Partnership breaks out on WCML - Shocker!

This from Rugby Tackle...

Thought Eye readers might be interested in this.

It's appeared on a number of railway intranet sites today:

Network Rail's Euston Delivery Unit were the proud recipients of the Golden Pendolino presented by Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson. The award is made each period to the team that has made the most significant contribution to keeping the trains on the West Coast running on time.

Sir Richard said: "I have never shied away from openly criticising Network Rail and before that Railtrack when performance has slipped to unacceptably low levels. So it gives me great pleasure to say thanks and congratulate the team for all their efforts in improving service for our customers. We look forward to more progress in the coming months."
 
Nice! 

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Golden Spanners, Golden Whistles, Golden Laptops (Siemens) and now the Golden Pendolino!
 
All that's needed now is the Golden Kipper for train catering in honour of Modern Railways' late, great Gourmet Gricer Brian Perren.

PR industry salutes Virgin's ICWC campaign

This from PR Week...
 
Virgin Trains and Fishburn Hedges' successful campaign to save the brand's rail franchise has won Campaign of the Year at the PRWeek Awards 2013.

Inevitable and well deserved. 

Virgin in denial over departure - Official

According to the Sunday Times, Richard Branson has gone off-shore. 

Has Beardie also taken all his webbies with him?

The forlorn picture of a recently departed VT director of communications still greets visitors to Virgin Trains' Media Room:

Eye understands it is not the first to flag this incongruous image with VT.

Evidently, Arthur is proving a hard act to follow, as predicted...

Virgin reshuffles the cards!

Virgin Trains  bosses Tony Collins and Chris Gibbs quitting Branson's firm
— Gwyn Topham (@GwynTopham) October 7, 2013

Gosh!

UPDATE: Chris Gibb confirms he is to retire.

Eye doesn't believe a word of it! He'll be back!!! 

UPDATE: This from Virgin Trains...

Virgin Rail Group (VRG) today (7 October 2013) confirmed details of its management team moving forward as Tony Collins, Chief Executive Officer and Chris Gibb, Chief Operating Officer  announced plans to retire after combined service of nearly 25 years.

Both Tony and Chris will step down this month.

Tony, who has had nearly 14 years with Virgin Trains and nine years as Chief Executive Officer, said now was the right time to hand over to a new team with the decision over the next West Coast Main Line franchise scheduled for 2017. He will remain as a consultant to VRG, ensuring the company retains access to his vast knowledge and experience for its franchise bid strategy.

Chris has also announced his retirement, after 10 years with Virgin Trains including six as Chief Operating Officer. Chris, a career railwayman, is hugely respected across the industry. He recently spent time with Network Rail, advising them on how to deliver performance improvements across the West Coast Main Line route.

The new management team will be overseen by Joint Executive Chairmen Patrick McCall and Martin Griffiths from shareholders Virgin Group and Stagecoach Group. Both have been involved in the management and growth of the business for more than a decade and will now chair the monthly executive meeting and drive the bid and growth strategy.

Phil Whittingham, as Director of Finance, is stepping up to become the Lead Executive. Phil Bearpark, Production Director, will become Director Operations and Customer Service and will also be the safety system duty holder. Patrick McGrath remains as Director Human Resources, while Graham Leech, Executive Director Commercial, and Andy Cross, Director Business Support, will also continue in their current positions. Each of the Senior Management Team has more than a decade of experience at Virgin Trains and together will have full responsibility for delivering every aspect of the business performance on a day-to-day basis.

Sir Richard Branson said: “Tony has been a wonderful leader of Virgin Trains over the past nine years, spearheading the development of a world-leading railway which is loved by its customers. He combines a brilliant grasp of the details of running the business with a passion for its people and the passengers.

“Tony, Chris and the team at Virgin Trains have transformed the West Coast Main Line from a laughing stock into Europe’s busiest long distance rail service. We have cut journey times, improved service and radically changed people’s experiences. Tony is passing the baton to a hugely experienced senior management team at Virgin Trains who are focused on how we can make services even better for our customers on what is on the backbone of the UK rail network.”

Sir Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Chairman, said: "Virgin Trains is a fantastic partnership between two innovative transport groups. Tony, the wider management team and the thousands of people at the sharp end of delivering the train service for customers have done a superb job of making our joint vision of transforming rail travel a reality. There is more growth to come and the team we have in place will ensure we have continuity and experience to build on these achievements."

Tony Collins said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed leading Virgin Trains and working with the wonderful staff to build a railway service that we can be truly proud of. We have come a long way in the last 10 years and we could not have done it without the amazing support of our people. We overcame all the odds last year and I know the team at Virgin Trains will carry on delivering the excellent customer service and innovation that we are famed for. It has been a great ride.”

Chris Gibb said:  “Delivering great customer service truly is a team effort, requiring not only great staff, which we have in spades at Virgin Trains, but also co-operation between the different stakeholders across the industry. I am especially proud of the part I have played in bringing these important individual parties together to deliver improved performance. That's the foundation which great service is built on and I'm confident the team at Virgin Trains will continue to deliver further improvements to the service we provide for our customers.”

ENDS

Cinders - you shall not go to the ball

This from The 10 Cities...

Eye favourite Beardie Branson hosted two weekends of parties this month - to thank Virgin Trains' employees for hitting record satisfaction scores of 92%!

To enable onboard staff to share in the celebrations, without impacting on customers, a number of office managers volunteered to help aboard trains.

Alas!

The RMT responded by balloting for industrial action over managers doing members' jobs!

Railways - dontcha love 'em?

ORR declines Blackpool and Shrewsbury paths

This from the ORR...

ORR decision on West Coast track access application

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has decided at this stage not to grant access for additional services to Blackpool and Shrewsbury on the West Coast Main Line (WCML).

Extensive analysis of Virgin Trains' recent application for new passenger services on the WCML showed that there is not currently sufficient space on the line to run all of the additional services. The proposals would have also caused further deterioration in punctuality by adding traffic to what is already a very busy route, on which Network Rail is currently not meeting the punctuality targets it has been funded to deliver. The proposals would have a detrimental impact on the journeys of millions of passengers travelling on the route.

Note. This announcement has been made in advance of the adjudication of the Access Disputes Committee, which was due to give its view on Friday...

UPDATE: This from Messrs Dot & Tittle...

Presumably NR will, under the terms of the Access and Management Regs 2005, now have to declare the West Coast to be congested infrastructure

23.—(1) Where, after the co-ordination of requests for capacity and consultation with the applicants in accordance with regulation 20(4), it is not possible for the infrastructure manager to satisfy requests for infrastructure adequately, the infrastructure manager must declare that element of the infrastructure on which such requests cannot be satisfied to be congested.

This then triggers a series of actions, including,

(3) In seeking to determine measures to alleviate congestion the infrastructure manager must consider, in particular—
(a) re-routing of services;
(b) re-timing of services;
(c) alterations to the line-speed; and
(d) infrastructure improvements.

Sadly there doesn’t appear to be a clause in the Regs which allows them to do nothing for 13 years in the hopeful expectation that HS2 will solve everything!

Bring on PUG3!

Beardie Bubble Bonus on West Coast

Good news for passengers on Virgin's extended West Coast franchise.

To celebrate, ahem, recent events the victorious TOC is providing free champagne all week in first class!

Just the thing to soothe fevered brows as the infrastructure falls apart yet again. (shurely "as you speed on your way"? Ed)

West Coast franchise agreement reached?

Sources suggesting that Virgin and DfT have reached agreement on the ICWC franchise.

Believed to be an extension for 13 months.

No information on contractual details.

Expect an announcement shortly...

UPDATE: This from @Captain_Deltic, via twitter...

Taking a punt, look for Virgin to get a 2 year extension with DfT's bonkers idea of bidding for an interim 2 year ICWC franchise binned.

Interesting! Anymore for anymore?

Griffiths to be Stagecoach CEO

This from Reuters...

Stagecoach also said its chief executive Brian Souter would stand down and become the company's chairman in May 2013, replacing George Mathewson who is retiring. Martin Griffiths, the company's finance director, will take over as chief executive, the company said.

Nothing yet on what Stagecoach thinks of Virgin Trains' campaign to get the InterCity West Coast franchise decision overturned.

Virgin Trains is 49% owned by Stagecoach.