RDG parks tanks on Rosco lawns

This from Passenger Transport...

The Rail Delivery Group, the Department for Transport and franchise owning groups have begun initial discussions which could lead to train operating companies purchasing new trains directly rather than leasing them from the ROSCOs (rolling stock leasing companies).

Good news indeed.

Anything that emasculates those with a long term interest in the industry, whilst benefiting "thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind" has to be a good idea (Is this right? Ed).

Apparently First Group is already chomping at the bit to buy new rolling stock for its Great Western franchise.

According to Tim O'Toole, CEO of First Group:

“We need more trains, and we’ve made this plain to the government, and they have got to allow this to happen”.

Quite so Tim and with First Group finances in such robust health it seems such a shame that Dai Woodham is no longer in business.

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Has DfT  Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam taken a leaf from the General Galtieri Book of  Political Strategems?  

With his department's expensive in-house  procurement of IEP and Thameslink rolling stock under fire, how better to deflect criticism than attacking those nasty people in trade - the  'expensive' ROSCOs.

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...
 
At a recent meeting of the Rail Delivery Group one topic rasied was:
Rolling stock – issues emerging on value for money.

Can it be that they have woken up to the ludicrous cost of the Great Western and East Coast Ninky Nonk train ?
 
Probably not. We suspect that the real concern is the blood-sucking rentals being charged by the Roscos for err.. Pacers.
 

John Knox alive and well at Scotrail

Good news for fans of the New Puritanism! 

The McKilljoys of Scotrail have banned e-fags!

According to The Herald...

SCOTRAIL has banned e-cigarettes from its trains and railway stations as concerns over their safety continue to grow.

The train company this week confirmed staff and passengers were no longer allowed to use the smoking devices on their services.

And they said there was concern other passengers might think they could smoke real cigarettes on the trains, if they saw someone using the alternative product.

FFS!

Where to start? 

Good to see First Group doing their level best to make rail travel that little less bearable.

First confirmed as Evil Empire - Official

This from Rail.co...


How long before the Alliance does for the Aberdeen Death Star?

First Group - the old order changeth!

Sad news indeed.

Much loved former Chief Executive of First Group, Sir More Duckweed, had a DMU named after him on Friday at Glasgow Queen Street.

But what's this?


In none of the press shots supplied to the media were there any pictures of Sir Moir's lovely book!


Eye hopes that new CEO, Tim O'Toole, hasn't consigned the last few thousand remaindered copies of this vainglorious publication to the bin?

Rail Barbie's empire to expand?

This from Virginia Water...

I see in yesterday's Observer that First Group are considering handing back the keys on the Great Western franchise in 2013, rather than 2016.

Given the DfT's already packed reletting agenda, does this raise the prospect of Directly Operated Railways taking on its second InterCity operation?

And why not!

After all Rail Barbie's first franchise has been highly successful in reducing costs, raising performance and improving the timetable. (shurely shome mishtake? Ed)

The future's bright, the future's dull grey and purple...

UPDATE: This from the late Adam Smith...

This is wonderful news.

If First Group elects not to continue with its franchise beyond 2013 this will provide the most marvelous opportunity to test Villier's exciting ideas about residualising investment beyond franchise length.

What with First Group owning 12 power cars and numerous trailers upon which the Great Western franchise is utterly dependent if it is to deliver the DfT specified timetable.

First for exemplary customer service

This from the Pirate of Penzance...

It's been all action on the 12:06 Paddington to Penzance today ...

A gentleman got on at Reading and after having his ticket checked was told that it was not valid.

The man explained to the customer service executive that his connection was late getting into Reading. The CSA then advised him that he'd be getting a fine, and asked for his details and a signature. The man gave his address but refused to sign. A small polite argument followed where a few people nearby got involved, one calling the CSA a jobsworth.

When the train arrived at Exeter, an officer of the BTP came on board carrying instructions to arrest three abusive passengers. When the officer was appraised by other passengers around of the situation, he told the CSA to leave or be reported for wasting police time. The passenger was allowed to continue.

Incidentally, the ticket he was travelling on had been issued free to him by FGW as compensation for a previous two hour delay.

Is there any chance that 'being reasonable' could be included as a module in First Great Western's training programme?

Mary Grant to leave First Group

As predicted by Eye's slightly cryptic post yesterday Mary Grant is to depart First Group.

This from First's website:

Mary Grant, currently Managing Director Rail division and Interim Managing Director Bus division, has decided to leave the Company at the end of March 2011.

Mary has been with the Group since 2003 and was part of the rail refranchising team. She led the bid for, and subsequently became Managing Director of, the new ScotRail franchise. She was appointed Managing Director of the Group’s UK Rail division in May 2009 and given additional responsibility, on an interim basis, for UK Bus in June 2010.

So now you know.

First for being inconsistant

Compare and contrast...

This in today's Glasgow Herald...

New FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole has dismissed Stagecoach founder Brian Souter’s call to have trains and tracks run by the same people as unrealistic.

With this from a certain Tim O'Toole when MD of London Underground...

"If you had complete vertical integration, one person would be responsible for everything, whereas with the PPP an awful lot of time and energy is spent just keeping score."

Just fancy that!

Surely nothing to do with one particular "thinly capitalised equity profiteer of the worst kind" being saddled with a mountain of debt?

Poetry Corner - Changes at First

Clarence Spad writes disconsolately...

Among my close friends on Reading Station friends there is unalloyed sadness that Sir Moir Lockhead, great helmsman of First Group's rise from Grampia, I think it is called, is standing down after twenty-one years of unequalled leadership.

Sonia Alarp, that, of course, is not her real name but one she has assumed for her new life of freedom on Reading Station says his love of animals is particularly heartwarming especially towards badgers and greyhounds.

We were particularly upset when we heard of a report by Arbuthnot, who we think are private bankers in London, saying it was time he should go and that First Group needing sorting out.

Anyone who observes First Group today could not possibly want to believe this. We are sure Tim O'Toole will not find this to be the case

TWO STANZAS ON CHANGES IN FIRST GROUP

Stanza the First (Group)

So farewell then Sir Moir
You are still so young, so craggy yet debonair
On your 65th birthday (Refer to I June posting) we hoped you would stay for ever
Just like Kim Jong Il of North Korea
But now you are both going
I suppose you (but not Kim Jong Il)
Will now retire to your farm near Aberdeen
And every time you look at your herd of cattle
You might be reminded of your former passengers.

STANZA THE SECOND

Lines re-welcoming Tim O'Toole to First Group (see my previous Opus)

A re-welcome then Tim O'Toole
It is rumoured that in the past few days
You have been humming Roy Clark's catchy
'Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone'
But I cannot believe this is true.

Will this do?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Burns...

Looking at Rail-News.com this morning, it looks like Sir Moir has already stepped down.


Does the stock market know?

First for walking by on the other side...

Oh dear!

This from the BBC...

Staff at a rail company gave no medical assistance to a commuter who collapsed, it has emerged.

The man collapsed three weeks ago at St Albans station on a line into London run by First Capital Connect.

But bystanders were forced to give medical help. The company later said even if staff were trained, they were only permitted to help other employees.

Eye wonders whether there is a chapter on rendering assistance to stricken fare payers in Sir Moir's lovely book?

"Moving people is what we do best" claims First.

Perhaps not.

UPDATE: This from the First Capital Connect press office...

I think the piece above about FCC may need a bit of first aid of its own.

It was an FCC staff member who initially was so concerned about the customer's state of health that he encouraged him to leave a train early at St Albans so he could get assistance. He should be commended not derided.

When the customer subsequently collapsed, staff and other passengers made sure the individual was as comfortable as possible while we called an ambulance and made an announcement for any doctor that may have been on the station at the time.

Staff trained in first aid can give assistance to customers, but there was not one available at the time so the guys on the ground did exactly what they're trained to do - they called the paramedics who arrived within 7 minutes.

Having said that, we know we're not perfect so our MD has met the lady who made the complaint to see how we can do things better.

First Network Rail?

The Independent on Sunday will have caused many a ruined breakfast with its list of industry figures keen to take on Iain Coucher's job.

According to the Sindie the great Dr Mike 'Death' Mitchell "is understood to have privately expressed an interest in the role."

No doubt this joyful news will have been welcomed by the nation's interior designers, whose skills will now be in great demand to remove embedded cornflakes sprayed into soft furnishings.

Once recovered from the Heimlich Maneuver industry bigwigs will also have been comforted to read that two further First alumni - Nicola 'Not So' Shaw and Andrew 'I Closed the Skies' Haines - are also rumoured to be in the frame.

Perhaps there is a chapter on career progression in Sir Moir's Lovely Book?


Fortunately, before any further damage was done to the nation's stock of rail executives, the Sindie piece made clear that NR has hired headhunters, Egon Zehnder, with a brief to seek candidates with experience running international companies.

The resulting sighs of relief issuing from across industry breakfast tables are apparently audible in deep space.

First for losing another one

Hot on the heals of losing Michael Caine it now appears First has lost another one.

Tom Joyner, Ops Director of FuCC, has also been misplaced.

Happily all is not completely lost.

Eye understands that Jackie Townsend returns to the industry in his stead.

UPDATE: This from the Shunter...

It's a bad day.

First for blowing the bloody doors off

Eye hears that First Group has misplaced no less a person than Michael Caine!

Caine, nee Micklethwaite, was apparently FGW's commercial director.

Not a lot of people know that.

First for ruining the pleasure of rail travel

This from the BBC...

The first on-board TV service for train travellers in the UK has begun.

The service, which passengers have to pay for, has been introduced on some high-speed trains operated by the First Great Western (FGW) rail company

Presumably to ensure picture quality FGW will now dispense with cleaning train windows?

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

On train entertainment - First Great Western fail to spot market moved on years ago eg laptops playing DVDs

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

As reported on The Eye (and the BBC), I sampled the Volo equipment on a First HST today..... it’s rubbish!

The content is all repeats of old TV shows, and the equipment is in one coach (D) of Standard Class only.

Alas, our elected representatives (but not our brave boys) look set to be spared this indignity.

UPDATE: This from @tonyveitchUK, via Twitter..

GWR always different, eh?

GNER, GC, Amtrak, DB, Virgin, etc must have been barking up wrong tree.

First for not putting its head above the parapet

So the government's exciting plans for franchising have gone down like the proverbial turd in a punchbowl amongst ATOC members.

This from the Telegraph...

In a joint reaction to the new guidelines proposed by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis, the companies will express their fears over even more "micro-managing" of the railway by politicians and express their frustration at the Government's failure to listen to their concerns.

Their response is being co-ordinated in a letter from the Association of Train Operating Companies, whose members include the rail subsidiaries of Britain's big five quoted transport groups – Stagecoach, FirstGroup, Arriva, National Express, Go-Ahead – and Virgin.

But what's this?

Despite ATOC claiming unanimity amongst its members there is one significant signature missing from the excoriating letter.

Whose could this be?

Why step forward First Group's very own Sir Moir Lockhead, who clearly knows which side his bread is buttered on.

And a jolly good thing too!

Not least for Dr Mike Mitchell, who can continue referring to Worst Group franchises in the first person plural.

The glorious victory of Jamie's 'Not a Blog'

Regular Eye readers may recall this piece of music:



Original post here.

Meanwhile there is an update to Jamie's sad story here.

Result!

Alas.

And here is the denouement :-(

No matter.

To all Eye's industry friends, a message:

Turn on, tune in, get social!

(Can you also mention that Orange have no idea either? Ed)

First for failing to monitor the fitness of its drivers

This from the BBC...

Sheriff Convery said"In my view this cases raises profoundly disturbing questions regarding the safety of the public and the arrangements for monitoring the fitness of train drivers."

Indeed!

Mind you, at least it was just the one bottle.

Eversholt Rail Awards - funniest ever!

Extra-ordinary news from last night's Eversholt (nee HSBC) Rail Business Awards.

There were incredulous gasps when it was announced that Worst Group had won Business of the Year!

As Mary Grant glided onto the stage one hard-nosed operator was heard to spit:

"If First had put as much time into managing their demic franchises as they have obviously spent on making awards submissions they might actually have deserved it."

But the biggest laugh of the evening was reserved for the presentation of an award to FuCC for its communications skills!

No doubt furious Thameslink passengers, shivering on platforms and desperately trying to find out whether the train they're waiting for will actually run, are reassured to know that FuCC has an award winning Internal Comms team.

Talk about adding insult to injury!

Until these industry bunfights actually reflect the experience of the railway's paying customers they are in danger of doing more PR harm than good.

Meanwhile Eversholt must be wishing they'd stuck with their old branding.

Scotrail - 54 days and counting

Remember the YouTube hit United Breaks Guitars?

Now rail users are getting in on the act.

This sorry tale from Jamie Anderson - you can follow the full saga over at Jamie's blog



Don't get mad - get viral!

First for fast staff turnover

Exciting news from FuCC.

The doomed TOC has a brand new MD!

One Neal Lawson.

Here his page from professional networking site Linkedin.


But what's this?

Apparently our Neal has been MD of FuCC for a whole 'nine' months!

Clever of Mary Grant to put Neal into the firing line a mere week into his new job!