Exclusive - Baker 'crosses the floor' shocker

This from Aslef...

"A letter from the Conservative Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, Norman Baker, makes it clear that the government is ‘disappointed’ that East Midland Trains pressed ahead with reducing pension contributions – the cause of the current dispute."

Good to see the brothers have their fingers on the pulse.

Eye wishes them well as they try to negotiate with EMT managing director Karen Boswell...

Carlsberg moment in Kemble Street

This from Captain Deltic...

According to ORR its objective for the current Periodic Review is:

...ensuring our determination enables Network Rail and its industry partners to deliver or exceed all the specified outcome and output requirements safely and sustainably at the most efficient levels possible, comparable with the best railways in the world by the end of the control period.

Good to see that the ORR leads the pack when it comes to b*llsh*t mission statements.

ORR, the best rail regulator in the world... probably! 

Smooth man gets hot and bothered, possibly

Eye was amused to receive the following email from Odgers' uber-recruitment guru Tim Hartley.

Well not from him, obviously, but from his PA...

Having been on the Board of Railway Children for nearly 5 years, I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet taken part in the flagship annual fundraising event – the 3 peaks by rail. 

That is, until June of this year, when I will be boarding an especially chartered train with hundreds of other participants to climb the UK’s 3 highest mountains. I am told that the climbs are mentally and physically draining, and to be completed sequentially with very little sleep in between… clearly not an ideal challenge for me! 

Eye bets that at the end of the three days Smooth Tim doesn't even glow!

Either way, all those businesses, quangos and departments of state who have benefitted from Tim's skills may want to divvy up?

News from the wild side - Phineas Gage

This from Reuters...

  

 Errr... railways pushing forward the boundaries of science?

Hendy - Railway Hero?

This from the BBC's Tom Edwards...

@BBCTomEdwards: Peter Hendy very proud he has been awarded the "beer drinker of the year" by Parliamentary Beer Group 

That is all!

Apart from good effort, of course

Derbygate - the chickens come home to roost!

This from a Mr Saltaire...

I wonder if Eye readers have spotted this gem from Cruella given in the House on the 17th May?

Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the reasons are for the time taken to finalise the Thameslink rolling stock contract; and when she expects the contract to be finalised.

Theresa Villiers (Minister of State (Rail and Aviation), Transport; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
The Department expects to conclude the core project agreements with Siemens and Cross London Trains shortly, following which Cross London Trains and their lending banks then need to conclude the financing documentation required to secure the necessary equity and debt funding for the project.

So, let me get this straight.

There are now two processes taking place:

The projct agreement, which will be agreed 'shortly' (whatever that may equate to in Daftime) and the project funding, which apparently is not even in place yet!

How, therefore, could the DfT have accepted Cross London Train's offer, given that a prerequisite of the project was that it be fully financed?

More importantly how does the Government know whether the Order of Magnitude financing costs assumed at the time of the bid, still stand today, tomorrow or in six months time when the Euro may well have disappeared from the commercial landscape?

If I were Wabtec, Bombardier or Railcare, I’d be getting my tendering pencils warmed up for a Class 319 refurb offer! 

And if I were ATOC, and had just delivered a Rolling Stock Strategy, then I’d be thinking about going back to the drawing board, as far as EMU cascades are concerned.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

And if I were in Marsham Street I would be stuffing a telephone directory down my trousers in advance of a spanking from the National Audit Office!

Pointless signs - Wimbledon

Railway Garden Competition - Euston Carriage Sidings

Pointless sign - Penge West

Or Railway Garden?

You decide.

Pointlesss signs - Nottingham

 

UPDATE: This from Willow...

They'll have done this to avoid planning permission. It may be pointless but it is needed for the sign to exist.

Sedgefield MP exposes massive cuts to IEP

Oh dear!

It looks like the IEP project has been reduced to plumping the cushions and painting the buffers of the HST fleet.

This from Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson yesterday:

I also wish to discuss Hitachi, which I always mention when I can because it provides a massive boost to the north-east economy; it is providing the biggest private sector investment in the north-east since Nissan. Hitachi is going to build a £90 million factory—a train-building facility—in my constituency at Newton Aycliffe. 

The company is going to refurbish the rolling stock for the east coast main line and for the great western line into Wales. Hitachi is going to create 500 jobs, with thousands in the supply chain. 

Either a little knowledge is a dangerous thing or Marsham Street is to be saluted for its frugal perspicacity. 

UPDATE: This from The Cynic, who has discovered even greater savings... 

Well, it won't take them very long to paint the 'buffers of the HST fleet'

The remaining power cars have has just 16 buffers fitted between them!

Stormin' Norman bulldozes TramTrain through

According to the Department for Transport...

Transport Minister Norman Baker today gave the green light to a £58m pilot scheme to run revolutionary Tram Trains on both rail and tram networks, making them ideal for the eight mile non-stop journeys of no more than 25 minutes between, suburb and city centres from Sheffield to Rotherham.

As well as providing a boost to the regional economy thanks to improved connections across the region, the project is also expected to create 35 new jobs locally as well.

Full marks to Norman Baker for championing this, no doubt to the delight of local MP and DPM Nick Clegg.

And with Tram Train due to "commence in 2015" what a fitting memorial it will make to the ConDem government, as it leaves office...

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

According to Stormin' Norman:

The knowledge that we obtain from the pilot will enable us to understand the technical and operational challenges involved in this project so that the concept can potentially be rolled out elsewhere in the UK.

Presumaly these are the same 'technical and operational challenges' that had to be understood before the successful operation of Tyne & Wear Metro cars over Network Rail infrastructure to Sunderland? (shurely 'already mastered by LUL's Met and District lines, whose stock have long shared routes with 'heavy' rail operators'? Ed).
 
Still, however dodgy the justification, who cares if the Treasury buys it and a lot of people should benefit - unlike the original bonkers proposal back in 2008 to run diesel tram trains as Pacer replacement over the Penistone Line. 

NR Scotland solves passenger train shortage!

This from Network Rail's Scotland Route...

Wagons, carriages, who cares as long as we can cram 'em in!

A degree of interoperability that will no doubt delight the penny conscious inhabitants of Buchanan House?

Pointless wires - Wolverhampton

As any fule kno Electrification is the way forward!

 

And good to see that you don't need any of that annoying and costly track nonsense to achieve the full benefit.

Depot pride - Neville Hill

This from Leeds Finest...

Further to your piece on Depot Pride.

Could I point out that NL was the first to start the depot allocation renaissance?

The 08's getting the plush brushed metal versions of course!

Greening Gobbleygook - Operations Stepchange

Eye is a little late to this but here is the Captain of Netball in all her glory...

Remode?

Remode!

With this sort of wibble apparently drawn without irony from 'The Thick Of It' someone's 'remode' in the forthcoming reshuffle cannot come soon enough!

UPDATE: Wise words from the Beeb...

The wags have already compared it to The Thick Of It, the political satire which coined terms such as the "infiltration matrix" and "plasmic data modelling".

Just fancy that!

Update: This from the Video Producer...
Norman Baker's suggests making use of Video Conferencing to avoid using public transport for the following reasons:

1. To save money - doesn't that say something about government fares policy (maybe he could look at split ticketing); and

2. Because it's good for the environment, lowering carbon emissions etc.

However, Stormin' Norman is standing in a video studio in front of a background lit with a pair of old-type 800w (each) "redhead" video lamps which use conventional, un-green, incandescent lamps that create loads of wasteful heat in their inefficient operation.

Why isn't the DfT studio set up with the new LED-based video lights which are hugely more energy efficient and "greener".

Practice what you preach, eh Norm?

Railway Garden Competition - Waterloo East

This from a Mr Tingey...

Perhaps not so much a garden, more Railway Bonsai?

Pointless signs - Swindon

Pointless signs - Paddington

Hammond advises Greening on IEP!

Sage advice from Philip Hammond!

The defence secretary has been on the airwaves to defend a change in Government procurement policy.

No doubt these wise words will resonate in Marsham Street... 

'You can either close your eyes and plough on regardless, which, I am afraid, is something that has happened all too often in the past in big public procurement projects, or you can stand up and say, honestly, the facts have changed, I'll review the decision I made, however painful that may be for me, and I will take the decision that is right now in the light of the facts as we have discovered them'.

But is the Captain of Netball listening?