly operated railways as a comparator for future franchise bids. The nature of rail operations means that their circumstances change over time with infrastructure and rolling stock investment as well as changes in track access charges and the performance of the wider economy, which makes comparing any franchise to another or even to historical data on itself imprudent.

However, as with all franchise competitions, the Department has developed a comparator model to assess franchise bids against that is informed by base data from the current operator. 

What's that sound? It's the sound of DfT taking a chainsaw to the only believable benchmark of a new operators' performance! 

Hammond Eggs - Woodhead dead

This from Stephen Hammond of DfT...

Written statement to Parliament: Woodhead tunnels

...In 2007 to 2008 ministers received many representations urging them to protect the Woodhead tunnels so that the Woodhead route could be re-opened to rail traffic in the future...

I am therefore announcing that the government will not be purchasing the tunnels from National Grid in order to instigate an inspection and maintenance regime and I shall be informing National Grid accordingly...

My decision does not rule the possibility of re-opening the Woodhead route to rail traffic in the future, should a new line ever be required...

So that's all right then!
 

 

Hammond Eggs - On opacity

Another gem from the new railway minister...

Mrs Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate he has made of the total number of passengers travelling between Birmingham and (a) Manchester, (b) Leeds and (c) Wigan by rail during an average week day.

Stephen Hammond: Though some estimates for journeys such as these have been produced for departmental purposes, these estimates are not available for publication as the underlying data belong to the train operators and are considered commercially confidential.

Presumably this is civil service speak for can't be @rsed.

UPDATE: This from JH...

Presumably this applies to all TOC's on all lines. 

If so, where does HS2 Ltd get the "current" data to use as a base?

Hammond Eggs - On Open Access

Time for an exciting new Eye feature!

Hammond Eggs records the searing insights of the latest member of the ministerial transport team to take responsibility for rail.

This from a written answer on the 14th October:

Christopher Pincher (Tamworth, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the contribution of open-access operators on the East Coast Main Line in support of the franchised operator.

Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, Conservative)
The impacts of open access operation have been assessed against three criteria: (a) performance; (b) network utilisation; and (c) revenue of the InterCity East Coast franchise.

(a) Open access operators on the east coast route have typically delivered lower levels of performance than the franchised operator, in part because one of them operates relatively old diesel trains;

(b) Open access operation has had no material adverse impact on network utilisation, although the constraints on platform occupancy at Kings Cross, in particular, and Doncaster, to a lesser extent, have complicated operations at those two stations;

(c) Open access operators have generally tended to abstract revenue from the franchised operator. Furthermore, where bidders in the forthcoming InterCity East Coast franchise competition perceive a risk of additional open access competition causing further abstraction, they are likely to offer lower bids.

No sources cited of course.

Good to see that Stephen Hammond (of all people) is happy to repeat the prejudices of his civil servant masters (is this right? Ed).

As usual that old 'abstraction' canard gets an airing - perhaps Pete Wilkinson (Director Franchising and late of Renaissance Trains) can explain to Mr Hammond the 'not primarily abstractive' test, which the ORR uses to validate all Open Access bids?

At the same time the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State may even wish to read the Office of Rail Regulation's June 2013 consultation on On-rail competition, which states:

Despite the very limited role that competition currently plays, there is evidence that it drives passenger benefits including lower fares increases, higher growth in passenger numbers, direct services to new destinations, and various service quality benefits.

Open access entrants, who always face strong competition from franchised operators, have higher passenger satisfaction scores than franchised operators, including other intercity operators, who in the main do not face on-rail competition.

Quite so.

But then, since when have the residents of Great Minster House ever been interested in driving passenger benefits?

UPDATE: This from Depot Lad... 

On the subject of “old diesel trains”.

I thought the following key points might be helpful for Mr Hammond who is evidently new to his brief.

• Grand Central operates the same type of “old diesel trains” as those operated by both East Coast and Great Western, and some that are significantly newer than East Coast’s diesel and electric fleets;

• Hull Trains operates diesel trains that are significantly newer than East Coast’s diesel and electric fleets;

• Grand Central’s HSTs were the last on the network to be re-powered and upgraded and as such, are in a newer “mod state” than those operated by East Coast;

• Open access operators need less cancellations than franchised operators to seriously adversely impact on the stats;

• East Coast’s cancellations rate is well in excess of that of Great Western, who exclusively operate “old diesel trains”.

Note: Grand Central and Hull Trains are 'evil open access operators'. Great Western is a 'wonderful franchised operator'. Whilst East Coast is run by the minister's own department.

As our North American cousins might say - go figure!

UPDATE: This from Data Minor...

I thought Eye readers and the minister might be interested in the latest NFRIP figures below:

Operator	Fleet	Primary DPI	Primary DPI MAA	MTIN	MTIN MAA
Grand Central	Class 180	25.4	24.3	13,118	8,641
East Coast	IC225	38.4	33.3	11,537	12,326
Grand Central	HST Set	0	19.3	41,421	13,188
Hull	Class 180	18	27.9	14,380	14,561
East Coast	HST Set	34.9	47.3	18,653	18,619

Hull Trains class 180s and Grand Central HSTs are both more reliable than East Coast's IC225 fleet. 

UPDATE: This from a source close to DOR...

For the record:

1. EC's HSTs currently have the best MTIN MAA of all the HST fleets, and this is on an improving trend

2. Second spot in the HST MTIN MAA table is occupied by the XC HSTs, which just happen to be maintained by EC

3. The poor design of the 225 fleet leading to historically chronic levels of reliability is well documented by all operators including BR, GNER, NXEC and now EC.

MTIN MAA is currently at its highest level since this measure was introduced, and on a rising trend, despite the utilisation of the fleet being substantially higher than ever before.

Eye biased towards Open Access Operators? Just fancy that!!!