Beardie Rail (East) plays trains

This from Virgin Trains East Coast...

"Four trains spanning four generations will travel side by side, in the same direction, along the East Coast Main Line on April 23 2017.

"This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the world famous Flying Scotsman travel alongside two trains from Virgin Trains’ revitalised fleet - an HST (Class 43), an intercity225 (Class 91) - and the rail operator’s brand new train, the Virgin Azuma (Class 800) which is being built by Hitachi in the North East, and will come into service in 2018.

"The four trains will travel together for several miles north of York to showcase the past, present and future of rail travel."

A nice of bit Beardie Rail PR that should look stunning from the air.

The event is being supported by Welcome to Yorkshire, Network Rail and the National Railway Museum.

Does Eye detect the hand of Stanton?

Benefits of the Deep Alliance explained...

This from ITV... 

 In an article posted on the company's website, South West Trains explained why the heat was affecting their services.

    Very hot weather can have an impact on the train service we can deliver. As with all metals, the track we use to run our trains expands and contracts depending on its temperature, i.e. the hotter it gets, the more it expands. Just like a car on a warm day, the metal can reach temperatures far in excess of the surrounding air temperature.

    Whilst we carry out a significant amount of work to prepare for the impact of hot weather by using hydraulic machines to artificially stress the rails to cope with high temperatures, over the weekend we have seen temperatures on our tracks of almost 50oc. The ageing condition of our infrastructure has meant that despite the preparation work that has taken place, we have had to impose speed restrictions at certain locations on our network

– South West Trains 

That's the way to do it! (Where's the video news release? Ed)

Network Rail: Clearing the Way

Just beautiful!

And so much better than any in the Cl 7x series...


Bet Petrol-head never saw one this big from his Jag window!

Anyone seen any decent shots of the Snowblowers?

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

My PS was always most impressed that station platforms had usually been cleared before trains appeared.

Of course my journey was much later in the day.

Perhaps something Sir David Quarmby will look into?

Network Rail gets all sexy!

This rather exciting corporate video has made it's way onto YouTube, with a bowler tip to Driver Potter...



Nice to see NR showing off their staff and business to the interested public.

I see no mention made of accountants and bonuses, though...

First shows First how to do it

There is no such thing as a bad dog, so the saying goes, merely bad owners.

Whilst FuCC languishes in the mire, its senior managers accused by passengers of being invisible, sister TOC First Great Western shows how to engage with customers.

This from the Bristol Evening Post...

The head of First Great Western is offering free first class tickets as a thank-you to customers for their patience during the bad weather.

Nice.

UPDATE: This from Forbes (not the magazine)...

But they’re only offering free first class tickets to people who use FGW as part of a prize draw.

Not an across-the-board demonstration of largesse, then, and certainly not to all their FGW commuters. (as per the link to the original Evening Post story. Ed)

Still, their PR machine must be doing well!

Maybe FCC realise that doing similar would enrage its 75,000 captive commuters even further.

If that were possible...

Cheeky Merseyrail slips one in!

This from Rudi over at Merseyrail...

Our walk-on fares aren't quite the same level as those for "Newquay to Kyle of Lochalsh" but then your whole family can travel with us for a Fiver!

During December up to two adults and three children can travel anywhere on Merseyrail's Northern or Wirral lines for only £5 on any Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday after 15:00hrs.

This great offer will be valid until 30th December 2009. For more details, ring our customer relations team on 0151 702 2071 or ask a member of staff.

And there is free parking at our stations too...

If you're travelling to Merseyside over the Christmas period why not take up Rudi's seasonal suggestion.

Not only is the train fast, cheap and easy, it's also less likely to be jacked up on bricks when you want to go home.

Royal visit to Workington North at speed

Forget London to Brighton in two minutes!

Here, courtesy of Network Rail, is the building of the emergency station at Workington North in just one minute and 43 seconds.

Apparently you can also see the visit of our future Sovereign at around the 49th second.



A very good effort!

And Eye congratulates all involved.

But can it be long before Messrs Hall and Green complain about the lack of a coffee shop?

Adonis freezes price of All Line Rail Rover!

This just in from @swlines via Twitter...

All Line Rover prices unchanged according to latest NFM!

Eye congratulates Lord Adonis for promoting this excellent product and ATOC for ensuring it remains great value.

Eye recommends the special offer on the 14 Day Rover here!

(And first class for 14 days is still less than one return journey between Newquay and Kyle of Lochalsh with Arriva Cross Country. Ed)

Mary Grant says sorry - Official

Are there no end to the talents of First Group's Mary Grant?

On Friday rail boss Mary enchanted the industry, and raised loads for street children, by doing a winning turn (or two) at the annual Railway Children fundraiser.

Eye understands that Mary was so taken by the roar of the crowd that she has decided to release a sung apology to furious FuCC commuters suffering a shortage of trains...




For those unable to view YouTube a hard copy of Mary's apology can be found here.

Workington - Railway to the Rescue!

This from Network Rail...

In the last 24hrs the company has identified a site for a new temporary station that could help alleviate some of the problems being experienced by the residents of Workington and the surrounding villages.

The new station will be built on waste-land just over ½ mile to the north of the existing station, reconnecting the two halves of the town that have been cut off following flood damage to the footbridges and road bridges in the area.

Good effort.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Anyone know why Cumbria's road bridges have proven so susceptible to the deluge whilst railway bridges appear to be holding up (no pun intended).

Perhaps the Highway's Agency and County Council have something to learn from Network Rail?

UPDATE: This from Nigel Harris...

I made the same point in my blog re Cumbrian bridges.

It’s a tribute to the job done by our Victorian railway forebears that they built these structures to last such that they shrugged-off the 1,000 year flood which closed, weakened or swept away the county’s road bridges.

Let’s hear it for the navvies and 19th century bridge designers!

UPDATE: This from Chionanthus virginicus...

Railway Civil Engineers have been particularly diligent after the disaster at Glanrhyd Bridge in October 1987, when the bridge was washed away by exceptional water levels in the River Towy. These under-scoured the piers and unfortunately in the darkness a DMU went into the water with loss of 4 lives.

NX charms Conference

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.

Lee stars in Return of the Dragon?

Good news for media in the South East!

Uber-PR, Jane Lee, is to return to the industry as Southern's PR supremo.

Eye hopes Ms Lee will forgive the use of her namesake's movie title...

UPDATE: Captain Deltic shares his favourite Jane Lee story.

A few years ago a car''s steering failed and it ran into Jane.

Surprisingly the car didn't come off worse and Jane was taken to hospital with a broken arm.

In casualty the doctor was about to cut away Jane's fashionable leather jacket to assess the damage.

'Cut this coat and you're a dead man' growled the patient. The jacket remained intact.

Welcome back!

Poop poop! The case for Mr Toad...

This just in from Waterbaby...

Might I offer a different view to that repeated in yesterday's Eye piece on the Virgin/Alstom 'pit stop' event at Wembley?

A couple of weeks ago, the 'Eye' appealed for someone (anyone!) to stand up and defend the industry to the wider media in the face of one of the motoring lobby's periodic assaults over funding for roads and railways.

Intemperate outburst about Virgin's attempts to present the railway as a modern, 21st century technology, show we have such a lot to learn.

Does anybody seriously think that the travelling public doesn't appreciate F1 motor racing for what it is - an exercise in contrived decadence?

I doubt Virgin/Alstom will be receiving too many letters of complaint suggesting they have betrayed rail's green credentials.

I actually applaud Virgin for still having the chutzpah and (with all the downs and, er, downs since 1997) enthusiasm to do such things, it gets the railway noticed in an unusual and glamorous way.

In Italy, on the other hand, Ferrari F1 team President, Luca di Montezemolo, is behind the NTV high speed open-access operation, set to launch in 2011 and what is more NTV's Alstom AGVs will be blood red too!

Would the moaning minnies sampling this 300+km/h service, reject it on the grounds of 'silliness'?

On a wider point, it worries me that any attempt at positive PR risks being dismissed by a cynical 'old guard' as a stunt.

How does this encourage younger recruits onto the railway?

The sooner we all recognise the importance of branding, image and, yes, PR/spin in making rail's case, the better.

I accept Virgin should be spending most of its time trying to get NR to sort the West Coast... but on this occasion, perhaps unusually, the criticism coming its way seems a tad harsh.

"Don't mess with us!" threatens NR

Either our armed forces are now so emasculated by fighting on two fronts that they can be whipped by a couple of HR dollies and Steve from Accounts...

...or Network Rail really does have some hard cases on the payroll.

This from an NR press release:

Who’s tougher? The Army, Air Force or Navy? None of them – it’s Network Rail. So proved our apprentices in the prestigious annual Junior Leaders Field Gun Competition, held at HMS Collingwood in Gosport, Hampshire. In the ultimate battle of strength, endurance, speed, accuracy and team work, Network Rail apprentices came out on top.

You pays your money you takes your choice.

UPDATE (belatedly): This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...

Apparently the winning team, (of ex-apprentices, note) have spent the last three months in Peter Henderson's boot camp learning how to rip out failed equipment on the WCML with their bare hands to save time and allow replacement in an eight hour possession.

Lookalike XX - NR abreast of the situation...

Good news for West Coast Main Line Passengers.

According to PR Week:

Network Rail has appointed Iris to handle an integrated consumer PR and advertising campaign... to showcase Network Rail’s £9bn upgrade of the West Coast main line.

Indeed and very splendid the ad is too.

Much to the chagrin of Virgin, who would rather the £2.4m campaign spend had been used to deliver a reliable railway.

But what's this?

Has NR appointed Iris as part of a charm offensive to win over Virgin's top man?

As regular readers of Eye will recollect Sir Beardie is very fond of being pictured with ladies in various states of undress.


As Iris also handle Wonderbra the potential for joint PR could be breath taking.

Traditional ceremony at Blackfriars

A nice touch from Network Rail as they started work at Blackfriars station earlier this week.


With a bowler tip to London Reconnections which has the full story.

EXCLUSIVE: FCC to reintroduce loco hauled stock

Telegrammed by our man in the 4 foot



The Fact Compiler would pay good money to see this on load 12 at Peterborough!

What's the headcode for a government minister?

The Minister of State for Transport has been brave enough to list his itinerary on The Times website.

It's not quite a blog in the sense that his predecessor would understand it - but it is a start...

Half tip of the Bowler to Andrew Adonis.

UPDATE: It gets better!

This from the second page of Adonis' "blog":

"As for cost, I am expecting to do the whole trip, standard class, for £375 – plus a sleeper supplement for the first night – using a seven-day “all-line rail rover”. This is a ticket no one seems to have heard of, perhaps because it is so poorly advertised. (Thought that was Barry Doe's line! Ed)

"It prompts the thought that we should be marketing these tickets more widely, not least to young people (who can buy the seven-day ticket for just £245) so that they can get to know their own country...".

What an excellent idea - it might also increase the percentage of the population who use rail services (currently a mere 11%) and encourage some national marketing of the entire network, sadly missing since privatisation.

An interesting challenge for ATOC. Will the Owner Groups let them do it?

UPDATE: This from John B...

No - 51% of people use the railways in any given year.

Only 11%-ish of journeys are made by train, which is unsurprising given that you're unlikely to get a train to the corner shop to buy milk...

Stand corrected - thank you.

Rudi... a message for you...

The Fact Compiler is unsure whether this is an All Fools' Day spoof or not.

According to the Liverpool Echo...

MERSEYRAIL will give away 10,000 pairs of flip flops to footsore racegoers after Ladies’ Day at Aintree.

The flip flops – branded with the Merseyrail logo – will be handed out by volunteers to women waiting to catch their trains from Aintree station on Friday, and on the day of the Grand National itself.

Either way it doesn't matter.

As the PR who placed the story tipped off the Eye, it gets in!

Good effort the PR team at Merseyrail!

Move over Ali Campbell

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Kevin Groves is little less than a God!!

Anyone who can persuade feared Standard Transport Corr Dick Murray that a miserly regulatory settlement which Network Rail nearly rejected is really a:

£35billion rail revolution

And splash it as a front page lead has to be in the running for PR Manager of the Year if not the Decade.

But what is this master persuader, who puts Ali Campbell in the shade, still doing at NR?

Any day now we expect an announcement that he has been called in by DafT to re-spin the 1300 vehicles disaster.

That will be a real challenge!