2009 Railway Garden Competition XXIX

This just in from our man in the four foot...

Here is Hellifield down goods loop - a safe walking route?


Note the big yellow Colas lawnmower in the distance.

Oyster progress update

This just in from Captain Deltic...



Good to see that the extension of Oyster PYG from my home station, a mere 20 miles from Kings Cross, is going so well!

NR - Ignorance is bliss

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Phew, narrow escape there for Rick Haythornethwaite and the Network Rail board.

It turns out that the Peter Waller, recently appinted a Public Member is not THE Peter Waller the railway writer.

Nearly had some dangerously subversive railway knowledge there.

Meanwhile, total radio silence from the normally forthcoming Lord Berkeley following the winding up meeting of his Members Review Group on 3 October.

Lookalike - Buggles Muddle

NX charms Conference

Telegrammed by Party Animal
An impressive performance from NX railwaymen at this year's party conferences.

Despite challenging circumstances they put up a good show.

Each TOC sent their PR, the MD's took turns to be seen and Franksy was visible throughout.

But the pièce de résistance was reserved for the Tories. Bring forth Lord Bunting of Schmooze!

Impressive lobbying! But is it too late?

No matter - Good effort.

East London line news

London Reconnections has photos of the first test train on the East London line/Railway.

Meanwhile Boris Watch unveils a nice spat between DafT and TfL on funding for the replacement South London Line service.

Great headline too: Sadiq Khan bitch-slaps Boris

Conference news - Unite slams Cameron - Yawn....

Cameron's speech at the Tory Party conference appears not to have played well with the brothers.

Unite joint general secretary, Derek Simpson said, "At the height of the worst recession in decades Cameron said nothing about job creation, nothing about supporting our industries and nothing about reigning in his friends in the city who caused economic meltdown. "

But what's this.

Is this the same Unite who donated almost £4m to the Labour Party last year?

Or indeed the same Unite whose Deputy General Secretary is one Jack Dromey, husband of Cabinet Minister Harriet Harperson, and who is being lined up for the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Leyton and Wanstead.

Indeed it is.

Mystic Eye correctly identifies Ephemera

So no chance of reopening the Matlock - Buxton route to freight traffic then.

This official line from Network Rail, with a bowler tip to Kestrel Eyes:

Rumours of work on the Matlock-Buxton line are exaggerated.

We looked at strategic freight route options on existing routes to the north that potentially could provide further capacity for W10 gauge clearance.

Matlock to Buxton was a no goer owing to the prohibitive costs involved.

Still no news on when Peak Rail will gain access to Matlock's second platform.

Tube Lines threatens gardens - shocker

The Eye has been inundated by furious emails from Railway Garden fans following a shock Tube Lines announcement.

According to a press release issued today:

Tube Lines has become the first railway company in the UK to eradicate Japanese Knotweed (fallopia japonica spp), thanks to a pioneering weed killer.

Fortunately Network Rail can be trusted to keep the Railway Garden Competition in business for quite a few years yet...

Exciting National Express news!

But...

You'll have to wait till tomorrow!

UPDATE: Thanks for the emails and apologies for the delay - this one is evolving.

Eye will post details as soon as practicable...

Foodbottom joins NR Public Members. Again!

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
In Network Rail's list of newly appointed public members, issued today, I note the name of J Bray.

Is this Jonathan Bray of PTEG fame?

And would that be the same J Bray who was on the previous list of public members helpfully provided by NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit?

I think we should be told!

Perhaps J Bray is in danger of becoming like Peter Simple's Alderman Foodbottom; the 'perpetual' Chairman of the Bradford Tramways and Fine Arts Committee.

Advenza - gone to join the choir invisible

This just in from Tony Miles...

Has nobody bothered to tell you that Advenza is no more?

The Fact Compiler apologises for being a little slow on the uptake.

But having recorded the demise of Advenza so many times Eye wanted to make sure it really had ceased to be.

Mole shuts gate! Horse bolted.

Extra-ordinary.

The Department meddles in rolling stock specification and allocation (which it clearly isn't competent to do) whilst letting Worst get away with rewriting regulated ticket validity.

This from Politics.co.uk...

First Great Western used a loophole in the current legislation which allows them to change the time restrictions on certain regulated fares but not the prices to effectively increase the price of tickets. They re-named the ‘Off Peak Ticket’ as a ‘Super Off Peak’ ticket – meaning it was the same price but only available on a much more restricted timetable, whilst making some former ‘off peak’ prices 20% higher.

DafT - less meddling please and more focus on the day job.

Eye salutes our brave and clever firemen!

This just in from 'Is 1A03 out of Chester yet, Bert?'...

Apologies if you've seen this before but it is definitely worthy of a wider showing.



Good effort!

Another 'C' word the Government can't say.

Not 'Cuts' this time.

Nor indeed Lord Mandy's reported use of the word 'Chump' (sic) to a News International executive

This emasculated written response from the Noble Lord, given on the 5th October:

Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat)

To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Adonis on 29 June (WA 22), when the procurement process for 202 new diesel train carriages will be advanced sufficiently for an order to be placed.

Lord Adonis (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Labour)

On 23 July the Government announced a major £1.1 billion programme of rail electrification on the Great Western Main Line and the line between Liverpool and Manchester. This radically affects the requirements for rolling stock over the next decade.

There will be far less need for diesel trains and a greater requirement for electric trains, as a result of which the procurement of 202 new diesel train carriages has now been superseded. The Government will publish a. new rolling stock plan in the autumn, taking account of the changed circumstances.

So why can't Lord Adonis use the word 'Cancelled'?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

I seem to recollect that the DfT started this procurement farce under the premise of “urgent operational need”.

Since the Great Western electrification won’t be sufficiently complete to allow existing EMUs and DMUs to be cascaded until 2016 at the earliest, the “urgent operational need” is likely to remain for quite some time.

Unless…. the word superseded is taken literally (it means replaced, NOT cancelled), in which case perhaps the Government will use the existing procurement process (which has been superseded, but not cancelled remember… keep up!!) to provide the good people of the Thames Valley and Northern England with some nice shiny new trains so that they can sit down on their way to and from work each day.

First for tact

No doubt regular Eye readers will have fond memories of Sir Moir's lovely book.

No matter.

Today is a great occasion!

And one that First's PR and Puffery machine marked with this wonderfully 'icky making nonsense:

Chief Executive of FirstGroup, Sir Moir Lockhead, paid tribute to his wife... as he visited a national photography exhibition that features a portrait of (errr....) himself!


Meanwhile the rest of the industry quietly observed a more solemn anniversary...

Network Rail greenwash?

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
Much greenwash from Network Rail over the long awaited works to the 'Poacher line':

Passengers on the Boston to Skegness line are set to benefit from a £21m injection of new track on the route. The overall project will see 32 miles of track replaced using recycled materials making the railways even greener.

How much greener it would be if the rails and sleepers had been recycled, as used to be the case, instead of reusable rail being sliced up into 10m lengths for removal by road..

Green?

Perhaps a pale tint of eau de nil!

NXEC has outstanding bill to pay

Alas - things appear to be going from bad to worse at National Express East Coast.

'A Conductor' writes in to say:

Thought you might be interested in the state of NXEC's new Information columns at York station, pictured on Saturday.


Installed a few months ago, they seem to be undergoing some sort of technical difficulty...


Presumably DafT will be using exactly the same form of words within a matter of weeks?

Just fancy that!

Telegrammed by our International Correspondent
Rail Professional's October issue is just out.

And two exciting articles catch the Eye's eye.

On page 10 NR unveils plans for future capacity needs in the North and Midlands:

Dyan Crowther, route director for Network Rail, said: "Demand for rail travel has grown significantly over the last decade, and while this success is to be welcomed, it brings with it the challenge of meeting this demand..."

Whilst on page 37, beneath the headline Great Western: Changes afoot?, we discover:

Route director Chris Rayner says: "Demand for rail travel has grown significantly over the last decade and, while this success is welcomed, it brings with it the challenges of meeting this demand."

Has NR's communications team been to the Labour Party school of (fill in name here) constituency press release writing?

Had beer been taken?

EVENTS
Date	Time	Co	Description
14/09	1255	NR	Port Talbot Panel advise that driver of 1B20 has reported members of a stag party jumping out of the train (via the vestibule windows) whilst it was stood at PT3029 signal (due to the Pyle "body" incident which turned out to be a cardboard cut out of Bart Simpson) and walking back towards Bridgend station. BTP advised (ref. 217). MOM and LOM ETA 15 minutes. All trains on stop. Train Manager pulled the comm. cord and gave the descriptions of the stag party as 3 Incredible Hulks, 2 Spiderman, 2 Supermen, 1 Fred Flintstone and a 118 Man.
14/09	1312	NR	Normal working resumed after BTP have rounded up the stag party and escorted them off railway property.