Villiers Vignettes - UK Supply Chain can go hang

This from Ithuriel...

Theresa Villiers did her best to talk up the prospects for the UK rolling stock market in a Westminster Hall debate debate on 12 July,

The fact that the coalition Government have secured funding for such a major programme of capacity enhancement will result in major opportunities, not just for Bombardier but for other train component and supply chain manufacturing businesses in this country.

Following its nomination, for example, as the preferred bidder for the intercity express programme contract, Hitachi has announced that it is locating its train manufacturing services for Europe at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. That will provide significant opportunities for UK component manufacturing.

As has been said, if the Siemens Thameslink bid proceeds to conclusion, it will involve the creation of 2,000 jobs in the UK. It has indicated that it intends to use elements of the UK supply chain to supply its bid.

Message to the supply chain - don't worry about Bombardier, we're sure you can find something to sell to Japan and Germany.

Cruella really doesn't do 'industrial strategy', does she?

UPDATE: This from Howard Wade...

Replying to the debate on the Thameslink contract on July 12, Theresa Villiers said:

My hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson) was concerned about the amount spent on consultancy. The bulk of that happened under the previous Government, but I agree that we need a more efficient approach to spending on consultancy in relation to procurement in the future. Since the general election the consultancy spend has been considerably reduced.

With Derby the home to the worlds leading railway consultancy the news for the City gets worse.

UPDATE: This from Dick Burton, Special Agent...

It's time that someone pointed out that a fair few of the 2,000 jobs that those nice people at Siemens are creating will be at Three Bridges and Hornsey and would also have been created by the gallant losers from Bombardier.

Franksy makes return to Big Railway

This from Keolis...

Today Keolis, the international transport operator, announces the appointment of David Franks as Managing Director for New Franchises at Keolis UK.

Franks comes to Keolis UK from his position as CEO at Stockholm Metro and brings with him extensive UK and international experience in the rail industry.

Eye welcomes Franksy back to the real railway.

No doubt similar celebrations are occurring in Marsham Street?

Cascaded D stock for Community Railways?

How very like the western branches of the District line.

You wait for one D stock story and then two turn up at once.

Interesting news from Harrogate Chamber of Commerce...

Harrogate Chamber of Trade & Commerce is now bidding for a complete upgrading of the Harrogate Line train services between Leeds, Harrogate, Knaresborough and York.

The Chamber’s solution is a modern low-cost ground-level electrification system, similar to that used on the Docklands Light Railway.

The proposed rolling stock is a fleet of around 20 six-car light rapid transit electric trains, originally built by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham, which have been totally refurbished within the past few years, with 280 seats per train and lots of proper standing room as well.


If this idea gets any traction then it may catch on elsewhere. The Harrogate proposal envisages using only 20 of the 78 six car D stock fleet.

Could this be a better private sector inspired solution for Community Railways rather than Tram-Train which remains mired in the usual DafT treacle?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...

Harrogate Chamber of Commerce appear to suggest that the juice rail should sit about 2' above the running rails…

Happy badgers, unhappy farmers.

Pointless signs - D Stock

With a bowler tip to @DriverPotter...


Perhaps a method of PIDD signage that in future may benefit the North?

Germany sends gunship to enforce Thameslink!

This from Ann Adaptor (with additional reporting by Mike Flex and Mike Stand)...

Just three weeks ago it looked as if Berlin had successfully annexed the Thameslink Corridor.

In what was seen as a deft political move the previous administrator of the region, Sir Paper-knife, was kept in post and given an unlimited supply of stationery with which to keep his subjects happy.

Yet three weeks later all is not well in Germany's newest enclave. The leader of Sir Paper-knife's political party, David 'Lap-Dog-Murdoch' Cameron, has gone into hiding. There is growing and voluble dissent in the area known as the 'Westminster Village' and Sir Paper-knife's hated enforcers, the Marsham Street Macoute, have been inciting East Midlands dole queues by waving envelopes at them.

In response to the deteriorating security situation Berlin has been forced to dispatch its latest gunship, the MS Deutschland Uber Alles, which berthed today at London's Docklands.

Defence sources believe that today's deployment places the Uber Alles within easy shelling distance of Great Minster House, home to the increasingly unstable Sir Paper-knife and his loathed Macoute.

According to Der Daily Mail, a news paper with historic links to Berlin...

Isle of Dogs-based Mr Smith, who has worked on the River Thames and in the docks since 1962, said: 'This is the largest ship that I have ever seen navigate through the lock.'

'Bringing MS Deutschland into the docks is a real achievement.


'The manoeuvre into the confined space of the lock shows how good planning, combined with the skill of the teams involved, worked to ensure the berthing operation was successful.'

Despite such German ingenuity resistance to the Teutonic expansionists continues to grow, led by an enigmatic figure whose very name resonates amongst all free born Englishmen. According to resistance sources their leader is a shadowy figure known only by the iconic name of St Margaret a Beckett (cont' p94)...

iDave remains in hiding. Sir Paper-knife remains convinced it is everyone else's fault.

DfT to review competition weighting - Shocker

This from the Man Locked Out of His Room...

Siemens lose at something!

No doubt the Department for Transfer will conduct an inquiry into the weighting of such competitions to avoid future embarrassment?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Interesting to note that not a single London based team won any Gold medals.

Clearly the alleged Northern diet of pudding, chips, peas and gravy works wonders.

Better let the UK 2012 team manager know!

Railway Garden Competition - Darlington

This from Bertie Forest...

Contrast the lush green verdant track gardens of Network Rail's estate with this dried and withered planter at Darlington Station.


Perchance the state-owned rail franchise has run out of funds to water its plants?

Railway Garden Competition - Gloucester

This from Rover...


The track machine is named "Tiger", so there really is a Tiger in this jungle...

Exciting new Eye feature - Gradient Palindromes

Time for an exciting, but utterly pointless, new Eye feature - welcome to Gradient Palindromes!

This from Nick...

Here is a picture of the gradient post at my local station.


Maybe Eye readers could advise if there are any other gradient palindromes on our national network? (Oh great! Ed)

Pointless signs - Hyde North

This from the Banker...


Evidently attention to detail is also lacking in Tameside as this sign on Victoria Road for Hyde North shows.

Eye wonders if Sealink ever served Hyde North?

Labour leader ducks a meeting with RMT!

An extra-ordinary tweet from @RMTLondon...

So Ed Milliband didn't go to Durham Miner's Gala as he 'didn't want to share a platform with Bob Crow.'

Eye thought it was only Boris who ran scared of Crow Bar Bob?

Meanwhile, in more encouraging news, the BBC is saying that Petrol-head will meet with the RMT this Wednesday to discuss the Thameslink contract.

To jaw-jaw is better than to war-war.

Pointless signs - King's Cross

This from a Mr Malins...


Perhaps more about attention to detail than an actual pointless sign?

Pointless signs - Feet on or off the seats?

Miles and chains - a sign of the times?

This from the late Edmund Gunter...

Sadly the new generation of railway employees appear ignorant of traditional British units of measurement as still used by the railway.

This particular example has been an affront to my eyes for many years as a regular commuter on the Portsmouth Direct.

I noticed in August 2005 that the cast iron structure plates on the footbridge at Haslemere station had been replaced by new aluminium ones with the distance of 42m 80c cast into them.


I mentioned this to Network Rail friend and the plates were recast with the correct 43m 0c on them, which I noticed in October 2005.


In October 2008 Network Rail decided to change the style of the structure plate from the cast aluminium ones to corporate standard "road sign" material with a reflective backing and the incorrect 42m 80c returned!


Nearly three years on the "wrong" plates are still there.

Presumably attention to detail on today's railway is now optional?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Why isn't there a bar code, or some other scanable identity recognised by the Asset Register, on the last one?

UPDATE: This from The Man by the Photocopier...

Actually, the latest plate suggests that the primary distance is 42 metres, according to SI.

Since the railway will have to change to metric units as ERTMS spreads (and the Rule Book has already largely been converted), perhaps we should bite the bullet and consign these increasingly irrelevant Imperial... (Sadly, owing to pressures of space, Eye is unable to reproduce all the rabid Metric rantings of The Man by the Photocopier)

Do Christmas Turkeys have privs?

This from Smalltrousers...

It's often said that the modern railway has a touch of the surreal about it, but maybe none more so than this.

The Railchat forum (billed as "The Professional Rail Staff chat site) is currently hotly debating the HS2 project.

The site's members are firmly in the skeptic/anti camp and have backed using as 'slightly more objective" evidence that High speed is highly polluting from none other than 'Transport Watch'.

Those familiar with Transport Watch will know them as the people who've long campaigned against the rail industry and called for the entire network to be torn up and converted into roads.

So, we have a rail staff opponents of HS2 supporting, as 'objective', an organisation that wants to tear up the country's railways.

Turkeys evidently can and do vote for Christmas!

Hammond shy at Silverstone Grand Prix

This, amazingly, from the late Denis Jenkinson, legendary correspondent of 'Motor Sport'...

I though Eye readers would like the inside gen on why Transport Secretary Philip Hammond looked so surprised when it came to presenting the second prize.

Aside from the fact that there was no envelope to open, he was also expecting to present the cup to the Chairman of Bombardier - rather than some Australian who had been going round in circles for an hour and a half.

Still, going nowhere fast must have made a pleasant change from watching his Rail Directorate going nowhere slowly.

And following the Thameslink debacle he no doubt shared the annoyance of Jenson Button, who also had a wheel come off.

UPDATE: This from 31154...

Hammond didn't actually present the cup to "some Australian", he presented the cup to German driver Sebastian Vettel, so the second time in a month he's presented a prize to the Germans!

What I found most amusing was when Hammond was a bit slow moving off the podium and said Australian gave him a blast of Mumm right in the face, turning Petrol-head into Champagne-Head!

Joined up Government explained

So on the very same day that Bombardier announced potential job losses, doddery Business Secretary Vince Cable launched the Made by Britain award.

This from The Manufacturer...

Likening the initiative to a ‘virtual Crystal Palace’, Mr Cable said that government will throw support behind apprenticeships, behind the new Technology Innovation Centres and channel support through the Regional Growth Fund.

The project is a collaboration between the Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group, of which FDF is an associate member, and the Royal Commission. All 650 MPs in the House of Commons have been asked to nominate a product that is manufactured in their constituency. The objective is to draw up a diverse and comprehensive picture of contemporary British industry.

Eye wonders what Derby MPs will nominate?

Railway Bothy - Berney Arms

This from The Sleeper....

The only station with two cycle hoops and no road access!

The station adopters live in Scunthorpe and Sutton Coldfield!

The bothy is an original 1999 Anglia Railways Crown Point and RSPB joint production (no glass in windows designed as bird watching hide)

It has it's own website (run from a garden shed in Sutton Coldfield)

The only station with a beer named after it!

The only station with regular class 90 electric locos passing by with no overhead line! (summer Saturday loco hauls to Great Yarmouth from London run via Berney Arms)

Locally designated HS3 - Route to the Sea!

Cruella travels down memory lane

Saviour of the Jammy Dodger, Theresa Villiers, has been reliving past glories!


"And as thanks they gave me one this big!"

Cameron and the weasel words

Eye understands that when David Cameron took the cabinet to Derby in March he paid a visit to the Bombardier site.

At the time iDave made much about the importance of the UK manufacturing base in driving the economy forward.

Sadly there appear to be no photographs on-line of his historic visit to Litchurch Lane.

So here is a picture of the Prime Minister showing his backing for another doomed national institution.


'Nuff said.