Railway looks after those who also serve

Good news from ATOC!

National Rail companies have finally been allowed to join TfL in granting gallant service personnel, involved with the Olympics, free travel on rail services to and from Games venues.

And quite right too!

Eye understands that despite the willingness of the industry to recognise the contribution made by service men and women the MoD remained to be convinced.

Perhaps such generosity from private sector contractors is not usually encountered by inhabitants of the Main Building?

No matter, the offer has been accepted.

Is this the first time that Petrol-head Hammond has helped the railway celebrate anything positive?

Alycidon amidst the IEP excitement

This from a Mr Dickens...

A sight to stir the blood - Alycidon nearing Werrington Junction, just north of Peterborough, this morning.

Eat your heart out Captain Deltic!

Fleet reliability will be key for IEP

This from Ithuriel...

With DfT highlighting the importance of reliability in the IEP contract announcement, here is a list of today's Top 10 most reliable fleets on the national network.

(With thanks to an irate 'Captain of the Golden Spanners' for correcting the earlier version - so this with added Ford Imprimatur!) 
 

Ranking	Operator	Fleet	Maker	Miles per 3 min delay
1	South West Trains	Class 458	Alstom	105,761
2	South West Trains	Class 159/0	BREL	82,053
3	London Midland	Class 350/2	Siemens	75,315
4	South West Trains	Class 159/1	BREL	70,240
5	South West Trains	Class 158	BREL	62,932
6	London  Midland	Class 350/1	Siemens	58,652
7	South West Trains	Class 444	Siemens	51,369
8	South West Trains	Class 455	BREL/GEC	40,710
9	Cross Country	Class 220	Bombardier	38,463
10	c2c	Class 357	Bombardier	37,840

Eye congratulates all the above manufacturers.

UPDATE: This from Button Moon...

I was just wondering if any of your esteemed readers could extend the table of manufacturers’ performance to include Messrs. Hitachi, who already have a fleet of trains operating in the South East? 

(Sadly, in the interest of fairness, Eye is unwilling to extend the range of the above table to include lesser performing fleets as Bombardier and Siemens have had quite enough free publicity for the reliability of their rolling stock already. Ed)

UPDATE: This from Deep Purple...

Further to the top ten table, the ‘Owner’ column appears to have been omitted.

This is at least as important as the ‘Maker’ and would make interesting reading, 7 of the top 10 and all 5 of the top 5 being Porterbrook fleets.

Derby may not build trains like it used to but Derby can certainly manage these assets better than the rest.

So fess up Greening - exactly how many IEP jobs?

Compare and contrast.

This from the DfT press release on IEP in which Greening claimed '730 new jobs' would be created at Newton Aycliffe...

With this from Hitachi which said 'at least 500 jobs' would be created...

As @L_Jameson pointed out: "at this rate they'll be laying people off by dinner time".

UPDATE: This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

May I congratulate Fact Compiler San for helping Hitachi to amend the wording of their on-line press release so that it now reads:

Just fancy that!

IEP announced - Parliament in recess

Good news for fans of Parliamentary scrutiny!

This from the DfT:

£4.5 billion investment in new trains creates new jobs

More than 900 jobs will be created and thousands more secured after Transport Secretary Justine Greening approved a £4.5bn contract to supply Britain with the next generation of intercity trains.

In a major boost to the UK’s manufacturing industry, 596 railway carriages will be built at a brand new train factory in the north east of England.

Agility Trains, a consortium made up of Hitachi and John Laing, has been awarded the contract to build and maintain the trains under the Intercity Express Programme (IEP), the project to replace Britain’s Intercity 125 trains with new higher capacity modern trains.

Hitachi will assemble an intercity fleet of 92 complete trains at a new purpose-built factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in the process creating 730 skilled jobs with a further 200 jobs during construction of the factory itself and securing thousands more in the UK supply chain. The company will also locate its European rail research and development capabilities on the site which will further enhance the factory’s ability to win rail contracts across Europe.

As well as building the new state-of-the-art assembly facility, Hitachi will construct maintenance depots in Bristol, Swansea, west London and Doncaster, and will upgrade existing maintenance depots throughout Britain.

The announcement comes on the eve of the Global Investment Conference in London where the Government will kick off the largest series of trade and investment events ever held in the UK involving more than 3,000 business leaders, policy-makers and ministers from around the world, and half the companies in the FTSE 100.

Cont' p94...

Putting to one side the enormous cost is there anyone outside Marsham Street and the Japanese Embassy that actually wants this hybrid monster?

Therefore, time for an exciting new Eye survey... (see right)

UPDATE: This unusually bullish statement from ATOC...

Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said:

“This announcement is good news for passengers as it will mean faster, more comfortable journeys and many more seats.

“This DfT-led procurement, however, has been contentious. Some of the earlier scope of the project has been changed because of subsequent Government decisions to electrify parts of the rail network. 

“Train companies believe that the key to delivering better value for money is to ensure that they play a bigger role in shaping rolling stock solutions through the competitive franchising process.  It will help get things done more quickly and bring down costs, and we welcome the Government's support for this approach.”  

ENDS

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles... 

You are right - we have yet to find anyone working on the railways who wants the IEP.

DfT says £200m saving over the life of the trains - forgets to mention "set against £75m a year extra that fare payers on Great Western will pay to have these trains rather than a more conventional design." (data from R. Ford) - which wipes out that £200m within the first three years....

Clearly that paragraph got missed from the DfT press release.....

As was the line from GW passenger groups saying "We welcome the opportunity to pay well above inflation fare increases to fund these trains which will deliver the lower levels of comfort we have been calling for for several years."

J. Greening assisted by Mr Kipling, and along with her predecessors Adonis and Hammond, has rightly earned her place in history alongside Beeching.

Alongside 'The Beeching Cuts' we now have 'The Greening order' - long may we rue this day...

Railway Garden Competition - Llandovery

Eye exclusive - NR holds Bonus Party?

Someone has apparently been living it up at 40 Melton Street! 

But judging by the empties, times remain hard!

Railway Garden Compeition - Welwyn Garden City

Heritage Railways getting fruity - Wirksworth

Spotted at Wirksworth on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, via @sidskipper...

Eye understands that there was quite a queue...

Railway Garden Competition - Nottingham

NR goes back to the future at Quagmire opening

Is Network Rail now ready to embrace the railway's past?

This from The Quadrant's opening do.

Looks familiar?

Coincidence? 

Eye thinks not!

Railway Garden Competition - Tooting

Pointless signs 2012 - Wimbledon

A message to all colleagues on Olympic duties...

Railway Garden Competition - Middlesbrough

Pointless signs - CrossCountry bustitution Reading

This via SWT Info Guy...

Trolley travels - Southampton Parkway

Someone jumps the gun on IEP award?

Oh dear!

Following the ConDem's decision to leak almost all the details of the HLOS days before it was announced in Parliament, someone has taken it upon themselves to jump the gun on announcing the first order for IEPs.

According to ITV News...

Train company, First Great Western, is expected to announce a billion pound order for new trains which are to run between Paddington and Swansea.

The ITV piece even includes a nice video about constructing the new trains filmed in errrr... Japan (shurely Newton Aycliffe? Ed).

So presumably the DfT's own dire strictures against anyone saying anything before the 20th July no longer count?

And as for suggesting that First Great Western will announce it - talk about spin - this is a DfT project thru and thru!

Which may explain why, even though preferred bidder status was granted as long ago as 2009, the final confirmation of an order for the unpopular rolling stock will actually be announced just days AFTER the Commons had risen for the Summer Recess. 

How convenient! That should stop any embarrassing question being asked about the deal in Parliament.

Come on Speaker Bercow, give 'em hell!

Mediaballs - BBC One o Clock news

This from Mystic Mike...

Good to see that the move to Salford has improved journalistic standards at the Beeb.

This was the picture (of Toddington station on the Glos Warks Railway) that the BBC One o Clock news has just led with to announce today's HLOS rail investment package...

"Anyone got a library shot of a train? Yeah, that'll do..."

Pinky and Perky announce the HLOS

Despite having been extensively leaked over the weekend, Cameron and Clegg were in the West Midlands today to officially launch the HLOS.

It would be churlish not to recognise that the proposed investment plan for the period 2014-19 contains some good news for passengers, freight and the industry, but the devil remains in the detail, so a cautious welcome from Eye.

Of perhaps greater interest to students of the railway scene are the revised directions and guidance that DfT has issued to the ORR, which were also published today.

Section 24 should make Open Access chums a little nervous...