***An interesting piece in tomorrow's (yep - tomorrow's) Sydney Morning Herald on Angel's new owners.***
Railway Eye readers will be aware of the recent volatile share price of former parent RBS.
It appears that all may not be well Down Under either.
You can read the SMH Business section here.
Do you know this man?
Rail editor Nigel Harris was quick off the mark and managed to secure the first interview with Mike Alexander the new Chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC).
It was not a happy meeting, judging from the resulting Comment piece in the last issue of Rail.
The article ended with Harris demanding that Alexander and ATOC "Shape up" and push for further electrification (as Adrian Shooter, Alexander's predecessor at ATOC, had done).
The dust still hasn't settled on their row.
A copy of Alexander's follow up letter to Harris has reached the Fact Compiler, it is printed below:
-----------------------------
Many thanks for the opportunity to “shape up” regarding the debate on electrification as outlined in your editorial of 4th June.
Turning to electrification. A hot topic in the industry and with yourselves. I am not against it. In fact, I would be a supporter if/when we identify that this is the best economic and technical solution to provide a better railway for passengers. This may be an easy case to make – for certain lines and capacity constraints. So let’s get on with it. Customers are waiting. In the pursuit of this solution ATOC, together with the extremely capable
***Freightliner has been bought by Arcapita***
3i Press Release here
***Royal Bank of Scotland has offloaded Angel Trains for £3.6bn to a consortium led by Babcock & Brown***
BBC story here
UPDATE: Sources indicate that RBS is very pleased with the price paid by Babcock and Brown.
Apparently the business was packaged in three lots: MOLA fleets (ex BR stock), New Trains and Angel's unregulated European business.
The strong price would indicate that B&B and it's advisors are pretty confident that the Competition Commission enquiry into the ROSCOs will not impact dramatically on MOLA lease rates going forward.
The Fact Compiler is not surprised, with a National Rolling Stock Shortage where else would the railway get alternative vehicles to meet current demand. Suggestions that DafT have asked the MOD to release the "Strategic Reserve" have been denied.
***David Davis is standing down from both Shadow Cabinet and Parliament to trigger a by-election on the ticket of setting the people free from this overweening Government.***
The Fact Compiler wishes him all the best and hopes that the resultant reshuffle will see a Shadow Transport Secretary of the stature of Chris Grayling rather than the one we now have, whose name eludes me...
The Fact Compiler understands that NR talent scouts from the West Coast upgrade team are planning to attend Horwich Carnival...
UPDATE: The Health and Safety Taliban will be delighted to know that owing to "insurance" issues only narrow gauge sleepers will be used.
FURTHER UPDATE: Sources within the ORR confirm they have suggested that NR do the same to help reduce costs and Lost Time Injuries...
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.
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.
***Rail Minister Tom Harris MP exposes how the West Lothian question is already affecting plans for an expansion in English rail capacity...***
***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
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.
***Martin Waller in The Times is touting Tom Winsor as replacement to NR's stay at home Chairman Ian McAllister***
***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.
***Restoration of service now estimated to be at 12:00 today***
*** 12:30 - now slipping into this afternoon***
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".
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