Bombardier to retraction LUL 92 Stock

Good news for the Shire!

This from Bombardier...

Press Release - Bombardier Wins Contract to Supply New Propulsion Technology to London Underground

- Bombardier to supply new traction systems for trains on London Underground's Central line

- MITRAC propulsion technology will significantly improve fleet reliability, availability and energy efficiency

The project will be led from Bombardier's Västeras site in Sweden, also leveraging the capabilities of other sites in the Bombardier manufacturing network. 

The installation of the first train, plus associated vehicle integration works and testing will be undertaken at Bombardier's Derby site in the UK.

Very good. Carry on.

Dark night of the soul for BoJo?

This from Lord Lampost...

Platform 5 at Woking on Thursday.

Boris' joy must be complete!

LUL has a Lady Bracknell moment?

This from Underground Ernie...

I see that TfL slipped this out on New Years Eve...

London Underground (LU) and Bombardier Transportation today announced that the signalling contract for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines (Sub Surface lines) will be re-let by LU following discussions between the two companies

To lose one signalling supplier, Mr. Brown, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.

Engineering the Underground

This, from the Institution of Civil Engineers, is very nice...



Good effort.

HMQ celebrates 150 as LUL plans for more!

Good to see Her Majesty the Queen celebrating 150 years of London's Underground!

Happily HMQ appears in rude health aboard the Derby built S stock - with a bowler tip to the BBC.

Eye salutes you Ma'am!

Meanwhile, London's railway is clearly gearing up for the next 150 years, judging by this note sent out by TfL Rail supremo Mike Brown on Monday:

Organisation of London Underground & London Rail
I have decided to make some changes to the senior structure of the Rail and Underground team as follows:

Chief Operating Officer (COO), London Underground
Phil Hufton, the current Chief Asset Performance Officer will become the overall COO for LU combining his existing role with that soon to be vacated by Howard Collins. He plans to organise the team structure on a line group basis, following the principles already established for reorganisation of Tube Lines and APD.

Further details of the structure will be announced in due course, but for the time being Howard Collins remains as COO, with full operational control of London Underground services, and will work to support Phil to put this new structure in place over the next few months.

Director of Strategy and Service Development
Gareth Powell will take overall responsibility for London Rail, alongside his existing responsibilities.

Jonathan Fox will be the Acting Director of London Rail and will report to Gareth.
 
Rory O’Neill will become the Acting Director of the DLR and he along with Danny Price, Head of the Emirates Airline and Sharon Thompson, the Director of Tramlink will report to Jonathan.
 
Mike Stubbs, Director Overground, will continue to have a dual role for the Overground and Crossrail. He will have a direct reporting line to Howard Smith for the Crossrail responsibilities and to Jonathan for his Overground responsibilities.

Andrew McIntosh, Head of Concession Management will report to Howard Smith as most of Andrew’s role and that of his team is around the Crossrail concession.

Director of Capital Programmes
David Waboso will work across the Rail and Underground teams to bring a coherent model for the delivery of capital programmes.

There are many challenges ahead which, I am sure, will make use of all the many talents within the wider Underground and Rail teams and Phil, David and Gareth, with Jon Fox, Mike Stubbs and the rest of their teams will work to exploit synergies across our organisation.
 
Further details will be announced in due course.
Mike Brown, Managing Director

Very good. Carry on.

Collins to Upside-Down-Land

This from the Sydney Morning Herald...

THE man who made the London Tube work during last year's Olympics will be the next boss of Sydney's rail system.

Howard Collins, made an officer of the Order of the British Empire for his management of transport during the Olympics, will be the first head of Sydney Trains, the new organisation to run trains in the city.

The appointment continues a long tradition in Sydney of appointing British rail executives and has been hailed as a coup by the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian.

And so the brain drain down under continues! 

Britain's best value senior railway manager?

According to TfL's annual report Mike Brown's salary was £310,734 last year.

He is managing director of both London Underground and London Overground, which together carry more passengers than the national rail network.

According to the Standard today, based on an FOI request from @MayorWatch: 

London Underground managing director Mike Brown did not claim for any taxis during 2010 and 2011. His total expenses for 2010 came to £112 and in 2011 £710.95.

Good effort.

A stock farewell - Back to the future?

This with thanks to @13MilePost...

Good to see London Underground sending the Metropolitan line A stock off in style today.

Here Howard Collins, LUL's Chief Operating Officer, stands next to the last A60 stock at Harrow on the Hill.

The Cravens built trains entered service on the Met on the 12th June 1961 - over fifty years ago. They have been displaced by Bombardier built S stock. 

Below the Metropolitan line's General Manager (holding the commemorative headboard) stands in front of a set of the new S stock at Amersham.

So 'Back to the future'... ahem... in more ways than one!

Circle line Stations of the Cross

This from the Catholic Herald...

Commuters forced to ponder the inscrutable workings of London Underground’s Circle Line were this week offered a new diversion. An anonymous artist has designed a pamphlet depicting the 14 Stations of the Cross and has arranged them so they sit alongside stations of the Tube line.


The artist created the beautiful paper-cut illustrations having "found idle train trips an amazingly fruitful time for prayer & contemplation".

The non-profit project, dedicated to JM, can be viewed on-line at the Stations of the King’s Cross website.

Good effort.

Circle line boosts T-Cup with kettle - Shocker

This from Eye's Man 'Neath the Streets of London...


Sarah Siddons and Beattie well tank pictured at Baker Street this morning.

LUL's ERU to get 'Blues & Twos'

According to the Docklands and East London Advertiser...

The ‘rapid response’ teams called out to tackle emergencies on the London Underground are getting ‘blue light’ priority and police drivers to get them through traffic.

A trial is being carried out with British Transport Police to halve response times, with TfL emergency vehicles being fitted with the same flashing blue lights used by police, fire and ambulance services.

About time too!

LUL's Emergency Repsonse Unit really is London's 4th Emergency Service.

ToT appoints Parry to First bid team

This from First Group...

FirstGroup has appointed Richard Parry to its rail bid team.

Richard joins FirstGroup from Transport for London (TfL) where he worked for 19 years in a range of senior roles, most recently as Deputy Managing Director and Director of Strategy and Commercial for TfL’s London Underground and Rail divisions.

Richard has a outstanding record of leadership and delivery with a strong focus on customer service and considerable experience of engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders which will be invaluable in his new role heading the Group's bid for the InterCity West Coast franchise.

An appointment that will not surprise TfL watchers as Richard previously worked for Tim O'Toole when they were both at LUL.

LUL gets all 21st Century over upgrades

Good effort.

Bobby flags a warning

This from Messrs Saxby and Farmer...

With so much attention devoted to the job losses at Derby caused by the importation of railway rolling stock, it behoves us to point out that employment is at risk at our former partner Messrs Westinghouse at Chippenham, which we now understand is known as Invensys.

This is because of the decision by the Metropolitan Railway to resignal its sub-surface lines in London with a signalling system from Bombardier.

Given the eximious performance of Messrs Westinghouse in resignalling the Victoria line, and how gratifying to see the late Queen so honoured, it seems perverse to import yet another novel signalling system, untried in the UK.

As Mr Douglas Hames, the Honourable Member for Chippehnam has remarked, 'When we have such exceptional engineering talent in our country that wins contracts abroad, some of us may wonder why we are not more successful at winning contracts at home'.

We remain sir, your obedient servants...

Pointless signs - D Stock

With a bowler tip to @DriverPotter...


Perhaps a method of PIDD signage that in future may benefit the North?

TfL budget hit by revised listing

Good news for lovers of architectural gems!

This from The Architects Journal...

Charles Holden’s St James’s Park Underground Station and the London Underground Headquarters has had its listed status upgraded from Grade II to Grade I.

Not such good news for TfL though, who would dearly love to realise the value of this prime piece of SW1 real estate.

No doubt fare payers will be happy to make up the resulting budgetary shortfall.

Mediaballs - Evening Standard

Good news from Dick Murray on the Standard!


But what's this?


Oh Dick - flay those subs alive!

Brown replaces Brown at London Rail

This from TfL...

Ian Brown, Managing Director, London Rail

Ian Brown, who has led London Rail with such great distinction over the last 10 years, has decided to retire from Transport for London.

In a career spanning over 40 years, Ian has made an outstanding contribution to public transport and the rail industry, and I know that he fully intends to remain active in the industry for many years to come.

In the meantime, I would like to acknowledge just some of the radical improvements delivered for passengers under Ian’s leadership:

• The transformation of the Docklands Light Railway, which has been integral to the growth of Canary Wharf and the wider redevelopment of east and south east London

• London Overground, established just three years ago, has improved services beyond all recognition, with new air conditioned trains, safe, fully staffed stations and massively increased customer satisfaction

• The East London line, reopened in May and linking Hackney and Croydon, is delivering huge economic and social benefits to some of the poorest boroughs in London and providing the first major stage in what will become London’s ‘orbital railway’

• Croydon Tramlink, taken into the TfL family and now providing an excellent service to passengers in south London

• Oyster pay as you go, now available for use on national rail services in Greater London, vastly improving convenience for millions of passengers

• A fresh and compelling vision for better use of the National Rail network in London, delivered through concrete improvements to franchises over the past few years, and has brokered an effective partnership with Network Rail which has delivered improvements

Ian has also been central to making the case for Crossrail and representing TfL’s interests as joint sponsor of the project, and also as future franchiser, as it has moved from the drawing board to implementation.

Over the years, Ian has made also made a wide contribution to the railway industry. In 2007, the Secretary of State for Transport appointed him to the Railway Heritage Committee where he is using his experience to preserve our railway heritage. In September 2009, Ian received an award for ‘an outstanding personal contribution to the rail industry’ at the National Rail Awards.

Ian will leave his current role after the TfL Board meeting on 4 November and take up an advisory role on London Rail and Crossrail until he leaves TfL on 31 March 2011. The way in which London Rail operates in the longer-term will be considered as part of our wider review of TfL’s organisational structure under Project Horizon.

In the meantime, Mike Brown will become Managing Director of London Rail, alongside his existing role of Managing Director of London Underground. Howard Smith will replace Ian as a joint TfL sponsor of Crossrail, with a mandate from Mike Brown. The Crossrail joint sponsor team which currently reports to Ian will transfer to Steve Allen, Managing Director of Finance.

I am sure that you will all join me in thanking Ian for everything he has done for London’s public transport, congratulating him on a remarkable career so far, and wishing him well for the future.

Peter Hendy
Commissioner
Transport for London

Underground runaway - some thoughts

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
LUL’s little difficulty with a runaway engineer’s train is now subject to a RAIB investigation.

Without wishing to prejudge this, or indeed add to the media frenzy, the Eye would like to make mention of various people to whom the Underground and Londoners owe a debt of thanks.

So firstly a deep doff of the bowler to the Northern line controllers and signallers who responded so well to an unprecedented situation, cleared the line and by so doing prevented an incident of far greater magnitude taking place.

Eye offers another doff of the bowler to the Northern line motormen and women (Train Operators) who, when faced with a whole set of new instructions over the radio, put their faith in what they were being told by Control and got on and did it.

The Northern line is led by General Manager Jeff Ellis.

Jeff is a heavyweight railway operator, who cut his teeth as railway incident officer for the Moorgate accident. Although one of a dying breed in an increasingly politicised TfL, Jeff will have inclulcated in his team a professional approach to railway operations.

These tried and tested skills served Londoners well on Friday.

Meanwhile, with the ever present threat of cuts hanging over public sector LU perhaps Jeff could help top up the Northern line's coffers.

Eye suggests he hires out his railway controllers to Eurotunnel - who proved not nearly so adept at handling the unexpected in real time last Christmas...

UPDATE: This from Lock and Load...

Just thought you might want to know that Jeff has been looking after projects at LUL for a couple of months now and that the Northern's GM is Pat Hansbury.

Regardless, what a fantastic demonstration of professional operating though.

Tube Lines recruits old hand

Andie Harper has been named by TfL as the Chief Executive designate of Tube Lines.

Recruited from Aecom Andie was formerly the Chief Exec of Metronet - again appointed by TfL after the doomed private contractor was brought back in-house.

And he is no stranger to the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, having been MD of Infraco JNP when it was in shadow running mode, prior to privatisation.

Better the devil you know...