Fans of Wolmayor will recollect his original implacable opposition to Crossrail.
Therefore, Eye is confident in saying that as night follows day, Wolmar will embrace HS2!
A clearly contrite Wolmar writes...
"Oh dear, oh dear!
"I just broke the rule of a lifetime and said ‘do you now know who I am?’
"A FGW press officer returning my call about the absence of wi-fi on its trains, first made the mistake of calling me ‘Chris’ a name I have never answered to, and then he said, ‘where are you calling from?’
"I very rudely replied that I had only been writing a column for Rail magazine for nearly 20 years but perhaps he did not read it and then uttered the fateful words...
"Can I be forgiven?"
Quite so Chris. Perhaps you can let us know where you are from, so we can see if Eye can help...
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic, who is never knowingly out contritioned...
That is nothing.
This morning I have called RVEL of Derby, REVEL in my e-Preview blog (is that a plug? Ed) and promptly corrected it to REVL in a follow up e-mail to the over 2500 subscribers (that's enough plugs Deltic! Ed).
And I also got the loco class number, which I saw being worked on by RVEL, wrong.
Can anyone beat that?
Are
you a railway journalist of international standing? And would you like
to participate in Eye's very own Chapter of Faults? If so please email
the usual address...
The results of this year's Ipsos MORI Survey of Transport Journalists have just been released.
73 hacks were polled, and amongst a wealth of data on just how rubbish they perceive transport policy to be, is the following gem:
The leader of UKIP had better look to his laurels!
This from Mayoral candidate Christian Wolmar, reflecting on the impact of EU policy on Croatia's railways:
So the net result of EU interference is precisely the opposite to what
it was supposed to be set up to do, improve international relations and
cross border trade and passenger flow.
I have always been against the
Euro but in favour of the European Union. However, this type of
imposition of a neo-liberal agenda on the railways does make me hesitate
about what we should do about the EU.
Clearly, the Eurocrats still have
a naive federalist agenda that they are trying to impose and they need
to be stopped.
There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents...
With the role of Justine Greening in the ICWC franchise scandal receiving increasing attention, Eye thought the following tale might be instructive.
It dates from the publication of the Command Paper in March this year and records an exchange between the then Secretary of State for Transport and the World's Greatest Living Transport Correspondent.
Christian Wolmar (for it is he) recorded it in RAIL as follows:
When I suggested that it was unclear where the savings were coming from,
I was roundly slapped down by La Greening. We were allowed one
question each in the press briefing on the Command Paper and I had asked
her where the £3.5 bn annual savings would come from in the rail
industry as it seemed an incredibly high proportion of the overall costs
and I had not found any details in the McNulty report on the industry’s
finances published last year. ‘Well’ she said, staring hard at me, ‘I’m
glad you didn’t write the paper as it is clear that these saving can be
made’.
Quite so minister, quite so.
Perhaps similar words of comfort relating to the ICWC franchise award, and in written form, sit in Philip Rutnam's desk?
UPDATE: This from the Prophet Job...
According to Conservative Home...
"It seems that auditors from PriceWaterhouseCoopers were called in by Justine Greening one week before the reshuffle. Those auditors
discovered that officials hadn't properly accounted for inflation in
their decision to award the West Coast Mainline to FirstGroup rather
than Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Trains."
With one bound she was free!
UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...
Hold on!
According to Politics Home...
A Downing Street spokesman said she should not have been expected to
know of the issues earlier, as they involved extremely complex minutiae
that ministers would not be involved in.
Nonsense. Greening is/was accountable for the process!
This from everybody...
Let's hope that Wolmayor is more consistent on transport policy, than he
is on his name.
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