This from Reginald Trumpet…
The likely first public diagrams for GWR's new IEP trains have appeared on the RAIL website:
This from the 14th March debate in the Lords on GWML Electrification...
Reproduced now, only because My Lord Bradshaw made such an elegant but pointed observation:
Lord Bradshaw (LD)
My Lords, the Great Western railway electrification scheme was designed in the Department for Transport; it was specified there and the trains were ordered there. However, the new trains and the new system will not provide a faster or better service than was the case 40 years ago, when I was general manager at Paddington. In future, will the Government look very carefully at whether there are better design and procurement methods to ensure that we get a scheme that delivers benefits to passengers and saves the taxpayer money?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I do not agree with the noble Lord’s premise. I believe that the new rolling stock that I referred to will bring passenger benefits. As I am sure he knows from his experience in and vast knowledge of the area, the IEP fleet, which is coming into service on the whole route, will run in both diesel and electric modes. That will provide flexibility in the delivery and appropriate scheduling of the electrification programme, which I accept is challenging.
'Challenging' is certainly one word for it. Others include... *REDACTED FOR REASONS OF TASTE*
This from Kaizen...
Featured as the Daily Telegraph’s Fund of the Week in last Saturday's investment feature was John Laing Infrastructure.
Its manager explained: 'The key idea is focusing on assets where we get paid regardless of how much they are used. This means it doesn't matter how many patients are at the hospital or how many people drive on the motorway'.
Listed at Number 8 in the Trust's Top 10 holdings is, a 27.5 year deal that meets all these criteria - our very own Intercity Express Programme.
This from Henry Hectare...
In the past Eye has been somewhat critical of a certain Mr Kipling's role in the procurement of new rolling stock.
The latest fleets for Thameslink, East Coast and Great Western were specified and procured by the DfT, often against the best advice of those who actually have to operate them, and not withstanding passenger (sorry - customer) fury about uncomfortable seating and the absence of wifi and sockets.
No matter!
Surely this could all have been solved by simple recourse to the wise words of the World's Greatest Living Transport Correspondent?
But what do we find when we turn to an epistle from Mystic Wolmar, penned for the pages of RAIL Magazine in 2004, as Virgin Trains launched its first "tilting" Red Revolution timetable:
"It is obvious that the Voyagers or Pendolinos must not be used as the model for new rolling stock for inter-city services and let us hope the lessons from their failings are learned. The HSTs are going to need replacing, probably by the end of the decade, and the same mistake of having modern trains that are less pleasant than the ones they are replacing must not be repeated...
"The sensible option would be for the SRA – or, rather, its replacement – to commission a new design for the trains and insist that they be used on the Great Western franchise where most sets are required and for any other similar routes. Why should a franchisee design trains when they are but temporary holders of a management contract, especially given that when things go wrong, we all know who foots the bill."
Wise words indeed. If only Mr Kipling and his legions in the DfT had listened to Woemar's sage advice! (Is this right? Ed)
This from Howard Wade...
Reacting to today’s news that the government is to build a dedicated further education college to train the next generation of train engineers for HS2, Alistair Dormer, Hitachi Rail Europe's Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said:
"We are very pleased the government recognises the importance of good infrastructure. Hitachi Rail Europe is investing in Britain’s future through a new factory at Newton Aycliffe, in County Durham, which will employ 730 people building trains for the home and export market with Made in Britain stamped on them."
Where will this proud claim be 'stamped', we wonder?
No doubt some journalist with an inconveniently long memory will ask to be shown the precise location?
Telegrammed by Sir Humphrey Beeching
Although retired I still receive all the Departmental bumpf, including updated pages for the DfT officers handbook.
One replacement page in the post today foxed me, but my sharp eyed lady wife spotted the change
In the section on abbreviations and acronyms (there is a difference, you know), all the initials were the same, but IEP now stands for Intercity Extension Project now defined as 'Further life extension of IC125 high speed diesel trains, with re-engineering and reliability upgrades to 2025 or 2035'.
I look forward to seeing what my erstwhile colleagues will make of the SOFA (currently Statement of Funds Available) following October's Comprehensive Spending Review.
Telegrammed by The Master
The Cassandra's of the railway are ever keen to predict the demise of the IEP (too bloody right. Ed).
However,if rumours circulating around the industry are to be believed, the project may have legs yet.
For no sooner had nationalised East Coast lost one IEP Project Director to Nexus than they immediately appointed another one!
Apparently it will be no less a figure than John Veitch, whose previous role was introducing another troublesome fleet - Virgin's Pendolini.
A welcome return to the industry for John, who starts at the state owned operator tomorrow.
Meanwhile Eye wonders who is picking up the tab for the post - East Coast or DfT?
Exciting news from Hitachi!
Obviously despairing of ever signing a UK contract for the Frankenstein Train the inscrutable manufacturer has apparently sold the concept overseas.
Eye wonders if the Haramain High Speed Rail Project is being advised by the genii in our very own DfT?
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
According to this written answer from Chris Mole MP on March 24
From 2005 to October 2009, the Department for Transport has spent £21 million on the Intercity Express Programme. This resource has included financial, procurement, programme management, technical, legal, industry, business case and other specialist advice required to ensure the successful delivery of a project of the scale of the Intercity Express Programme. This figure should be considered in the context of the Intercity Express Programme contract value of £7.5 billion.
Now, since the preferred bidder Agility Trains is struggling to raise £500 million in funding to get the project off the ground...
And since this will only buy around 170 vehicles...
And since DfT Rail is still talking about starting on the East Coast Main Line...
And since this would mean replacing the IC225 fleet prematurely and result in a substantially higher train leasing cost...
And since Great Western Electrification is still at an early stage and is unlikely to be completed before 2017...
And since the cautious civil servants at DfT Rail who aren't 'cranks' are discussing with the ROSCOs life extension of IC125 to 2035...
That £21 million is a scandalous waste of money and the project should be cancelled forthwith!
And before putting his name to answers like this Moley should ask for a breakdown of where that spurious £7.5 billion figure comes from.
This from then Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon, in February this year:
"This announcement demonstrates that this Government is prepared to invest, even in difficult economic times, by improving our national infrastructure. It is good news for the British Economy that over 12,500 jobs will be created and safeguarded; good news for the regions that the Government is supporting significant inward investment; and good news for passengers that we are taking the steps necessary to improve their rail journeys."
Good news indeed.
But what's this?
According to Hitachi yesterday, as reported by Yahoo:
The deal, expected to be inked by March 2010, is worth one trillion yen (11.36 billion dollars) and will create up to 500 jobs, the official said, adding that the location of the assembly plant remained undecided.
So where are the rest coming from?
UPDATE: This from J Alfred Prufrock...
Since the Agility Trains consortium is struggling to raise £500 million of funding for IEP, Hitachi must be wondering whether under 200 vehicles are worth building in Japan, let alone in a new factory in the UK.
No wonder DfT Rail is actively discussing life extension of the FGW IC125 fleet to beyond 2030.
And that's before the austerity measures cut in after the election.
Good news for fans of the IEP (Sid and Doris Bonkers).
This from Leasing Life...
A shortage of liquidity has meant that financing for one of Britain's largest ever rail projects, the Intercity Express Programme (IEP), will be sourced through five or six tranches of debt-raising rather than through one or two lump sum payments as had been originally planned.
While the delivery of the first batch of trains is likely to take place one year late (in 2014 rather than 2013 as was originally planned).
Isn't this all a bit previous?
The Department hasn't actually signed a contract for any of these trains yet.
This from a Mr Saltaire...
Remember the Eurostar court case which resulted in the railway coughing up damages and costs to a courier company for using their name?
A Google search on Super Express brings up a Polish tabloid newspaper and a customs clearing agent in Dubai, amongst others.
With the cost of each Super Express train rumoured to be nudging £32m, additional legal costs are the last thing the project needs.
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
And still more from 'Not the 2014 show'...
'Transport planning will be much more effective if bodies such as Passenger Transport Executives and local authorities have clarity over more than five years. Ultimately, it will enable the industry to deliver what its customers want, and to do so more efficiently'.
Which was the aim of the 10 Year Transport Plan , now in its final, sadly unfulfilled, year.
Industries get into trouble when the last person retires who remembers the last great cock-up. And 2000 does seem a very long time ago.
Perhaps the authors of the new cultural revolution should read the manifesto of John Prescott's cultural revolution.
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Yet more from Beyond 2014:
'The largest ever rail enhancement plan will be implemented in CP4',
One of the main features will be:
'introduction of Super Express trains, offering more seats on busy long distance routes'.
Routes plural?
By 2014?
The deal has still to reach financial close. And smart money is already on this being a replay of the Intercity 250 programme which bit the dust in the last recession.
This just in, surprisingly, from the late Sir Arthur Sullivan...
After reading the ongoing expense scandals involving our MPs a connection has as last been been made !!
IEP obviously stands for the "Incidental Expense Provision" aka The MP's Gravy Train
Or to paraphrase what my colleague Mr Gilbert once wrote...
When in that House M.P.'s decide,
If they’ve a claim or an allowance, too,
They’ve got to make that claim, beside
The Fees Office did go and tell 'em to.
But then the prospect of a lot
Of rich M. P.’s in close proximity,
All claiming for themselves, is what
No man can face with equanimity.
Then let’s rejoice with loud Fal la – Fal la la!
That Nature always does contrive – Fal lal la!
That every Hoon and every Hogg
That’s flipped a home or cleaned a moat
Is either someone we’d like to flog
Or else a person who’s lost our vote!
Fal lal la!
To the tune of 'When all night long', from Iolanthe
Telegrammed by Our Independent Expert
Does the cab trade know something we don't?
Taxi drivers plying Preston railway station have reproduced images of the new IEP train on their business cards.
Railway hands with long memories will recall there's a great tradition of train-making in the city - with the prototype Deltic being built in English Electric's Strand Road works.
Perhaps this explains the Hitachi poster on show at Railtex earlier this month...
"Proudly made in Britain!"
Is this perhaps stretching the Trades Description Act a little too far?
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
This written answer given in the House of Commons on the 18th March:
Theresa Villiers (Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Transport; Chipping Barnet, Conservative) | Hansard source
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether his Department assessed Bombardier's bid under the Intercity Express Programme contract to be substantially compliant with the specifications set by his Department.
Paul Clark (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Gillingham, Labour)
Both bids, from Agility Trains and from Express Rail Alliance (which includes Bombardier) were of a very high quality and were deemed substantially compliant.
How did Orwell put it? All trains are substantially compliant, but some are more substantially compliant than others?
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Lord Adonis may know more about railways than the average transport minister - and we have had some outstandingly average transport ministers in recent years, but not enough to spot when his officials are embroidering the truth.
In a letter to an MP whose constituent had asked the Walmsley Question (why not loco haulage for IEP?) the noble Lord rehearses all the old canards and as a clincher concludes:
"The French railways have recognised these arguments and so the next generation of the TGV, the AGV, will operate as distributed traction with all vehicles carrying passengers."
So there!
Except that French Railways have nothing to do with AGV, which is an Alstom private venture.
And French Railways are still ordering TGV Duplex with power cars at each end.
They have noted the AGV development, but really want double deck trains for capacity. Fitting traction packages underneath double deck coaches would be un peu difficile
When anyone tries to drag in the French to support a technical argument, it's a sure sign they know they've met their Waterloo.
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