Tom Harris MP on the delights of winter travel...
I’m not sure why people are so much more tolerant of airline delays than railway delays.
Eye suspects it's because rail travel is seen as humdrum whilst air travel still retains a mystic allure (makes no sense to me either).
Theresa Villiers tonight confirmed that under a Tory Government franchises will be freed from Micromanagement!
And not a moment too soon.
As well as extending franchise life (to 15 or 20 years) Villiers even suggested that TOCs may be free to set their own timetables and lease (not 'buy' - the Times may care to note!) their own rolling stock.
Whoopy doop! Eye raises the bowler to Messrs Shooter and Long.
And as for giving ORR greater powers - yawn - if they exercised their current set (see Winsor passim) we wouldn't be in today's mess!
No matter.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Eye noticed that a certain NR lobbyist was seen deep in conversation with Villiers tonight, prior to moving on to dinner!
Good to see that FuCC takes responsibility for its recent piss-poor Thameslink performance.
These weasel words sent to Nadine Dorries MP:
Dear Nadine
I am pleased to confirm that the result of the ASLEF ballot was that around 70% of our drivers voted in favour of accepting the pay offer.
We intend to operate the full timetable on the Thameslink route from Monday 18 January. There are likely to be some short formations (four carriage trains instead of eight) and a few cancellations until 3 February, by when we plan that any Class 319 trains with faulty traction motors resulting from the recent severe weather will be repaired and back in service.
It is worth adding that, were it not for the late delivery from Bombardier of our 23 new Class 377 Electrostars, of which we still have only 21, 80% of the remedial modifications to the traction motors required following last February's snowfall would by now have been completed. As it was we had far less opportunity to take these trains out of service as they were needed to deliver the timetable effective from March 2009 which required us to provide trains to SouthEastern Trains destinations.
Kind regards’
Not a hint of an apology. Nice.
What is happening at East Coast?
Not content with losing both the Engineering and the Commercial Director within the space of a week, it now appears as if the nationalised TOC is short one Head of Safety.
Fortunately Eye understands that the capable Vye Parminter will reappear in a similar role at FuCC.
This from 'Is 1A03 out of Chester yet, Bert?' with a bowler tip to the Irish Railway Safety Commision, who obviously have a broad remit!
Icicle in Blea Moor tunnel on the 10th January 2010.
This from the RMT...
Figures obtained by RMT parliamentary convenor John McDonnell revealed that the cost of designing and tendering rail franchises since 2003 is a staggering £75 million.
Eye wonders if DafT are designing and tendering these on rocking-horse droppings with unicorn-horn quills?
This from Mr 1.609344 kilometers...
So ATOC is advertising for a new Public Affairs Manager.
Of course there is no requirement for any knowledge of, or even interest in, the railways.
After all in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king!
Clearly much more highly specialised skills are required in this demanding role.
For instance the ability to:
3. Work effectively on a team basis with colleagues across ATOC to help the organisation to become more public facing to achieve its corporate goals, including the development of campaigns and corporate-wide horizon scanning
Corporate-wide what?!?
I have some decent binoculars - would they be an asset horizon-scanning-wise?
This just in from Network Rail's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit...
Passengers in the far north of Scotland will be pleased that services between Perth and Inverness are running again after the freight derailment at Carrbridge.
The first picture shows the damage.
The second and third show Network Rail hard at work in lousy weather day...
... and night.
The final pic shows, ahem, the lighter side of rail recovery….
Good effort!
According to the Downing Street spokesman in the Lobby today:
Councils have been told by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis to cut salt-spreading by up to 50%.
As this risks making road travel less safe isn't this a perfect opportunity for the TOCs and NR to work together so as to generate some additional traffic?
Providing, of course, intending passengers can actually reach their local stations...
UPDATE: This genius solution from Tom West...
Surely the obvious thing is to persuade councils to only grit the side of the road leading *to* railway stations.
WTF?
This just in from Network Rail...
Network Rail announces today enhancement of its board with the appointment of two new non-executive directors - Lawrie Haynes and Janis Kong.
Lawrie Haynes is a successful chairman and chief executive with a heavyweight CV that includes:
Mr Haynes is also on the board of trustees for the RAF Benevolent Fund and chairman of its pension fund.
His general business experience and, in particular, his mission-critical project and safety management expertise will be a valuable addition to the Board.
Janis Kong has a long history of operating businesses where customer relationships have been critical to success and has held non-executive directorships with large plcs:
Announcing the appointments, Network Rail’s chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, said: “I believe that the current cadre of non-executive directors has done an excellent job supporting and counselling the executive management team in the journey from bringing Railtrack out of administration to a functioning, capable railway that is operating at record levels of safety, punctuality, reliability and capacity.
“Today we face new challenges and opportunities and the composition of the board must reflect that. The appointment of these highly-experienced and capable individuals give Network Rail renewed corporate oversight. This will be vital as we continue our job to deliver a high-performing, bigger and better railway."
Recognising the need to contain the size of the board and in order to effect a smooth transition, it is planned that Ian Buchan and Yvonne Constance will stand down from the board between now and the AGM in July.
UPDATE: Over at Tunnel Vision they remain to be convinced...
Cynics will conclude that both Kong and Haynes offer Network Rail a ’safe pair of hands’ who will not upset NR’s senior executives by relating their remuneration to real performance...
Eye is delighted to announce the award of Golden Eyeballs to the following:
The Weardale Railway
and
The East Lancashire Railway
Both railways provided a special "snow service", free of charge, to their local communities during this week's adverse weather.
Magnum cum laude and good effort!
This from Bloomburg...
“Our goal is to go with the ICE to London, but only if we make money in the medium term, otherwise we’re not going to touch it.”
No ICE in Chunnel. Continent cut off.
From the Velopodist
Does Railway Eye have any idea why so many FCC trains failed all of a sudden today?
The TOC is running a very restricted version of its already restricted insufficient-drivers timetable.
The press office say the problem is that the traction motors conked out after Wednesday's snow.
They say the Thameslink route imposes special strains on the trains.
Is this poor performance down to defective Class 319s...
Or defective management?
UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...
On the Thameslink route FuCC have been running a 2 train per hour service since Friday, it would normally be 12tph.
Of course an OHLE failure last night didn't help.
UPDATE: This from the Waterbaby
Can we officially confer the title of "the Misery Line" upon the Tooting - Wimbledon - Sutton route?
FCC gave up running trains this way on January 7 apparently due to the 'poor weather', effectively closing the line until further notice.
Somewhat inconveniently, Southern trains between Dorking and London through Sutton and SWT trains through Wimbledon seem to be running broadly normally.
Given the Sutton loop sits entirely within Zones 1-6, what price some TfL TLC?
The contrast with the new rolling stock and increased frequencies coming to both the dilapidated GOBLIN and North London Lines is all too stark...
UPDATE: This from Thameslink Tommy...
The high casualty rate amongst the Class 319 fleet strengthens the case for ordering a replacement Thameslink fleet and quickly.
No doubt the provinces will be delighted to receive these knackered hand-me-downs.
UPDATE: This from Flatcap and Whippet...
We're not complaining about getting the 319's tup North
They can join our queue of knackered 323's waiting to be fixed on shed.
Good news for the worthy burghers of Milton Keynes!
Evidently the town's 1980s built railway station just isn't smart enough for the new home of Network Rail and a much grander edifice is set to replace it.
Or so it would seem judging by this page on ATOC's website (with a bowler tip to A Frog): 
Of course there is no surprise that the ATOC sleepy heads haven't yet noticed this pictoral howler.
What with their depressing habit of defenestating anyone with even a scintilla of railway knowledge...
UPDATE: This from swlines via Twitter...
Moved further north than that actually... it's moved all the way up the Far North to delightful Wick!
UPDATE: This from cbuchanancubed via Twitter...
Every station on the network is Waterloo on this website - station investment fund is making good progress!
UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...
See as the third rail advances into the howling wastes of the North.
Spread the Holy Word to The Heathens, My Son.
It's Nick Mercer this time, with a bowler tip to the Railway Gazette via Twitter...
A reminder to PR's everywhere.
Put them in a HiVi, get them to a station or trackside and for God's sake lock up the broom-cupboard and throw away the key!
Uber-blogger Tom Harris MP on Tory Director of Strategy, Steve Hilton, upsetting train staff:
The real story behind the Channel 4 News revelation about Steve Hilton’s arrest in 2008 is: who dobbed him in?
Fascinating!
Chris Bryant MP has posted the following on twitter...
I am rapidly developing a very severe hatred of Eurostar as we are travelling at about a mile a year.
For those desperately interested the Daily Telegraph takes up the story.
Eye hasn't much to add to this other than pointing out that Mr Bryant is renowned for his wisdom and judgment.
With this in mind Eye thought that readers might enjoy seeing the Europe Minister in all his glory.
'Nuff said.
This just in from the soi disant 'veteran' observer...
Just thought Eye readers might like to know that as at 11:00 today, and despite the bad weather, 86% of all timetabled services are running, and more than half of these are running normally.
The railway - getting you there and back safely!
UPDATE: This from AMonkster via Twitter...
More likely that 86% of trains bid to run as of 10pm last night were running!
Not many TOCs still advertising full SX t/t.
Telegrammed by the Raver
So Sir David Rowlands has become Chairman of Angel Trains.
What a busy life he leads!
How he packs it all in we will never know.
According to Angel's puff piece Rowlands is also:
...chairman of London Gatwick Airport... a member of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation’s public policy committee... a governor of Anglia Ruskin University and deputy chairman of The Lifeboat Fund, a public service charity.
Not forgetting of course his current position as non-executive Chairman of High Speed 2 - a role he relinquishes in February this year.
Strange that a man who tried to squeeze the rail industry when he was Permanent Secretary at the Department now seems to be profiting from it in all sorts of ways.
Nice work if you can get it.
UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...
The Raver appears to have omitted Sir David's great gift for PR and media relations.
Why only last September he managed to infuriate RAIL by issuing a statement denying a story that his own staff had briefed out to the media.
Angel's loss will surely be HS2's gain!
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