DfT Business Plan published

The DfT has published its 2011-15 Business Plan here

More to follow...

UPDATE: This doesn't bode well...

Dr Mike 'Death' Mitchell is still listed as Director of National Networks on page 28.


As ever DfT is master of its brief.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Richard Malins...

At last some good news in the Battle of the Barriers.

This from the same document:

B) Coalition Priorities The Department will no longer… …micromanage:

• Local authorities by dividing their funding into numerous complex streams
• Train Operating Companies with unnecessarily prescriptive requirements in rail franchise agreements
• Local traffic management schemes with unnecessary requirements for central government approval

Perhaps DfT will now leave Sheffield Station alone?

Pointless signs - Northern Rail CCTV

This with a bowler tip to @jst1986, via Twitter.

Not strictly a pointless sign.


But let Eye be the first to conratulate Northern on its attention to detail.

How many managers does it take to run a franchise?

Telegrammed by The High Tea Party
So. Directly Operated Railways has published its accounts.

Amidst the usual self congratulatory PR puff there are one or two hard numbers.

Like the directors' remuneration for example.


Perhaps at some point the Department for Transport could explain why, in the Age of Austerity, we need an organisation like DOR to second guess the management decisions of East Coast's own well paid directors?

Meanwhile, trebles all round!

UPDATE: This from a reader who wishes to remain Anonymous...

Whilst the DfT Business Plan published today claims that:

We will also pursue our wider transparency agenda through publishing details of:

• Pay (senior staff salaries online from October 2010)

It would appear that such transparency does not extend to state owned East Coast.

According to yesterday's Mail on Sunday...

East Coast Main Line (ECML), which runs the troubled London-to-Edinburgh high-speed route, claimed that publishing the [salary] details ‘could lead to unrest within our workforce’.

Perhaps the DfT hopes that by having DOR manage East Coast it will make the nationalised operator look sufficiently arms length.

A worth while use of taxpayers money to save ministerial blushes?

UPDATE: This from Anonymous 2...

There was a robust justification for Barbie Rail, by Rail Barbie. in the Guardian on Friday.

Although reading the article it seemed to be all about East Coast rather than Directly Operated Railways.

Are they perhaps related?

Securing the line - DRS and policing the railway

Telegrammed by Our International Correspondent
The legendary impartial TV reporting of Sky News will be under detailed scrutiny by Direct Rail Services at their Carlisle HQ this week, after some rail-related unpleasantness in Germany.

Sky says (without attribution) that 17,000 Polizie are deployed against 250 Greenpeace protestors blocking a train of reprocessed nuclear waste in transit to a deep level waste storage depot in Northern Germany.

DRS will be watching events closely because although they were set up by BNFL when the late Max Joule got hacked off with Railfreight Distribution and later EWS and decided to have his own train set, they are now a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, sharing with Barbie Rail the distinction of being a nationalised train operator.

NDA is responsible for the demolition of our nuclear legacy of Magnox Power Stations, and identifying deep level sites to store the glowing waste – a £12 billion project, for which public consultation ends on 24 November.

NDA have said that rail will be preferred over road as a matter of policy and so all the rail haulage work is heading DRS’s way.It is, after all, what they do, and they have been meticulously developing their loco fleet in anticipation, including 24 of the latest low-emission Class 66s.

But security for the lucrative traffic may be a headache.

The timings and routing of DRS nuclear trains are not published – thanks to Section 79 of the Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 - but somehow Greenpeace finds them.

British Transport Police can field 2,837 bobbies, although not all at once or in the same place.

The Polonium Plod can provide another 1000 officers.

If Sky’s numbers are right (a very big IF) and if Greenpeace UK are as effective as their German colleagues (rather less of an IF), the decommissioning project is short of policing resources – by 13,000 bodies.

Fortunately £12 billion should neatly mop up all the redundant county force coppers who fall victim to the Spending review, creating the Best Little Police Force money can buy.

IEP - Three wrongs don't make a right

Telegrammed by Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
This from the Sunday Express...

The other schemes being examined ahead of this week’s crunch decision include the electrification of several lines and a £7.5 billion order for Intercity Express trains under the Intercity Express Programme (IEP). Provisional bidder for the order is Agility Trains, a consortium led by Japan’s Hitachi.

IEP, potentially the most significant rolling stock investment programme in the UK for more than 30 years, will provide a new generation of trains to serve Britain’s long-distance routes.

The provisional requirement is for between 500 and 2,000 vehicles for the East Coast Main Line.

The Agility consortium is under pressure to cut the costs of its bid, with ministers using the threat of alternative options to extract a better deal. The alternatives include “re-engineering” the existing Intercity 125 trains or buying cheaper electric trains.

2,000 vehicles for the ECML?

Not so much Rail Barbie as Hail Barbie if she can pull this off!

Meanwhile the DfT spin meisters are still peddling the line that buying the wrong train for the wrong services at the wrong time is a shrewd move if it is cheap enough.

WCML - frying pan to fire

Exciting news from DB owned Alliance Rail.

The putative Open Access Operator is proposing a range of interesting new services on the West Coast Main Line, once Moderation of Competition restrictions designed to protect Virgin end in 2012.

But what's this?

Eye thought Open Access was all about bringing competition and customer choice to the railways.

But a quick glance at Yoghurt Rail's Track Access Application reveals the following:


Perhaps no surprise that Alliance Rail's state owned parent is happy to see the dead hand of a monopoly restored to the route.

Railway Garden Competition - Retford Restored!

This from a Mr Swift...

You may recall the mindless destruction of Retford's wonderful Railway Garden by the vegetation control vandals towards the end of the summer.

Good news! It is not just the economy that is allegedly showing the Green Shoots of Recovery.

As can be seen from this picture, taken this morning on a balmy Guy Fawkes' Day, the Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) is fighting back at Retford and is already over a foot high and going strong.


Forget the demise of British Summer Time, for Spring has sprung early on the ECML!

HS1 flogged to the Canucks

This from Sharecast.com...

LONDON (SHARECAST) - The government has sold the right to run the high speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel to a Canadian consortium for £2.1bn.

The purchase of High Speed 1 gives the consortium, which comprises two Canadian pension funds, operating rights over running the line and the stations along it for 30 years.

Transport Minister Philip Hammond said the sale price ‘exceeds the highest expectations for the sale.’

He said it would help the government to reduce the deficit

Eye respectfully suggests to the Rt Hon Petrol-head that he uses this cash windfall to buy some much needed new trains for the rest of the network.

But not IEPs, obviously.

Lookalike - Celtic Fringe Edition

HSBC's Eversholt sold - Banks out!

This from AltAssets.com...

A consortium of infrastructure investors has acquired UK rolling stock company Eversholt Rail Group from banking group HSBC.

Comprising 3i Infrastructure, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and STAR Capital Partners, the consortium is to acquire the whole group, which owns one third of UK rolling stock, in a deal valuing it at £2.1bn (€2.4bn). The payment is to be made with a mix of debt and equity.

None of the three major Roscos is now owned by a bank.

Eye wonders how much new trains will now cost?

Insults fly in advance of Golden Spanners - Shocker

This from an email invite to the Fourth Friday Club 'Golden Spanners' awards...

We have a large number of sponsored tables and members of the Club are invited to attend the event, where the cream of the rolling stock community will be present.

What can Modern Railways be suggesting.

"Cream of the rolling stock community"?

As in rich and thick?*

*With a bowler tip to Brian Souter, who used this line against himself at today's DDRF annual conference

IEP - Baker cooks up a deal

This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
According to Financial Times Political Correspondent, Jim Pickard, the DfT is using the threat of Sir Andrew Foster's credible alternatives to extract a better deal from Agility Trains.

So let's get this straight.

DfT thinks that saving money on a train that no-one in the railway industry wants is a better deal?

Germans bomb at Palace again

Oh dear.

Does Eye detect a degree of Palace dissatisfaction with the operator of the Royal Train?

This from the Mail on Sunday...

The man dubbed Mr Royal Train after playing a key role in helping it to run smoothly for more than 30 years has been made redundant after a German company took over its maintenance.

Strange that this story should surface almost four months after Deutsche Reichsbahn disinvented Mr Hillyard, presumably without consulting Brenda?

No matter.

After all what is Balmoral to Berlin?

But just to be on the safe side perhaps DB shouldn't make a large order for Royal Warrant embossed stationery?

UPDATE: This from Our International Correspondent...

Just to put the Daily Mail’s “scoop” into context, as every PR fule noes, when investigating a leak, follow the money.

In this case a little bit of forensics leads us not to the Palace, or to any disinvented ex-Railcare people who miss 1X01, but to the publishers of a new book.

Its author, Brian Hoey, is represented by one Gordon Wise, whose website helpfully informs us that the film rights may be available.

Not so much a Daily Mail scoop, as an obliging puff piece to help sales.

First for being inconsistant

Compare and contrast...

This in today's Glasgow Herald...

New FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole has dismissed Stagecoach founder Brian Souter’s call to have trains and tracks run by the same people as unrealistic.

With this from a certain Tim O'Toole when MD of London Underground...

"If you had complete vertical integration, one person would be responsible for everything, whereas with the PPP an awful lot of time and energy is spent just keeping score."

Just fancy that!

Surely nothing to do with one particular "thinly capitalised equity profiteer of the worst kind" being saddled with a mountain of debt?

Changes to the Transport Select Committee

This from the TSC...

3 November 2010
For Immediate Release: SCA 17/2010-11

NEW MEMBERS OF TRANSPORT COMMITTEE appointed

On Tuesday 2 November the House of Commons discharged the following members:

Angie Bray (Conservative, Ealing Central and Acton);
Lilian Greenwood (Labour, Nottingham South),
and Angela Smith (Labour, Penistone and Stocksbridge)

and formally appointed the following members:

Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe);
Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West),
and Gavin Shuker (Labour/Co-operative, Luton South)


The full committee is:

Louise Ellman (Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) (Chair)
Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe)
Tom Harris (Labour, Glasgow South)
Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West)
Kelvin Hopkins (Labour, Luton North)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne)
John Leech (Liberal Democrat, Manchester Withington)
Paul Maynard (Conservative, Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Gavin Shuker (Labour/Co-operative, Luton South)
Iain Stewart (Conservative, Milton Keynes South)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative, York Outer)

ENDS

DB slashes a quarter of rail services

This from Wrexham and Shropshire, via RailUKForums...

Press Release

2 November 2010

Wrexham and Shropshire : Changes to Train Services

With effect from Sunday 12th December, Wrexham & Shropshire will be making changes to its timetable. Two off peak services each way will be combined and the company will move from four to three services direct to London Marylebone.

After analysing customer travel patterns, Wrexham & Shropshire have determined that several off peak services are too lightly-used to run profitably. The decision has been taken to combine the two least used weekday off peak services and run one less service in each direction per day. Saturday will similarly be reduced from four to three trains in each direction.

Wrexham & Shropshire is an innovative local train operator receiving no subsidy from the Government. The provision of services and profitability of the company is based directly on fares received by passengers.

Andy Hamilton, Managing Director at Wrexham & Shropshire, said: “Our unique position as a local train operator working without subsidy means that our viability is directly affected by passenger numbers. We have several trains that are not being used sufficiently to justify continuing to run them.

“We are passionately committed to the Wrexham & Shropshire business running a direct service from Wrexham to London Marylebone. The change will not affect travel for over 70% of our passengers and will allow us to focus our resources on growing our business where demand is greatest. We know that some customers will be inconvenienced, and for that we apologise.

“Our people take immense pride in the customer service that they deliver and they will continue to provide the award winning travel experience that has seen us achieve 99% customer satisfaction; the highest ever for any train company in this country.”

The changes are as follows

Wrexham to London Marylebone
The 11.27 and 15.25 trains will be replaced by a service at 13.28 arriving in London at 17.30.

London Marylebone to Wrexham
The 07.20 and 11.20 trains will be replaced by a service at 09.20 arriving in Wrexham at 13.20.

Passengers with concerns or additional queries should contact the customer service team on 0845 260 5200.

Ends

Election fever getting to Wolmar?

This from a Dr Frank N Furter...

According to the self styled 'leading transport commentator' in his blogpost dated 1st November:

'There are, apparently, three people on the short list to replace Iain Coucher as chief executive of Network Rail'.

But Network Rail announced that David Higgins had been appointed as Mr Coucher's replacement on the 28th September.

Perhaps all that historical research is confusing the railway's very own Grand Old Man of Letters?

Or is the excitement of the Democrats imminent election meltdown getting to Comrade Wolmar, who at this very moment is in the good old US of A researching his latest opus.

Surely he meant to write 'there were'?

Let's do the time warp again.

UPDATE: This from The Major...

Never mind the mitherings over the timings of Christian's on-line version of his RAIL Magazine column.

What on earth is he doing in the First Class lounge at Newark Airport stuffing himself with free Virgin food and wine? Is he planning to defect to the Tories?

Will he be trading his bicycle for a Bentley?

Tories forced to clear up the mess they made

From Thursday we can expect to hear a series of announcements outlining how much railway the country can afford.

Amusing of course that it is a Tory Government that is being forced to make these difficult decisions.

Perhaps if they had listened in the first place then we wouldn't be in this mess?

Here a siren voice from August 1993:

"I get the feeling from talking to Government ministers that they see the post-privatisation British Rail as the same public service we have today, but with a Marks & Spencers private enterprise gloss.

"They seem to forget that private enterprise also gave us Maxwell, Barlow Clowes, BCCI et al.

"The scope for making a lot of money out of running railways, to the ultimate disbenefit of the traveller, is I suspect, considerable."

How prescient of Captain Deltic, for it was he.

Meanwhile, as the axe comes down, don't forget who got us into this mess.

Hitachi recruits for new factory - Exclusive

Eye can reveal that Hitachi has already begun recruiting for its new IEP factory!

This exclusive video, smuggled out of the new Newton Aycliffe facility, shows supervisors being trained.



Look - wobble free!

Today Railway Mag, tomorrow the World!

Much hilarity in the publishing world as Mortons struggles to position its purchase of Railway Magazine.

These bullish words from the Brand Manager Heritage & Lifestyle, contained in an email trumpeting the acquisition:

Mortons Media Group is delighted to announce their purchase of The Railway Magazine, making them the UK’s largest railway publisher.

A bold claim indeed!

But does it stack up to ABC verification?

Railway Magazine – 34k - ABC verified.
Rail Express - Not ABC verified
Heritage Railway - Not ABC verified

Oh dear. Is someone perhaps talking cojones?

Dispensing with Ian Allan, who also don't go in for ABC verification, who else might want to lay claim to being the UK's largest railway publisher?

Well, as any fule kno, the best selling railway publications are the modelling titles (see Eye passim).

The market leader is Railway Modeller, published by Peco, which has an ABC audited circulation of 44k, ten thousand above that for Railway Mag.

Next in line is Model Rail which has an ABC verified readership of 28k.

Of course if you added Model Rail's readership figure to that of its sister rail titles - RAIL (25k) and Steam Railway (33k) - then Bauer has a combined rail related readership of well over 86,000.

Eye fears that plucky little Rail Express and Heritage Railway would struggle to lay claim to the 53,000 readers needed to topple Bauer from pole position.

No doubt the new owners of the Railway Mag will take this challenge squarely on the chin and soon shell out for ABC audits on both Rail Express and Heritage Railway.

Alternatively, in these austere times, Eye wonders what the future may hold for such minnows now that the RM shark has entered Morton's pool?