Railway Operations for Dummies...

Driver Potter appears to be offering a new course on Railway Operations over on his blog.

Does the IRO know?

First for getting out of freight

So. Farewell First GBRf!

And welcome Eurotunnel GBRf.

EGBRf sounds like a breakfast bap.

Although FGBRf sounded like indigestion.

UPDATE: Eye readers are invited to compare and contrast...

1st June 2010 - Financial Times

The head of the company that runs the Channel tunnel has criticised competitive conditions in the cross-Channel freight market, as he confirmed his company was buying the UK’s third-largest rail freight operator.

Mr Gounon criticised the record of the only established cross-Channel operator – a consortium of the UK arm of Germany’s DB Schenker and SNCF, the French state train operator.

19th August 2006 - Financial Times

EWS, the railfreight operator that jointly operates the only cross-channel railfreight service, has sought a radical change to the Channel tunnel charging regime in an effort to keep its services running.

However, the company fears that, after Eurotunnel, the tunnel's operator, rejected the proposed solution, it might have to end the services from November.

Just fancy that!

Belated birthday greetings Sir Moir!

This just in from Clarence Spad, Life President of the Young Railway Poets Society and ‘First’ with the news

LINES SLIGHTLY BELATEDLY WRITTEN ON SIR MOIR LOCKHEAD REACHING THE AGE OF 65 (25 APR)

Happy birthday Sir Moir
You are almost exactly
Four years younger
Than Kim Jong Il
The revered leader of North Korea

I hope you will not be thinking of retiring
Just as we know that Kim Jong Il
Has no plans to do so either

We are also hearing exciting rumours on Reading Station that First Great Western are organising a Son et Lumiere on the country end of Platform 5, Reading Station to commemorate the continuing outstanding leadership and 65th birthday of Sir Moir Lockhead.

We hope that the story we have been told is true that Mark Hopwood, dressed in a one piece body stocking in First Group colours and decorated with the First Group logo at key points of his anatomy, will give an incredible free style balletic mime of selected passages from that inspirational book, An Incredible Journey, the First Story.

Mark's backing dancers, known affectionately as the Hopettes, are, we are told, busily preparing their routines.

The lighting will be provided by two Mendip Rail Class 59s remaining stationary at Platforms 5 and 9 for the entire two hours of the show.

Brunel you should be living at this hour.

King's Place expects a visitor...

This from Bulldog Drummond...

Apparently Sir Alan Budd from the Office of Budget Responsibility is very keen to pay a visit to Network Rail's King's Place HQ.


As Sir Alan takes the Tube from Westminster to King's Cross no doubt the following questions will pass through his mind:

• Need the Government be concerned that the publicly underwritten debt of Network Rail will rise from some £23bn today to in excess of £31bn by April 2014 (equivalent to 35% of Ireland’s present sovereign debt)?

• Are the Government right to back a business model that supports a company that has to roll up interest due every year into borrowings? Although with a keen eye for detail Sir Alan will of course note that in 2013/14 it is projected that a small excess of income will make almost a £400m offset to an interest bill of £1.7bn in that year.

• Is Network Rail’s business model right to assume that after spending record sums on infrastructure over the next five years income will only rise by a projected 15% (from £5.9bn in 2009/10 to £6.7bn 2013/14).

• Is the ORR's reliance on the Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) well placed as a measure for calculating Network Rail’s soundness as a business. Or might it be better to have a system based on balancing current expenditure against future income as a means of assessing whether borrowing is prudent?

• Is it wise that only 25% of Network Rail’s current debt is in conventional UK Sterling bonds, whilst nearly half is index linked and the remainder is denominated in foreign currencies. Happily short term interest payments are low for these classes of debt, but a longer-term deterioration in the UK’s global financial position may hit hard an exclusively Sterling based business with such a borrowing profile.

No doubt upon meeting NR's Board such trifling concerns will be instantly swept away.

Or perhaps not…

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

But Network Rail's debt is incurred to pay for enhancements requested by Government.

So you can't blame the company for doing what it's funder specifies.

UPDATE: This from Bulldog Drummond...

Ithuriel, when not flitting around doing jobs for Gabriel in Paradise Lost, doubtless has had time to look at the Companies Act 2006 which requires directors of companies, 'to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole.'

It sets out a number of factors which directors must take into account to promote success.

Of particular interest is the need to take into account the likely consequences of any decision in the long term.

To say that 'Network Rail's debt is incurred to pay for enhancements requested by Government' misses the point.

If Network Rail is a company it must have a duty first to its own success and longevity and getting into massive and unrepayable debt doesn't look too smart a strategy.

Unless of course Ithuriel is suggesting that Network Rail isn't really a 'proper' company...

A busy weekend for NR's Board...

This just in from the ghost of Sir Peter Parker...

Being able to pass through doors I thought it worthwhile visiting this weekend's meeting of NR chiefs.

I expected that the topics that required such immediate and urgent attention might be Network Rail's quite astonishing debts or the recent setbacks to a number of major programmes or even the anticipated ORR performance assessment which I understand may be somewhat critical.

So. Imagine my surprise to read in yesterday's Sunday Times that no less a figure than Petrol-head Hammond has written to Ricky Haystacks, NR's Chairman, suggesting that NR bosses be "sensitive" about remuneration.

I tried to whisper, from beyond the grave, that NR's board should set a national example, in this time of great crisis, by agreeing to cut their pay back to BRB levels - index-linked of course.

However, I fear my waning powers on this earth had little effect on the weekend's debate.

Thameslink fleet - caped or not?

Much furious spinning yesterday following the suggestion on Radio 4's You and Yours that the new Thameslink fleet might already have succumbed to early DfT cost cutting.

Regular readers will recall that on the 24th May Eye revealed that:

The Department will not be going forward in 2010-11 with planned spend on the HLOS rolling stock schemes that have not already been contractualised.

But did this include new build for Thameslink?

You and Yours suggested it did - whilst Thameslink spinners said it didn't.

First blood went to the spinners when this appeared in Railnews yesterday:

THE Department for Transport has denied reports that government budget cutbacks have led to the cancellation of the order for new Thameslink rolling stock.

The DfT statement blames confusion over its announcement that orders under HLOS not already signed would be cancelled but that "...the major rolling stock orders for the replacement Thameslink fleet, as well as the new trains for Crossrail, are not included in the present HLOS totals."

But what's this?

According to then Rail Minister Tom Harris on the 30th April 2008:

Hansard - 30 Apr 2008 : Column 428W
Rolling Stock: Thameslink

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the new carriages for Thameslink announced on 9th April 2008 are in addition to the new carriages announced in July in the White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Railway. [202209]

Mr. Tom Harris [holding answer 28 April 2008]: Some of the new vehicles for Thameslink are a component of the 1,300 new vehicles announced in July 2007 in the White Paper ‘Delivering a Sustainable Railway’ which committed a high level output statement (HLOS) for the railways. However, Thameslink and the HLOS have overlapping timescales. The HLOS vehicles are required to be delivered by March 2014. The final complete fleet of new Thameslink vehicles are required to be in service by December 2015.

And this from the DfT's own 'Rolling Stock Plan':

50. The vehicles required for the Thameslink Programme KO1 in 2011 are included in the total of 1300 new vehicles. It is expected that some of the vehicles required for the full KO2 service in 2015 will also be introduced during CP4.

So in short it already looks as if Thameslink will get less vehicles. Now time to truncate the route...

UPDATE: This from Sim Harris, Managing Editor at Railnews...

Actually, dear Fact Compiler, we do know about KO1.

But MOST of the proposed Thameslink fleet is KO2, isn’t it?

That’s why we said “major rolling stock orders”, not wishing to get too deeply into it. And KO2 is surely outside the “HLOS 1300” -- an increasingly mythical concept in any case.

But DafT is adamant that no decision has been made about the main fleet. And the HLOS cancellations are for this financial year only.

Anybody got any spare 319s? All right, I’ll get my coat.

UPDATE: This from PZT...

Tsk, tsk!

"Fewer vehicles", not "less vehicles"!

Because vehicles are countable objects...

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Boys, boys,

I know that tables are tedious but all you need to know about the HLOS 1300 is available in the latest Informed Sources - available at all good newsagents.

The HLOS 1300 needed around 330 Thameslink vehicles to make up the total.

But with the delay in ordering the Thameslink fleet, the current target for financial close in December this years means that, at the most, 120 could be delivered by the end of the current Control Period.

What is more important is that Mr Miles has forced the Department of Transport into its first inexactitude just over a fortnight into the new administration.

Quite simply, we can't trust what we are told.

As for the order cancellations being for this year only.

Dream on.

Wolmar love bombs Petrol-head Hammond

Evidently the new Transport Secretary's interview in yesterday's Standard has done nothing to reassure Wolmar.

So enervated was the push biking hack by Petrol-head Hammond's disdain for cycling that he has issued a challenge via his blog.

Wolmar invites Transport Secretary Philip Hammond to:

"jump on your bike and come for a ride with me around the West End on a busy Friday evening and I will show you how its done".

As an enticement, the text is accompanied by this fruity image.


'Nuff said!

Wurzels enter train building market

This just in from Adge Cutler...

It is good to see that the strong representation of West Country folk in the English community around Zaragossa has been recognised by CAF when naming their new high speed train concept.

Train names nowadays are designed to be pronounceable in any European language, so the Wurzels will be entering next year's Eurovision song contest with a tribute to the CAF Ooarris.

Oi've got a bran new 'igh speed train concept.
An' you can have a total train service provisioon contract

UPDATE: This, unbelievably, from Long John Silver somewhere on the Spanish Main...

'Old 'ard, Adge me 'earty.

Them devil dogs of Spain be tryin' to publicise their Ooarris train to the in'ernational pirate community

'Ere be our website

UPDATE: This from Jake the Pake...

G'day, Cobbers

The Spanish community here in mutlicultural Oz reckon that the new train is named after there adopted Cultural Icon Rolf.

Witch report on fares disowned by Doe!

This just in from fares expert Barry Doe, following the 'Which?' report on fares today...

I understand 'Which?' has just produced another report on rail fares.

This one seems to have come to some dubious conclusions.

'Which?' never says who the consultants are but there has always been a general assumption in the industry that I have been the author!

I have indeed produced all the past reports on rail fares for 'Which?' but can tell everyone that on this occasion I was not involved in any way.

Meanwhile, according to The Blah Witch Project...

Rail firms must "stop taking passengers for a ride" by charging first class fares on trains without first class carriages, Which? magazine has said.

Eye readers are invited to draw their own conclusions.

Caveat emptor - you have been warned!

UPDATE: This from @SWLines, via Twitter...

To be honest half the findings that they came to is crop.

Luton Airport - Wimbo much faster via EMT & SWT!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

This from the Ministry of Silly Walks...

Operational Note - HSE prosecutes Health Protection Agency

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is prosecuting the Health Protection Agency (HPA) following an incident in October 2007 at its Centre for Infections in Colindale, where an amount of E.coli O157 was spilt onto the floor of the site waste discard facility as it was being disposed of.

The next court date is set for Friday 28 May at 10.00am at City of London Magistrates Court, 1 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4XY.

The first staff-officer jumped right over the second staff-officer's back...

Good news for Standard Class passengers!

This just in from Jumbo...

With politicians together with Sir Humphrey and his cohorts being reduced to joining lesser mortals travelling standard class, what is the future for first class in the UK?

Will Sir Humphrey decide that the abysmal standard class seating in FGW's high-speed trains meets his taste, or will he instigate changes?

We live in exciting times.

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

Could it be that the aforementioned civil servants, finding themselves in straitened travelling circumstances, will follow the precedent of an earlier Liberal Prime Minister?

William Ewart Gladstone (for it was he) advised the Midland Railway in 1874 to abolish second class. (Presumably so that there was more space to minister to the needs of Ladies of the Night? Ed)

UPDATE: This from The Master...

Reduce the number of standard seats in Standard on FGW?

Dream on!

If all the Sir Humphrey's are to be accommodated there will be a need for more - not less seats.

Birchwood bow introduced for lanky pax

First there was the Harrington Hump.

Now Eye brings you the Birchwood Bow.


No doubt designed this way to cater for the taller passenger?

Pointless signs - Flixton

With a bowler tip to D0260

Pointless signs - Stourbridge Town

This from KingBBoogaloo...

Only one platform with one Pans People Mover serving one destination...


And still it gets three pages!

Virgin Trains - what's in a name

This from Tony Miles...

Virgin has its Pendolinos.

It has its Mk3 "lookalike set" dubbed the Pretendolino.

Now it has its short-Pendo - 390004 - down to 8-cars after Network Rail managed to almost write off one vehicle at Oxley - and dubbed this week the Petiteolino

They will also need a name for the 11-car sets when they are delivered..

Might I suggest the Extendolino?

Eye prefers the alternative name for the fleet - the Bendydildos.

UPDATE: This from Signor Mario Caravadossi in Roma...

Signore

I am disappointed that you 'ave forgotten that Pendolino is an Italian word when naming variations on the theme.

Pretendolino must be the first and last example of such Italish or Englian.

The eight car set now running must be the Piccolino and the extended 12 car units the Lungolinos.

That's all for now, the firing squad awaits. But do not fear, the rifles will be loaded with blanks.

Someone has bought Rail Express - Shocker

This from Billy Connections...

No - not just a single copy - the whole thing!!

Lincolnshire-based specialist magazine publishers Mortons Media Group Ltd, has purchased RAIL EXPRESS magazine from Foursight Publications Limited.

Assistant Editor Gareth Bayer will be moving to the role of Editor. Production of the title will transfer to Mortons Horncastle offices.

Philip Sutton will continue to develop other business interests, including the existing limited edition model commissions, from his offices in King’s Cliffe, near Peterborough.

Mortons also publish Heritage Railway magazine.

Transport Select Committee - Chaired by Labour?

Conservative blog The Blue Nation is suggesting that Labour will retain the chairmanship of the Transport Select Committee.

So will we see the return of Louise Ellman?

Eye of course would prefer that Tom Harris becomes the new Madame Chairman (with a deep doff of the bowler to the late and much lamented Gwyneth Dunwoody).

Unless of course Tom has an eye on a Shadow Cabinet post...

UPDATE: This from Tom Harris' blog...

"I’m not quite prepared... to give up hope of taking the fight to the government from the opposition front bench..."

NR timetabling - a tale of woe

Evidently the introduction of Network Rail's much vaunted Integrated Train Planning System has not gone well.

A stinging letter to Messrs Plummer and Gisby from the the Office of Rail Regulation (sadly not on the ORR's website yet) dated 20th May states:

Your introduction of the new integrated train planning system for the May timetable change has not gone well...

We understand that the problems encountered have included trains disappearing from the base timetable, an inability to handle portion working, operators unable to impost bids electronically and delays to the publication of the national rail timetable. This has affected data quality in downstream systems such as LENNON and ORCATS and TOC reservation systems, with knock-on effects on passenger and freight customers...

We are therefore investigating your management of the introduction of ITPS and its impact on operators and their customers...

There are three strands to our investigation:

A. to investigate the circumstances leading uo to the recent timetable problems, including the planning, testing, risk assesment and "go-live" decisions you took around ITPS;

B. to establish the direct impact of the introduction of ITPS on train operators and their passenger and freight customers; and

C. to review your plans for meeting your obligations in the short term and for ensuring these problems are not repeated in the long term (including at the December timetable change).

We hope to finish our investigation by the end of June...

Oh dear.

Producing a working timetable is pretty much the day job for Network Rail.

But at least one piece of good news.

Presumably the agenda for July's Annual Meeting will be too busy to allow similar scrutiny of the ITPS debacle by NR's plastic-shareholder 'members'.

How Whitehall works...

This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

My esteemed former colleagues in Marsham Street tell me that their new masters, having got used to their new desks and red boxes and cancelled some expenditure, are looking for examples of their new Department's previous 'micro-management'.

Of course in true Yes Minister style the Marsham Street mandarins have a Plan A - which is to claim it was all a figment of RAIL's imagination, which should keep the pressure off for a few days.

Ministers will of course came back with 'What about IEP then?'

Here Plan B comes into play, admitting that the specification was indeed a disaster but that lessons have been learnt...

Fortunately the arrival of Sir Andrew Foster's review of the IEP on Friday should provide enough distraction to take us well into June. By which time our new masters should be dependent on what their officials tell them - like all good ministers.

It's always a tricky weaning ministers off their independent sources of information.

Fortunately the election saved us from Lord Adonis who had an annoying habit of making policy off his own bat!

UPDATE: This from Nigel Harris over at RAIL...

What's this?

“..a figment of RAIL’s imagination”

Typical - when in doubt, blame the press.

It’s a damned calumny I tell you.

Transport Select Committee news

MPs are to vote for the membership of select committees.

The secret ballot of the whole house will replace the previous system of appointment by Whips.

The Government accepted that recommendation of the Wright Report that Ministers and PPSs should not vote in the ballot for the Chair of committees which shadow their departments.

Nominations will close at 17:00 on Tuesday, 8th June.

The ballot will take place the following day, Wednesday 9th June between 10:00 and 17:00