Wilkinson contract at DfT extended

This from the DfT...

Peter Wilkinson to carry on as Franchising Director

The Department for Transport has extended the contract of Interim Franchising Director Peter Wilkinson to January 2015 to ensure the continued successful roll out of the Government’s rail franchising programme.

Peter, who has been with the Department since January, was key in launching the DfT’s comprehensive new franchising schedule in March.  The contract extension will provide continuity of leadership for the franchising programme through to delivery of the initial franchise competitions and direct awards. 

In a less than perfect world, the least bad result!

Railway Garden Competition - Barking

This from Trailer Second...

The LTS main line down platform.

Railway Garden Competition - Dalmarnock

Pointless signs - Blackfriars

 

Brown joins DfT Board

This from the DfT...

Richard Brown appointed to the Department for Transport Board

Richard Brown CBE has been appointed as a Non-Executive Member of the Department for Transport Board by Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin.

He joins lead Non-Executive Director Sam Laidlaw and other Non-Executives Ed Smith, Alan Cook, Sally Davis, Mary Reilly and John Kirkland.  

Good news indeed.

And just months after completing his independent review that validated franchising!

Eversholt speaks for industry on IEP

This from Eversholt Rail... 
 
“Eversholt Rail is disappointed that the Department for Transport has decided to proceed with IEP Phase 2 and prescribe what rolling stock will be used on the new East Coast Mainline franchise.

“We continue to believe that the best option would have been to let the market decide...."

Quite so.

So much for all that wibble from DfT that it is for TOCs to determine what rolling stock they want to use.

The big question, of course, is will Ninky Nonk lease costs turn East Coast from a 'profitable' franchise into one requiring a net subsidy?

Eye awaits the latest spreadsheet magic from Captain Deltic with interest.

Railway Garden Competition - Broadstairs

No Pitt stop, as Andy chairs fleet money men

This from Cross London Trains...

Cross London Trains (“XLT”) the company established to finance and purchase Desiro City  trains from Siemens plc and to lease them to the Operator of the Thameslink rail franchise has made two senior appointments following the recent contract award for 1,140 new rail carriages.

Andy Pitt has joined XLT as Executive Chairman. Andy previously held a number of senior roles within the rail industry including Managing Director Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited and Rail Business Development Director for Stagecoach Group plc. He is a former member of the Association of Train Operating Companies Board and former Chairman of the Operations Council. Andy led a £1 billion private sector procurement for train supply and maintenance that delivered Siemens Desiro rolling stock for South West Trains.

Charles Doyle will join Cross London Trains as Managing Director from Transport for London where he has spent the last seven years in various financial positions, most recently as a Principal of Commercial Finance.  In his time at TfL Charles was involved in a number of rolling stock and infrastructure PFIs and procurement programmes. 

Ends

XLT’s shareholders are 3i Infrastructure plc, Innisfree PFI Secondary Fund 2 LP and Project Ventures Rail Investments I Limited, a Siemens Project Ventures group company.

Interesting.

John Dennis RIP

John Dennis 1948-2013

It is with great sadness that Eye has learned of the passing of John Dennis, a railwayman with a rich and varied career spanning nearly 40 years, who died on 8th July aged 65 years, after battling against cancer.

Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, John Dennis was a Geography graduate from the University of London.  He joined British Rail as a graduate trainee in September 1970, joining the same day as other industry stalwarts such as Mike Mitchell and Richard Goldson.

John’s career saw stints with BR Midlands at Stoke on Trent and he went on to become head of Customer Relations for Regional Railways.  He then joined Railfreight Distribution – the BR Board’s international freight business – to prepare for the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

Following privatisation, John joined The Railway Forum as Communications Director working for its highly-respected Director General, Adrian Lyons.  In December 2003, he was tempted away to ATOC as Communications Manager where his deep knowledge of the railway was much appreciated and deployed in the development of initiatives to promote the industry’s success and growth.

Says Edward Funnell, former Director of Communications at ATOC: “John was a wonderful colleague for nearly seven years and a great asset to ATOC where he contributed so much.  He was a real professional as well as a kind and patient colleague.”

John lived in Kemble, near Swindon in Wiltshire.  Eye sends its best wishes and heartfelt condolences to his wife Sue and their three grown-up daughters.

Perhaps the final word should go former colleague and friend Diana Lucas of RSSB, who on his retirement in 2009 said: 

“People like John make up the backbone of the industry. He was there to offer a considered judgement and professional eye on proceedings while maintaining a sense of humour. I speak for all when I say we will miss him a great deal."

Rest in Peace John

ORR formalises blinkered view of industry

Good news for fans of an holistic understanding of the railway!

This from the ORR's Long-Term Regulatory Statement, published today...

4.37 ORR will work more closely with the freight industry in CP5 to develop a long-term strategy for freight in approach to CP6, including through the whole-industry Rail Delivery Group that brings together the freight operators with Network Rail, ATOC and passenger operators.

Quite so.

But an interesting definition of 'whole industry', excluding as it does rolling stock manufacturers, equipment suppliers, maintainers, contractors, customers, ports, terminals, investors, ROSCOs, consultants, PTE’s, etc... etc....

Clearly ephemeral groups like customers and the supply chain have no role to play in developing the industry's 'long-term strategy for freight'.

That will go well then. 

Cross-hatch madness - a mea culpa!

The Fact Compiler's latest column in Passenger Transport published on the 5th July... 

The next edition of Passenger Transport will be published on the 19th July.

How we have changed, for the better?

This from Digital Spy...

"One viewer complained that the 1970 movie starring Call the Midwife's Jenny Agutter may lead to children playing near railway tracks, reports BBC News."
 
One.

1.

An single person complained

Can you imagine the screams of anguish from our Health and Safety 'community' today?

I know, and I agree - Safety must be our priority!

But worth thinking about. No?

Pointless signs - East Coast media dinner

East Coast resurrects fine dining

This from the late Sir Peter Parker...

I am delighted to hear that the state owned passenger train operator will be unveiling their plans for the next five years of the East Coast Main Line at a dinner  tonight.

I was even more pleased to be told that the venue for this exciting event is British Rail's old headquarters at 222 Marylebone Road.

Does this presage an announcement that the franchise will be renamed InterCity East Coast and that the 'Swallow' brand will be restored to all trains?

McLoughlin makes extra-ordinary confession!

Good news for fans of Openness and Transparency!

At last night's ATOC sponsored wake for franchising Patrick McLoughlin made the following confession...

As a junior transport minister in the 1980s, I remember British Rail.
Underinvestment in tracks and trains.
Poor reliability.
Managers whose good ideas were too often stifled by a lack of cash…

Guilty as charged. Send him down! 

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic... 

So when was Patrick McLoughlin a junior transport minister?

From 1989 to 1992.

Gosh they were grim times for investment. 

All we had was more electrification than under any government, including the East Coast Main Line with a brand new fleet of 140 mile/h IC225s that delivered a London - Edinburgh run in just 3hr 29 min. 

Plus total route modernisation of Chiltern, the re-equipment of Regional Railways with new trains - frequent DMUs replacing infrequent loco hauled services. Oh, and a new fleet of freight locos.

And what about the upgrading of the Kent lines to take the new state of the art Networkers, not to mention... (con't p94)

Oi Deltic, that's quite enough moaning about the bad old days! Ed

Railway Garden Competition - Marple

Railway Garden Competition - King's Cross

This from Fen Boy...

This was the scene at the shiny new King's Cross station yesterday morning at 08.10.

Railway Garden Competition - Barbican

This from Old McDonald...

Good news for fans of Mayor BoJo's Urban Greenway plans.

The first stage appears to be coming on well!

Benefits of the Deep Alliance explained...

This from ITV... 

 In an article posted on the company's website, South West Trains explained why the heat was affecting their services.

    Very hot weather can have an impact on the train service we can deliver. As with all metals, the track we use to run our trains expands and contracts depending on its temperature, i.e. the hotter it gets, the more it expands. Just like a car on a warm day, the metal can reach temperatures far in excess of the surrounding air temperature.

    Whilst we carry out a significant amount of work to prepare for the impact of hot weather by using hydraulic machines to artificially stress the rails to cope with high temperatures, over the weekend we have seen temperatures on our tracks of almost 50oc. The ageing condition of our infrastructure has meant that despite the preparation work that has taken place, we have had to impose speed restrictions at certain locations on our network

– South West Trains 

That's the way to do it! (Where's the video news release? Ed)

ORR makes overnight saving on access dispute process!

Good news for fans of Independent Economic Regulation!

This charming picture appeared in Thursday's Blackpool Gazette...

And it was accompanied by the following illuminating quotes from the ORR's very own Right Price....

“This petition will form part of the evidence in the process. I’d like to thank the readers of the Blackpool Gazette for their contribution to the On Track To The Capital campaign. This petition clearly shows how important the issue is to the people of Blackpool.

“ORR is currently considering the application from Virgin Trains for new services on the West Coast Main Line between Blackpool and London, this will include looking at the benefits new services may bring to passengers and whether they make best use of the limited capacity on the route.”

Fascinating.

Well done to the ORR for being quite so ahead of the game.

In fact so far ahead of the game, that it rather appears that the ORR's Chief Exec has forgotten that this dispute between Network Rail and Virgin over Blackpool and Shrewsbury paths is now subject to adjudication by the Access Disputes Committee.

As any fule kno the Access Dispute Committee "is responsible for the operation of the dispute resolution procedures that form part of all Access Agreements on the national network of Great Britain.". Of course if the ADC is unable to effect a resolution then the ORR may get involved.

No matter and Eye is sure that Professor Richard Butler, chairman of the ADC, will be generous in overlooking this apparent ORR parking of tanks on his lawn...

After all, who can resist getting their picture in the paper with so many MPs?