This from the CambsTimes24...
A FOOTBALL club manager was so embarrassed by the toilets at a March playing field that he ferried a visiting girls’ team to the railway station to use their loos.
Q.E.D.
This just in from a Leading Railway Periodical...
Eye salutes NXEA for managing to end Berney Arms millennia of isolation from the Queen's highway.
The formerly-doomed National Express is playing hardball, is spinning or has taken Lord Adonis' shilling.
This from the BBC...
Rail fares for National Express East Anglia are either being frozen or being reduced, the train company has said.
Eye awaits confirmation from Readers, Passenger Focus or Barry Doe (to whom we wish a speedy recovery).
UPDATE: This from Passenger Focus...
There will be some increases peppered around but broadly it appears to be true!
Good for them!
Whether restrictions have changed is something we are still looking into...
Happy news for beleaguered National Express share holders.
Today there will be a veritable love in between the doomed company and the Department:
This just in from Sinoda...
I wonder if Eye readers might be interested in news of an interesting promotion to be launched next week by NXEA.
This from an internal briefing:
Annual Season Ticket (AST) Holder Renewal Incentive
The AST Renewal Incentive campaign offers £20 back for every AST due for renewal between Wednesday 23rd December 2009 and Wednesday 6th January 2010, if renewed by Thursday 31st December 2009.
Customers will also receive the 2010 price if this is less than the 2009 price.
The objectives of this campaign are to:
Ensure that 2009 Annual Season Ticket (AST) holders renew in 2009
Draw forward to 2009 those AST due to renew in the first week of 2010
Capture the details of all those who renew and obtain their agreement for future marketing activity
Communication materials to support the launch include leaflets, posters, email, web site and a press release. This campaign launches Monday 7th December 2009.
Of course, providing a small incentive to persuade hundreds of your season ticket holders to renew their annual tickets early might also help the cash flow of a financially ailing parent company that's facing a huge bill from its bankers if it doesn't reduce its debt mountain before the said 31st December date.
And if you thought that perhaps your Rights Issue wouldn't go ahead after all and there was a possibility that the game might be up completely on the final day of the year, it would certainly be rather handy to have already collected all the extra cash that would otherwise have belonged to a possible new incumbent.
What a shockingly cynical view. Surely this is merely an example of the Customer Service for which NatEx is so widely renowned?
This just in from Brian Ayre (the low cost railway pundit)...
Will somebody please explain to the BBC that ending the c2c franchise on the date it was due to end, and not giving NXEA an optional three year extension, isn't "Stripping National Express of its remaining franchises".
I've had three calls from Aunty Beeb today - all using that phrase and when I tell them it isn't correct they go all glum, like someone has spoiled their party!
Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good story!
UPDATE: Captain Deltic calls to say...
Young Mr Miles did a sterling job on putting the record straight on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours.
UPDATE: I.K. Gricer has obviously kept Alistair Osborne up to speed over at the Daily Telegraph...
"Adonis backtracks on threat to take back franchises from National Express"
Indeed.
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
According to Lord Adonis:
In determining the future of the C2C and NXEA franchises, my overriding concern has been to minimise disruption to passengers and staff, and cost to the taxpayer, while ensuring that train companies stand by their commitments. I judge these objectives are best served by:
Much excitement from the Chatterati over the 'news' that National Express is to lose its remaining rail franchises.
This, for instance, from The Times...
National Express is to be stripped of its remaining rail franchise three years early, leaving the troubled transport company with just its bus business.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said today that it was terminating National Express’s East Anglia franchise after a decision to nationalise its East Coast main line rail service this year.
First point to make - this is not the application of Cross Default as promised by the Noble Lord during his slightly excitable interview with the Today Programme on the 1st July.Shouldn't something be happening soon?
'Nuff said.
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
I see that the LibDems have now also joined the clamour for NatEx to be stripped off their other franchises.
National Express East Anglia is currently responsible for procuring 30 four car Electrostar EMUs and is already on the maximum support under cap and collar.
Do we really want this dumped on the taxpayer?
Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
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)
Sky appears to have misplaced its Baker's Rail Atlas.
Or so it would appear judging by this headline...
More Rail Misery For East Coast Commuters
Alas, the story actually refers to industrial action on National Express East Anglia.
Of course attempting to travel up the East Coast Mainline via Norwich would be misery indeed - strike or no strike.
UPDATE: This just in from Leo Pink...
Given Mr Baker's propensity in his day job for coming up with at least a dozen radical new ideas a week, it may be that Sky has got hold of an advanced copy of the next edition of the Atlas!
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