This from Reuters...
Instead of the usual messages about delays, passengers at West Ham station in east London heard a couple's love-making antics being relayed over platform loudspeakers during the evening rush hour on Thursday.
Good old Extended Jubilee line - longer, faster, deeper!
Of your charity please consider doing the following...
Text the word POPPY to 70222 - to make a donation to The Royal British Legion. (Texts cost £1.50 plus your standard network message charge). At least £1.00* goes directly to the Legion.
Other ways in which you can support the Royal British Legion can be found here.
Priorities for investment in the railways - 11 Nov 09 (3)
EVIDENCE SESSION
On Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 3.45pm in Committee Room 8, Palace of Westminster, House of Commons, the Committee will hold an evidence session on Priorities for investment in the railways. The following will give evidence:
Time Witnesses
3.45 pm - Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn, Greengauge 21
4.15 pm - Association of Train Operating Companies, Virgin Group, National Express
5.15 pm - Network Rail
These timings are approximate and the sessions may start slightly earlier or later than advertised.
UPDATE: This from J Alfred Prufrock...
Of all those appearing before the Transport Committee only Network Rail actually invests any money in the railway and that all comes from the taxpayer.
Bah, humbug.
UPDATE: This from Network Rail's Internet Rapidish Rebuttal Unit...
J Alfred Prufrock really should know better.
His assertion that the money Network Rail invests "all comes from the taxpayer" will come as news to train operators whose track access charges paid to us help fund the railway.
Also the £300m a year contribution from our commercial property division is not to be sniffed at either.
UPDATE: Eye is grateful to a Mr Saltaire for this novel solution...
WTF?
Eye wonders if Elaine Holt might have any spare time between now and the 13th November to fix a small problem.
Apparently her old TOC isn't running any trains on the Great Northern route this Sunday.
Something to do with driver shortages.
Surely they haven't all been recruited by DOR as well?
UPDATE: This from The Sussex Driver...
FCC are indeed short of drivers at the moment, both on the GN and Thameslink routes.
This is being compounded by First Group awarding the driving grade a 0% pay rise, backdated to April!
As I'm sure you'll appreciate, the brothers aren't exactly best pleased, and have told them to shove rest day working up their siding, hence no GN services this Sunday.
Last Saturday evening it was buses between Bedford and London because of the shortage, and so far there have been over 100 services cancelled on the Thameslink route in the last two weeks.
This from ASLEF...
Train drivers’ union ASLEF is calling for the dismissal of Network Rail chief Iain Coucher after an enquiry yesterday revealed ‘gross incompetence’ which contributed to three deaths at the Halkirk level crossing in Caithness last month.
Strong words from the brothers, in advance of the full enquiry which is to take place later in the year.
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Directly Operated Railways seems to have been taken by surprise by the decision to bring forward the termination date of the National Express East Franchise by a month.
Until this week DOR was working on taking over at the timetable change on 13th December.
Now it is 13th November - just over a week away.
Had they had a subscription to the Orange Peril, otherwise known as Rail Business Intelligence, they would have found on the City Page of the October 29 issue an erudite analysis of the NXEC burn rate.
This showed that the franchise was losing £1.27m a week and had £6 million left in the kitty as of 30th September.
So it was pretty clear that NXEC was going to run out of money well before 13th December.
Perhaps DOR was hoping that all those cheap advance purchase tickets NXEC has been flogging would boost revenue - despite other operators experience showing it hammering the revenue line.
UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...
DOR still appears to be caught on the back foot judging by their website.
It still has no mention of the momentous news...
UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...
I'm not surprised that DOR has been caught out.
There were 'animated discussions' and raised voices late into last night, between party spin doctors and Treasury officials, over how the renationalisation was to be portrayed.
Judging from today's low key announcement the Treasury won.
Franchised Rail Services: Update
The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): Further to my statements on 1 July 2009 [Official Report, Col.225 and Official Report, Col. WS 24] on East Coast main line rail services, after the close of the markets yesterday I notified National Express East Coast Ltd that I am terminating their franchise with effect from 11:59 pm on 13 November.
The publicly owned East Coast Main Line company will take over running of this franchise from that time, with an orderly handover from National Express East Coast. I can assure the travelling public that services will continue without disruption and all tickets will be honoured.
Staff currently employed by National Express East Coast will transfer to the East Coast Main Line company under the Transfers of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), with the necessary statutory consultation.
Shouldn't something be happening soon?
'Nuff said.
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
I see that the LibDems have now also joined the clamour for NatEx to be stripped off their other franchises.
National Express East Anglia is currently responsible for procuring 30 four car Electrostar EMUs and is already on the maximum support under cap and collar.
Do we really want this dumped on the taxpayer?
It's late.
The Department for Transport originally promised it in Autumn.
It now admits it will be published at the 'end of the year'.
Shadow Transport Minister Stephen Hammond is unconvinced.
At a conference in Manchester today he said he expected it to emerge in March next year!
Hammond is clearly realistic about his future Department's ability to deliver.
This slightly deranged submission from Ben Jones, editor of Model Rail magazine...
Just to prove that things were no better in the era of BR blue Class 25s on proper freight trains, here’s a shocking example of infrastructure neglect in 4mm:1ft scale. 
Does this qualify for the contest?
No but good effort.
Telegrammed by The Fashionista
All Ministers are accompanied on trips outside Westminster by a junior bag carrier cum minder.
We certainly can't have Minsters of the Crown carrying their own sandwiches in non-biodegradable plastic sacks like a certain Captain of Industry we could mention.
The Electrification Evangelist's bag carrier has a nice line in attache cases to heft.
Made by Prada, no less.
Probably hand stitched by Miuccia herself for Milord Inglese.
Must dash. Ciao. Mwah, Mwah.
An excited press release from the RMT announcing the end date of NXEC!
Of course Rail Business Intelligence and Eye readers already know that the Department plans to nationalise the East Coast franchise at timetable change.
No matter.
Railnews gives further details of the leaked document which alerted the RMT.
The piece also contains a rather natty mock up of a Mk3 in its state owned livery.
Sadly the new East Coast logo may alarm the good burghers of Lincoln and Harrogate.
And come to that the citizens of Leeds as well.
Apparently, under state control, the ECML is to become a siding!
To be fair the logo was probably designed by the Department for Transport.
And what do they know about railways?
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
At least the logo is close to First Group purple.
UPDATE: This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...
Shouldn't the new logo say 'InterCity East Coast' since Roger Ford's Manifesto is bound to be adopted after the election
This from the Standard...
First £1,000 rail fare in history of British train travel
The commentariat will have a field day with this.
Does anyone at ATOC consider the PR implications of fares decisions?
No matter.
Eye salutes all involved.
UPDATE: This from Peter...
As a seven day all line rover costs only £650 for seven days who would buy this ticket?
UPDATE: This from Gulliver's blog over at The Economist....
Yes it is appalling value for money, though you could suggest that £1,000 fares are indicative of too little micromanagement by Labour...
It gets even better further on!
Railway 0 Road 1
UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...
Not that a Gentleman going properly equipped concerns himself with public fares, let alone how to pay one, but something's a bit odd about the Standard's XC fares story.
According to NRES this morning, a 1st Class anytime single Kyle-Newquay or v.v via London* = £374.50
*It won't give a walk-on 1st Class return, and why are XC setting Via London fares anyway?
Single berth Night Riviera sleeper supplement £45 each way. This doesn't come to a Grand return, even in new Sterling-lite.
Surely the Standard hasn't been sold a pup?
UPDATE: Now STV has taken up the story...
It has emerged that amid rising train fares, a ticket for a service running from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall will cost over £1k.
Mind you, it's good to see the West Lothian Question inverted!
UPDATE: This from Rudi over at Merseyrail...
As Eye predicted - it's now gone global!
And as a favour for the linguists amongst you...
Brits treinretourtje overschrijdt 1100 euro
UPDATE: This from the TSSA...
Gerry Doherty even manages to squeeze in a mention when talking about First Group's £140m taxpayer subsidy to run 'profitable' franchises...
It is the economics of the madhouse to pay millions of pounds to private rail operators who are then charging passengers the highest fares in Europe.It makes far more sense to pay the money to cut fares on publicly-owned franchises which would operate in the public interest.
Yesterday we saw the logic of this present Alice in Wonderland system with the first £1,000 UK rail fare. It is time to end this farce which has seen a Labour Government price millions of hard working families of the railways altogether.
Nice link Gerry.
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
Since the R&B Session lacks captions I assume it is a competition.
I suggest Diesel head and Petrol head.
This from the Commuter...
Merseyrail has published it's own decalogue.
Good to see that they have already managed to surpass the eight 'thou shalt nots' contained in the original 10 Commandments.
Amongst the list of 'don'ts' is the surprising injunction that station car parks are not to be used as meeting places.
And as you can't loiter on the station either presumably vast numbers of local citizens are now in breach of whatever draconian laws are used to enforce this nonsense.
Just because you think you're innocent doesn't mean that you're not guilty.
UPDATE: This fruity suggestion from Leo Pink...
Is 'meeting place' the bowdlerised form of 'Thou shalt not dog in station car parks'?
UPDATE: This from Chionanthus virginicus...
So here's a bit of Merseyrail logic...
Command No 2: "Customers are expected to be in possession of a valid ticket if they intend to travel on our trains"
is listed as the
"...type of behaviour which is unacceptable and have (surely that should be "has") a detrimental impact on other passengers etc......" ???
Now cahrm down, cahrm down, it could only happen on Mareseyside !!
UPDATE: This from Rudi over at Merseyrail...
Believe it or not, nefarious practices do go on in station car parks.
I know of one car park which was being used by a dodgy local car dealer as his shop window to display and sell cars...
And there is anecdotal evidence of other types of dealing (don't know about dogging; maybe the CCTV cameras add another dimension to some exhibitionism enthusiasts?).
Our Code of Conduct signs are the "layman's translation" of the railway byelaws which run into many pages, are full of legalese and in their written form are about as riveting as the phone book.
As you will know, we are the only TOC to actually actively apply these byelaws to combat feet-on-seats, loud music from phones, drunkenness, smoking and other forms of anti-social behaviour which turns people off using trains.
And our passengers love it and so do passengers from other parts of the country who tell us that they'd love their TOC to do the same!
This from Analytica...
Stobart and Schenker complete first UK reefer rail service
Presumably the train was crewed by Cheech and Chong?
UPDATE: This from a fan of Private Eye's Psuedo-names...
So:-
"Each refrigerated container is monitored remotely by Stobart from ‘pack-house to customer’ to ensure the temperature is precisely controlled and the produce arrives on time and in optimum condition."
Why can't the Voyager/Meridian TOCs (and others) do the same for their vehicles so I too can arrive in optimum condition?
Yours Fr. O'Zenstiff
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