Rail franchise gets lyrical

This from our Independent Expert...

Is this a modern day first?

Northern Rail have deployed a quote from a lyrical book about the railways for a forthcoming series of posters to go up at sites around the network (from Michael Williams's latest book On the Slow Train Again).


In the olden days, of course, the rail publicists loved this kind of thing (cf Night Mail and those old Edgar Anstey BTF documentaries which are all ever so fashionable again).

But has this ever happened in the hard-headed world of the privatised railways?

No doubt those attending ACoRP's annual jolly in Sheffield tonight will be keen to discuss...

Virgin fails to learn from aviation experience

This from Our Independent Expert...

Q. Would Virgin Airlines allow one of it's planes to fly with bits missing?

A. Exactly!

So why is this Glasgow arrival at Euston last night in such a scruffy state - a sight increasingly typical of Pendolinos.


Perhaps VT and Alstom no longer care about their corporate image.

But it's the sort of thing that bothers passengers who have the choice of taking the plane.

UPDATE: This from West Coast Maintainer...

Your correspondent suggests passengers would have been unimpressed at boarding a Pendolino with a missing coupler hatch.

As a defender of the passengers I presume he'd have been happier for it to run empty to the right depot for repair whilst the service was cancelled?

I think perhaps passengers would be happier to know that their train was going to run, even if a little ugly, rather than see it set off without them only to be told "we thought you'd rather wait for the next one rather than suffer the humiliation of sitting in a train with a plastic door missing."

Pendolinos are certified to run with the coupler hatches open, or removed, at line speed.

Old Lady lifts skirts to break record

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A First Great Western HST broke speed record from Plymouth yesterday afternoon with record time of 2 hr 43 minutes.

Not bad for a 35-year-old dowager.

FGW will be hoping that Messrs Osborne and Cable have noted in advance of next week's spending review...

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Not sure that a dowager would strip down to five cars and go like smoke.

Perhaps we should refer to 'train of a certain age'.

Certainly IC125 is more Anne Bancroft than Margaret Rutherford.

Here's to you Mrs Robinson

UPDATE: This from The Skip...

84139 PLYMOUTH 12:50 12:49A 1 EARLY
73000 PADDINGTN 15:31 15:33A 2 LATE

Sadly booked for 2h41, did it in 2h44, saeth TRUST!

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...

TRUST is a rounder-up of figures..

I was at the table in front of official timer John Heaton - he is rather more accurate than TRUST!
(and I was wearing a radio controlled watch - as supplied to many TOCs)

By my watch:

Train departed Plymouth at 12:49 & 55 seconds

Came to a halt at Paddington at 15:33 & 18 seconds

So - 2h 43m 23 seconds

TRUST lies - Mr Heaton told FGW "2:43 and a few seconds, I'm just checking the stopwatch" at which point FGW announced "2:43", so TRUST should probably say 2:43.

AND as a couple of bits of rather poor regulation cost 3.5 minutes - according to Mr Heaton - the official time could have been under 2:40 if only those errant signallers had done as well as the rest of their colleagues along the route!

I no longer trust TRUST...

UPDATE: This from a Mr Bruce, who claims he knows what he is talking about...

Why does Mr Miles no longer trust TRUST?

The results are exactly as expected. TRUST works in hh:mm and truncates the seconds.

"Train departed Plymouth at 12:49 & 55 seconds" will be captured by SMART to the second and stored in TRUST as 12:49 - 1m early.

"Came to a halt at Paddington at 15:33 & 18 seconds" will also be captured by SMART to the second and stored in TRUST as 15:33 - 2m late.

Now you may say that we should be working to seconds in TRUST - but aside from the cost of altering the software, what is the point when the contractually timetable is published to the nearest half-minute?

And what does departure mean if you start working to the nearest second? When the doors close? When the wheels turn? When the platform is vacant for its next use?

UPDATE: This from The Sleeper...

Noting Tony Miles comments on TRUST...which is older, an HST or the TRUST system?

UPDATE: This from the aforementioned Mr Bruce...

And in answer to the question, "which is older, an HST or the TRUST system?", it must be the HST because TRUST started its implementation in 1985, if I remember correctly, just a year before I started work on it. This was on the LMR, plugging into the LM's ATR system.

It didn't capture class 2 and 5 units across the entire network until the beginning of Railtrack days and contractual regimes.

And I have a vague recollection that it didn't do automatic data collection on the Western until early Railtrack days when it plugged into various bits of Western signalling.

UPDATE: This further update from Mr Miles...

The point I was making about TRUST is that it is irrelevant when determining a speed record... (especially when it rounds by removing the seconds in the way it does.. according to TRUST the train started moving 55 seconds before it actually did... remind me to pass that really useful information to the organisers of the 2012 Olympics - it will make the race timings so much easier...)

100m - 1 minute
200m - 1 minute
400m - 1 minute
800m - 2 minutes
1500m - 4 minutes

Need I go on?

UPDATE: It would appear so. More from Mr Miles...

And might I just add that for the purposes of setting a time record it is from the moment the train starts to move until the moment it stops... (As has this thread. Ed)

Railway Garden Competition - Exeter Central

This from our Independent Expert...

Can't see the trains for the trees...



Buddleia heaven on the down line at Exeter Central yesterday

Hybridballs

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Extra traffic from air disruption seems to have gone to Virgin's corporate head.

Weary standard class passengers on 17.56 Preston to Euston Voyager tonight were evicted with heavy luggage to recreate first class from standard class four-abreast coach they were already sitting in on grounds there were not enough first class seats.

When one passenger complained: "'I've paid nearly 100 pounds for this ticket" he was told by aggressive train member of train staff: "These are the rules mate, you've got to move right away. It's a hybid".

Hybrid?

Doh?

There will be many on tonight's train who will be cheering the return today of domestic air services.

UPDATE: This from the Premier Line Controller...

It is in fact just so - Virgin has returned to the the concept of the Composite coach, with a small twist.

Seating in Coach D is almost entirely table seating with generous legroom and a neat retractable table leaf to accommodate corporate growth (NB = corpus as in Habeas Corpus) and the coach has all the required services to operate as a First Class saloon (with a big on-line nudge and a wink!), as required.

Maybe some similar design initiative can be undertaken with the Pendolino fleet to make up for the non-appearance of coaches J and K, in the foreseeable future.

The 50 steerage passengers counted standing on a Sunday service to Glasgow between Euston and Bank Quay, and joined by a further crowd at Preston (many 'standing' for the full 4 hours 40 minutes) might well have appreciated a reverse regrading of a coach or two at the London end of the train.

Maybe a permanent working for a 12 -coach VT64?

Uses for Dead Tree Media #1

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In the current extremely cold weather it is vital to maintain body temperature.

You may need additional insulation.

Why not use abandoned copies of dead tree media (pictured).


This public service announcement brought to you by the Tube Lines ambience team, who are obviously resting.

First for quality branding

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First no drivers - now no paint...


This quality offering seen at Agincourt International on Tuesday.

Mixed trains return to the ECML?

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Looks like hard-up NXEC is bringing back mixed trains.

Senior Conductor on a packed HST from Newcastle this afternoon:

Will people with bulky luggage please tell the guard who will lock it away in the brake van...

Presumably with the pigs, chickens and smokey anthracite stove?

UPDATE: This from Shiny Shoes...

Just curious why a 'senior conductor' was working a NXEC HST (or any of their trains for that matter) as such grade does not exist on NX.

Admirably and sensibly NX use the correct term guard.

The term senior conductor was part of the 'train crew' concept of the 80's that sought to bring some promotional steps to the role... (cont p94).

In any event, as far as the public were concerned the term senior conductor was all a bit silly, there being no 'junior conductor' on any train worked by a SC.

Death of the machine - Shocker

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The fightback against mechanized mugging has begun!

This seen next to a vending machine on the down platform at Wickford today:


Perhaps a portent?

One heralding the return of decent on-train nosh in East Anglia?

(Start lobbying Stagecoach now folks. Ed)

Scooped!

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You're only as good as your latest story – as the saying goes in the Street of Shame.

So what should we make of the covers of the Railway Magazine and Rail sitting together on the newsstands today.

The monthly Railway Magazine has a hot front leading on the GW electrification on top of a pic of Grand Central's new Adelantes.

The fortnightly Rail's front misses the electrification story altogether from its cover, squeezing it into just a single column on Page 9.

Pigott scoops Harris! Now there's a story...

UPDATE: This from an 'Old Hack'...

Given that RAIL was the first of the newstand magazines to cover the GWML electrification story, I'm not sure your independent expert can claim Railway Mag got the scoop.

When is a scoop not a scoop? When a rival has published the story a week before.

And I can't remember how long ago it was that RAIL published a picture of the first GC Adelante driving car in that rather handsome black livery (let's hope the aircon doesn't fail on a hot sunny day!)...

UPDATE: This just in from Mr Harris himself...

Oooh, 'Independent Expert', what a tease you are!

'Old Hack' is quite right of course - we'd already reported this and goodness knows what else, ages ago - but methinks Eye's 'Independent Expert' does us a gross disservice in this case which, in the interests of accuracy, I feel compelled to point out.

The RAIL you mention went to press on Wednesday July 22, while the electrification announcement wasn't unveiled until July 23, fully 24 hours after we'd all gone to sleep in P'bro, after our fortnightly exertions.

This being the case, come on - please - not even a hint of a bowler tip for squeezing in the essential facts, as remarked, fully a day before the story was known?!

The vagaries of publishing schedules, eh?

In a weird sort of way, we scooped ourselves, let alone The Railway Magazine, illustrious organ though it is, edited by my good friend Mr P.

That's got to be worth something!

I'm off on leave for two weeks now, so keep up the good work.

UPDATE: The Fact Compiler wishes to pour some soothing balm on these troubled waters.

As Fat Mark pointed out two weeks ago...

The Gruaniad actually had the story Wednesday morning!

And Radio 4's You and Yours led with the same at lunchtime.

So first to be last was the Gruaniad.

Of course regular Eye readers had been kept up to date with the emerging details long before all these Johnny-come-latelies had even put fingers to keyboards!

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

Finger to key boards and the Gruaniad?

You've got to be joking. It's not a keyboard but a dictaphone you need.

Many of recent transport stories in the paper are so riddled with Adonis quotes that they look as if they've been dictated by Andrew himself!

At least there is now an official channel, bypassing both Parliament and the Department, allowing Lord Adonis to talk directly at the British people.

Perhaps TOCs should consider dumping The Times and replacing it with the Gruaniad as the preferred on-board newspaper?

Probably best to do it now before it appears as a requirement in the Noble Lord's new franchise agreements.

MacPIXC

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Hot news from Britain's remotest railway station

On Wednesday's 08.45 from Rannoch to Fort William, passengers boarded the Caledonian Sleeper only to discover there's standing room only.

As one agitated Sassenach put it:

"It's taken us 12 hours to get all the way here from London and now it looks like we've imported the rush hour."

2009 Railway Garden Competition #11

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The grass grows ever greener.

We know that Kent is famed as the "Garden of England", but looks like Network Rail staff are taking it a bit too literally at Canterbury West pictured yesterday.


How about some Canterbury Belles to set off the scene?

BBC news editors off the rails, part 94

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According to the 7.30am headlines on Radio Four this morning:

"The government is to spend £1bn electrifying the West Coast Main Line to Cardiff".

Come to think of it, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend an additional £1bn on the WCML.

Mediaballs #1

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BBC news editors off the rails again!

The BBC Radio 4 news at 9 'o' clock this morning refers to c2c as "London, Tilbury and Southern" while a Today reporter describes Stansted Express as a "franchise".

Sloppy journalism?

Or do they know something we don't?

A new era unfurls #6

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Today's sorry saga on the West Coast Main Line gets worse.

Arriving at Euston at 17:30 there was rush hour meltdown, in heat.

Only two Virgin services were running north and none from London Midland due to a "signal failure at Harrow and Wealdstone".

Passengers were advised to go to the Cross and Marylebone.

In the crush you could hardly see the Network Rail posters proclaiming what a good job they had done.

A new era unfurls #5

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Another f-up on the West Coast Main Line today because of signal problems on southbound lines.

Glasgow-London trains packed this afternoon as they are being forced to make extra stops to deal with all the delayed passengers along the route.

How timely that the 'gentleman' of Network Rail will soon be stepping up to take their bonuses! And how well deserved.

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Virgin Train's affable COO, Chris Gibb, is understood to have signed up with the Brian Souter School of Railway Invective (Motto No BS with BS) in preparation for his next meeting with Iain Coucher, because the problem signals are between Harrow and Wembley which also went tits up on Sunday!

Severn Valley to avoid doomsday?

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Do BBC news editors ever travel by train?

Thursday's News at Ten reported on the global warming threat to "national infrastructure"... with a shot of SVR track washed away in floods two years ago!

Mind you, if it secures additional government dosh then it's time to head to Kidderminster.

Spoilt for choice

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Network Rail news ticker snapped on northbound Thameslink platform at St Pancras today.


It reads: "The government is being lambasted for 'stupendous incompetence' today following a catastrophic Department of Transport project."

Which particular one have they in mind?

Commuters friend?

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No danger of Paul Clark, the Medway MP tipped to take over from Adonis as rail minister, being lynched by passengers.

Rather than join the great unwashed on the daily commute from Gillingham he decided to rent a London flat, using £1,200 a month of our money.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I have nothing to hide".

First for broad mindedness

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Welcome to Scotland - land of tolerance

This from the Caledonian Sleeper latest brochure.

"You may have to share your berth with a person of the same sex".

Just don't light up afterwards.