Sorry is the hardest word

The Fact Compiler is a fan of Rail Minister Tom Harris MP.

Not least for his witty, self deprecating and frequently off-message blog which somehow escapes the attention of the party's thought police.

However, there are concerns for his sanity following an interview last night with Christian Wolmar on the BBC Wales programme "Week In; Week Out".

Harris told Wolmar that had the railways still been nationalised in 1997 "then I think we (Labour) would have privatised them."

Unfortunately for Harris and co the Tories had already buggered-up the national rail system by the time the party came into power.

Not to be outdone New Labour turned its attention to the London Underground.

The Big Grin himself promoted the disastrous PPP that saw contractor Metronet bite the dust saddling the tax payer with a bill likely to top £1bn.

Of course the Tories have had the good grace to apologise for breaking BR but as yet from Labour not a word.

So perhaps it was better for Tom to focus on what Labour might have done to BR rather than the real damage they did to LU.

My dad's bigger than your brother!

The RMT's failure to close down the EMT Connect network on Saturday has caused embarrassment to the Union and anger amongst members who lost a day's pay.

The cause of the strike is a long running dispute, inherited from Central Trains, about Sunday working.

Unbelievably a Spanish Practice dating back to BR days means that Sunday is not a rostered turn leaving East Midlands Trains reliant on "volunteer" guards to run Connect services, resulting in frequent cancellations due to non-availability of staff.

On Friday in a bullish announcement RMT leader Bob Crow claimed that more than 130 guards at four Connect depots across the TOC would strike on Saturday effectively crippling the EMT rural and inter-regional services. This was to be the first of three such actions over successive Saturdays.

Alas Saturday's display of strength turned into farce as EMT, supported by parent company Stagecoach, managed to run 70% of the 215 timetabled services and brought in 104 replacement buses from across the country to infill for cancelled trains.

After such a piss-poor RMT performance Crow-bar might at least let ACAS do their job before calling the next days inaction.

Scottish threat to Crossrail

***Rail Minister Tom Harris MP exposes how the West Lothian question is already affecting plans for an expansion in English rail capacity...***

View Original Article

Brown tells Minister he can't count

***The Times on Saturday had a letter from the Chief Executive of Eurostar exposing the litany of fallacies that underpin the Government's anti-electrification agenda.***

View Richard Brown's letter here

Prescient questioning

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee took evidence on the 4th June into the National Audit Office's report "Reducing passenger rail delays by better management of incidents."

Rail industry witnesses included Dr Mike Mitchell (Director General, Rail and National Networks Group, DfT), Iain Coucher (Chief Executive, NR) and David Franks (MD, National Express East Coast and an ATOC Board member).

Coucher-Tiger and Franksy made a good fist of the affair showing themselves to be on top of their brief.

One small gem crept through the rather dry proceedings.

With a delicious sense of irony Ian Davidson MP (Glasgow South) asked David Franks how delays influenced the number of assaults on rail staff.

How Franksy, who was sat next to Mike Mitchell at the time, managed to keep a straight face is unclear.

Younger readers may be unaware that in 2005 Dr Mike Mitchell was accused of of verbally abusive and threatening conduct towards a member of GNER staff.

He was found not guilty.

Winsor to Chair NR?

***Martin Waller in The Times is touting Tom Winsor as replacement to NR's stay at home Chairman Ian McAllister***

NR makes £1.2bn "profit"

***BBC reporting Network Rail has announced an annual pre-tax profit of £1.2bn for 2007/8***

The Fact Compiler thinks this is good news as now they only need to find another £2bn to meet the ORR's efficiency demands.

UXB at Bromley by Bow (and more...)

***Restoration of service now estimated to be at 12:00 today***

*** 12:30 - now slipping into this afternoon***

UXB at Bromley by Bow (more...)

***District line suspended whilst final works take place to defuse 2,000lb wartime German bomb. If all goes well restart of traffic planned for 08:00 tomorrow. If not it may be some considerable time later...***

Unrest at the NRM

The boys and girls at York tasked with safeguarding Britain's railway heritage are a mild mannered lot. They are more likely to mutter about a wrong livery than man the barricades in a labour dispute.

But such is no longer the case! For the custodians of the railway's history and guardians of our collective memory have voted to go on strike!

The National Railway Museum is insistent that it has made every effort to resolve the dispute and has even shown "flexibility on pensions and performance related pay".

The Head of Museum, Martin Earwicker, believes that the NRM's pay awards compare "very favourably with levels in the wider public sector". "We benchmark our pay rates and we know that staff are paid competitively" the NRM claimed.

Staff are less convinced. Having asked for confirmation about which sector their pay had been benchmarked against they were told "retail".

Putting aside the fact that retail could not possibly be considered public sector work they demanded examples of firms against whom their pay and conditions had been benchmarked.

One of the examples offered by Earwig and his flexible management was, errr... Kwik Save which went bust in 2007!

Only yesterday Rail Minister Tom Harris published a consultation document on how to protect historically "significant railway artefacts".

The Fact Compiler is now more than a little concerned that if NRM management gets its way these important artefects will soon be curated by spotty students and Third Lifers with a bit of time on their hands. Either that or they'll be in the hands of the Administrators.

O Tempora O More!

NR disappointment at draft funding settlement

The Office of Rail Regulation has told NR to reduce its costs by 21% in its draft conclusion on the funding settlement for the railway to cover the period 2009-2014

NR had said it needed £29.5bn over the next five year control period but the ORR draft award is for £26.5 billion.

Iain Coucher, Chief Executive, said: “On the face of it, the proposed funding settlement is insufficient. I am extremely concerned that the funding settlement outlined today will put our plans to meet rising demand at risk."

Network Rail has promised to launch a vigorous lobbying campaign in support of its claim.

ORR will make its final determinations at the end of October.

Anthropologically misunderstood?

Explaining Saturday nights chaos on the Circle line Mayor BoJo argued that the revellers had been "anthropomorphically misunderstood"

“I think what we had there was the kind of exuberant, Celtic-style wake for the passing, the long overdue passing, of a custom” he continued.

This clarification from the Mayor is very helpful as many Tube staff and passengers had mistaken those involved for a pissed-up rabble.

For the avoidance of doubt and ease of identification The Fact Compiler thought it might be helpful to show this picture of members of the Iceni tribe in mourning.

Spot the Crank #1

This young man is currently COO of one of the UKs premier InterCity TOCs.

Do you know who it is yet?

Answers on a postcard please to:

Chris Gibbs
COO
Virgin Trains
FREEPOST BM 6613
PO BOX 713
Birmingham
B5 4HH

Credit crisis hits new trains

Whilst The Big Grin Engine has ensured that English rail expansion is off the agenda the situation North of the border couldn't be more different.

There devolution has empowered the Scottish Executive to sponsor six major projects, including five line reopenings, to the tune of £1.5bn.

And whilst English TOCs wait for the Dullards at Daft to address the chronic shortage of trains, Transport Scotland has already set about procuring 120 new vehicles to strengthen services on the thriving Glasgow/Ayr and Glasgow Airport routes.

Despite rearguard lobbying from UNITE the manufacturer has already been chosen (Siemens) and the ROSCO appointed (HSBC) but now the deal starts to get messy.

Tartan sources advise that the new train order should have been announced some months ago but this has been delayed several times as the banking crisis worsens.

With a credit squeeze taking place and higher premiums on borrowing there are more attractive deals for the money to chase.

Before chums in the South East get too smug at their Scots' cousins misfortunes The Fact Compiler urges caution.

Whispers reach him that the credit crunch is also impacting on Southern's order for new dual-voltage Electrostars, needed to meet the revised service in Thameslink Key Output 0.

LTW shoots Brian Cooke for backing Boris

***London TravelWatch Announcement***

London TravelWatch confirms that at an Extraordinary Meeting this morning, the London Assembly Transport Committee determined that the Chair of London TravelWatch breached the terms and a condition of his appointment and therefore the appointment has been terminated with immediate effect.

London TravelWatch will issue a further statement shortly.

The voice of London's transport users
2 June 2008
-------------------------------------------

The Fact Compiler is pleased to see that Ken still has some mates left.

LibDems support HS2

***LibDems launch transport plan***

Main proposals include:

* Cutting fuel duty and abolishing VED over the next 10 years and introducing a cost-neutral road user pricing scheme on motorways and trunk roads

* Building a high speed rail network paid for by introducing emissions-linked charges on road freight and internal flights

* Introducing rolling contracts for train operating companies to increase long-term investment and improve services

* Give power to control local bus services back to local authorities

* Introducing a new fund for rural transport

* Giving passengers a stronger voice to improve local transport services through a new passenger watchdog

The Fact Compiler says shame they'll never get the chance to implement them,

Oil's well that ends well

According to the Daily Telegraph airlines are facing a £3bn loss unless oil prices turn. It can't be long before the first TOC squeals to the same tune.

As far as The Fact Compiler is aware only Arriva Cross Country hedged it's diesel costs for the entire life of the franchise.

Others have shorter deals which, if they haven't already, must soon be coming to an end. And with no obvious end to rising oil prices new hedges are getting hard to find.

Meanwhile the sagely head of the OECD claimed today that high oil prices send a clear signal to consumers and firms to curb their use of fuel.

Good news for the Government.

No longer do they need to price down passenger demand - they can just let the market starve the railway of fuel.

And no, electrification is not on the agenda

Kelly rejects "Super-lorries"

***DfT announces that heavier goods vehicles won't be allowed on British roads on either a trial or permanent basis. Cites potential to abstract from railfreight.***

Take a seat - they're all free

When "back to basics" adulterer Major Balls-up decided to unleash the UK's most idiotic privatisation there were romantic hopes that the network would be awash with open access operators.

As Wolmar points out in his latest Rail article this has failed to happen and the three open access operators currently plying their trade are by and large an irrelevance to the big issues facing today's industry.

Indeed there are many who would like to see them disappear so the Fact Compiler is somewhat surprised that they have not sought unity in adversity - where for instance is the Association of Open Access Operators?

Perhaps the reason such an entity doesn't exist is that it would have more members than customers.

Spotted at Leamington Spa this morning were both the "Up" and "Down" early morning services of the splendidly named Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway.

Passenger count: ten on the North and twenty on the South bound!

Thank goodness DB has deep pockets!

UXB at Bromley by Bow

***17:17 - An unexploded Second World War bomb has resulted in the suspension of London Underground services through Bromley by Bow. Disruption could last for up to 48 hours***

***17:50 - Services now restored after ministrations from the Bomb Disposal Squad***

***18:45 - DB lawyers allegedly flying in from Germany to contest potential abatement claim from TfL against Loo Roll concession***

***20:45 - Is 2000lbs quite big then?***

***23:52 - Sources close to DfT say Ruth Kelly now believes she has found a cheap way to do Crossrail groundworks at Stratford***