First for being inconsistant

Compare and contrast...

This in today's Glasgow Herald...

New FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole has dismissed Stagecoach founder Brian Souter’s call to have trains and tracks run by the same people as unrealistic.

With this from a certain Tim O'Toole when MD of London Underground...

"If you had complete vertical integration, one person would be responsible for everything, whereas with the PPP an awful lot of time and energy is spent just keeping score."

Just fancy that!

Surely nothing to do with one particular "thinly capitalised equity profiteer of the worst kind" being saddled with a mountain of debt?

Changes to the Transport Select Committee

This from the TSC...

3 November 2010
For Immediate Release: SCA 17/2010-11

NEW MEMBERS OF TRANSPORT COMMITTEE appointed

On Tuesday 2 November the House of Commons discharged the following members:

Angie Bray (Conservative, Ealing Central and Acton);
Lilian Greenwood (Labour, Nottingham South),
and Angela Smith (Labour, Penistone and Stocksbridge)

and formally appointed the following members:

Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe);
Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West),
and Gavin Shuker (Labour/Co-operative, Luton South)


The full committee is:

Louise Ellman (Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) (Chair)
Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe)
Tom Harris (Labour, Glasgow South)
Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West)
Kelvin Hopkins (Labour, Luton North)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne)
John Leech (Liberal Democrat, Manchester Withington)
Paul Maynard (Conservative, Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Gavin Shuker (Labour/Co-operative, Luton South)
Iain Stewart (Conservative, Milton Keynes South)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative, York Outer)

ENDS

DB slashes a quarter of rail services

This from Wrexham and Shropshire, via RailUKForums...

Press Release

2 November 2010

Wrexham and Shropshire : Changes to Train Services

With effect from Sunday 12th December, Wrexham & Shropshire will be making changes to its timetable. Two off peak services each way will be combined and the company will move from four to three services direct to London Marylebone.

After analysing customer travel patterns, Wrexham & Shropshire have determined that several off peak services are too lightly-used to run profitably. The decision has been taken to combine the two least used weekday off peak services and run one less service in each direction per day. Saturday will similarly be reduced from four to three trains in each direction.

Wrexham & Shropshire is an innovative local train operator receiving no subsidy from the Government. The provision of services and profitability of the company is based directly on fares received by passengers.

Andy Hamilton, Managing Director at Wrexham & Shropshire, said: “Our unique position as a local train operator working without subsidy means that our viability is directly affected by passenger numbers. We have several trains that are not being used sufficiently to justify continuing to run them.

“We are passionately committed to the Wrexham & Shropshire business running a direct service from Wrexham to London Marylebone. The change will not affect travel for over 70% of our passengers and will allow us to focus our resources on growing our business where demand is greatest. We know that some customers will be inconvenienced, and for that we apologise.

“Our people take immense pride in the customer service that they deliver and they will continue to provide the award winning travel experience that has seen us achieve 99% customer satisfaction; the highest ever for any train company in this country.”

The changes are as follows

Wrexham to London Marylebone
The 11.27 and 15.25 trains will be replaced by a service at 13.28 arriving in London at 17.30.

London Marylebone to Wrexham
The 07.20 and 11.20 trains will be replaced by a service at 09.20 arriving in Wrexham at 13.20.

Passengers with concerns or additional queries should contact the customer service team on 0845 260 5200.

Ends

Election fever getting to Wolmar?

This from a Dr Frank N Furter...

According to the self styled 'leading transport commentator' in his blogpost dated 1st November:

'There are, apparently, three people on the short list to replace Iain Coucher as chief executive of Network Rail'.

But Network Rail announced that David Higgins had been appointed as Mr Coucher's replacement on the 28th September.

Perhaps all that historical research is confusing the railway's very own Grand Old Man of Letters?

Or is the excitement of the Democrats imminent election meltdown getting to Comrade Wolmar, who at this very moment is in the good old US of A researching his latest opus.

Surely he meant to write 'there were'?

Let's do the time warp again.

UPDATE: This from The Major...

Never mind the mitherings over the timings of Christian's on-line version of his RAIL Magazine column.

What on earth is he doing in the First Class lounge at Newark Airport stuffing himself with free Virgin food and wine? Is he planning to defect to the Tories?

Will he be trading his bicycle for a Bentley?

Tories forced to clear up the mess they made

From Thursday we can expect to hear a series of announcements outlining how much railway the country can afford.

Amusing of course that it is a Tory Government that is being forced to make these difficult decisions.

Perhaps if they had listened in the first place then we wouldn't be in this mess?

Here a siren voice from August 1993:

"I get the feeling from talking to Government ministers that they see the post-privatisation British Rail as the same public service we have today, but with a Marks & Spencers private enterprise gloss.

"They seem to forget that private enterprise also gave us Maxwell, Barlow Clowes, BCCI et al.

"The scope for making a lot of money out of running railways, to the ultimate disbenefit of the traveller, is I suspect, considerable."

How prescient of Captain Deltic, for it was he.

Meanwhile, as the axe comes down, don't forget who got us into this mess.

Hitachi recruits for new factory - Exclusive

Eye can reveal that Hitachi has already begun recruiting for its new IEP factory!

This exclusive video, smuggled out of the new Newton Aycliffe facility, shows supervisors being trained.



Look - wobble free!

Today Railway Mag, tomorrow the World!

Much hilarity in the publishing world as Mortons struggles to position its purchase of Railway Magazine.

These bullish words from the Brand Manager Heritage & Lifestyle, contained in an email trumpeting the acquisition:

Mortons Media Group is delighted to announce their purchase of The Railway Magazine, making them the UK’s largest railway publisher.

A bold claim indeed!

But does it stack up to ABC verification?

Railway Magazine – 34k - ABC verified.
Rail Express - Not ABC verified
Heritage Railway - Not ABC verified

Oh dear. Is someone perhaps talking cojones?

Dispensing with Ian Allan, who also don't go in for ABC verification, who else might want to lay claim to being the UK's largest railway publisher?

Well, as any fule kno, the best selling railway publications are the modelling titles (see Eye passim).

The market leader is Railway Modeller, published by Peco, which has an ABC audited circulation of 44k, ten thousand above that for Railway Mag.

Next in line is Model Rail which has an ABC verified readership of 28k.

Of course if you added Model Rail's readership figure to that of its sister rail titles - RAIL (25k) and Steam Railway (33k) - then Bauer has a combined rail related readership of well over 86,000.

Eye fears that plucky little Rail Express and Heritage Railway would struggle to lay claim to the 53,000 readers needed to topple Bauer from pole position.

No doubt the new owners of the Railway Mag will take this challenge squarely on the chin and soon shell out for ABC audits on both Rail Express and Heritage Railway.

Alternatively, in these austere times, Eye wonders what the future may hold for such minnows now that the RM shark has entered Morton's pool?

Villiers vignettes - fares increase explained

These sagely words from the Saviour of the Jammy Dodger spoken in the House on the 28th October:

Theresa Villiers (Minister of State (Rail and Aviation), Transport; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
I am well aware of the concerns of users of the Southeastern franchise who have been asked to pay RPI plus three over the past few years. That was linked to investment in rolling stock, and the rest of the country will move on to RPI plus three to even out the perceived inequality from the year after next.

So now you know - the fares increase is to "even out perceived inequality".

Presumably Cruella is also determined to use these inflation busting fares increases to remove a further inequality by ensuring that the rest of the nation also benefits from "investment in rolling stock"?

Don't hold your breath.

With contributions such as this Eye now understands why the 'War On Toner' announcement was left to Theresa May...

Pointless signs - Middlesbrough

This from a Mr Rand...

I took this picture at Middlesbrough railway station, at worst risking arrest and at least some funny looks.


I imagine that the station's unisex staff need no guidance as to the whereabouts of the facilities and the cleaner may have a pretty good idea of the cupboard's location!

Pointless signs - East Coast HST

This from Paul at the Department of Linguistics and Phonetics at no less a place than the University of Leeds!

Thought you might be interested in this image from an East Coast HST.


What a very warm welcome indeed!

Boris to preside over the evacuation of London

Telegrammed by Cockney Sparra'
So. Boris gets London Resilience and Emergency Planning!

The disinvention of the Government Office for London has meant the transfer – curiously on Sunday 31 Oct when the threat level of a terror attack was “severe” – of London Resilience to City Hall.

This gives Boris responsibility, if the balloon goes up, for evacuation of London. He inherits a master plan, available on line, which does not make comfortable reading for the nervous.

Very old train planners and operators may recall the last minute logistics (although it wasn’t called that then) that went into evacuating London children when the blitz loomed, which didn’t go terribly well – especially at the destination stations where receiving arrangements were a bit haphazard.

But, the railway did its bit OK, providing special trains hither and yon, integrated to the underground and buses.

The lessons from that helped the Southern run almost 400 troop specials at equally short notice to get the remains of the British Expeditionary Force – 180,000 men - off the little ships and home.

Evacuating even a small area of London (pop 7,000,000+) would be a much bigger operation.

So all that learning – when most of London’s railway network was still there - would help shape an informed evacuation plan for 21st century London?

The report name checks BTP, ATOC and NR as having helped develop the plan. They are the professionals. Everything must be fine.

Er, no.

The main line railways and Underground get one page of a 47 page plan.

The relevant bit says that only normal scheduled services will operate after the Big Decision to go has been made.

No specials, no flighting of trains, no terminals identified.

No deploying the remaining charter sets, even though many of them are at Old Oak Common.

Just booked workings. Anything else is too difficult.

So, if the sky falls in and the “severe” forecast is vindicated, the frightened populace can just ring National Rail Enquiries for the next train to sanctuary, and hope they get a seat.

Londoners should offer a prayer that Boris doesn’t have to evacuate the Metropolis on a Friday evening.

Frenchies fail!

This from the Beeb...

Alstom loses Eurostar court case over German train deal

Chortle!

Pointless signs - Beckenham Junction

Not strictly a sign but you get the gist...


Who says the railways can't be flexible when it comes to 'Elf'n'Safety?

Railway Air Service Resurgent

Telegrammed by International Correspondent
British Transport Police is taking control of 23 helicopters (plus three spares) to provide a new National Police Air Service.

This replaces the 33 machines presently owned by individual county forces and the Met.

Civil police wanting to deploy a helicopter will now have to ask nicely, instead of just splashing out £2000 an hour whenever they fancy.

G-NTWK, Network Rail's own very lovely Eurocopter AS355 is not included in the scheme, despite bearing a very Police like black and yellow livery.

The move puts an extra £51 million into the BTP annual budget – not to be sniffed at – but one hopes that BTP Public Affairs will be ready to assume ownership of the ever-rising number of complaints about helicopter noise, many of which are generated by police air operations. Between them, Plod and the air ambulance account for 60% of London helicopter traffic.

Previous BTP adventures in the air have not gone smoothly - a 2008 flirtation with miniature drone helicopters that "squirted" offenders with smart water was outlawed by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The chopper fleet gives the only national civil police force an interesting new line in Big Toys, sorry, an enhanced logistical capability.


Perhaps compensating for the loss of the erstwhile and much loved Cross Country Plod-Duff.

UPDATE: This from a Mr McAree...

Eye says: "The chopper fleet gives the only national civil police force an interesting new line in Big Toys, sorry, an enhanced logistical capability."

Sorry to be pedantic but there is another national civil police force out there. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

UPDATE: This from Our International Correspondent...

Civil Nuclear Constabulary – the Polonium Plod - may be every conspiracy theorist’s favourite spooky arm of the state, and there are 1000 of them costing £56 million a year, but even they do not claim, anywhere, to be a national civil force.

UPDATE: From a Mr Philip Sutton (former proprietor of Rail Express)

Forget the Cross Country 'Duff'...

Don't you remember this gem?



Good luck to my old press mates on Railway Magazine.

Railway Magazine sold to Mortons

As predicted by Eye way back in August the Railway Magazine has been sold to Mortons Media Group.

This from the Press Gazette...

The Railway Magazine is a monthly title covering all aspects of the rail industry. It has been a resilient circulation performer in recent years, slightly growing its sale over the last decade to the current total of 34,715.

It has been bought by Lincolnshire-based Mortons Media Group – which publishes magazines such as Rail Express, Scootering, Heritage Railway and Towpath.

Altogether now: Robin Jones, Robin Jones riding through the glen. Robin Jones, Robin Jones with his band of men...

Railway Garden Competition - NR Acts!

Finally it looks as if Network Rail has decided to act against the scourge of Railway Gardens!

This from the Shropshire Star...

A TEAM OF WI volunteers who have tended to a Shropshire railway garden for 20 years have been told to down tools – for health and safety reasons.

The 32 members of Bucknell WI have been told by Network Rail they must complete a risk assessment and obtain insurance before carrying out any more work on the garden at Bucknell Station, near Craven Arms.

Eye congratulates NR on its decisive action!

Disappointing though that the overused 'Elf'n'Safety was cited as a reason rather than Good Housekeeping.

Mediaballs - The Currant Bun

This from The Sun...

An article on 15 September reported RMT General Secretary Bob Crow had a union-subsidised home and luxury car.

In fact, Mr Crow's home has never been subsidised by the union and he does not own a car, union or otherwise, and champions public transport.

We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to Mr Crow.

That must have hurt.

Labour's new transport team is a flop - Official

This, unbelievably, from Simon Hoggart in the the Gruaniad!

Roberta (fetchingly played by Jenny Agutter in the film, and by Labour's junior transport spokesperson Maria Eagle in the modern version) would whip off her red pinny and go racing down the line to stop the 12.04 Newark to Lincoln flyer.

"Junior transport spokesperson"?

Maria is allegedly the Shadow Secretary of State.

She rose without trace.

Colour by numbers

This from Maarten Otto...

How on earth Ian Yeowart came up with green on a GNER branding is a complete mystery to me.

So I took the liberty to give him a more appropriate livery for his new east coast rail company.


If you can recycle a name you must have the balls to steal their colours as well.

Greetings from Amsterdam.

UPDATE: This from Mike Altro...

The cynical amongst us would note that most of NXEC and East Coast's stock STILL look like that apart from one or two units re-liveried just to show willing.

Pointless signs - Water Orton

This from the New Puritan...

London Midland have recently kindly provided departure screens (which by the way do not work) and a shiny new sign at the foot of the entrance stairs displaying the destinations served from both platforms.



Unfortunately platform 2 is the up Derby fast line and the Nuneaton/Leicester line cannot be accessed from this platform without making an unsignalled reversing move!

All trains to Nuneaton/Leicester depart from the bi directional platform 1 as do the [correct on sign] Birmingham bound trains.