Imperial Wharf opening falls flat

Telegrammed by The Master
A bowler tip to London Connections for reminding Eye that the new Imperial Wharf station was due to open today.

Alas

The first train to call at the new (and much delayed) station this morning... was cancelled:

Headcode: 2M18 UID: W43986 27/09/2009 0815 Clapham Junction [CLJ] to Watford Junction [WFJ]

Location FD Sch. Sch. Expected Expected PL Lateness DR
Arr. Dep. Arrival Departure
Clapham Junction [CLJ] 0815 Cancelled 2
LTCHMRJ Pass 0817 Pass -
Imperial Wharf [IMW] 0819 0819 Cancelled Cancelled
West Brompton [WBP] 0822 0822 Cancelled Cancelled 4
Kensington Olympia [KPA] 0826 0825 2 -1
Shepherds Bush [SPB] 0828 0827 2 -1
NPLE813 Pass 0832 Pass -
MTRBDGJ Pass 0835 Pass -
Willesden Junction [WIJ] Pass 0841 Pass -
WLSDNNJ Pass 0842 Pass -
Wembley Central [WMB] Pass 0844 Pass -
Harrow & Wealdstone [HRW] 0848 0848 Cancelled Cancelled
Watford Junction [WFJ] 0858 Cancelled 10

One just hopes members of the Fourth Estate were still aslumber...

Birthday Greetings

***Eye wishes NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit a happy birthday.***

London Midland goes from bad to worse?

This intriguing snippet from 37422...

Keep an eye on London Midland this week. Expect some interesting announcements.

What on earth could this mean?

Surely not more service cuts on top of those already revealed by the Express and Star?

Yoghurt Rail curdles?

A bowler tip to Sim Harris and King Henry for this...

An exciting weekend for Yoghurt Rail watchers.

This press release emerged from Grand Central yesterday:

Grand Central statement on Alliance Rail Holdings Limited

On Thursday 24 September 2009 Alliance Rail Holdings Limited (Alliance Rail) issued a press release containing details of a submission to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) of plans for new "Open Access" services on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) by the Great North Eastern Railway Company (GNER) and also plans by the Great North Western Railway Company (GNWR) for new high speed services on the West Coast Main Line (WMCL).

The board of directors of Grand Central Railway Company Limited (Grand Central) wish to clarify that:

1. Ian Yeowart, director of Alliance Rail, was dismissed from his position as an employee and director of Grand Central on 27 May 2009. His dismissal is currently the subject of proceedings in the Employment Tribunal.

2. Certain of the routes identified by Mr Yeowart in connection with Alliance Rail's proposed new Open Access plans include routes in which the Grand Central group has registered an interest with the ORR and on which Mr Yeowart worked in the course of his duties with Grand Central.

3. The board of Grand Central considers that Mr Yeowart remains bound by certain post-employment obligations owed to the company by virtue of his former employment. Mr Yeowart also remains subject to obligations imposed upon him pursuant to the terms of the agreement relating to his investment in Sula TOC Limited ("Sula TOC"), Grand Central's holding company (which obligations will continue to apply for a period of twelve months after he ceases to be a shareholder of Sula TOC). Grand Central is concerned that, by reason of his recent actions, Mr Yeowart may be in breach of certain of these obligations, and is undertaking further investigations in this regard.

4. Mr Yeowart is currently a shareholder in Sula TOC. His dismissal by Grand Central, however, entitles Sula TOC's board of directors under the terms of the articles of association of that company to require Mr Yeowart to sell his shareholding in Sula TOC. The steps required to effect such a transfer of his shares are currently in process.

5. Grand Central is currently considering its legal position regarding Alliance Rail's proposed new open access services and particularly Mr Yeowart's involvement therein.

Meanwhile, King Henry advises that "if you google Mr Y's personal company 'OA Consultants' (which apparently stands for Open Access) you find 'Orecchia and Artieri Consultants', tax planners in Monaco."

Has Yoghurt Rail gone offshore already?

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

Old news!

This press release was on both the WNXX Forum and UK.railway yesterday!

Has The Fact Compiler been asleep?

Lookalike - Rise of the machines

Last week saw the launch of Wolmar's new tome Blood, Iron and Gold.

As the Noble Lord himself was guest of honour the event was packed full of transport luvvies (Peter Hendy, Tony Travers, David Begg, Ken Livingstone, Bernard Gambrill, Jeremy Candfield, Gordon Pettit, etc...).

Invited to say a few words Adonis took the floor; bemoaning the demise of British Rail as "an act of wanton destruction" he swiftly moved on to review Wolmar's book and over the next 15 minutes, in a tour de force of impromptu oratory, he regurgitated whole chunks from memory.

Adonis is not a man - he's a machine!

And with rumours that the Tories will appoint him as Chairman of HS2 after the election Eye brings you its latest Lookalike!


Eye can already imagine Adonis' first words to Prime Minister Cameron: "Your clothes... give them to me, now!".

UPDATE: This from AlanG...

Any mention by Wolmar of bidets?

Thankfully no!

UPDATE: This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...

It looks as though the Noble Lord's cover has slipped.

All that work by the Railway Liberation Front to get a high level mole into DfT could be put in jeopardy by a little slip.

Let's hope Gordo doesn't read Eye!!

Freightline® Gobshitte®y

This C®ap from Freightline®, presumably at the behest of GE®.


Eye® is delighted to say that NR® in its response refused to play this g@me.

What a lot of a®se!

LibDem conference news

Telegrammed by Party Animal
Regular Eye readers will be aware already of the LibDem's decision to endorse 30 year franchises.

A slick piece of lobbying by new ATOC PR supremo Ed Welsh.

Ed's background is in local government, so presumably he had Baker and the rest of the 'gas and water' muesli munchers eating out of his hand.

Whilst ATOC congratulated itself on a spirited performance in Bournemouth the award for the biggest PR coup goes to Alstom!

The French train manufacturer sponsored the All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group fringe event on Sunday night.

So delighted was Chairman Paul Rowen MP, that he made a passionate speech thanking Alstom, "the UK's last train manufacturer, based in Derby".

Brighton next week - see you there.

HS2 - Is Rowlands in control?

Telegrammed by Sir Humphrey Beeching
Have we another Mottram Moment in the making?

A furious email has been issued by HS2 containing a statement from Sir David Rowlands...

HS2's response to RAIL Magazine

“The insinuation that Scotland would not be included in our proposals for a high-speed rail network is frankly ludicrous. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are on our list of primary destinations and will definitely feature in all of our proposed network options.

“In fact, on the day RAIL Magazine published its factually inaccurate article, I was in Scotland meeting with the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson to discuss, among other things, the work Scotland is doing to ensure a future high-speed link is integrated with its transport planning strategies."

Well that clears that up then.

Or does it?

Perhaps Sir David would be better directing his ire closer to home.

After all, RAIL was merely reporting non-attributable briefings given to several trade titles by Rowlands' own staff...

UPDATE: This just in from RAIL's Managing Editor. Nigel Harris...

RE The Scottish Question

Eye watchers will be interested to know that I am already in correspondence with my good friend Sir David's office regarding RAIL's HS2 report, in the last issue, by Business Editor Phil Haigh.

RAIL stands 100% behind Phil's entirely accurate, objective, prompt, thoroughly professional news story and I shall be inviting Sir David to withdraw his allegation of inaccuracy forthwith.

I'll be dealing with this in the next RAIL - including, maybe, further revelations from Phil's carefully noted, on-the-record briefing, which contained the controversial 'not for Scotland' opinions.

Wild horses wouldn't drag the name of the highly-placed source from our lips, but if HS2 thinks the Scottish comments were embarrassing, then other remarks lying (currently) unpublished in the detailed transcript I asked Phil to produce, from his contemporaneous notes, may indeed prompt the 'Mottram Moment' you so wittily allude to.

Bottom line: Phil's story is 100% accurate. Fact.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Tut, you wait years for a Scotland scandal, and then two turn up at once!

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic ( in serious mode for once)...

Several of us in the railway press have had the same story, with the same quotes from HS2L sources.

I didn't follow Phil into print for the simple reason that I have decided to write about HS rail only when there is something in print with hard numbers to crunch - such as the NR report.

Informed Sources has run for over a quarter of a century because the eponymous sources know I will never let them down.

But trust is bi-directional and I work on the basis that anyone is allowed to mislead me once.

Had I followed Phil with an item and then had a denial sent not to me or my editor in the first instance but to all the railway press I would wonder whether it represented a breach of trust.

The art of signwriting explained

WSMR Anschlussed

More exciting Open Access news.

Following today's announcement from Yoghurt Rail comes news of developments at WSMR.

This from Modern Railways...

Rail firm Wrexham & Shropshire announced (today) that direct services between Wrexham, Shropshire and London will, from the New Year, be operated by Chiltern Railways, a company owned by WSMR's largest shareholder, German state rail operator DB.

So where does all this leave former WSMR shareholder Renaissance Trains?

Perhaps Hull will be seeing a lot more of the Landlord?

UPDATE: This from the Major...

Do keep up FC old bean.

I'm sure those chappies at RAIL ran this story last weekend (unless of course your copy's stuck in Mount Pleasant sorting office...).

It did indeed reach me. But the Modern Railway's story had quotes and stuff. Even one from Herr von Shooter!

UPDATE: This from a Mr Scott...

Perhaps Renaissance Trains haven't noticed what has been happening with WSMR as they are completely snowed under preparing for the launch of Glasgow Trains.

Which according to their website is due to take place in er... 2009?

Genius behind the PPP to leave the Government?

Sky News reporting that Business Minister Lady Vadera is expected to leave Government.

The railway industry will remember her fondly for the masterful way she broke the Underground.

Gordon next?

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Nor should we forget that Lady Vadera was also instrumental in breaking Railtrack thus making her responsible for the 2004 Periodic Review which saw annual railway subsidy soar to £100 million per head of population!

UPDATE: This from Lazarus...

According to Leo "the 2004 Periodic Review which saw annual railway subsidy soar to £100 million per head of population!"

No wonder there's an exclamation mark, that's a total of £6,000,000,000,000,000 per year, or roughly 1500 times the UK GDP. Wow!

UPDATE:This from Leo Pink...

My apologies.

I was calculating the size of my bonus when I broke off to telegram Railway Eye with my thoughts on Lady V.

As a result I was thinking in millions.

The sum should of course be £100 per head..

Yoghurt Rail returns

Exciting Open Access news!

Two new open access operations have been proposed for the East and West Coast Main Lines.

Branded GNER (haven't we heard that somewhere before? Ed) and GNWR they are the brainchild of Ian Yeowart, late of Grand Central fame.

The new Yoghurt Rail services will call at virtually every station in the country using Chinese built trains.

Yoghurt Rail's proposals have already been welcomed by Passenger Focus:

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, said: “Open access operators have brought to the network competition, lower prices, and quality services. Our latest National Passenger Survey revealed that passengers are very satisfied with the services they receive from Grand Central and Wrexham & Shropshire Railway."

Expect DafT to be a little more sanguine however...

UPDATE: This from King Henry...

Does Mr Yeowart know what happens if you visit www.gner.co.uk ?

UPDATE: This from the man in the Pendo....

Is there some competition with Virgin to spell station names wrongly?

Virgin's Wifi intro is still misspelling Manchester Piccadilly and Llandudno Junction.

However for Yog(h)urt rail it's the residents of Alderley Edge and Hebden Bridge who will be irked.

Still I don't suppose they will ever need to spell them correctly on a destination board.

An invitation from the Labour Transport Group

The Fact Compiler has received the following from the Labour Transport Group:

LTG Member, supporter, friend, colleague

At Labour Conference 2009 The Labour Transport Group are launching Labour's Transport Policy for the Future - 60 Words Campaign

Why not tell us in no more than 60 words what Labour's Transport Policy for the Future should be?

The suggestions will be posted on our website, will be debated at future LTG meetings and form the basis of our future campaigning.

Contributions already received are shown at http://blog.labourtransportgroup.org.uk

Why not join the debate and comment on the policy ideas, or write your own - simply comment on the website or email it to the admin team admin@labourtransportgroup.org.uk

Please include your name and CLP (if Labour Party Member).

Please forward this email.

Play nicely...

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

"Under a Labour government the railways will be publicly owned"

"There is a commitment that there will be a publicly owned, publicly accountable railways under a Labour government"

Alastair Campbell, 16 January 1995

Seems clear enough.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Iliff...

"Consult widely, formulate a range of options, assess them against relevant criteria... then throw them away because Gordon knows best." (20 words)

Anything else would be out of character.

Is Shooter wrong?

This from Getreading...

Fuming university lecturer Kerry Renshaw has launched a petition calling for First Great Western to abolish first class tickets on journeys to London.

Alas.

As at 10:15 the petition has a mere 14 signatures!

Perhaps time for the Chilteenies to mount their own campaign to restore first class...

Leed to Manchester to be electrified!

Or possibly not.

The Yorkshire Post has the amusing tale.

Who would have guessed that Iain Coucher was brought up in Leeds...

Pharisee news

The Pope has clarified his position after it was revealed he had broken the rules on celibacy.

Citing the Crown .v. Scotland he said:

"I fully accept the findings of the Conclave that I made a technical breach of the rules. I apologise for having made this inadvertent error."

The Holy Father continued: "Of course this in not a resigning affair, despite the fact I personally promoted this particular piece of Canon law."

Dear God - How much longer must we put up with this dishonest and disreputable bunch?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Compare and contrast: £5k versus £120k

Comment would be superfluous.

UPDATE: This from John B...

Don't quite understand Steve Strong's point here.

Scotland employed 1 illegal worker; Coleman employed 12. Both of them did so unknowingly.

£10k is the maximum penalty for that; you get £2.5k off for a first offence (including multiple 'first offences' at the same time) and £2.5k off for admitting fault.

So if Coleman admits fault, he'll be fined £5k per worker like Scotland. If he doesn't, then he'll either be fined nothing or £7.5k per worker, depending on whether he can convince them he's got a defence.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Am I missing the point, or is everybody else?

As I understand it, the Noble Lady (?!???!?!) was fined because she failed to keep copies of documentation, and was therefore unable to prove that she had seen and checked that documentation.

The point is, had she been able to produce copies of the said documentation, would that not have simply proved that she knew the worker was illegal, since that is apparently what she was?

We all know that the reason the opposition is not making hay on this matter, is probably because half of them are also treading on thin ice themselves in this regard.

R.I.P. honest politics!

UPDATE: This from the Velopodist...

Mr Iliffe is indeed missing the point, as are many others.

Had Lady Scotland photocopied the documents, it seems it would have proved that she was shown fairly convincing fakes.

Reading between the lines of statements issued by those investigating these things, there is an investigation going on into how said fakes got produced and collars will soon be felt.

People are getting upset about it because they want to kick the government and because she's Attorney General - except for the Daily Mail, who just can't stand any prominent left-leaning woman.

The Fact Compiler is getting upset because he is utterly scrupulous in all his dealings with officialdom and could never be reproached for even the slightest technical breach of any rule. It's one of his best-known characteristics.

The Fact Compiler is uncertain whether the Velopodist is extracting the urine?

Flying Scotsman update

Exciting news for lovers of iconic loco 4472.

As many Eye readers will know Flying Scotsman is being extensively rebuilt by the NRM.

As work continues on the locomotive there is a clamour from kettle enthusiasts, keen to see a model of 4472 in an as-is condition.

Word reaches Eye that an enterprising manufacturer has now filled this gap and according to a Mr Roden, the new product is being secretly test marketed in Launceston!


Beautiful and every dimension to the correct scale.

Success for ATOC's new media team

Absolute fury amongst the organisers and sponsors of last week's National Rail Awards, at which John Humphrys was guest speaker.

Someone or somebody broke the railway Omertà!

Which led to the following Evening Standard headline the very next day:

Mastermind? It’s just money for old rope, says John Humphrys

The piece then listed a litany of alleged faux pas from Humphrys' witty peroration.

Who could have been so naive as to have done such a thing?

Obviously someone new to the game.

No matter!

No point in crying over spilt milk.

Clearly when you sup with the Devil you should use a very long spoon... etc...

Meanwhile, perhaps best if ATOC don't invite Lydall again next year!

Mediaballs - Salisbury Journal

This shabby headline from the lame Salisbury Journal:

Train crash near Salisbury

Wrong!

The rest of the story continues:

The black Fiat Bravo was travelling south when it appears to have gone out of control and hit a garden wall on the right-hand side of the road.

The car was thrown back across the carriageway, mounted the kerb and went over the embankment onto the track, where it was hit by the 5.15am express to London Waterloo.

So that would be a 'Car Crash' then?

NR to provide Zil Lines for Olympics?

Good to see that the promise of an Olympics open to all doesn't extend to the good burghers of Nottingham.

This from the Nottingham Evening Post...

Rail chiefs claim they haven't yet decided when the station will close, but Coun Richard Jackson says Network Rail told him the work would be during the London Olympics.

So its 'Zil Lanes' for athletes and 'Zil Lines' for NR engineers.