Legendary BR PR supremo, Alan Marshall, has joined the ranks of Railway Eye readers.
Alan, writing in the latest Railnews, uses a quote from our very own Brochet to sign of his comment piece on the proposed redevelopment of Birmingham New Street Station.
The Fact Compiler is happy to confirm that there are currently no plans to add 'Telegrammed by The Vice Marshall' to the growing list of Railway Eye bylines.
Tom Harris has responded to the post about the DfT website.
View Tom's comment here.
For some reason blogger isn't showing responses to posts - if there are any technically savy readers of Railway Eye able to offer assistance it would be appreciated...
Industry pundit Christian Wolmar has offered his thoughts on the appointment of Geoff Hoon as Secretary of State for Transport.
Wolmar asks: "I wonder how many people in the street would be able to name him from a photograph - probably fewer than 5 per cent".
He then goes on deliver the following damning judgement:
"I think it was the way in which he seemed to send troops into Iraq to be killed when he was defence secretary that got my goat the most. He seemed - or conveyed the impression - not really to care or be aware of the import of what he was doing. Certainly he was not going to take responsibility for it."
As a service to the industry and to help with recognition of Gende Homo in the street The Fact Compiler offers the following clip from You Tube:
The man has no shame - he should get on well with Dr "Death" Mitchell at the DfT.
It's now over 38 hours since Tom Harris was relegated to the back benches.
He ceased to function as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport on Friday and according to his blog the Red Box was collected by courier this morning.
Meanwhile the DafT website continues to show the following:
So we'll have less sanctimonious crap from the Department about the railway failing to provide customers with up to date information please.
Industry hard man Captain Deltic has no time for sentiment.
Whilst the rest of the industry was busy commiserating with the former rail minister the good Captain stuck the boot in.
Peter Strachen is heading down under.
Antipodean railway site Rail Page offers the following from NR's intranet posted Friday:
"Peter Strachan, route director, is to take up a new position running the entire public transport system of Brisbane and south east Queensland, Australia. Peter will take up the new position as chief executive officer of Translink Transit Authority in February 2009."
The search is on for a new Midlands route Director.
Jeremy Candfield, of supplier organisation the Railway Industry Association, has also shoved his head above the parapet.
He writes on Tom's blog:
A quick word of thanks to our readers, and those who link to this site, for helping to grow Railway Eye's readership.
Since the 13th of May 2008 Railway Eye has received 17,030 visits from 5,286 unique visitors.
Apparently you have viewed 28,218 pages in total.
No, I don't understand it either but that's what Google analytics says so it must be true.
Chris Paul, the Mancunian smelly sock blogger, blames Railway Eye for the downfall of Tom Harris!
What a Blot on Brown's Copybook
For several years now the Railway Forum has been near invisible.
However, the Forum's Director General, Paul Martin, today put his 'cohones on the line' by posting a public message of support for Tom Harris on the former Minister's blog.
It reads:
"So sorry to hear this. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with you and genuinely feel that the rail industry has lost a great champion and friend. The whole industry has seen you as the most effective Rail Minister in memory and we feel that your achievements richly deserve promotion in government rather than what has happened."
The Fact Compiler applauds the Railway Forum's Director General for coming "to bury Caesar, not praise him".
But was this wise? Such off message comments do not play well in every quarter.
The temperature at the first meeting between Gende Homo and the Railway Forum may be somewhat cool.
The Department for Transport's reputation for attention to detail is legendary.
So The Fact Compiler thought he'd pay a quick visit to the DafT website to see who will be serving in the new team under Gende Homo.
Alas, Whitehall web wonks can't yet be arsed to update their site, which still lists Tom Harris as Minister of State - a mere 18 hours after one eyed Gordo gave him the black spot.
Tom Harris has been relegated to the back benches.
Read Tom's blog piece here.
Below one of the comments posted to his site by 'Very much anonymous'.
Tom, I’m very sorry to hear this news.
I’m not a Labour supporter and I won’t be voting Labour at the next election. However, I know that most politicians of any political persuasion genuinely want to do their best to help their constituents and the people of the UK. You exemplify this.
You have, from all the evidence available to me, been a conscienscious and hard-working Minister. You’ve handled a difficult portfolio extremely well and have built up a lot of respect on a personal level within the rail industry. I am sure that the industry’s journals will decry your treatment for weeks to come.
You have been courteous to and respectful of your officials. You ask intelligent questions at the right time and you have a remarkable talent to sense when you are being “fed a line”, be it by officials or by industry figures.
Your blog has opened up the political process to the average citizen more than any other. While Iain Dale and Guido write superb blogs, they don’t have the perspective that you do.
It is my sincere belief that your party will lose the next election by a large margin. However, despite my Conservative sympathies, I distrust large majorities. I sincerely hope that you will continue with both your blog and your devotion to your job and will hold Governments of both parties to account from the back benches.
More than that, after the next election, your party will need a core group of experienced but untainted leaders to pull it out of a very deep hole. You have the potential to go far higher within your party than you have managed to date. Please don’t let this setback discourage you.
Why do I say this?
Because I’ve been working for you in DfT for quite some time. Hence why I’m staying anonymous.
The Fact Compiler has nothing more to add.Run up the flags!
Gordon Brown uses the House of Lords to further government business.
Consensus on how to complete Reform of The Upper House remains as distant as ever.
The railway's Noble Lords need not fear for their seats yet.
Telegrammed by The Master
***BBC reporting NR's 'stay at home chairman' Sir Ian McAlasiter soon to do just that - permanently.***
Telegrammed by The Raver
Good TV programmes about railway history are rare, usually falling into whingeing nostalgia.
But on BBC4 last night, Ian Hislop hit just the right note, criticising Beeching and yet recognising that the railways in the 1960s had to be cut down.
Aside from allowing Wolmar to sport a ghastly pink jumper the producers are to be congratulated.
Perhaps Hislop would have made a better Secretary of State for Transport?
Telegrammed by our man in 222 Marylebone Road.
***When Gende Homo was at the Ministry of Defence he was known to Daily Torygraph city page readers as 'Buff' Hoon - presumably a tribute to his finely honed body.***
Some good news about Geoff Hoon's appointment to the DafT top job.
A reader observes that in predictive text Geoff Hoon is rendered as 'Gende Homo'.
Railway Eye welcomes Gende Homo to Transport
***BBC reporting Geoff Hoon to be new Secretary of State for Transport***
View BBC story here
A big welcome to readers of Scottish Tory Boy.
The young North British conservative has asked readers of his blog to back rail minister Tom Harris in our ballot to find Ruth Kelly's successor.
When your enemy's enemy is your friend it makes for strange bedfellows. Scots Nats beware.
A feast of crankery on BBC4 tonight to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Beeching Report.
First off at 20:00 is a repeat (it is BBC4 after all) of an interview with the now dead Dr Beeching.
This is followed at 20:30 by what appears to be gratuitous propaganda for anti-rail group Sustrans.
Then at 21:00 vertically challenged Private Eye editor Ian Hislop ruminates about what might have been if all those loss making lines had remained open.
Timely TV with the ORR threatening swinging cuts to NR's budget.
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