Sadiq Khan MP gets transport

The Eye congratulates Sadiq Khan on his appointment as Minister of State for Transport.

A bowler tip to Behind the Water Tower for this link to the Wandsworth Guardian which profiles the MP for Tooting.

With Lord Adonis sitting in the unelected Upper House it has been decided that Mr Khan will also sit in cabinet and join the Privy Council.

The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan has some experience of transport as his father Amanullah, a trained engineer who came to Britain in the 1960's, worked on the buses as a driver.

A former chairman of Liberty he has first hand experience of the democratic deficit, having been bugged talking to a gaoled constituent by counter-terrorism officers.

Image courtesy of Tubelines

He has also taken a keen interest in Tube Lines' work in his constituency.

Sadiq Khan's elevation to the Privy Council and cabinet was announced via the MP's twitter feed on Saturday.

The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan's blog can be found here, although he last posted on Wednesday.

Interesting times!

UPDATE: This just in from Nicholas Hill over at XBriefing...

Earlier this year Mr Khan sought to blame recent increases in rail and underground passenger fares on ‘the Tories’.

In his March constituency newsletter Totally Tooting he stated:

"In January…an annual train or tube season ticket to Central London went up by £180... In the current economic climate, politicians should be helping people to save money. Yet the Tories are doing the opposite. They don’t seem to care."

Thanks for this Nicholas. As Khan obviously 'does care' presumably we can look to a reversal of current government policy which is designed to see the passenger pick up a greater share of the railway tab?

No, thought not!

First Secretary!

Goodness me!

Behind the Water Tower says it better than Eye ever could.

Gulp!

Commuters friend?

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
No danger of Paul Clark, the Medway MP tipped to take over from Adonis as rail minister, being lynched by passengers.

Rather than join the great unwashed on the daily commute from Gillingham he decided to rent a London flat, using £1,200 a month of our money.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I have nothing to hide".

Who speaks for the Railway?

This from the Grauniad...

"Geoff Hoon showed realism in understanding the importance of road transport and road safety and will be missed," said Edmund King, the president of the AA.

Nothing yet from ATOC or Network Rail.

Anyone out there?

Lord Adonis as Secretary of State!

The Eye offers its congratulations to the noble Lord.

There will be many in the industry (but not treasury) who welcome this appointment and the continuity it brings.

But... a peer.

Sitting in the House of Lords.

Unaccountable to the tax raising House.

Welcome back to the 19th Century.

Hoon gone

Industry devastated


BBC report here.

Germany calling # 4

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
I spit on Lord Tee Hee's 75 min late.

When DB fahrt gegen Engeland (in the form of DB Schenker) has just one train failure it shuts down the entire railway for hours and hours and hours.

Yesterday's 02.30 from Birch Coppice to Ipswich failed closing most of the West Coast main line for half the day until it was finally hauled into Bletchley Yard at 13.53.

But restoring national pride, Network Rail then demonstrated its new HIPS (Highly Interruptible Power Supply) at the Bletchley control centre.

This shut down the WCML for the rest of the afternoon.

Virgin's PPM for the day was 21.8%.

Still ORR should have received the NR recovery plan for WCML performance by close of play today, so that's all right then.

How effing much?

More good news for the beleaguered Prime Minister.

The NAO report on the collapse of Metronet says it has cost the taxpayer £410m (this figure of course excludes the millions paid to consultants to set up the deeply flawed part privatisation of the Tube).

Caroline Pidgeon, quoted in the Grauniad, tells it like it is...

"This is simply a devastating report for the architect of the public private partnership contract – Gordon Brown. It is unforgivable that as much as £410m of taxpayers' money has been wasted. The PPP deal that was forced on Londoners by Gordon Brown has been totally exposed as a bad deal for taxpayers and for passengers."

Sadly it's not worth pointing out that had Brown and Vadera presided over such a monumental balls-up in the private sector they would have been out the door so fast their arses wouldn't have touched the ground.

UPDATE: This from Accountancy Magazine...

Ernst & Young was paid £33m in fees for handling the administration of Metronet, the firm set up to modernise the London Underground, a report by the National Audit Office reveals.

Why?

Germany calling #3

Telegrammed by Lord Tee Hee
Well, DB certainly do things well - including delays.

They don't mess about with a mere 10-15 minutes, they go the whole hog.

I'm looking up at the indicator board at Karlsruhe at the moment and my train to Rastatt is 60 minutes late - as is the next one! IC2270 to Stralsund is 50mins down and so is ICE 508 to Koln.

Still, its better than yesterday, when one of the ICEs to Switzerland was 75 late...

Eye survey LATEST

***Purnell scratched***

Tempting fate

This confident assertion from Network Rail yesterday...

"VT ppm as at 18:00 today 92%"

But what's this?

Alas

It would appear that a signal failure this afternoon at Milton Keynes has stopped the job completely on NR's £9bn railway (again).

At least Virgin's contingency plans are by now well rehearsed...

Virgin trains... have promised that tickets for affected trains will be honoured on other services.

Old railway hands will point out that you should never tempt fate, or indeed get over cocky when your customer is already spitting bullets.

UPDATE: This just in from Charles Yerkes...

Heaven forfend that I should trample on someone else's patch, goodness knows we have troubles enough on the Underground.

However, hasn't NR's Rapid Rebuttal Unit gone rather quiet all of a sudden?

UPDATE: Wise words from the Archer...

Having 'enjoyed' the service on the WCML today (standing room & 20 late into London) perhaps Virgin's train-managers could go easy on the PA waffle.

When you start an announcement by apologising for making yet another apology, then it really is time to keep schtum.

Earlier, the train-manager just about stopped short of asking passengers to give the (Virgin Trains') driver a round of applause for his exceptional work having faced (Network Rail) signalling problems.

It was all a bit embarrassing really.

If these two industry giants don't grow up and co-operate then every delay on the WCML will be blown out of all proportion as each party seeks to blame t'other.

So please grow up and get along.

Topic closed.

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

Telegrammed by the Major
So Network Rail has something to say!

I'm surprised it dares after being damned by the ORR for continuing shoddy West Coast performance, missing its CP3 efficiency targets, having no clear plan for its CP4 efficiency targets... (cont. page 94)

Despite all this NR still has the audacity to insist:

"We're paying bonuses come what may!"

Who said Network Rail was arrogant?

UPDATE: This just in from NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit:

We always have something to say. I'm sure we can all pull out critical comments from the ORR's Network Rail Monitor, but let me just quote the first paragraph:

"Network Rail succeeded in delivering its main output obligations for the end of Control Period 3 (CP3), as set in 2003, which included reductions in delays to train services, improvement in the asset stewardship index, and delivery of projects including in particular the main elements of the West Coast route modernisation."

No doubt others have their views on the ORR-mandated management incentive scheme, but our views have been clear and consistent.

I'd just like to compare and contrast the railway we have today with the broken one Network Rail inherited in 2002. I've said this many times before and I'm sure I'll say it again - in fact I'm having these words tattooed on the inside of my eyelids:

As a result of everything the industry has done, we now have a railway carrying a record number of passengers on a record number of trains; passenger satisfaction at 83% has never been higher; 91% of trains arrive on time – the highest national figure ever recorded; travel by train has never been safer and is now the safest form of transport; and we have reduced by £1bn a year for the British people the cost of running the railway.

Now, who HAS got the number of Richard Branson's tattooist?

UPDATE: Captain Deltic muses:

Hmm, the asset stewardship index would be more convincing if we had an Asset Register, something Tom Winsor was demanding from the broken railway and we still haven't got under the soft touch that replaced the hard man.

And what about the problems with gauging for the ScotRail Desiros? Something else the broken railway wasn't very good at either.

But then Railtrack had the excuse that it wasn't funded at Network Rail levels.

Odd that the members don't hold the NR Board to account for these failings.

Now then Captain - that sort of comment won't help your case one bit with the NR 'Dementors' responsible for selecting new public members.

A good day to bury piss-poor news

Telegrammed by The Raver
The NAO report on Metronet's collapse is due to be published tomorrow morning.

As Brown and Vadera are personally responsible for the disastrous PPP, which has cost Londoners billions and nearly brought the Underground to its knees, no doubt the report will receive an appropriate level of media coverage.

After all Friday is bound to be a slow news day...

UPDATE: Wolmar takes up the tale...

A gentle reminder

Please use your vote today.


The greatest threat to our democracy is disinterest.

UPDATE: This just in from Lazarus...

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello.

I'm going to have to caution you over this one:

"The greatest threat to democracy is disinterest."

Disinterest means impartiality, not lack of interest, which is what you meant.

£10 fixed penalty for that.

It's a fair cop - guilty as charged. But get out and vote anyway.

Germany calling #2

Telegrammed by Lord Tee Hee
Having spent the past two days whizzing around the Karlsruhe tram/train network I can only wonder at the honesty of the Germans.

I haven't had my pass checked once in over 20 trips.

So, either the country is so scrupulously law-abiding that no one fare evades, or KVV see it as such a small problem that it's not worth employing anyone for revenue protection.

I wonder how this will translate to our own tram/train experiment?

Night of the long spoons

According to Xbriefing, with a bowler tip to HQ Staffer, Gordon Brown will have a "Cabinet cull... by the end of the week..."

Xbriefing then names those whose time in government is at an end:

"Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, the Home Secretary Jackie Smith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, and the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears."

Two down (by their own hands) and two to go.

So if Hoon of that Ilk goes who will replace him?

Time for another exciting Eye survey...

Lookalike XlX - Resigned to the WCML?

This just in from PJ over at Network Rail's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit...

Well, the ORR and Virgin have had one or two things to say about West Coast performance today and obviously we at Network Rail have things to say on the subject too.

But let me just say one person wanted to get out of London very quickly today - and that was Hazel Blears.

And what did she do?

Hotfooted to Euston to get a speedy and reliable, turn-up-and-go service (VT ppm as at 18:00 today 92%) to Manchester.

Maybe we should use her in our new ad campaign? Or perhaps not...

Too late PJ - looks like Virgin got there before you...

Do you know of a recently resigned government minister who is a lookalike of someone in a Virgin Trains ad?

Alternatively are you a recently resigned government minister, or a minister who is about to resign, whose doomed career could be resurrected by appearing on Railway Eye.

All submissions to the usual address...

UPDATE: Captain Deltic sniggers...

Presumably the Chipmunk put her walk on fare on expenses?

South Central: And the winner is...

***Rail Business Intelligence suggesting Govia has retained South Central, formal announcement expected after the Local/Euro elections***

No one expects...

Whilst Passenger Focus, the official passenger watchdog, continues in dead sheep mode at least one lobby group endeavours to fight the passengers' corner.

The Campaign for Better Transport (Transport 2000 in old money) has launched a viral internet campaign calling for rail fares to be reduced.



The muesli munchers believe that any resulting shortfall in industry income could be covered by taxing aviation fuel used for domestic flights.

All very laudable and the Eye wishes them the best.

However, one small question.

Why are both the train and plane in the video wearing tights?

Could this have anything to do with the CBT's president being the celebrated crank, former Python and occasional cross-dresser Michael Palin?

Those Network Rail numbers in full

The Goodish, the bad and the very ugly

The Goodish: Pre-tax 'profit' year ending 31 March down to £1.52bn, from £1.59bn last year.

The Bad: Net debt up to £22.3bn from £19.7bn.

The Very Ugly: Pension deficit up 80% from £370 million to £664 million.

Thank goodness NR is a private company and this won't hit our taxes.