Labour reshuffle - Eagle gone?

Maria Eagle has been moved from Shadow Transport brief, details of replacement to follow. #labour #reshuffle
— DeHavilland (@DeHavilland) October 7, 2013

Developing...

The elephant in the room at Labour's Party Conference

Cynics might be tempted to suggest that Ed Balls wobble on HS2 is a smoke-screen for the non-debate of the year.

According to LabourList Maria the Eagle was forced to shelve a debate on rail renationalisation.

Good news for 'thinly capitalised equity profiteers' everywhere.

Instead, the Shadow Secretary of State has renewed her calls for DOR to be allowed to bid for the East Coast franchise and for rail services to be provided on a not for profit basis.

One owner group is clearly taking this to heart and has shipped its entire European management team to an away-day jolly in Majorca!

All right for some. 

But who could this generous owner be?

Eye just hopes they all arriva home safely.

Maria the Eagle blusters on bonuses

Another belly flop from Maria the Eagle...

Labour's beleaguered Transport shadow opined...

“Commuters facing inflation-busting fare rises will be outraged at the scale of the bonus packages being enjoyed by a few at the top of the rail industry. This comes on top of the Tory-led Government cutting taxes for the most well off while millions pay more.

“Ministers must now act and make clear that bonuses on this scale are simply not appropriate in a company that receives nearly four billion pounds of taxpayers’ money every year."

Eye supposes it is just too much to ask for Maria to actually understand the industry that she mouths on about?

It is ORR that requires Network Rail to have a 'management incentive plan' (bonuses in Maria speak) not government! 

And it will be remembered that ORR is not part of government - the clue is its role as an 'independent economic regulator'.

No matter.

Of course if we are looking round for someone to blame for NR's bonus culture perhaps we might focus on the party in government when the company was actually set up?

Not much from Maria on that one, eh!

Exciting new Eye avian competition launched

Time for an exciting new Eye competition!

Please study these two statements contained in recent press releases from the RMT and Labour tranport team:

The RMT said: "The idea of “deep alliances”, as a forerunner to infra-structure privatisation, is already being piloted on a joint operation on South West Trains and has long been demanded by the train operators as a way of seizing complete control and maximizing profits. In addition to a series of failed “mini-Railtracks” across the country, RMT also expects the Command Paper to confirm a series of other damaging and potentially lethal proposals (cont p94)..."

Maria the Eagle said: "Even though Ministers have run away from fronting up these policy changes, we now know the government's intentions for the railway and they are deeply worrying. In future, as a result of so-called deep alliances, a single regional manager will for the first time be accountable not just to Network Rail, but equally to private train company bosses. The creation of a set of mini-Railtracks will take us back to the days when decisions on infrastructure and maintenance were profit-driven."

Now using your skill and judgement see if you can guess what three word phrase is hidden in the picture below:


Do you know what it is yet?

Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle - Transport

***Twitter suggesting Maria the Eagle to remain at Transport***

More to follow, although if it is true probably not...

Politicians & promises - Check against delivery!

This from Mwmbwls...

Maria the Eagle's speech is prefixed by the warning "Check against delivery".

In view of Labour's past performance and the discrepancy between aspirations to buy carriages, orders to buy carriages and deliveries of any carriages to relieve overcrowding - it seems like sound advice.

Note also no reference as to whether the enpowerment of local IPTA's could and should include the vertical integration of the rail infrastructure.

Perhaps Liverpool MP Maria has had her speech vetted by Councillor Mark Dowd, the man behind the recent volte face on Merseyside?

Labour abandons previous transport pledges?

Like her namesake Eddie, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary is going downhill fast!

This from Maria the Eagle, in the Evening Standard...

"The Tory-led government has delayed the completion of vital rail projects including Crossrail and Thameslink in London, cut new carriages planned by Labour and hit commuters with massive fare increases.

"At the same time they plan to only spend £750million of the £17.5billion cost of the proposed new high-speed line to Birmingham. Labour will next month launch a root and branch review of our transport policy with nothing ruled in or out.

"It would be irresponsible to make cast-iron spending commitments for beyond 2015 before we have listened to the public and come to conclusions about our future priorities."

Where is the Noble Lord when you need him?

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Could you avoid repeating Maria the Eagle's utterances on new train orders as it raises my blood pressure?

The 1300 HLOS vehicles promised in the 2007 White Paper shrank relentlessly under the last administration, to the point that the Coalition inherited live bids for only a handful of EMUs for London Midland and the putative Manchester Scotland Franchise which, come to think of it, sounds more like an Alliance Rail proposal than Government Policy.

Meanwhile 670 days and counting!

UPDATE: This from the Worlds Greatest Living Transport Correspondent...

Shameless bit of self-marketing...

I’m organising one of my Wolmar Transport Lunches on March 7th with Ms Eagle, where leading lights of the industry can try to influence her thinking!

Details from me at christian.wolmar@gmail.com

Lesser spotted Eagle threatended with extinction?

Looks like Ed Milibean is not alone in having his leadership skills questioned.

Maria the Eagle may also want to watch her back.

This from the North West Evening Mail...

A RAIL lobby group is backing Furness MP and Shadow Transport Secretary John Woodcock’s call for Barrow not to lose its direct train services to Manchester Airport.

Down boy!

Labour's new transport team is a flop - Official

This, unbelievably, from Simon Hoggart in the the Gruaniad!

Roberta (fetchingly played by Jenny Agutter in the film, and by Labour's junior transport spokesperson Maria Eagle in the modern version) would whip off her red pinny and go racing down the line to stop the 12.04 Newark to Lincoln flyer.

"Junior transport spokesperson"?

Maria is allegedly the Shadow Secretary of State.

She rose without trace.

Eye welcomes Maria the Eagle

Much excitement in Westminster this weekend following the news that Eddie the Eagle's sister has been appointed Shadow Transport Secretary.

Eddie, who was sadly unavailable for comment, said "My sister knows shedloads about transport, she even caught a bus once".

Maria Von Trapp is also famous for having a twin sister not called Maria and playing chess (according to an uncorroborated citation on Wikipedia) .

In slightly less depressing news the following also received junior shadow transport posts:

Jim Fitzpatrick MP
Andrew Gwynne MP
John Woodcock MP

Jim Fitzpatrick has some good indepth knowledge of Crossrail. Andrew Gwynne appears vaguely pro-railway and John Woodcock is MP for Furness... errr... where they once built locos and stuff a long time ago (will this do?).

Eye fears that any debate on transport cuts following the announcement of the CSR will be a pretty one-sided affair.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Aren't you missing something much more important about the Shadow ministerial appointments?

It seems that Tom Harris' blog has been saved for the nation!

UPDATE: Eye has been taken to task by both @BorisWatch and @TransportB...

Apparently it is official: Maria Sharapova likes chess, it says so here and here.

Perhaps more importantly, for the railway, Ms Eagle also says:

"I don't think you can do a proper operational ministerial job, which is about providing a function of the state, without going and having a proper look"

So. Farewell Lord Adonis! But your Pilgrimage of Grice lives on!