Brooker-Carey joins Crossrail

This from PR Week...

Crossrail has hired the former comms director of Tube Lines to shake up its PR team.

Louise Brooker-Carey will join the company behind Europe’s largest civil engineering project in August as head of public affairs.

She will report to newly appointed chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme, who also starts in August and will be responsible for shaping the future of the comms team.

As Head of Public Affairs Brooker-Carey will also need to have a good working relationship with other board members, especially the chairman of Crossrail.

One Terry Morgan who, before joining Crossrail in 2009, was CEO of Tube Lines and her former boss.

LUL - In the Brown stuff...

Telegrammed by Spinning Charles Yerkes
The pink ‘un had an interview on Friday with London Underground MD Mike Brown.

Brown, recently restored to us from his sabbatical at Heathrow, throws full light on the fall out from the collapse of Tube Lines.

• Northern line resignalling delayed until after the Olympics

• Piccadilly line upgrade postponed sine die, with further development work required on the signalling interface between the Picc and District in west London where they share right of way but not Infracos.

• The interface between the Met line and the Jubilee line – another rubbing point between Metronet (dead) and Tubelines (almost deceased) – is cited as a project where things could have gone better.

• The £1 billion resignalling of the Sub-Surface lines is being rescoped and relet next year, much to the dismay of Invensys (formerly Westinghouse) who had been a shoe-in under the Metrodebt tied supply chain but must now compete in open contest. Completion is not expected until 2018, until when the new S Train fleet will potter around under the old electro-mechanical arrangements, with train stops, and not get anywhere near the 50% increase in capacity promised.

• Jubilee line resignalling, due for completion this autumn, won’t be. “We have not yet got into the detail of where we are on the programme and where its delivery schedule should get it,” Mr Brown told FT hack Robert Wright.
  

Beg pardon?

TfL agreed to buy Tube Lines in early May.

In two months, with full access to everything Bechtel and Amey ferrovial were doing, is it such a shag up that LUL still can’t discover an end date? (Yes. Ed)

Dame Shiti Vadera is 48 (ish, according to wikipedia) and Gordoom Brown is missing.

Tube Lines recruits old hand

Andie Harper has been named by TfL as the Chief Executive designate of Tube Lines.

Recruited from Aecom Andie was formerly the Chief Exec of Metronet - again appointed by TfL after the doomed private contractor was brought back in-house.

And he is no stranger to the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, having been MD of Infraco JNP when it was in shadow running mode, prior to privatisation.

Better the devil you know...

Uses for Dead Tree Media #1

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
In the current extremely cold weather it is vital to maintain body temperature.

You may need additional insulation.

Why not use abandoned copies of dead tree media (pictured).


This public service announcement brought to you by the Tube Lines ambience team, who are obviously resting.

Underground musings...

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
With Tube Lines over-time on resignalling and way-over the PPP Arbiter's budgetary allowance can it be before the Government calls in its project doctors of choice?

Jubilee Line Extension running late and over budget threatening the opening of the Dome - boot out inefficient old London Underground managers and bring in Bechtel.

West Coast Route Modernisation running late and over-budget - boot out inefficient old Railtrack managers and bring in Bechtel.

How long before the inefficient old Tube Line managers are also booted out and Bechtel are called in to fix the mess?

(Shome mishtake shurley Ed)

Mystic Wolmar on the ball. Tube Lines not.

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
Mystic Wolmar's crystal ball is working well these days.

On the 13th December he predicted the demise of Tube Lines, the other half of the dead and rotting PPP Siamese twin, Metrodebt.

Lo and behold today Regulator Bolt obliged, favouring LUL's projected £4 billion to Tube Lines demands for £5.7 Billion, creating a new £1.3 billion funding gap for Tube Lines' lucky owners - Bechtel (no laughing at the back) and Gruppo Ferrovial, or a descoping of the work the PPP delivers or, as is most likely, a windfall for Sue Grabbit & Runne.

Say goodbye to more accessible stations on the JNP network, new trains for the Piccadilly Line. And a big cheery welcome to a lot of empty desks at the glitzy Westferry Circus Tube Lines HQ.

Tube Lines was not happy and Dean Finch, outgoing CEO told financial news agency Bloomberg "A settlement at this level is not conducive to private- sector involvement in the Underground, nor does it reflect the reality of the Underground working environment".

Strong words from a man already leaving the troubled world of PPP for pastures new at errrr.... doomed National Express.

Dean Finch to NatEx?

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?

Tube Lines threatens gardens - shocker

The Eye has been inundated by furious emails from Railway Garden fans following a shock Tube Lines announcement.

According to a press release issued today:

Tube Lines has become the first railway company in the UK to eradicate Japanese Knotweed (fallopia japonica spp), thanks to a pioneering weed killer.

Fortunately Network Rail can be trusted to keep the Railway Garden Competition in business for quite a few years yet...

PPP woes bode well for Crossrail

Yet more good news for Londoners!

According to Tube boss Richard Parry, quoted in today's Gruaniad...

"Regrettably, we now harbour grave doubts over Tube Lines and Bechtel's ability to deliver the upgrade of the Jubilee line by the end of December, which they are contracted to do."

Strange.

Surely Transport for London is not calling into question Bechtel's project management skills?

Surely not.

Why only four months ago the TfL Board rubber stamped Crossrail's decision to award the £400m Project Delivery Partner concession to err... Bechtel - based on the US company's supposed ability to deliver complex projects on time and to budget.

Of course every cloud has a silver lining.

With Crossrail looking set to be caped after the next General Election there'll be no risk of the project overrunning.

Better the devil you know...

Outgoing Tube Lines boss, Terry Morgan, has let rip at TfL in the FT today.

Terry Morgan... said the comments of senior figures at Transport for London, the London mayor’s transport organisation, were sometimes based “on emotion, not fact”.

“I think people have to think through the consequences of some of the things they are talking about,” Mr Morgan said.

Comments surely designed to delight senior figures in TfL, for whom Mr Morgan will be working when he joins the transport organisation's Crossrail subsidiary as CEO.

Mind you.

No doubt all will be forgiven the moment Dean Finch takes over at Tube Lines.

Be afraid, be very afraid

This from NCE...

Tube Lines appoints Dean Finch as chief executive

To paraphrase Mrs Malaprop: Tube Lines' loss is First's gain...

UPDATE: This from The Raver...

Fury at London Underground!

Chapter of faults

The battle to be Terry Morgan's successor at Tube Lines has begun.

The Independent on Sunday is touting internal candidates Andrew Cleaves (commercial director ) and Steve Hurrell (finance chief).

Mind you the Sindie also touted Rob Holden for the Crossrail top job.

And yes, The Fact Compiler got it half wrong as well.

Silver lining

Telegrammed by The Raver

Which senior LUL director was overheard saying that Metronet's collapse was a blessing in disguise?

The reasoning from the 7th floor of 55 Broadway is that Crossrail would have been almost impossible to build due to the over complicated PPP contracts.

These would have provided greedy private sector Metronet with infinite opportunities to hoover up vast sums of public money in frustrated access compensation claims.

Presumably Tube Lines, under Terry Morgan's direction, will be taking a more pragmatic approach; unsurprising as the wily poacher will turn gamekeeper at Crossrail in 12 months time.

Crossrail new chairman

So Terry Morgan will be the new chairman of Crossrail.

Morgan, currently boss of Tube Lines, will start work in November next year, according to a story filed by Dan Milmo last Thursday.

But what's this?

There is still no mention of this key non-executive appointment on the Crossrail website.

Perhaps unsurprising therefore, that none of the Sunday's could be bothered with the story either.

Memory loss

The Tories are having a field day putting the boot into Gordon and Shriti's disastrous Tube privatisation.

Quick to jump on a bandwagon, and shift the blame for bad news, is the instantly forgettable Tory shadow Secretary of State for Transport who is now blaming Tube Lines' cost overrun for the likely cancellation of the Cross-River Tram.

Read the Boris Watch story here

A bit rich coming from the party which privatised British Rail, resulting in a massive increase in interfaces and costs, leading to many desperately needed network improvement schemes being shelved as too expensive.

Synchronicity

***Is The Fact Compiler alone in noticing that the RMT called off tomorrow's Tube Lines' strike within hours of Tim Parker leaving Transport for London?***

Oh happy circumstance.