Good news for wheelbarrow manufacturers!
The Bank of England has decided to expand quantitative easing by £50bn to £175bn.
At least now we know where NR will get the money needed to do all these exciting electrification projects.
It's just a shame that a loaf of bread will soon cost a million quid...
UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...
That might not be so bad...
At least it would wipe the smile from NR's bonus encrusted directors!
Via Twitter...
Great piece in The Guardian about our plans for High Speed Rail. Recommended reading. Read it here http://tiny.cc/sU3JP
After following the link Eye fears that Sadiq may be preoccupied with the credit crunch.
It was Chris Austin, of the then Strategic Rail Authority, who dreamt up the concept of Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs).
With great fanfare and the full blessing of Beau Bowker he set about attempting to secure the future of many marginal railways, whilst cynics carped on the sidelines claiming it was mere PR piss-and-wind.
We cynics have been proven wrong.
The CRPs have delivered real improvements, not just by working with TOCs to improve service frequency but more importantly by making small incremental upgrades to passenger facilities; with the result that over recent years most CRP lines have seen enormous growth in passenger loadings.
As this extract from a memo from the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) confirms:
(TOC's name REDACTED) opinion is that, as far as rail travel is concerned, there’s little need to further promote the rural services as the majority are now full and therefore have a future. Any service improvements would require levels of rolling stock or infrastructure investment that would simply not be available or justifiable.
Good news indeed.
The memo makes the point even clearer by saying:
It is (TOC's name REDACTED) opinion however, that some CRPs are turning into lobbying groups (which they are not prepared to support) whilst others have effectively run their course, having succeeded in their aim to secure a future for the line.
So where does this leave the future of Community Rail Partnerships?
ACoRP helpfully suggests...
It’s apparent that in the current situation, CRPs in (REDACTED) are gradually seeing their rail role diminish. This doesn’t mean however that they have no future – they are after all, rooted in the community and should be addressing a multiplicity of other concerns such as access to work, local transport integration, environment, health and regeneration. CRPs might also benefit from looking at other transport modes, such as community and local buses, cycling and even walking.
When Community Rail Partnerships were established the railway was fighting a rear-guard action against the perceived threat of a reduction in the network's size.
Under the aegis of My Lord Adonis there is the real possibility that the network might actually physically expand!
Clearly, however, in these cash constrained times something will have to give.
The message is clear: CRPs broaden your base. User groups redouble your efforts!
UPDATE: This from Branch Line Boy...
I'm not so sure it was Chris Austin who dreamt up the concept of Community Rail Partnerships.
I thought it was Paul Salveson, late of AcoRP, now a big wig in Northern!
The Fact Compiler stands corrected!
UPDATE: Captain Deltic points out:
My Lord Adonis is quite scathing about the poor value for money of even ATOC's modest proposals for line reopenings.
The only way he wants to see the network expanding is through the construction of high speed lines.
See the Grauniad's on-going advertorials all this week (yawn).
This just in from an incredulous reader...
LNE/NE/D3 NORMAL WORKING AT KEIGHLEY FOLLOWING THE DRUNKEN TRESPASSER, HE HAD TIED HIMSELF TO THE COUPLER OF 1E23, BTP HAVE REMOVED HIM.
Perhaps 1E23 was wearing a rather fetching mini-skirt, stilettos and white handbag combo?
Telegrammed by Lord Peter Whimsy
An extraordinary out of office email from FT transport hack Robert Wright...
"I am taking a day off to build a climbing frame for my children"
As Groucho Marx might have said "I didn't know you guys were allowed to have families."
UPDATE: This just in from the man himself!
I hadn't expected, I must admit, my working on the Jungle Gym Club, like the one seen here, to garner so much attention.
But, since it has, your readers might appreciate an update.
I finally completed work on the climbing frame - better described as a small, wooden house - at 9pm on Wednesday after spending Saturday and all of Sunday after church working on it.
The low point on Wednesday came when, after I'd dug substantial holes for the foundations, my electric drill, which has seen more work these last few days than in its entire previous life, gave up the ghost. There were 400 screws, each of which needed to have its position measured before a hole was drilled and the screw finally inserted.
However, rest assured, railway people. As with a new Bombardier EMU, there will be some retrofitting to correct manufacturing defects. I put the wrong kind of 80mm screws in a lot of the holes.
Also, the Fact Compiler shouldn't fear that I have a life.
Yesterday was taken as a day off in lieu for working this coming Sunday,
I left the office at 2.30am on Saturday and I've yet to take a day's annual leave this year.
Errr... thank you for this Robert. Eye is none the wiser but no doubt better informed.
This has to be one of the most extraordinary public statements made by a Transport Minister!
This from the Grauniad...
Transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said "For reasons of carbon reduction and wider environmental benefits, it is manifestly in the public interest that we systematically replace short-haul aviation with high-speed rail".
Of course he did caveat it by saying:
"But we would have to have, of course, the high-speed network before we can do it."
Bearing in mind the aviation industry's relatively slick lobbying machine this is either going to cause one hell of a stink, or even the airlines now know the domestic game is up!
My Lord Adonis - so much to do. So little time.
UPDATE: And here is the official response from Stephen Hammond, Shadow Rails (sic) Minister...
“I am glad that (Lord Adonis) has finally accepted our argument that high speed rail can provide a viable alternative to thousands of short haul and domestic flights. Now that he has undermined his Government’s case for expansion of Heathrow, the next Conservative policy he should force Gordon Brown to adopt is to cancel all moves to build a third runway at Heathrow."
Excellent, that's Cross Party consensus achieved on High Speed Rail.
Now all that's left is to find the lolly...
UPDATE: This from a yet to be convinced Mr Saltaire...
According to the Daily Telegraph Lord Adonis wants to shift 46m passengers from short haul air to high speed rail.
That equates to 126,000 passengers a day (on average, not accounting for peaks and troughs).
Which is the equivalent of 301 fully loaded Pendolino type trains a day.
Based on a headway that allows a clock-face timetable with departures every twenty minutes, only 54 trains could depart from a London terminus heading north each day (assuming an eighteen hours a day timetable) meaning that a maximum of 22,600 passengers could be moved north and a similar number south = 45,200.
Even doubling the number of carriages in each train leaves you woefully short of capacity (and this assumes all trains are fully loaded and takes no account of peaks and troughs in loadings).
Computer say "No can do!".
Maybe the Government should invest the £30bn in researching teleportation… this seems more feasible.
UPDATE: This from Sim Harris over at Keeping Track...
Not sure Mr Saltaire is juggling with the right figures.
I hope very sincerely indeed that the trains on our eventual High Speed domestic network are significantly more spacious than Bendydildoes.
Some figures to consider: seats on a TGV Duplex (8 vehicles) -- 516; Eurostar (18 veh) -- 770.
Also, the Adonis figure is very broad brush: I would have thought that the short haul routes which are most likely to be effectively replaced by rail are London--Manchester, London--Glasgow, London--Newcastle, London--Edinburgh and London--Leeds/Bradford.
Rail is never going to wholly supplant air between London and "outstations" like Inverness/Plymouth/Newquay/Belfast (unless the British LGV network is going to exceed even the dreams of Steer Davies Gleave).
A 225km/h ECML (surely not an insurmountable problem with ERTMS) would also help to mop up some of the London--Leeds/Newcastle/Edinburgh traffic.
If a viable operator can be found, of course!
UPDATE: This just in from Tom West in the Dominions...
516 people in eight vehicles?
770 spread over 18?
Lightweights all of 'em... here in Toronto, the local trains carry 2,100 in twelve (double-deck) carriages!
This from Tom Paine over at the Last Ditch (with a bowler tip to Obnoxio)...
Annoy a Guardianista; vote now!
Poll: What's the best TV show of the decade 2000-09? | Media | guardian.co.uk.
Top Gear can be found at the bottom of the list...
The Fact Compiler spent an enjoyable morning listening to The Long View on the wireless.
This from the BBC blurb on the programme...
A once-prestigious and highly-profitable enterprise, GWR had over-extended itself and the company faced bankruptcy. As debates rage over the future of the East Coast Main Line, Jonathan and guests compare the action taken to rescue the railways in the 19th century with the challenges faced today.
The guests included Graham Eccles, Robert Wright and Terry Gourvish, some of whom are pictured here at Didcot (with a bowler tip to Robert Wright's flickr page).
For those who missed it have a listen on the BBC's iPlayer.
Alternatively it is repeated tonight on BBC Radio 4 at 21:30.
Just joking - obviously!
For the third year in succession Captain Deltic has failed to make the short list for the new batch of Network Rail Public Members.
No doubt there is huge disappointment in Kings Place that the independent selection panel has yet again robbed the company of the Captain's long experience.
Here a clearly disconsolate Iain Coucher receives the news.
Better luck next time Captain.
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Unbelievable!
You'd think that after all this time running a heavily subsidised, not for profit, (but definitely for bonus), how the hell can we get the costs down, oops here comes another investment bow-wave from the past, let's have an old-fashioned maintenance holiday type-quango, that Iain Coucher would know better than to spout this sort of nonsense in public:
'I take issue with the people who say railways are inherently not profitable and unsuitable for private enterprise,' says Coucher. 'The railway was privatised after decades of decline and low passenger numbers. Since privatisation, passenger numbers have sky-rocketed, as have satisfaction, punctuality and all the other indicators'.
This year Network Rail's government grant, that's SUBSIDY Mr Coucher, will be £3.4bn out of your total income of £5.3bn.
In other words, you are 'taking issue with people who say railways are inherently not profitable and unsuitable for private enterprise' on the basis that your bit of railway alone is costing the taxpayer over three times what the integrated railway cost 20 years ago.
Does Iain really believe that?
Scary if he does!
UPDATE: This from the Velopodist...
Eye's man at 222 Marylebone Road makes some reasonable points in his criticism of Iain Coucher. But he forgets how Network Rail's finances no longer say much useful about the overall finances of the railway.
Tom Winsor allowed the DfT to start making direct grants to Network Rail at the start of CP3 because it came out better in public accounting terms.
Track access charges consequently didn't go up as much as they should have for franchised operators to reflect the true cost of providing the infrastructure.
But lots of franchises started paying fat premia to the DfT which fund some of the DfT's payments to Network Rail.
So not all the subsidy is subsidy - if TOCs paid the full track access charge and the DfT subsidised their payment of those they couldn't cover, its finances would like a lot more sustainable.
Eye suspects that were TOCs to pay "full track access charges" they would also demand the opportunity to maintain their own infrastructure so that NR costs could be properly benchmarked.
Perhaps Graham Eccles would then get his integrated railway back...
This just in from a Mr Powell...
I have an entry to the Railway Garden Competition...
Lincoln.
The pictures show the old platform 8, no longer used, which has been left to succumb to weeds.
I apologise for the 144 which makes an appearance!
Nice (apart from the Pacer) and only months after Network Rail spent a fortune on titivating Lincoln and its approaches.
NR explains, in song, how new Public Members are to be inducted into their role...
With a bowler tip to Tom Harris.
This just in from a Dr Gloucester...
I thought you might enjoy these two shots taken at Salford Crescent yesterday.
The first shows luxuriant growth bursting through the security fence, adjacent to Windsor Link Relay Room, the roof of which can be made out on the left. 
In the second view from the north end of the platform, a Rochdale-bound Pacer attempts to hide behind a nice collection of purple-flowered weeds. 
On balance Eye considers anything that hides a Pacer from the view of intending passengers a blessing in disguise.
The Tories apparent recent conversion to the benefits of High Speed Rail is of course to be welcomed.
But beware.
Many members of what looks to be the next party of government retain a deep antipathy towards the railways.
This from the Welsh national anthem mangling Vulcan...
We know that running train services is a very expensive way of travel for taxpayers to support, and we know that fourteen times as many journeys are made by car as by train. Rail has a small market share despite all the subsidy and encouragement.
And on it continues for several paragraphs showing that the railway still has a job to do to win over some of its more implacable opponents.
But what's this?
At the end of Redwood's pro-car rant is the kernel of a sensible suggestion!
One of the greenest policies we could pursue would be a big programme of increasing the number of bridges over railways to allow the easier passage of cars and buses around our towns and cities. It would also be safer if we replaced more of the level crossings with bridges or underpasses. It could also lead to more use of the train for the commuter and longer distance journies if more of us could get to the station and park easily. That would be a greener way to spend any money we have on railways, rather than on electrification.
Leaving aside Spocks' knee-jerk opposition to electrification there are good safety and operational reasons for supporting the removal of level crossings.
Especially if such a programme were funded out of the Highways Agency budget, whose customers - as Deadwood acknowledges - have most to gain.
Perhaps an idea that Network Rail and RSSB should explore further with our alien new best friend?
UPDATE: This from Mr Bridges...
Build the Bridges to make railways green?
Perhaps Mr Redwood should stand in Sheffield next election!
Good news for Crow Bar Bob!
This from today's Sunday Times...
Bob Crow, the militant leader of the RMT rail union whose pay and benefits rose by 8% to £91,646 in 2008... said: “I don’t really know if my pay rise was inflation busting”.
The Eye is unsure which will be a bigger surprise to RMT's hard pressed members.
The size of Bob's pay rise or his apparent ignorance of the inflation rate.
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