Lookalike XXVI

Ray O'Toole Speaks!

INTERNAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

11 September 2009

APPROACH TO NATIONAL EXPRESS BY CONSORTIUM

I promised that I would let you know as soon as we had any more information to share regarding the latest approach we received from the CVC/Cosmen family Consortium.

As you know, last week we received an approach in connection with a possible cash offer of £5.00 per share, which values National Express at £765 million. Please note this is not yet a formal bid.

As a Board, we have been evaluating the potential offer carefully and also speaking with our major shareholders and advisers. Today we have announced to the City that we have agreed to allow the Consortium to progress to the next stage of the process based on the £5 per share indicative offer.

The next stage is known as "due diligence" which is a very structured process that involves the Consortium examining our business and finances in some detail.

The process will take four weeks after which the Consortium will either go ahead with a formal offer of £5.00 per share or walk away.

Its important to note that, under the rules of the Takeover Panel, the Consortium will not be allowed to reduce their offer below £5.00 or increase it above £5.00 as a result of the due diligence work they are about to undertake. Their only options are to make a formal offer at
£5.00 or to walk away.

It is by no means certain that the Consortium will submit a formal offer at the end of the due diligence process. If a formal offer is submitted, the Board will decide on its final recommendation. If a formal offer is not received, the Board plans to continue its independent strategy and to execute our own equity finance plans.

I also want to stress that while the due diligence process is underway we will still be continuing with our plans to prepare to raise equity independently. All of our existing plans, for example East Coast or the move to the new Birmingham Coach station, will all continue unchanged.

I realise it is very easy to be distracted by these ongoing developments as we proceed along the twin track approach of the Consortium's due diligence process, and our own equity financing plans.

However whatever the future direction we take is, it important to remember that we have customers to serve, people to look after and a business to run.

In either scenario it is vitally important that we deliver our year-end performance so please continue with the great work you have been doing so far.

Ray O'Toole - Chief Operating Officer
National Express Group

Network Rail Public Members jolly

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2009 Railway Garden Competition #XXV

This just in from Chionanthus virginicus...

Last year Eye brought us pictures of a tree on a bridge at Ambergate, resolutely withstanding any lumberjacks who may be patrolling the MML.

As the 2009 season of mists & mellow fruitfulness draws nigh, I popped up to see how the "garden" is getting on.

As you can see, the tree has had a little light "trackside" pruning - nothing too severe.

A team of strolling strimmers & trimmers have carried out more vigorous work on the adjacent bridge (carrying the Matlock branch) revealing more of the structure, but growth on the mainline bridge is doing well, with several silver birch saplings establishing themselves in the parapet wall beyond.

Perhaps Network Rail are leaving them there so they can act as carbon neutral stanchions when the MML is electrified?

For the sake of the kiddies

Good news from this increasingly authoritarian government.

Virtually anyone who comes within 10 yards of a child must now be vetted by the state.

Hopefully this will prevent the sort of disgusting abuse pictured below.

Just because you think you're innocent doesn't mean you're not guilty.

Herr Souter or Hirsute-er?

Looks like the credit crunch is starting to bite at Stagecoach.


Poor Brian Souter is not just re-using carrier bags; now he's stopped using razor blades as well.

Or could it be a case of "beard today, gone tomorrow?"

UPDATE: This from an RSSB reader...

Quick word of thanks for your blog, it certainly livens up the day here.

A friend in ‘beleaguered’ TOC, NXEC, sent me this from the Gruaniad which Eye picked up from the Suffolk Evening Star.

Perhaps the red shoe wearing hairy one is actually a Hirsute-Heir...

Pointless signs #12

This from Sim Harris...

Am I too late to add this Pointless Sign from Luton to your excellent collection?

For those who might be wondering, there never was a second platform in the direction indicated.

This sign was made like this and installed like this, and it's been there for years.

Being in Luton is such a rollercoaster ride of fun and frolics that nobody seems to have noticed.

Ugly, ugly, ugly

Behold Frightliner's behemoth!



Presumably its front end will be redesigned before it graces our shores?

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

Size may not be everything, but FL's "behemoth" looks both a bit challenged in the nose end design but also very squat next to the Union Pacific 15ft 9in locos.

I don't remember Flying Scotsman looking quite so inadequate when it was in the US.

2009 Railway Garden Competition - ENTRY WITHDRAWN

Sad news for Chester's devotees of the Railway Garden.

Shiny Shoes reports that the Chester has been zapped with weedkiller.


Eye salutes Network Rail for addressing this part of Iain's arboreal empire.

Doomed National Express enters talks with bidders

This from the Suffolk Evening Star...

National Express confirmed today that it was now discussing “certain aspects” of the consortium's bid, with a further announcement following “as appropriate”.

If the Cosmen/CVC deal goes ahead the group will be broken up, with rival Stagecoach having reached agreement with the consortium to takeover National Express's UK rail and bus businesses.

National Express - about to make travel even simpler...

Whitehall dithers over Waterloo platforms

What better evidence do you need that the Department for Transport is an obstacle to better operation of the railway?

This from the Evening Standard...

Commuters will have to wait until 2014 before the former Eurostar platforms at Waterloo station are adapted for suburban trains, it emerged today.

What a scandalous waste of capability on the already vastly overcrowded and congested South Western.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Dixon...

Interesting post about Waterloo.

Less than a week ago, the ORR set Network Rail a deadline for making Waterloo International Terminal operational by the 2011 timetable change

See 15.01 on page 4 of this document.

Which relates to page 57 of this.

Interesting to say the least.

UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...

Now, now FC. Play nicely.

I have been told, and this is something that you are in a position to confirm or deny, that should the International side be brought back into service, the signalling arrangements do not conform to current standards.

According to this source, if the platforms were to be brought back into use then the whole Waterloo to Vauxhall stretch would have to be resignalled.

So it might not just be down to DaFT....

Benefit of the doubt and all that.

Now lets see what your vast pool of railway brains has to say.

UPDATE: This from Dreadnought...

I would agree that the signalling in and around the international platforms at Waterloo does not conform to current standards but then neither does the rest of the station.

Requiring resignalling is just plain daft (or perhaps that should be DaFT) when the rest of the station (and numerous other places) operates with signalling designed to the same standards.

What a way to run a railway

PS I understand that at least one empty train has been into the international station in recent weeks so perhaps technically it is not out of use at all?

Sadly it was a VSOE train, so doesn't count.

Lord Adonis in China

As revealed by the Eye the Noble Lord has been in China.



With a bowler tip to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Nice tie!

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

How come the Tannoy sounds just as intelligible 5,000 miles away as it does here in Swindon?

High Speed Rail - the new consensus in politics

The Tories confirmed their commitment to a high speed line at today's High Speed Rail Summit.

Theresa Villiers said:

If we are elected, our plans for a new line to Manchester and Leeds will go ahead. We have carefully costed our proposal. We are confident that it’s workable and that it’s affordable. We stick by our commitment. We will deliver on it.

And on this project as in all our endeavours if we are elected to serve this country as its Government value for money will be a guiding principle.

To those who say it makes no sense to embark on this great task, given the state of the public finances, I have four points to make.

Firstly even with the most optimistic forecasts the planning and preparation needed is likely to take at least 4 to 5 years so the major spend is unlikely to begin before 2015.

Secondly, however great the efforts we make, the period of construction will inevitably be a long one. So the taxpayer’s contribution will be stretched over the 12 years it would take to deliver the complete line up to Manchester and Leeds relieving the pressure on budgets in individual years.

Thirdly every credible study indicates that the West Coast Main Line will be full, some time between 2015 and 2020. Expecting aviation or our congested motorways to meet the resulting capacity pressure is neither practical nor environmentally acceptable.

Given the lead times involved in building new railways, we can no longer put off the decision on a new line. Within ten years, extra capacity on the West Coast corridor will not be a “nice to have luxury” it will be a pressing necessity. It would be hugely short sighted to embark on a new conventional line when the cost uplift for high speed rail is probably 30% at most.

And fourthly and finally study after study shows that over time high speed rail will pay for itself not least the report published by Network Rail just a few weeks ago.

So twelve years before its complete with planning/preparation beginning in 2010/11 and construction to start in 2015ish - 'value for money' allowing.

Expect a continuing role for My Lord Adonis after the General Election judging by this in the same speech...

I welcome the establishment of the HS2 company. I should make it clear that I am grateful both to Sir David Rowlands for keeping me so well informed on its work and to the Secretary of State for not just permitting but actively encouraging him to do so.

Is it possible? Can it be?

Is there the very real danger that High Speed Rail is the new political consensus?

Welcome back Lord Adonis

Eye welcomes the SofS back after his summer break.

Hopefully Lord Adonis is now fully rested and ready to get to grips with electrification, High Speed rail and the growing industrial strife on Britain's railways.

Of course most people use their annual leave to get away from it all.

But not, it would appear, the railway obsessed Noble Lord.

Although The Fact Compiler is struggling to see what might have attracted him to China, home to the world's largest producers of rolling stock...

UPDATE: This from Steve Stong...

And according to the BBC the world's largest producer of High Speed lines!

LM waves white flag!

As predicted by the Eye...

London Midland have caved in and reintroduced the generous payments for Sunday workings.

This from the Express and Star...

Train company London Midland will reinstate double time pay for Sunday workers in a bid to prevent its entire network closing down again this weekend.

How long before the TOC joins NXEC in the demic franchise line-up?

Is anyone there?

Exciting news from Railway Herald.


Guaranteed to warm the heart of any advertiser!

SWT lets cat out of bag!

This just in from NFL...

Spotted at Southampton Airport Parkway....


So what exactly are SWT trying to tell us?

Make mine a large double!

Remind me, when did we agree to surrender our lives to these self appointed Puritan kill-joys?

This from the BBC...

There should be a ban on all alcohol advertising, including sports and music sponsorship, doctors say.

Has anyone read the Flying Inn?

Sod the lot of 'em - I'm off for a drink and a fag!

UPDATE: Several Benny-Hedgehogs later...

A bowler tip to Old Holborn for this...

The lead author of this report is one Professor Gerard Hastings, who is not qualified to practise medicine but who does have a PhD in Social Marketing from the University of Strathclyde. He is a member of fake charity Alcohol Focus Scotland, and he is well-versed in the tactics of neo-prohibitionism from his time working for the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research.

Do any of these quango-monkeys add one jot of value to anything they touch?

A challenge to London Midland!

Telegrammed by The Delver
As London Midland traincrew still have guaranteed Rest Day Working (RDW) on a weekday and get time-and-a-half on Saturdays there is little incentive for them to work Sundays.

If your guaranteed weekday RDW falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday you just turn up, whether there’s a turn to do or not. So a few hours in the mess room, then off home. Happy days and no need to work Sunday!

Unwilling to address the route of the problem London Midland bottled it and in May introduced Double Time payments for Sunday working!

They came in droves. But at what a cost!

So last weekend’s sudden withdrawal of Double Time meant staff voted with their wallets and stayed at home.

And the company did errr… nothing.

As London Midland obviously has little appetite for a fight what’s the betting the extra payments reappear?

You can’t blame the unions, they are merely cashing in on weak management.

Meanwhile the rest of the industry holds its breath. If LM gives in, consider the impact on other TOCs.

So who is to blame?

Perhaps the biggest culprit is the Department for Transport which still insists on short term franchises that breed chaotic Industrial Relations .

With longer franchises the needs of both staff and the business could be addressed, over time. And without breaking the bank.

Meanwhile the taxpayer foots the bill whilst the railway prices itself out the market.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Peters...

This dates back to the dark days of December when LM couldn't run a rail service and were paying drivers for 12 hr shifts when they were only doing 4 hrs so that they were able to operate some kind of service..

London Midland were warned that come September ASLEF would want paying back for helping them through the crisis...

And that did not mean taking away over time payments...

UPDATE: This from a Mr Malins...

Why, Mr Fact Compiler, if we are talking about a traincrew shortage, has London Midland done nothing to rationalise its profligate use of resources, such as the double manning of all services, when Go Ahead and Captain Permatan must have good experience of Driver Only Operation South of the River?

At present we have guards who do little more than close doors, and the drivers do not even open them.

In 3rd Rail territory things are rather more efficient than that.

Unless of course you are on South West Trains, where the same waste applies, and worse as an entire timetable has been built around a working practice that extends station time.

And are the drivers in both cases already being paid the DOO allowance even though in practice they do not do it?

But then who was the Stagecoach man that decided not to have any confrontation over train manning?

Could it by any chance have been your Silver Fox?

UPDATE: This from Shiny Shoes...

Ok Mr Malins have you calmed down from your rather 90's style guard bashing rant yet?

So easy to blame the guard when things aint going too well - but I thought we had left that thinking of the dark, stark days of yore behind.

Lets get this right - the LM problem is not to do with the staffing of trains with a full and correct crew it's to to do with the age old problem of Sunday pay. This has gone on since the very earliest of days. Sundays were always voluntary and certainly in BR days were paid at time and 3/4.

Basic rates were so low that traincrews literally fought to work on a Sunday - so there was never any shortage of willing hands and it was the subject of quite a few rostering arguments and of course banter i.e. 'you've got more Sunday's in than the Pope!!' etc.etc.

Of course this situation was a form of blackmail - you either came for a Sunday or had the prospect of a 'flat' week - hence the trains ran.

Most post privatisation companies saw the folly of and inevitable business implications of this and eventually came to agreements that saw rostered Sundays as part of the working week - granted traincrew guaranteed rates of pay rocketed as a result - but probably only to a level that they should have been years ago.

LM have failed to grasp this nettle, irrespective of what rates of pay are now, if a Sunday remains as 'voluntary' then the inevitable will happen. What other business/service operates on such a basis? Wholly irresponsible, LM will reap what it has sowed i.e there's been a crop failure!

So please don't bring the role of the guard into all this - the correct crewing of a train is not a waste of resources, it is, if managed correctly hugely advantageous - from the shared operation of the train via the traincrew team to a uniformed, well informed, articulate communicator providing customer service, security and revenue protection/collection i.e proper train management.

The fact that this obviously does not happen on LM services (and others) is the consequence of weak or non existing traincrew leadership - especially at the 'tail lamp' end.

Get the right people in the first place, lead them by example, motivate, encourage and above all treat them as professionals not just back cab wallers waiting to become drivers - it's not a wasted resource Mr. Malins, it's an untapped resource.

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