The Department for Transport's reputation for attention to detail is legendary.
So The Fact Compiler thought he'd pay a quick visit to the DafT website to see who will be serving in the new team under Gende Homo.
Alas, Whitehall web wonks can't yet be arsed to update their site, which still lists Tom Harris as Minister of State - a mere 18 hours after one eyed Gordo gave him the black spot.
Tom Harris has been relegated to the back benches.
Read Tom's blog piece here.
Below one of the comments posted to his site by 'Very much anonymous'.
Tom, I’m very sorry to hear this news.
I’m not a Labour supporter and I won’t be voting Labour at the next election. However, I know that most politicians of any political persuasion genuinely want to do their best to help their constituents and the people of the UK. You exemplify this.
You have, from all the evidence available to me, been a conscienscious and hard-working Minister. You’ve handled a difficult portfolio extremely well and have built up a lot of respect on a personal level within the rail industry. I am sure that the industry’s journals will decry your treatment for weeks to come.
You have been courteous to and respectful of your officials. You ask intelligent questions at the right time and you have a remarkable talent to sense when you are being “fed a line”, be it by officials or by industry figures.
Your blog has opened up the political process to the average citizen more than any other. While Iain Dale and Guido write superb blogs, they don’t have the perspective that you do.
It is my sincere belief that your party will lose the next election by a large margin. However, despite my Conservative sympathies, I distrust large majorities. I sincerely hope that you will continue with both your blog and your devotion to your job and will hold Governments of both parties to account from the back benches.
More than that, after the next election, your party will need a core group of experienced but untainted leaders to pull it out of a very deep hole. You have the potential to go far higher within your party than you have managed to date. Please don’t let this setback discourage you.
Why do I say this?
Because I’ve been working for you in DfT for quite some time. Hence why I’m staying anonymous.
The Fact Compiler has nothing more to add.Run up the flags!
Gordon Brown uses the House of Lords to further government business.
Consensus on how to complete Reform of The Upper House remains as distant as ever.
The railway's Noble Lords need not fear for their seats yet.
Telegrammed by The Master
***BBC reporting NR's 'stay at home chairman' Sir Ian McAlasiter soon to do just that - permanently.***
Telegrammed by The Raver
Good TV programmes about railway history are rare, usually falling into whingeing nostalgia.
But on BBC4 last night, Ian Hislop hit just the right note, criticising Beeching and yet recognising that the railways in the 1960s had to be cut down.
Aside from allowing Wolmar to sport a ghastly pink jumper the producers are to be congratulated.
Perhaps Hislop would have made a better Secretary of State for Transport?
Telegrammed by our man in 222 Marylebone Road.
***When Gende Homo was at the Ministry of Defence he was known to Daily Torygraph city page readers as 'Buff' Hoon - presumably a tribute to his finely honed body.***
Some good news about Geoff Hoon's appointment to the DafT top job.
A reader observes that in predictive text Geoff Hoon is rendered as 'Gende Homo'.
Railway Eye welcomes Gende Homo to Transport
***BBC reporting Geoff Hoon to be new Secretary of State for Transport***
View BBC story here
A big welcome to readers of Scottish Tory Boy.
The young North British conservative has asked readers of his blog to back rail minister Tom Harris in our ballot to find Ruth Kelly's successor.
When your enemy's enemy is your friend it makes for strange bedfellows. Scots Nats beware.
A feast of crankery on BBC4 tonight to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Beeching Report.
First off at 20:00 is a repeat (it is BBC4 after all) of an interview with the now dead Dr Beeching.
This is followed at 20:30 by what appears to be gratuitous propaganda for anti-rail group Sustrans.
Then at 21:00 vertically challenged Private Eye editor Ian Hislop ruminates about what might have been if all those loss making lines had remained open.
Timely TV with the ORR threatening swinging cuts to NR's budget.
First reports of poor railhead adhesion are coming in following the winds of the last 24 hours.
According to those out on the track the wet summer means that the leaves are "big and juicy".
The industry will be watching with interest to see how Network Rail and the Infracos' plans for leaf fall 2008 measure up.
FT reporting that Eurostar may be looking to procure new trains:
"A senior figure involved told the Financial Times the operator might buy the new AGV train unveiled this year by Alstom Transport instead of carrying out the mid-life refurbishment the 15-year-old trains would soon be due to undergo."
The current fleet certainly looks very tired.
A quick update on our poll of polls asking "Who should replace Ruth Kelly?"
According to Railway Eye readers (see right) the top job should go to Rail editor Nigel Harris!
In this time of financial turmoil can there be a better occasion for Gordon to resurrect his "government of all the talents"?
Wolmar has written a Gruaniad comment piece on the Tories damascene conversion to high speed rail.
Read it here.
Mystic Wolmar is in the van of those who remain to be convinced...
Train spotter's French diary
"This was an American-designed, Canadian-built, British locomotive operating in France for a German company." Read more here.
The Fact Compiler suspects it wasn't a change of driver, more likely an SNCF sponsored work to rule.
So the Tories have come out in favour of a high speed line instead of a third runway at Heathrow.
Read the BBC piece here.
However, with Treasury finances going west as yet another bank bites the dust, The Fact Compiler fears that a new Government will be hard pressed to buy a cup of coffee let alone build a new railway.
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