Bombardier to retraction LUL 92 Stock

Good news for the Shire!

This from Bombardier...

Press Release - Bombardier Wins Contract to Supply New Propulsion Technology to London Underground

- Bombardier to supply new traction systems for trains on London Underground's Central line

- MITRAC propulsion technology will significantly improve fleet reliability, availability and energy efficiency

The project will be led from Bombardier's Västeras site in Sweden, also leveraging the capabilities of other sites in the Bombardier manufacturing network. 

The installation of the first train, plus associated vehicle integration works and testing will be undertaken at Bombardier's Derby site in the UK.

Very good. Carry on.

Roscos and RMT make unlikely bedfellows

This from the Brothers!

Anyone care to tell RMT the difference between classes 707 and 458?

Silence of lambs as South Western fleets displaced

This from from Daddy Warbucks...

First MTR seem intriguingly reticent about the collateral damage from their new train bonanza for the South Western franchise.  

Asked by the jackals of the railway press about the implications for SWT's existing fleets all they will confirm is that the Class 707s (Angel - £240 million investment) will definitely be replaced.  

As for the expensively reconstructed Class 458/5s (Porterbrook £65 million) and currently-being-expensively-retractioned Class 455s (Porterbrook £40 million), the rest is silence - at least until after the standstill period.

Still Angel had the foresight to specify dual voltage for the Class 707s. And also now has the opportunity to spend even more millions on refurbishing and retractioning the 18 Plastic Pigs, AKA Class 442.

Our man who prefers letters to Class Numbers points out that under the Mk 3 Coach bodies of the  5WES is traction equipment from the legendary 4REPs which weighed 175 tonnes, had the power of a Class 55 Deltic and a notional maximum speed of 100 mile/h if someone was looking.

Let's hope whoever gets the contract to re-traction the Class 442s maintains this hooligan tradition. After all, they do hold the speed record on 750 Volt DC third rail.

HS2 and UCR 2016

Not a good week for HS2.

The Guido Fawkes website is running a number of articles on the project; suggesting that a crisis board meeting is being held today and calling into question the use of 17 PR agencies.

Meanwhile, UK companies looking to supply into the new railway are getting increasingly frustrated by HS2’s apparent insistence on strict adherence to the Utility Contracts Regulations 2016.

The UK rolling stock supply chain, having been burnt by previous government procurement exercises for both Thameslink and the IEP, is calling for UK content to be a contractual requirement for the new HS2 fleet.

HS2 remains adamant that under the EU mandated Utility Contracts Regulations this cannot happen.

If Chris Grayling is serious about securing a post Brexit Bounce for Britain's rail supply chain then a more flexible approach to HS2 procurement, that favours UK suppliers, must be mandated.

Otherwise the project's multi-billion pound spend risks disappearing off-shore.

DfT bashes the ROSCOs and adds to industry cost

Someone evidently has a sense of humour at Rail Business Intelligence!

The latest issue contains a report of a talk given to the Railway Study Association by DfT's Director Franchising, Pete Wilkinson.

He is recorded as bewailing lease costs for ex BR rolling stock:

"How come the ROSCOs get away with the price of second hand trains? It's got to stop."

Quite so Pete, quite so.

Rather elegantly RBI juxtaposed the whinings of DfT's very own Doctor Evil with a story about Eversholt refinancing £600m of senior debt; which according to CEO Mary Kenny, will allow the ROSCO "to respond to future investment opportunities."

As our American friends might say - do the math!

Such apparent naivety in understanding market value from the official charged with franchising will no doubt do much to gladden the hearts of thinly capitalised equity profiteers everywhere!

No matter.

Meanwhile, as DfT clearly has it in for the ROSCOs (again), expect fleet refurbishment to become more difficult as nervous finance houses price in political risk.

Government parks tanks on ROSCOs front lawn

This from Virginia Water...

According to the Pink-un yesterday:

The £1bn order for new trains for the Crossrail east-west London rail line will be among the first recipients of a government guarantee designed to revive investment in essential infrastructure, Danny Alexander will announce on Tuesday.

Your exam questions for today are therefore;

1. This guarantee is being offered to reduce the lease payments and hence long term rail subsidy bill.  On that basis, why doesn't the Treasury and DfT offer this finance to all future rolling stock deals?

2. If Treasury/DfT is guaranteeing all rolling stock, why not just RAB finance the lot?

3. What are the implications for the as yet unsigned Thameslink order? and

4. What does this mean for the future of the ROSCOs?

Privitisation is dead. Long live state intervention!

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Surely the deeply unpopular LibDems don't propose using this finance method to pay for the Thameslink fleet which will be built entirely in Germany?

Or the Crossrail fleet which will no doubt be manufactured in Japan and ahem... 'assembled' by three men and a dog at Newton Aycliffe.

Good to see taxpayers money being used to export skilled jobs overseas!

Refurbishing a train in three minutes

There's a nice time-lapse video over on Southern's website showing the refurbishment of a class 377 vehicle in 3 minutes.

Sadly it isn't embeddable so no chance of it going viral (railway PRs please note for future reference!).

No matter.

Eye's man in Croydon with the green ink writes:

"It's a really good vfm project (in-house, no long trips extending the non-availability of the unit etc etc)."

Good effort.

New Trains - 800 days of talk and no trousers!

This from Captain Deltic...

Today, 11 June, is the 800th day since the last rolling stock order was placed.

Note, placed, not preferred bidder selected.

Altogether now, and perhaps ATOC, Network Rail, Passenger Focus, RIA and Sir Roy McNulty might care to join in...

Why are we waiting, why are we waiting...?

HSBC's Eversholt sold - Banks out!

This from AltAssets.com...

A consortium of infrastructure investors has acquired UK rolling stock company Eversholt Rail Group from banking group HSBC.

Comprising 3i Infrastructure, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and STAR Capital Partners, the consortium is to acquire the whole group, which owns one third of UK rolling stock, in a deal valuing it at £2.1bn (€2.4bn). The payment is to be made with a mix of debt and equity.

None of the three major Roscos is now owned by a bank.

Eye wonders how much new trains will now cost?

CSR and new trains (or lack there of)

This from the DfT Transport Spending Review Press Notice...

The Government is currently considering revised proposals from Agility trains for the Intercity Express Programme. An announcement will be made in due course.

Because aspects of Thameslink and HLOS rolling stock programmes, as well as projects to electrify the Great Western Mainline, and the rail routes around Manchester and Liverpool, are interdependent with the IEP decision, a full announcement on all these programmes will be made at the same time.

Interesting.

This is the only mention of Thameslink in this document.

Meanwhile HM Treasury's Spending Review document makes no mention of Thameslink at all.

And whilst in DfT's Press Notice there is a vague reference to a project to 'electrify the Great Western Main Line' the Spending Review document refers only to 'supporting investment to improve journey reliability on Great Western Main Line services to Wales'.

So with both Thameslink and the electrification of the GWML in question new rolling stock on either route must seriously be in doubt.

Eye suspects that there are some very worried people in Derby and Tokyo tonight.

UPDATE: This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

This sounds as though DfT Rail's very own Mr Sisyphus has been awoken and told it's time to start pushing the Rolling Stock Plan back up the hill.

Inscrutable automatic operation coming soon?

This from Lobby Fodder...

I thought Eye readers might be interested in this photo taken at Wednesday's Election 2010 Rail Debate.

It is from the CSRE stand that was at the back of the room.


Clearly CSRE plans to avoid IR issues with traincrew by having robots drive their trains.

Lost and found #2

This just in from the Archdeacon...

This is what happens when the engine mountings of your (German built) DMU fail when travelling at speed:




How unlike the home life of our own dear Pacers.

Eye welcomes Pierre Attendu

Bombardier UK customers might find the below of interest.

Always worth knowing who is on the up.

UPDATE: This from Anagrammaticus...

Pierre Attendu = Train et Perdue !

So if he loses Thameslink, will he be on the "Down Fast" ?

Germans unveil low cost head end power unit

With a bowler tip to Turbostar...


Ouch!

Charge of the Light Brigade

Latest figures from Moley on how light the government is in its promise to deliver 1,300 new vehicles...

Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what orders for rail carriages have been placed to date under his Department's provision for new carriages under Delivering a Sustainable Railway; when he expects the remainder of such orders to be placed; and when he expects delivery of carriages arising from such orders to (a) commence and (b) be completed.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary):
543 vehicles have been ordered to date.

Discussions are continuing with train operating companies for the additional vehicles and announcements on these orders will be made in due course.

As Alfred, Lord Tennyson might have said: "Then they rode back, but not. Not the 1,300."

Tom's back up!

In the most extraordinary come back since Mandy's return to Cabinet for the third time Tom Harris has leapt back into the ring!

Tom leads with the right:

"Harris KO'd!"? Oh, I hardly think so, old chap!

"Your argument/article of faith that DfT specifies rolling stock is based on those occasions where the department - rightly and unavoidably - takes into account the rolling stock commitments of the rest of the network.

"How disgraceful!

"How dare the DfT look at the country as a whole when issuing franchises!

"And how comforting to know that your own solution is to have a Railway board.

"Membership drawn from... the good and the great from the World of Railways - only the self-appointed need apply (sounds like NR's existing Public Members. Ed) which will take no notice at all of the rolling stock that is committed in all parts of the country before giving the go-ahead to any franchisee's rolling stock plan.

That's not a recipe for disaster at all, oh no...

So would that be a qualified admission that DafT does indeed specify rolling stock then Tom?

LAST WORD: Tom concludes...

"No, or at least, not in the terms that you and Roger Ford constantly claim.

"It's up to TOCs to decide what rolling stock they want, but ministers wouldn't be doing their job properly if they didn't intervene - occasionally and only where necessary - to protect the wider network.

"Now go and hassle Andrew Adonis and leave me alone..."

If only the new minister were as accessible...

Poptastic!

***LNWR sold to Arriva***

Crewe should be so lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky

Flat fleet

Telegrammed by The Raver
Judging by his latest rant in Rail the batteries on Nigel Harris's calculator need changing.

He claims that the average age of rolling stock has halved since the bad old days of British Rail, which implies that at privatisation the average age of the passenger fleet was 26 years old.

In fact the true figure was closer to 14.5 years, not a great deal different from that of today.

Part of the reason for the higher average fleet age at privatisation was that the Sectors had been astute enough to retain some vehicles for seasonal peaks in traffic.

With today's chronic shortage of rolling stock what a far sighted policy that now appears.

Peter - we need you!

The Fact Compiler has an apology to make. He has in the past accused DafT of being clueless. He accepts that this is not true.

They are in fact completely clueless.

Railway Eye readers may recollect an amusing Parliamentary exchange on the 19th June when Tom Harris 'fessed-up that his civil servants have no idea how much rolling stock there is on the network and are reliant upon a Roger Ford crib.

Now of course this could not possibly be true because in January of this year DafT published a Rolling Stock Plan which said where new trains should go. So they must know where the existing trains are.

To help clear the matter up Shadow Transport Minister Stephen Hammond MP tabled a further question along the same lines asking the Secretary of State "on what date her Department ceased to hold and collate this information?"

Yesterday Tom Harris gave the written answer: "I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 19 June. This information has never been routinely collected in the Department."

The Fact Compiler hopes that the MoD doesn't allocate new rifles on the same basis that DafT allocates new trains.

Meanwhile an urgent message to Peter Fox: A case of your finest "Platform 5 Combi" spotter books to Marsham Street please!

Quid est veritas

It is no surprise that Parliament is held in such low esteem when Ministers and their Civil Servants can't be bothered to get their facts right.

Here a response, published yesterday (7th July 2008), to a question from LibDem Transport Spokesman Norman Baker.

Baker had asked for an update on the progress of the Competition Commission's investigation into the ROSCOs.

In a written answer Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour) said:
The Competition Commission are due to notify their provisional findings during the course of this month. The investigation timetable is set out on their website:
www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/ref2007/roscos/pdf/core-timetable.pdf

Don't bother following the link because the one given in the written answer doesn't work.

Perhaps just as well because the date given by the Minister for the publication of the provisional findings is at variance with that published on the CoCo website.

On the 7th July Tom said:
"The Competition Commission are due to notify their provisional findings during the course of this month (July)".

The Competition Commission says:
"August - Notifying provisional findings and (if required) possible remedies."

As misleading Parliament is a grave offence perhaps an apology from the Minister might be in order; followed by the ritual disembowelment of some of his more Spencer like Civil Servants who, it would appear, couldn't be arsed to read what the CoCo website actually said.