Groucho has the answer!

Telegrammed by Barry Spotter
I note that whilst tourists are being told to delete pictures of bus stations, government ministers are allowed to broadcast their travel movements on the internet.

Am I alone in spotting a slight hint of total f**king nonsense in this anti-terrorist bollocks?

Or is it just that the Police no longer know the difference between right and wrong?

Or perhaps, perish the thought, the entire Surveillance State serves a purpose that has nothing to do with the security of its citizens?

Oh sod this. I'm too annoyed to write any more.

I'm going to go and read Marx in readiness for the revolution!

Spot the difference with My Lord Adonis

An exciting new competition from the Eye!

Using your skill and judgement can you tell the biggest single difference between the following stations?

This from the Pilgrimage of Grice blog:

"Sheffield station is a real delight. It has been beautifully restored in recent years and has excellent retail and waiting facilities for passengers – open to a reasonable hour in the evening, unlike my recent experience at Southampton Central station."

Clue: One has barriers...

Two's company

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
So who are the lucky two?

Sources indicate that DafT has finished its deliberations and that just two now remain in the running for the South Central franchise.

Suppose we'll have to wait till the markets are informed on Monday... or buy the Sunday papers!

You and whose money?

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
According to a London Midland press release:

Train operator London Midland is investing £190m in a fleet of 37 Siemens Desiro Class 350/2 trains.

Funny, I thought some firm called Porterhouse or something owned those trains. Talk about biting the hand that funds you

And isn't that price a real blast from the past?

I can remember when you could buy a new Siemens EMU vehicle, give all the depot staff at Northampton a fish and chip supper and a taxi home and still have change from £1.3 million.

Aye, those were the days.

NX merger rumours

This from Transit...

NEG makes an impressive 70% gain as City rumours indicate a merger with Stagecoach is on the cards.

Expect the Competition Commission to be all over it like a rash.

Pilgrimage of Grice to end on Tory frontbench?

Telegrammed by Libby Fodder
Matthew Parris' piece in The Times yesterday on the Pilgrimage of Grice may be more telling than you realise.

It is rare for any transport minister to receive public plaudits and particularly unusual from these to come from someone as well plugged into the Westminster village as Parris.

As Parris pointed out, Adonis has a real passion for transport and genuinely loves the job. Who else would spend a week of their own time "on the cushions" actually meeting the great British public.

Adonis has impressed to date (apart of course from his peddling of the usual DafT deceits. Ed). And he numbers amongst his friends several key players on the opposition benches.

Indeed, in his previous role no less a figure than Tory Education spokesman Michael Gove said he'd happily keep him on under a Tory government!

Adonis has also been clever enough to avoid being drawn into the usual Westminster Punch and Judy show.

Of course he makes ritual attacks about how the Tories privatised the railways but even they now accept (the deranged Vulcan excepted) that Major's method of privatising BR was a disaster.

Clearly Adonis loves the job but could he survive a change of administration?

He already has form for crossing the House.

He started off as a LibDem before taking the new Labour shilling and once done it becomes habit forming - even Churchill managed to make a virtue of it.

Adonis is discreet about his aspirations but at the recent C4 Politics Awards he made it quite clear that he hoped his legacy would be bipartisan (or even tripartisan) support for high speed rail.

Were he to make the transition between administrations the benefits to the industry and transport as whole could be enormous. Allowing him to really develop a long term strategy.

It was Gordon Brown who made great play about producing a government of all the talents.

For Cameron it will be a necessity as we face the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

He could do worse than calling on Adonis.

A lone voice crying in the wilderness...

***Happy passenger on FGW train***

UPDATE: This from James D...

FGW do have their good side.

Their breakfasts are excellent.

You can never stay angry with someone who makes you Eggs Benedict.

Adonis doomed?

This from Matthew Parris in today's Times (with a bowler tip to Nigel Harris)

As a transport minister, Andrew Adonis is travelling the 2,000 miles of our rail network that he knows least, just to see what's going on. He plainly loves railways, but with technical knowledge and without sentimentality.

Why, after a change of government, can't we keep ministers who really care about their jobs?

If we had more Adonises in British politics, the fungus in Downing Street would never have spread.

That's his ministerial career over then.

Forever Living Products

***More from My Lord Adonis on his railway odyssey, courtesy of The Times***

UPDATE: These from Pete Waterman and Nigel Harris who were invited to accompany the Minister.

The pride of the railway?

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
Don't know whether M'Lud Adonis managed to catch this one on his lordly perambulation around the network this week.



It is today's 16.18 St Albans to Wimbledon.





Let's hope he didn't.

The FCCing disgraceful condition of this Class 319 rustbucket is not only unfit for a lord.

It's not even fit for the third world!

(Wouldn't have happened in Elaine's day. Ed)

Running on the wrong track?

National Express East Coast shows how to win friends and influence people.

At that, the train guard came out with a corker: "When you pay for a ticket it gives you the right to the journey but not to a seat because you don't pay to reserve."

Well at least they've solved that particular problem.

Green not to be charged

Conservative MP Damian Green, whose House of Commons office was raided as part of a leak inquiry, will not be charged.

The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there was 'insufficient evidence' to bring a court case against the shadow immigration minister.

Just as well Quick's already gone!

Welcome back I K Gricer

There are very few journalists who 'get railways' and fewer still who write in the City pages.

If there is a pantheon of such writers then the legendry Christopher Fildes would certainly sit amongst them..

As well as working on the Telegraph's City desk Christopher also wrote the hugely enjoyable City and Suburban column in the Spectator for over 20 years.

It was of course City and Suburban that introduced the world to the great railwayman I K Gricer who offered Speccie readers insights into the industry as it was assailed first by the simplistic adulterer Major and then by the messianic pultroon Blair.

Although City and Suburban came to an end in 2006 the Speccie has wisely called upon Fildes services again to review the latest opus by uber-railway-historian Prof Terry Gourvish, entitled Britain’s Railways 1997-2005: Labour’s Strategic Experiment.

The book sounds a must for all those interested in the political and economic developments in the industry over the last decade.

Meanwhile for those in a hurry it goes without saying that Fildes review is a masterpiece in its own right!

Namealike #3

This just in from 'Lazarus'...

SpAd - Special Advisor

SPAD - Signal passed at danger

Either may result in embarrassment and career shortening inquiries...

What's the headcode for a government minister?

The Minister of State for Transport has been brave enough to list his itinerary on The Times website.

It's not quite a blog in the sense that his predecessor would understand it - but it is a start...

Half tip of the Bowler to Andrew Adonis.

UPDATE: It gets better!

This from the second page of Adonis' "blog":

"As for cost, I am expecting to do the whole trip, standard class, for £375 – plus a sleeper supplement for the first night – using a seven-day “all-line rail rover”. This is a ticket no one seems to have heard of, perhaps because it is so poorly advertised. (Thought that was Barry Doe's line! Ed)

"It prompts the thought that we should be marketing these tickets more widely, not least to young people (who can buy the seven-day ticket for just £245) so that they can get to know their own country...".

What an excellent idea - it might also increase the percentage of the population who use rail services (currently a mere 11%) and encourage some national marketing of the entire network, sadly missing since privatisation.

An interesting challenge for ATOC. Will the Owner Groups let them do it?

UPDATE: This from John B...

No - 51% of people use the railways in any given year.

Only 11%-ish of journeys are made by train, which is unsurprising given that you're unlikely to get a train to the corner shop to buy milk...

Stand corrected - thank you.

Not waving but drowning

As this government sinks ever deeper into the mire it is amusing to see which minister can pluck the most lunatic idea from the bottom of the barrel.

Step forward the ever tactful Hazel Blears!

As the economy is now officially screwed the Community Secretary has suggested that all the empty shops littering the high street should be turned into Community Art Galleries, Advice Centres, Underwater Knitting Emporia and the like.

How long before Buff-Hoon feels compelled to come up with an equally fatuous proposal for the growing number of empty first class vehicles roaming the network?

Hitachi fires first PR salvo

This from today's FT....

Alistair Dormer, head of Hitachi's European rail operations, says he wants to involve a large number of UK-based suppliers in the contract for building about 1,400 intercity carriages.

The location of the new factory has been narrowed down to a shortlist of three: Sheffield, Gateshead and Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire.

The plant, expected to cost more than £100m, would eventually employ about 500 people, said Mr Dormer.

Good news indeed.

Only another 11,500 jobs to find.

Alas!

There is one fly in the ointment...

Dormer... "was unable to say when a decision would be made on the location".

Good to see Dormer taking Japanese manufacturing to heart.

This is the PR equivalent of a kaizen (small step) based very much on Lean principles!

Update: This just in from the Pink 'Un...

It's a pity the fact compiler lit only on this bit of the feature and not on the previous FT piece where Alistair Dormer talked about Hitachi's ambitions to supply European railways from the new British factory.

There seems to be a determination among British railway people that Bombardier should always be the only train factory in the UK.

What's wrong with a bit of competition?

NR bonus bunker - first pictures!

***Bowler tip to Nigel Harris for exposing the secret home of Network Rail's Remuneration Committee***

UPDATE: It looks this morning as if an unholy triumvirate of Adonis, Webster and Wolmar will succeed in releasing this building for other uses...

1984: Revised and updated

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
Blogs take over from dead trees

Not strictly George Stephenson world, but the success of political blogger Guido Fawkes in bringing down Gordon Brown's "McPoison" this weekend is seen by media academics as a sign of the growing maturity of the blogosphere, which can score direct explosive hits where the ailing and cash-strapped dead tree media are increasingly impotent (or in the case of the BBC being pressured by the Government).

More power to the gimlet Railway Eye.

So beware.

They may be watching us, but we are watching them...

Guardian connives in DafT spin

Mixed news from the Grauniad this morning.

According to Dan Milmo...

The government is considering a £250m stimulus package for the railways aimed at boosting revenues and passenger numbers.

But what's this?

The piece continues...

Network Rail is also considering bringing forward investment in ticket barriers. Fare dodging is thought to cost the industry 5% of its annual revenues, or about £270m, and the transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, has asked train operators to propose gating schemes. Lord Adonis, the rail minister, told the Guardian last month that such a scheme would be popular. "There is wide support from passengers for gating because they don't like huge amounts of people not paying for fares that they then have to subsidise."

'Wide support'?

We think not.

Of course we have come to expect half truths from the department but it's disappointing that the Guardian is conniving in the spin.

Had the Guardian done a modicum of research it would have discovered that recent proposals to gate two major stations in the North are hugely unpopular (Sheffield and York).

In both cities opponents of the scheme make the same points: Gates will make it difficult for passengers with luggage, disadvantage the mobility impaired, exclude meeters and greeters, deny access to enthusiasts (the eyes and ears of the railway) and split both cities in half.

Needless to say our elected masters say one thing and mean another.

To discover what is really behind DafT's conversion to gating the network it is helpful to read the detailed justification for barriers which National Express supplied to Newcastle City Council's Planning Committee (another major station where gates are planned).

“...post the 7/7 attacks there is a requirement for coverage of entry and exit points at all stations, and in order to achieve identification/recognition standards...”.

In pursuit of the surveillance society it is quite clear that the first victim is truth. Shame on you Lord Adonis and shame on this dishonest government.

UPDATE: This from Richard Malins...

This needs to be exposed before a wider audience.

Someone must persuade Adonis to see through the nonsense DaFT are peddling and call a halt to gating schemes because:

a) The proposition is basically contradictory. Installing barriers will not make rail travel more accessible - particularly for the elderly and mothers with children.

b) The estimated 5% of revenue is an unsubstantiated number. True figures will be more complicated and vary according to circumstances. Measurement is difficult and usually not done properly, if at all.

c) Barriers only protect a minimum fare. Their effectiveness declines with length of journey and are believed to reduce short distance fare evasion by around half.

d) Outside the London commuter area the magnetic ticket technology does not properly support gating systems. Thus it is highly unreliable where system geography and fares structures are complex.

The Eye looks forward to hearing a counter view from the legions who, as Adonis assures us, support gating. Meanwhile the latest exciting Eye poll refers.