Sadiq says...

Via Twitter...

On FCC problems - can people please email details of complaints/experiences to rail@dft.gsi.gov.uk - thanks.

Extra-ordinary - is there no limit to the Department's nano-management?!

Presumably DafT has set up an entire shadow organisation to deal with customer complaints about delays on FuCC?

Back to the Wolmar Question: 'What are TOCs for?'

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

DfT want to know about people's 'experiences' of FCC?

Not exactly empirical is it?

UPDATE: This, via Twitter, from cbuchanancubed...

Why doesnt DfT just look at all the blogs/comments etc on the internet - but no you have to send them all in again.

UPDATE: This from Jumbo...

With First Group winning the Business of the Year award at the recent Eversholt Rail Business Awards and FCC being presented with an award for their communications skills, it seems hard to credit that the number of complaints against FCC warrants the DfT's attention.

Do the DfT know something that we don't?

Surely the people who made such prestigious awards to First were not taking the pxss?

NatEx won't take a hit claims Peston

The BBC's Robert Peston exposes NatEx's limited East Coast exposure.

National Express, has very limited financial exposure to the losses being incurred by NXEC, the holder of the East Coast franchise - and believes it can hand back the franchise to the government with near impunity.

As Shriti Vadera observed, TOC's are "thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind".

Value for money?

The RMT has returned to the Wolmar question:

"As monopoly rail operators prepare to implement another round of punishing inflation-busting fares hikes of between six and 11 per cent, RMT reveals the stark figures that show how the big five transport groups are converting fare hikes into bumper profits, fuelling dividend increases of at least ten and as high as 33 per cent."

So what are TOCs for?

What are TOCs for?

Time to return to the Wolmar Question: "What are TOCs for?".

The cynical view is that TOCs are there to reflate the coffers of uniform manufacturers and vinyl retailers.

It goes without saying that this jaundiced view is wide of the mark.

This splendid image from FuCC (crazy name, crazy people)...


Presumably the Pink pound is proving immune to the recession?

UPDATE: A reader writes to point out the following Q&A question in the FuCC Thameslink release:

Q. Will there be new trains?

A. Yes! New trains are just around the corner.

Who would ever have thought of looking for them there.