NRES - better late than never?

This from the Sleeper...

 

Nice of NRE to tell me that the 15:38  to Norwich is running 5 minutes late...two weeks after it happened.

Doh! NRES fail.

First million pound fare - Shocker!

Exciting news from the National Rail Enquiries website!

Regular Eye readers will recollect that ATOC was less than transparent when it announced the scale of fare increases last week.

A Mr Fergy-Lee has discovered the reason why...

And here in close-up...

Good to see the railway doing its bit to address the national debt.

ATOC - sound theology, poor proof reading

Good to see ATOC is gearing up for the visit of the Holy Father.

This via @NationalFailEnq, via Twitter...



How clever of NRES to alight on one of the three theological virtues.

The other two being faith and charity, or for our ATOC readers: aith and harity.

ATOC plans secret station opening - Shocker

Is ATOC secretly planning to open a new station?


Or does this page reflect its view of passengers?

Eye thinks we should be told?

UPDATE: This from Our Man in the Dark...

Since it's a Z code station it must be one of ours.

Are ATOC planning some kind of Underground takeover?

We should be told!

DB tank directed onto ATOC lawn

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
In summer ATOC announced that the entire National Rail Enquiries call-centre operation would be outsourced, at a cost of nearly 200 British jobs, to Bombay.

But now the trade association for Train Operating Companies has been outflanked by one of its own members. `

Plucky little Chiltern Railway, owned by Deutsche Bahn (one of the worlds largest rail and logistics operators) has dumped The Trainline as their on-line retailer in favour of an undisclosed supplier which also provides a UK based call centre.

The new arrangement will come into force from 1st February 2010, according to a confidential staff briefing issued yesterday.

Under the leadership of Adrian 'Hoppy' Shooter, now happily recovered from his recent knee operation, Chiltern has gained a reputation as a bit of a pathfinder TOC - witness the successful delivery of multiple Evergreen projects compared to the WCML upgrade fiasco.

Chiltern decided on the move due to customer complaints about Trainline failings, not least the Indian call centre's preference for selling Beardie Rail inclusive tickets from Brum and Kidderminster to London, rather than cheaper Chiltern only routings.

Since Chiltern is the model for longer franchises, Exponent Private Equity (who paid an eyewatering £163 million to Natex, Virgin and Stagecoach for the Trainline in 2006) must be feeling a tad nervous.

But not half as nervous as ATOC, whose former Chairman, Adrian Shooter, acts as an unpaid 'informal advisor' to the shadow Tory transport team.

NRES maps the future

This just in from the son of John...

If you are travelling to Dublin Ferryport and need local information then the National Rail website provides the following helpful map:


You have to zoom out a long way though to see any useful landmarks...


Perhaps Messrs Hall and Green (Stationers to Lord DafT Vader) could ask NR to shift a couple of their major stations into this Equatorial paradise?

NRES ahead of the game

DOS from Rugby writes...

This from NRES at 09:30 today:


Nothing like a bit of advance warning.

Have it awayday?

Good news for lusty users of timetable website nationalrail.co.uk

Adverts have started appearing on the site from Pabo, a company which offers intending rail users a range of diversionary products including the 'Prince of Namibia', 'Finger ring vibe' and 'Full size rear entry'.

The Fact Compiler compliments ATOC on selecting an advertiser who will reduce the number of passengers willing, or indeed able, to sit on overcrowded rail services.