This from National Express...
Mary Grant, former chief executive officer, Phones 4U, will join
National Express in July 2013 as Managing Director, Business
Development. Her role initially will be to work on international growth
opportunities. She will increasingly focus on UK Rail opportunities
during 2014.
Who'd have guessed?
This from NatEx owned C2C...
National Express train company c2c is backing Leanne Jarvis, daughter of train driver Dave, in the live finals of the BBC One show ‘The Voice’.
Dave, who has been driving c2c passengers for the past 10 years, has been making tannoy announcements each time he drives a train urging passengers to vote for his daughter, who is one of the final 12 contestants in the television programme.
And now c2c is putting posters up at its stations urging the 90,000 passengers who use c2c every day to support Leanne in this weekend’s live programme, in the hope she makes it through to next week’s semi-finals of the competition.
This from Sky News...
The former head of Network Rail, Sir John Armitt, is to become the new chairman of National Express, the bus and rail operator.
The smooth and urbane Armitt should compliment the more forthright style of NatEx's Chief Exec.
Come to think of it perhaps National Express should consider a rebrand to something more up-market?
Armitt & Finch has a nice ring to it!
UPDATE: This from the Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit...
You may want to on-pass the following to National Express.
My spell checker always wanted to correct 'Armitt' to 'Armpit'.
Fortunately it never got into a press release...
This from Modern Railways...
O'Toole and Franks leave National Express Group.
Eye hopes that hasn't spoilt yesterday's Brain Teaser.
No doubt readers have seen the extraordinary piece about Stephen Buy-us in yesterday's Sunday Times?
£5,000 per day and boy, did National Express get their money's worth!
According to the Sunday Times 'a source close to Richard Bowker, who was chief executive at the time, said that the Byers version given to the undercover reporter was “pretty accurate”.'
Unbelievably Eye has come across a transcript of the very meeting between Buy-us and Adonis at which the future of NatEx was discussed!
It went something like this...
'Andrew, good to see you again. Look, you know that Richard Bowker's in a bit of a tight fix. You know a bit dicky on the cash flow and he's been a slightly reckless boy.'
'Well, we must help him out, Stephen, he really is too valuable to lose and Natex is a really great company. What do you suggest?'
'Andrew, I am not sure but just give him a bit of a bung. Nothing much, a couple of hundred mill will tide them over nicely.'
'Good as done Stephen me old mate, I'll get the cheque signed tomorrow.'
'Andrew, thanks a million, no pun intended,and by the way can I get Jo Moore to do a press release for you?'
'That's a great idea Stephen.'
You couldn't make it up.
UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...
It gets better.
Buy-us now claims that:
"I have never lobbied ministers on behalf of commercial organisations and have always fully disclosed my outside interests."
How does he reconcile this with his previous claim to the Sunday Times and Dispatches hacks that he had struck a secret deal with Lord Adonis last year on behalf of National Express?
UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...
So Buy-us now claims that he lied about striking a deal with Lord Adonis on behalf of National Express.
Unless of course he is lying when he says he lied - if you get my drift.
Which makes him a liar which ever way you look at it.
Do MPs still have to resign when they are caught lying or doesn't it matter now?
And if Buy-us is lying about lying where does that leave Lord Adonis?
UPDATE: This via Radio 4's World at One...
The DfT has confirmed that Lord Adonis and Stephen Byers did speak about the National Express franchise.
UPDATE: Guido launches an on-line petition...
Asking the Queen to strip Stephen Buy-us of his Privy Council Membership
UPDATE: Lord Adonis on Byers...
Adonis confirmed this afternoon that he had had a brief conversation with Byers.
But, he said, "I had no intention whatsoever of renegotiating on favourable terms with the company; such a move would undermine the franchise system and would not be in the interests of taxpayers."
"I have had no communication with Mr Byers since, I have not the faintest idea why he said what he said to the undercover reporter."
UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...
Adonis confirmed this afternoon that he had had a brief conversation with Byers.
But, he said, "I had no intention whatsoever of renegotiating on favourable terms with the company; such a move would undermine the franchise system and would not be in the interests of taxpayers."
Oh really?
According to DfT notes of a meeting between The Thin Controller and NX on 9 June 2009 obtained under an FoI Request:
"AA noted that for NXEC if RB said it had to come back at the end of the month and the DfT had to step in, a management contract or Section 30 would need to be put in place. The DfT would need to get its skates on to get this in place."
So in June Lord Adonis was clearly receptive to the idea of a management contract.
What changed his position and made him determined that NX would never darken another franchises door again?
Perhaps it wasn't Richard Bowker who wound him up but Byers!This from the Daily Telegraph...
Dean Finch, the boss of London Underground maintenance company Tube Lines, has emerged as a leading contender to be the new chief executive of National Express.
That was quick.
Dean only joined the beleaguered Underground contractor in June of this year.
Perhaps a case of frying pan to fire?
Telegrammed by the Velopodist
This nonsense has just reached me from National Express:
Fares from £13* – it's a mystery how we do it
*One-way fare from London to York
It's no 'mystery' - they just lose lots of money.
UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...
The ad might have read London to York once upon a time…. but now it says Edinburgh to York.
Perhaps NXEC is paying attention to The Eye?
Judging by a conversation yesterday with one of their senior execs that is indeed the case...
Telegrammed by Party Animal
An impressive performance from NX railwaymen at this year's party conferences.
Despite challenging circumstances they put up a good show.
Each TOC sent their PR, the MD's took turns to be seen and Franksy was visible throughout.
But the pièce de résistance was reserved for the Tories. Bring forth Lord Bunting of Schmooze!
Impressive lobbying! But is it too late?
No matter - Good effort.
This from an astonished reader...
Renaissance Trains has certainly been behind some radical changes to the industry in recent years.
But it's not just Open Access where they have left their mark.
Or so it would appear, judging by this statement on their website:
"Mike is a recognised expert in the areas of rail customer services, both non-board trains and at stations."
So this is where National Express got the idea for 'non-board' catering!
The Fact Compiler spent an enjoyable morning listening to The Long View on the wireless.
This from the BBC blurb on the programme...
A once-prestigious and highly-profitable enterprise, GWR had over-extended itself and the company faced bankruptcy. As debates rage over the future of the East Coast Main Line, Jonathan and guests compare the action taken to rescue the railways in the 19th century with the challenges faced today.
The guests included Graham Eccles, Robert Wright and Terry Gourvish, some of whom are pictured here at Didcot (with a bowler tip to Robert Wright's flickr page).
For those who missed it have a listen on the BBC's iPlayer.
Alternatively it is repeated tonight on BBC Radio 4 at 21:30.
This from Accountancy Age...
The future of railway group National Express is under a cloud after Ernst & Young raised doubts over the troubled transport giant's ability to continue.
At least the weather in the United Arab Emirates is nice.
Eye wonders whether Beau Bowker will be sending a postcard to his former Davis Street colleagues?
Eye has waited and waited and waited.
And still no one has provided a new, improved, video mix of this song.
Here it is in all its glory.
And here something else to mix with it.
Please, someone, do the decent thing...
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Has the erudite Gricer Lord finally lost the plot?
Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat)
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the parent company loan obligations in the agreements for each of the current railway franchises.
Lord Adonis (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Labour)
Details of all franchise agreements that are not deemed to be market sensitive are published in the Public Register at www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/public register.
Information pertaining to loan arrangements between individual franchisees and their parent organisations are a matter for the parties to those agreements.
Wait a minute.
These committed loan agreements are determined by his Department.
Had his Department thought that NXEC might need a bit more spare cash in case of hard times, it could have required NEG to provide a larger committed loan - as has happened with other franchises in the past.
So loan arrangements between franchisees and their parents are a matter for government and therefore the taxpayer.
Les aristos a la lanterne!
Eye wonders if the Noble Lord is beginning to rue his cocksure assertion that NatEx will loose all its franchises?
This written answer given on the 13th July (and just for Doubting Sim here's the source)
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative):
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport
(1) what legal advice he has received with regard to cross default provisions in rail franchise contracts;
(2) if he will publish any legal advice he has received with regard to cross default provisions in rail franchise contracts.
Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour):
Legal advice on the issue of cross default in the context of the franchise agreement is privileged and confidential; therefore, it will not be published or divulged.
This has all the makings of a Mottram Moment!
Despite My Lord Adonis consigning National Express' franchises to the dustbin of history the company is still looking on the bright side.
This from the National Express East Anglia press office (via email, sadly missing from their website)...
The Cromer Pier summer seaside special is on track as National Express teams up with the cast of the famous end-of-the-pier show in a unique double bill at Norwich station on Friday 10 July at 10.00am
Read that again...
National Express... teams up... end-of-the-pier show... double bill... 10th July!
Quicker even than the noble Lord had dared hope for!
Or perhaps it's just Beau Bowker's official leaving do.
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
Surely National Express would rather see the end of the 'peer' show?
This from Crow Bar Bob over at the RMT...
“Both Andrew Adonis, and Geoff Hoon before him, made it quite clear to RMT that if National Express defaulted on the East Coast they would be stripped of the c2c and East Anglia franchises and that there would be no reward for failure. We are calling on the government to stand firm, to get this company off our tracks and to seize the opportunity to begin a long-term programme of renationalising the railways.”
Perhaps My Lord Adonis and Geoff Hoon of that Ilk should have looked at the contracts a little more closely before making promises they can't keep.
Captain Deltic lets National Express off the hook, in an Op Ed piece in tomorrow's Times...
So the National Express bid was not uniquely optimistic. Nor, given the prescriptive nature of franchise specifications, did it make unrealistic promises. The problem was that the franchising process was locked into an expectation of perpetual growth. It was a perfect system until the economy failed to play by the rules.
Steel hand, velvet glove.
Fortunately the Prime Minister assures us the downturn started in America.
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