Banbury 'La-de-da' Mess room sign

This from @drew2611...

Was amused by FCC Drivers' mess sign however I think ours at Banbury gives a touch of class:


Eye bets they don't use whistles at Banbury either...

Eye Enterprises presents The Olympic Scotsman!

YOU could own a part of 2012!

Eye Enterprises is offering a unique opportunity to acquire a 1.76th representation of national icon Flying Scotsman carrying the Olympic Torch!

THIS is your opportunity to relive the role played by Flying Scotsman in Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics, the Para-Olympics and Railfest!


PRICED at just £2.6m and lovingly reconstructed from the finest military-hubris, etc... etc... etc... (details here from Railway Herald and Railway Magazine).

Eye would just like to point out that the A3s were introduced into traffic in 1927.

Her Majesty was born in 1926.

Eye wonders which is more reliable and provides best value for money?

God save the Queen!

That is all.

Crossrail Handicap runners and riders

This from our Racing Correspondent...

With the Invitation to Negotiate for the Crossrail fleet issued, bookmakers Paddy Hill have published the odds for the runners in the Crossrail Rolling Stock Stakes which come under starter's order on 29 August.

Kaiser Bill's Batman 5/2 (Fav)
Canuck's Folly 4/1
Tora Tora Tora 5/1
Medina Sidonia's Revenge 10/1

Cuisse de Grenouille - scratched

Network Rail statement on Elsenham

Network Rail was today fined £1m after the company pleaded guilty to Health and Safety breaches at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Network Rail issued the following statement...

NETWORK RAIL STATEMENT FOLLOWING ELSENHAM HEARING

Thursday 15 Mar 2012 15:00

Following today's hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court, David Higgins, chief executive, Network Rail, said:

“On behalf of Network Rail I apologise for the mistakes made by us in this tragic case that contributed to the deaths of Olivia and Charlotte.

“Nothing we can say or do will lessen the pain felt by Olivia and Charlotte’s families but I have promised the families that we will make level crossings safer, and we will deliver on that promise.

“Fundamental changes to the way we manage and look after the country’s 6,500 level crossings have, and are being made. In recent years we have reassessed all of our crossings and closed over 500. There is still much to do and we are committed to doing what is necessary to improve our level crossings.”

ENDS

Peterborough mess room sign

Nice!

Villiers vignettes - rewriting history

This from Ithuriel...

From a written answer by Theresa Villiers on 6 March.

DfT asked the rail industry to look into the possibility of improving the existing fleet of diesel Cross Country Voyager trains by adding an additional carriage with a pantograph and upgrading the rest of the train.

DfT asked the industry?!?

Do they take us for fools?

Bombardier and HSBC Rail were pushing Project Thor for months, with zero interest, or rather, active opposition, from DfT which saw it as a threat to IEP.

Now they claim it is their own idea!

No doubt the next claim will be that Marsham Street had to lean on Alstom, Angel, East Coast and Virgin to run Tuesday's Pendolino trial.

Pointless signs - Derby

This one perhaps misses the point...


Sadly.

Thoughts on King's Cross western ticket hall

A brief reflection on the truly magnificent new western ticket hall at King's Cross.


At Broad Street we lost a station to development.

At Liverpool Street we gained retail and office space with platforms.

At King's Cross we actually get a station first and foremost, offering some retail opportunities.

Good effort.

Meanwhile, this picture from last night's gala opening.


Eye is tempted to caption it 'Partnership'...

Pointless signs - Diss

This from Gricerbritannia...

Two new “Help points” were installed at Diss station during the dying days of NXEA.

At the same time the PIS-poor TV style departure screen was switched off.

So, what do we have now?

The “Help point” on the Norwich bound platform has been taped over with brown sticky tape as “Out of use” while the one on the London bound platform is as shown here.


Not only does it have water ingress but careful examination will show that there is no information shown in any case (except computer-speak nonsense).


So, with the TV screen turned off and the new Help Point showing not much but water droplets Diss passengers have gone from PIS-poor information to no information.

Conference news - tail lamp slot

Good to see that the railfreight community retains its sense of humour!

The UK Rail Development and Investment conference (18-19 April) offers delegates two full days of railway fun.

But who has the worst slot of all, the last half hour on the second day, when many delegates will already be heading home?

Step forward Lindsay Durham, Head of Rail Strategy at the Freightliner Group.

And the title of Lindsay's presentation...'Freight, the forgotten service'.

EC Pendolino - There is more joy in heaven...

A perfect run last night from Edinburgh Waverley to King's Cross!


Operated by Virgin Trains...

Controlled by East Coast...

Burying IEP!

UPDATE: This from, a somewhat twitchy, East Coast...

To be clear, East Coast’s fleet of High Speed Trains (HSTs) are already earmarked for replacement by new trains procured via IEP from 2018.

The Pendolino test runs have no consequence for the IEP programme – they are not relevant to IEP.

UPDATE: This from Mr Tony...

According to Railway Herald an East Coast spokesman also said:

That the company was "now concluding the desktop study to test our findings in practice, in line with the wider strategic aims of the industry going forward.

Doomed?

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Clearly a very carefully worded statement from the Industry's fifth column at York.

Note the reference to IEP replacing HST, while Pendolino is a potential replacement for electric IEP.

So it is strictly true that The Pendolino test runs have no consequence for the IEP programme – they are not relevant to IEP - but only in an East Coast context. Great Western is a different matter

All that was missing from the trial run were bodyside stickers saying 'You can have this proven train for £20,000 per vehicle per month less than IEP'!

NR public or private - PAC weighs in

This from today's Public Accounts Committee report into Reducing costs in the Department for Transport...

It is unacceptable that Network Rail is not directly accountable to Parliament and not subject to National Audit Office scrutiny.

Network Rail spends billions of pounds of public money each year, , its debt of over £25 billion is underwritten by the taxpayer and international accounting conventions show that it should be considered as part of the public sector.

Yet the Department continues to hide behind the Office for National Statistics classification of Network Rail as a private company which keeps Network Rail's debt off the public balance sheet and its spending from direct NAO scrutiny. We also note that an additional £950 million borrowing through Network Rail formed part of the Government's plans in the Autumn Statement, further undermining the Department's argument that it is an "essentially private sector" company.

As we have previously recommended the Department should provide the Comptroller and Auditor General with full access to Network Rail so that Parliament can scrutinise Network Rail's value for money.

No doubt last month's decision by the Captain of Netball to over-rule NR's Management Incentive Plan will allow the ONS to resolve this particular anomaly...

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Given that DfT can't or won't provide me with a simple spread sheet of current franchise/premium profiles in existing franchise agreements I think the PAC is barking up the wrong tree.

A quick call to ORR should provide more financial data than the geekiest of NAO wonks can handle.

Rutman named as new PS at DfT

So a big Eye welcome to Philip Rutnam, who has been appointed the new Permanent Secretary at the DfT.

Rutman is currently Director General Business and Skills at BIS and will take up his new post in Marsham Street on 11th April 2012.

According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website:

Philip Rutnam was appointed Director General, Business and Skills in December 2010. Prior to this he had been Director General, Business, since March 2009.

Philip was previously at Ofcom where he was a Partner and then Board Member. He helped to establish Ofcom as an organisation and then to lead its work on competition, economic regulation and use of the radio spectrum.

A former senior Treasury official, Philip Rutnam's career also includes working in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, a period as Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary, and responsibility for the Treasury's interest in business and enterprise. He also previously represented the UK at the European Investment Bank.

In light of the Command Paper's terse dismissal of Open Access competition, Eye is unsure what use his Ofcom experience will be...

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

I'm pleased to see that Lucy Chadwick has also been named the new Director-General of Major Projects and London.

Bobby Devereux and I both had her marked out for great things, and of course she covered the role just a year ago.

With everyone at the Department playing musical chairs, I look forward to hearing where my old friend Peter Strachan ends up.

UPDATE: This from Minster Benn...

Has Sir Humphrey been at the dishwater again?

Ms Chadwick is not taking on Mr Strachan's job.

She will be taking up the post of DG International, Strategy and Environmental.

If that isn't an Oxymoron.

Great & the good meet to focus on costs

Exciting news reaches Eye of a brand new professional association designed to bring together the great and the good of the railway!

The 'exclusive new forum for Rail's Senior Leaders to meet and network' will hold its inaugural meeting tonight.

The event will focus on 'The future of the Rail Delivery Group', followed by drinks and canapés.

And quite right too!

What better way could there be for industry executives to share and discuss the challenges set by McNulty.

But what's this?

Whilst attendance at the inaugural event is free, subsequent corporate membership of the Association of Railway Senior Executives (is this right? Ed) will 'typically cost £1,000'!

Nervous Finance Directors need not panic.


Eye understands that the association’s President has already offered his famous broom cupboard as a future VfM venue.

RMT announce date of the Revolution!

To the barricades Comrades!

This stonking piece of polemic from the RMT...

RAIL UNION RMT announced today it is holding a Budget “Day of Action” over Government plans to axe thousands of jobs, close ticket offices, jack up fares and give the train operating companies “gold plated” franchises as it implements the McNulty Rail Review recommendations.

The announcement comes on the day that the train operators, through their front organisation ATOC, admitted that they are planning to use an increase in rail demand as an excuse for jacking up fares and pumping up their fat profits.

RMT will be joined by sister rail unions and commuters in action at train stations across thec ountry on 21st March and will be specifically targeting South West Trains where a deep, commercial alliance as a forerunner for a private takeover of infra-structure kicks in on 1st April.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “Today we have again seen the true face of greed of the private train operators as they rub their hands at the prospect of using the surge in rail demand as an excuse to ramp up fairs and to screw the travelling public for every penny of profit that they can extract from the network.

“On budget day, RMT and our supporters will be stepping up the fight for a railway free from profiteering and exploitation and in support of the principle of transport run under public ownership as a public service.

“If the train operators get their way they will seize control of infra-structure and drag us back to the lethal days of Railtrack that led us to Hatfield and Potters Bar. They will also throw the guards off the trains, close ticket offices and de-staff stations turning the whole railway system into a criminal’s paradise where yobbos, vandals and muggers have a free run.”

Easy tiger!

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Oooh goody!

I see that Crow Bar says that TOCs plan to "to ramp up fairs".

Will there be carousels and dodgems and stuff?

Pointless signs - Broxbourne

Pointless signs - Egham

East Coast goes MAD for Railway Children

This from John Gelson over at East Coast...

I thought Eye readers might be interested in East Coast's support for the Railway Children's MAD Day - passenger reaction has been fantastic!

Here customer Alistair McKenzie buys a cake at the café-bar counter for the Railway Children charity from (left to right) Customer Service Assistant Jason Armstrong; Head of Catering Mark Tarry; and East Coast Chairman Michael Holden.


Michael said: “We’re delighted at the wonderful support for today’s Railway Children fundraising from our customers and our staff. It’s also been a great opportunity to work alongside some of our fantastic people, and see at first hand their work to help passengers as they travel.

“Together, we’ve raised funds for a very important cause and had a lot of fun at the same time. My thanks go to everyone who has helped with this memorable and enjoyable day.”

Good effort!

Charitably minded readers can donate to the Railway Children here.

UPDATE: This from East Coast...

Train company East Coast is thanking thousands of passengers who helped raise £10,000 in just one day to make a difference to children living on the streets.

Command Paper - Measuring progress

This from Captain Deltic...

Celebrating 19 years of government meddling

John Major in 1993 - "British Rail is deeply inefficient"

Command Paper in 2012 - "The rail industry... remains unacceptably inefficient."

Progress indeed!

Command Paper 'great leap forward'

This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

Readers of Soviet Weekly's reports of party conferences in the 1950s will recognise the style of this extract from the Command Paper:

While promoting and protecting the achievements of recent years, we will now focus the industry on collaboration to achieve world-beating excellence in efficiency and in serving its customers – the taxpayer, passenger and the freight industry. Only by making sure everyone in the industry has clear objectives and aligned incentives will we be able to secure our objectives. Partnership working and driving behavioural change in the industry will be at the centre of our strategy for securing the savings we want.

Applause, prolonged and stormy applause, all stand, Cries of 'All power to the Coalition and Secretary Greening'.