DB illustrates Teutonic efficiency

This just in from 'die Bordsteinschwalbe'...

Have you noticed that S-Bahn Berlin has only 330 vehicles available out of 1260?

It follows a derailment in May caused by a wheel-break - and a failure to keep on top of subsequent wheel checks...

The Eisenbahn-Bundesamt is not amused, the S-Bahn board's gone and Berlin now threatens to strip DB of the franchise.

No matter - profits are up 600% since 2005.

UPDATE: More from 'die Bordsteinschwalbe'

DB says it will start services on Monday 20 July with a third of the fleet.

Things are expected to gradually improve after 10 August, but a full service isn't planned until the start of December.

How reassuring. Vorsprung durch Technik as someone once said.

Knights that go ni

Good news from the Stobart Group!

This from today's Financial Mail...

Transport and logistics group Eddie Stobart - famous for its fleet of green lorries - is holding talks with Network Rail over plans to build freight terminals on its dormant land.

Its first target is the Midlands Main Line. The move is part of Stobart's plan to shift ten per cent of its freight to rail by next year.

But what's this?

The story is illustrated with a picture of the 'Stobart Pullman' which lasted all of five months before being unceremoniously dumped by the company.

Let's hope the railfreight plans of the Knights of the Road don't also end up in a shrubbery.

Pointless signs #5

UPDATE: This from a Mr Holt...

I was amused that the dump that is Macclesfield could claim to be Cheshire's best kept station.

However, best staffed station could well be very accurate.

I travelled through it daily around about 2005/6 and used to make a point of counting the Virgin staff in the morning.

8 was about the norm for a station with one entry point 2 platforms, one an island.

Highlights included arriving on a Sunday to renew a season ticket at a time when for months on end all trains were running via Wilmslow.

I was told they could not do it as they were short staffed.

Short staffed? There were 3 people on duty and no trains!

Vote for your top 10 political blogs

Iain Dale is asking blog readers to vote for their top 10 favourite blogs.



Email your ten favourite blogs (ranked from 1-10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com

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Enjoy.

Henry Allingham RIP

This from the BBC...

Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, has died at the age of 113, his care home has said.

'Lions led by donkeys', they said.

The OESI and SofS for Defence take note.

Monday's announcement.

So the Department will finally make its long awaited electrification announcement on Monday.

Despite the delays this is no mean achievement, bearing in mind the level of opposition from the Treasury.

No matter.

Sources differ as to what the Secretary of State will actually announce.

Pessimists suggest it will be a token gesture, a Paddington to Reading affair, deliverable within CP4 (riding on the back of Crossrail and taking advantage of the already funded Reading remodelling).

Meanwhile cynics suggest it will promise electrification of both the Great Western and Midland Main Lines as well as numerous infill schemes.

Such a bold announcement would offer the beleaguered Labour government many benefits; keeping the muesli munchers happy, diverting attention from the current "disastrous" state of TOC finances and nicely poisoning the well for the Tory Party, who after May 2010 will face funding or cancelling the programme. Oh, and it also allows the government to 'postpone' ordering any new, nasty, smelly but desperately needed additional DMU vehicles.

Of course the announcement could propose an electrification strategy that is both deliverable and affordable!

One that might even be welcomed by the new, improved, non-nasty, green Conservative Party.

In which case expect My Lord Adonis to cross the floor sooner rather than later.

UPDATE: This from the Major...

My sources suggest Monday may be delayed till Thursday.

Time will tell...

The Fact Compiler thought it might be helpful to point out that Parliament rises for the Summer Recess on Tuesday next week.

Surely the Department wouldn't be so foolish as to make such an important policy announcement without allowing it to be subjected to proper, democratic, scrutiny by the people's representatives?

Of course not! After all the decision to nationalise NXEC was announced by Adonis on Radio 4's Today programme.

Leaving MPs to twiddle their thumbs for a full 12 hours before Sadiq Khan could be bothered to make a statement in the Commons.

UPDATE: This from the BBC...

"John Penrose is concerned that plans to electrify the line between Paddington and Bristol do not include Weston."

Good to see that the lobbying has already started.

Tomorrow's papers

A big hand to Virgin Trains!

One possible headline for tomorrow's Sun.

UPDATE: As predicted.

Setback for Adonis, DafT and NXEC

This just in from our man on the frontline at the Battle of the Barriers...

Listed Building Consent application rejected by the City of York at Committee today, despite officer recommendation for approval.

A breakthrough!

Perhaps the other NXEC gating schemes could now also be quietly buried, along with the franchise?

UPDATE: This from the BBC.

2009 Railway Garden Competition #9 - Chester (again)

This from the Chester Chronicle...

FORMER Beirut hostage Terry Waite has criticised the state of Chester’s Railway Station.

He wrote: “Normally I visit by car but recently I decided to travel by train. I was totally depressed by the state of the railway station.

“Large weeds were growing between the tracks and the station, potentially a beautiful building, looked absolutely dreadful."

If only NR and ATW had paid attention to this and this!

Eye is sure the former Archbishop's Special Envoy will forgive this paraphrasing of Holy Writ:

What did you go out into Chester to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

Pointless signs #5

Pointless signs #4

2009 Railway Garden Competition #8

This offering from the North end of platform 6 at Sheffield Station.


What a splendid trip hazard.


Good effort EMT and Network Rail.

Lookalike XXII - Dark Lord?

White handbags at dawn

Good news from the ludicrously named C2C...

Essex train operator c2c has not only just become the best ever performing franchised train operator in Great Britain, but has also equalled the punctuality record set by the Swiss Federal Railways.

Good news indeed!

And to mark the occasion C2C helpfully provided this picture of Heidi and Helga draped with a Swiss flag (with a bowler tip to the IRJ).


When Swiss punctuality reaches C2C levels can we expect SBB staff to dress-down as Essex girls?

UPDATE: This just in from The International Rantiquarian...

Well Done to the Essex Girls of c2c for equalling the punctuality record of Swiss Railways.

That should put paid to the cuckoo clock smugness of my chums in the Cantons.

After all, c2c has to manage all the complications of a virtually self contained railway with just three physical connections to anywhere else on the network, no through trains beyond their boundaries, and a vanishingly small volume of freight traffic.

Meanwhile the Swiss enjoy the simplicity of international borders with Italy, Germany, Austria, and France, and have to coax their trains across and sometimes over the Alps.

Well done, Essex. Rule Britannia!

NXEA outsources revenue protection

What a deeply unpleasant company National Express East Anglia is.

This from the Londonist...

Sickened by freeloaders? Don't like the look of the bloke in the seat opposite? Worry no longer. National Express East Anglia have put up posters on the Stansted Express inviting you to report anyone you think might be fare evading.

Perhaps NXEA should get off its fat corporate derrier and check tickets, rather then encouraging this stasi-like snooping on fellow passengers?

UPDATE: This from Al...

Those posters have been up on the West Anglia for ages. There's a bit about it on the bottom of this page on their website.

You're not wrong though, I commute (admittedly over a short distance) from and to Cambridge every day and often use the WA at the weekends too, and I very, very rarely see any ticket checks.

UPDATE: This from Commuter...

Upon closer inspection of the sign, it actually starts with "if you believe a fellow customer..."

Perhaps if NX treats fare dodgers as customers then this may be the reason for their recent troubles.

I might just go and steal some food from Tescos and complain to their 'Customer services.'

Quite right too Commuter.

Just because you're innocent doesn't mean that you aren't guilty!*

*Taken from the Little Brown Book. Chapter 94 (with apologies to Private Eye)

Wind-up in the Willows #3 (or Laudate Bowker!)

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
Good grief. How much faster does poor old Moley have to back pedal?

Here he is yesterday - eulogising the same bus bandits who reneged on their contracts - or not.

"Punctuality, which is passengers' No. 1 concern, has improved dramatically. It has risen steadily since National Express East Coast took over the franchise, with the moving annual average rising from 81.7 to 87.6 per cent. Daily punctuality levels are now frequently above 90 per cent., and several 100 per cent. days have been achieved."

"We have seen tremendous innovation on the route, with wi-fi being introduced first to 10 trains and then to the whole east coast inter-city fleet—I have ambitions to see that on the service that I use every week."

"Stations on the route have also benefited from substantial and sustained investment, with the quality of the facilities being offered being recognised at places such as Durham, which was declared station of the year at the 2008 national rail awards."

"Finally, we should remember that the inter-city east coast franchise is one of those rare breeds that return a premium to the Department, and that premium is reinvested in the railway industry. Events of the recent past may have reduced the premiums available, but we can still confidently expect a significant return."

The phrase 'Eating sh*t whilst smiling' springs to mind!

Wind-up in the Willows #2

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
More brown trouser laundering by Moley.

"The hon. Member for Peterborough asserted that other operators have received revenue support sooner than four years into the franchise.

"It is true that the First Great Western franchise included a provision whereby revenue support became available after two years, but that was an exceptional arrangement."

So DfT never renegotiates franchise - except when DfT got the franchise specification wrong and First Group have us over a barrel in which case it is an 'exceptional arrangement'.

First for benefitting from NatEx discomfort

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
When and if NXEC runs out of committed money and NatEx hands back the keys, it also gives DafT the £32 million performance bond.

Say it's going to cost DfT a couple of million to run its Holting (geddit) company until Inter-City East coast is re-let again, that 30 million will come in very handy when it comes to collaring FGW's revenue shortfall which is going to be well north of £60m in the current financial year.

How fortunate that DfT Rail's policy of not renegotiating franchises didn't apply to FGW when cap and collar was brought forward by two years.

Wind-up in the Willows

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
It looks as though poor Moley has been given the task of cleaning up after Lord Adonis.

With Marsham Street suffering a collective brown trouser moment after Lord Adonis gave Beau Bowker and his boyz in da NEG hood a very public dissing, there may be quite a bit of cleaning up to do.

This written answer from Chris Mole on the 13th July:

‘Under the National Express East Coast franchise agreement, National Express Group is obliged to meet its parent company loan obligation of a £40 million loan facility. It is also open to National Express Group, at their discretion, to make available support in excess of this’

So NatEx isn't 'walking away' from its contractual obligations, as the Noble Lord repeatedly proclaimed, after all.

Although if Lord Adonis went round with the hat any discretionary tips would be gratefully accepted. And who determined the size of the parent company loan obligation for this 'medium risk' franchise?

Er, DafT!

2009 Railway Garden Competition #7

A slightly off the wall contribution from our International Correspondent.

This railway has been subject to some neglect in recent weeks.

In its time considered quite a thriller, few could beat it. In fact it was almost invincible.

Is it scary? I hear you ask.

Not if you were on the line and you are not alone.

However, would you want to be startin' somethin' that could be quite dangerous?

(We've had enough. Ed).


At least NR can sleep easy over this one.