Evergreen 3 - who is in charge?

So who is running Evergreen 3?

Two weeks ago Michael Lee, the ORR’s director of railway planning, said: "The risk of not completing it on time to introduce new services in May had been growing and that was behind the decision to hand project management to Network Rail."

This produced an explosion from Von Shooter who insisted Chiltern was still in charge.

Happily all this confusion will be swept away today!

Line problem between Oxford and Banbury.
Train services are being disrupted due to over-running engineering works between Oxford and Banbury.

Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice cancellations and delays of up to 30 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 14/03/2011 06:38

Let's see who fesses up.

Special Adviser pay-scales published

So the Cabinet Office has published the list of Special Advisers and their salary ranges.

The Secretary of State for Transport's SpAds are:

• Sian Jones
• Paul Stephenson

As might be expected Petrol-head has driven a hard bargain when recruiting these titans of the political world.

Sian and Paul's salary ranges are in Civil Service Pay Band 2 (£52,215 - £69,266) but presumably, as no further details of their income are given, below £58,200 (other less penny-wise ministers may care to take note).

Railway Eye readers not versed in the Machiavellian world of Westminster and Whitehall may wonder why Special Advisers, of whatever political hue, are known as SpAds.

Eye suspects it has something to do with an inability to acknowledge clear danger signals...

Pointless signs - XC Comfort Zone

This with a bowler tip to @TwopTips, via Twitter and a Mr Jones...

"Nice to see Cross Country Trains have designated areas for masturbation."

Welcome to the Tafia Express

This from Owain Glyn Dour...

According to the BBC...

A north-south rail service that takes in Wrexham will begin in May, the assembly government has said.

A second Arriva Trains Wales "express" service will run once a day between Holyhead and Cardiff and back.The service will stop at Wrexham in both directions, unlike the first service started in December 2008.

But Wrexham council leader Aled Roberts said that, while welcome, the new service will mean the loss of a direct service to Birmingham from the area.

The new service, costing £620,000 to run until December when a different locomotive will be used, will run Monday to Friday and take four hours and 17 minutes.

The evening train is timetabled to leave Cardiff at 1818 GMT, stopping at Newport, Abergavenny, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Gobowen, Ruabon, Wrexham, Chester, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction, and Bangor to arrive at Holyhead at 2234 GMT.

So a popular local service from Wrexham to Birmingham is being sacrificed to provide paths for a £620k vanity train linking North and South Wales.

As disgruntled Birmingham bound passengers have pointed out, there are already frequent daily trains running north and south via Wrexham. Unfortunatley these exisiting services don't offer first class accomodation which apparently our new rulling class can no longer live without.

Happily the new Tafia Express will offer first class and catering facilities; all for a paltry subsidy of just £4,750 a day!

Despite going all round the houses and taking over four hours to travel between Cardiff and Holyhead there is likely to be at least one regular user of the Tafia Express.

Step forward Deputy First Minister and holder of the transport portfolio, Ieuan Wyn Jones, who today announced the new service, which provides a direct rail link between his Yns Mon constituency and Cardiff office.

Trebles all round and one for yourself boyo.

Hitachiballs - On opening up Japanese markets

Regular Eye readers will recall that UNIFE reacted with fury to Petrol-head's decision to award the IEP contract to Hitachi.

In particular the Euro rail group pointed out that:

Thanks to clear and transparent public procurement rules transport-related tenders in Europe are largely open to foreign companies, while the Japanese market remains completely inaccessible to European rolling stock suppliers. Indeed, only 2% of the Japanese rail equipment market is opened to foreign suppliers. This de facto market closure is achieved through the extensive use of the so-called “Operational Safety Clause” by which foreign bidders are brutally excluded.

Happily, Hitachi addressed these concerns head-on yesterday when it issued the following inscrutable statement:

UNIFE should not be so alarmed (in reference to its statement dated 3 March 2011) by the British Government’s award of the IEP (Intercity Express Programme) contract to Hitachi...

Hitachi believes in free market access between Europe and Japan in the rail industry and other sectors. We respect our European competitors, but we also think we have something unique to contribute to Europe. Hitachi Rail Europe is a European company led by Europeans, and Europe will gain, economically and competitively, from having a new quality player in the market.

So that's all right then!

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

So can we expect to see Hitachi inviting bids from European suppliers to fit out its trains for Japanese railway companies? (No, don't be silly! Ed)

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

You may (or not) know that the biggest brake supplier for Shinkansen is Knorr Bremse from Europe.

Frenchies advance to the rear - again

This from Bloomburg...

The French government said it won’t bar Siemens AG (SIE)trains from the Channel Tunnel if Europe’s rail- safety agency backs their introduction, a shift that should clear the way forDeutsche Bahn AG to begin services to London.

France will respect the European Railway Agency’s advice on operations planned by the German state railway using a variant of Siemens’s InterCityExpress train, said a government official who declined to be identified, citing official policy.

Eye wonders if the government official was called Pétain...

UPDATE: This from 5741 Duck...

Helped, no doubt, by your headline, I misread Pétain as Pétomane, the legendary French flatulist - a trumpeter who was never without his instrument!

No, I'm not making this up - google it.

Not somebody you'd want to share a tunnel with...

Huggable ditches 2010-11 Exec bonuses

This from Network Rail...

Network Rail today announces that it will not be paying an annual bonus to its executive directors in respect of the financial year 2010-11.

How will those poor executive directors manage to struggle along on their six figure salaries?

Churlish comments aside - Good effort.

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Presumably without the incentive of earning an extra few hundred thou' a year it will be strictly 9 'til' 5 and only occasional early starts but certainly no weekends.

Pointless signs - Camden Road

This from Billy Connections...

Camden Road at 15.30 yesterday - showing the 06.51 delayed to 17.33.


AND every 5 minutes an automated PA announcement expressed regret about the delay caused to passengers!

ATOC think piece warmly welcomed

Exciting news from ATOC!

The Association of Train Operating Companies has published a position paper on industry structural reform.

The document, A new structure for success on Britain's Railways, has been warmly welcomed by the Department for Transport.

And in particular by Petrol-head Hammond, who is understood to be both highly impressed and absolutely delighted by ATOC's public lobbying.

UPDATE: This from John...

It appears that the Rail Freight Group is equally delighted:

RFG Chairman Tony Berkeley commented ‘ATOC offers no cost savings itself, only ‘efficiencies’ through its members having a commercial arrangement with the regional infrastructure companies (infracos) which would replace Network Rail. Interestingly, the TOCs offer no evidence that they would be particularly good at managing or maintaining infrastructure. Only last week Chiltern had to call on Network Rail to take over management of one of the few infrastructure projects managed by a TOC – Evergreen 3. And Network Rail itself has come out well on the £65m gauge enhancement project from Southampton to the West Midlands , coming out on time and £10m under budget.

‘ATOC also seems to have forgotten, again, than many of their proposals are illegal under EU law; allocation of capacity must be done by a body independent of any train operator (Art 13 of Directive 2001/14) in a fair and non-discriminatory way. The charging body must also be independent of any train operator (Art 4, 2001/14) , so any cosy joint venture between a TOC and an infraco involving any of these activities which ATOC members clearly want to get their hands on, would see the UK Government in the European Court of Justice. Try to convince the Secretary of State that this was a good idea!

No love lost there then.

Pointless signs - Watford West

This from @kpmarek, via Twitter...

Watford West a station that couldn't be more abandoned!




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

Official statistics for 2002 through to 2005 show that 51 passengers in total used it!

iDave waves bye-bye to Bombardier?

Exciting news from the home of the UK rail industry!

Cameron, the Saviour of Libya, encamped the entire cabinet in Derby yesterday.

Local wags suggested that the visit was designed to educate Petrol-head on the difference between a manufacturing and an assembly plant.

Not of course a differentiation that is likely to worry Hammond, as the visit took place several weeks before the winner of the Thameslink fleet is due to be announced.

Meanwhile Number 10 diary watchers wait to see if iDave will be visiting Angela Merkel on or around the 31st March...

NR speeds up project work - Official

This from NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit...

I know Eye viewers love their timelapse footage and I have a great new one to share here:



A whole year of construction work on our stunning new Western Concourse at King's Cross squeezed into a minute.

More information on the project here.

Pointless sign - Pitsea Up Siding

UPDATE: A Crank writes (aka Tony Miles, for it is he)...

A flurry of texts arrived last night from my friends at c2c.

Eye's "pointless sign" of the destination "Pitsea Up Siding" is nothing of the sort.

It is a very accurate sign for the first destination of the c2c railtour on Saturday - and gained much respect from those on the platform. It was indeed the first time a railtour has visited that short section of track and for those who tick off the bits of track they have covered it was hugely appreciated…

The internet forums have been heaping praise on c2c for Saturday's tour which covered every bit of track promised, ran to time (or early) and was joined for the whole day by c2c MD Julian Drury & other members of the c2c top team who were happy to chat with passengers and even take suggestions for future tours.

So - lot's of point to the sign actually! (I hope you'll run this comment - I had an excellent day out!)

Stagecoach puts DB to shame!

This from the Mad Hatter...

According to EMT...

In just six months, East Midlands Trains has fitted WiFi onto all of its 27 Meridian trains and 11 HSTs. This means that all passengers travelling from stations on the mainline route to London including Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Market Harborough, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough can now fully benefit from this new service.

Wifi in 6 months!

So why has the mighty Deutsche Bahn proven unable to do the same?

With the failure of WSMR, the takeover of Evergreen 3 by NR and Arriva Trains Wales now a five day railway is DB all it's cracked up to be?

Rather than assembling bid teams perhaps DB should devote additional resources to solving its current problems?

UPDATE: This from Mr Tuppence Worth...

Good work from Stagecoach.

However, those of us not having the luxury (?) of travelling in first class have to pay high fees for this service.

You can’t use it free for a limited amount of time and can only view EMT propaganda without paying up.

Indeed, if using it on a regular basis it would make far better sense to invest in mobile broadband – and you can use that elsewhere too.

One small thing though: is it the MML or those Meridians which mean mobile signals are dire when you Get On Board with EMT?

IEP and the benefits of international trade

Regular readers of Eye will be aware of the heavyweight lobbying undertaken by the Japanese government in support of the IEP.

Why the Prime Minister of Japan even phoned iDave to bend his ear and stress the importance of the deal.

Clearly this had nothing to do with Petrol-head's disappointing decision to ignore the findings of the Foster Review and award a contract for trains that nobody wants to Hitachi.

So far so sad.

Meanwhile, in happier news, this from Aviation Week...

Airbus is poised to sign off on a new order for the A380 super jumbo with Skymark Airlines, a Japanese low-cost carrier, its top salesman, John Leahy, said Feb. 16 in Paris.

Skymark—which would be the first airline from Japan and the first no-frills carrier to acquire the A380—said it would introduce the initial [4] aircraft in spring 2014 for domestic services and the others in 2014-16 for domestic and long-haul flights.

Fortunately Railway Eye knows nothing about aviation and is therefore unlikely to question why a low cost Japanese domestic airline should suddenly invest lots of Yen in A380 super jumbos.

And it would be particularly churlish not to celebrate this ground breaking deal, what with Airbus A380 engines being British made by Rolls Royce... in Derby.

Just fancy that!

UPDATE: This from 5741 Duck...

You ask why a low cost Japanese domestic airline should suddenly invest lots of Yen in A380 super jumbos?

Three words: short fat sectors.

Japan has several large cities that aren't that far apart and shifting 853 people in one plane makes sense.

Though I've no idea if that's how Skymark plans to use them...

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

Not just the RR engines from the UK.

All Airbus passenger jet wings are made at Broughton, North Wales

UPDATE: This from Banker76...

Airbus may just be the start.

Watch next for a deal in which the Japanese air force agrees to buy some of those Typhoons the RAF can no longer afford to crew or to fly.

Daily Mail coverage of the railway explained

Those keen to get hold of Ray Massey, transport correspondent on the Daily Mail, shouldn't bother this week.

Apparently the great man is busy about his business in the devil's cauldron that is Europe (shurely shome mishtake! Ed)

According to Ray's Out of Office profile...

Ray Massey is at the Geneva Motor Show

No doubt test driving the latest Jag for our Phil?

Villiers vignettes: On empowering TOCs

Oh dear!

The Saviour of the Jammy Dodger's exciting proposals to let TOC's run whole swathes of the network appear to be crashing down around her ears.

Much noise was made by Cruella about the benefits that 'thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind' could deliver to the railway were they to take on future investment.

And the model for this great leap forward?

Behold Chiltern! Masters of multiple Evergreens... or perhaps not.

The from the Grauniad today:

A £250m upgrade of the Chiltern Line that should cut journey times between London and Birmingham by 20 minutes is beset by cost claims and poor planning, according to a confidential industry report.

Network Rail, the owner of Britain's tracks and stations, is now helping Chiltern Railways complete the project

The ORR Monitor asked a slightly more robust question about the debacle now... ahem... no longer overseen by Deutsche Reichsbahn...

Q: Does NR believe that the Evergreen difficulties raises serious questions over government proposals to "encourage operators to invest in projects that have a financial return over 15 years."

A: No, longer franchises are essential to help re-align the interest of operator and infrastructure owner so a closer, partnership approach to deliver can be achieved. We believe longer franchises will encourage more private sector investment in our railway but it’s clear that large-scale, complex infrastructure projects will need experience and expertise to ensure successful delivery.

As Blazing Saddles might say: NR 'talks prettier than a $20 whore'...

Eye salutes the new spirit of sensitive diplomacy under Huggable's leadership!

Abroad slams Hammond IEP decision!

Petrol-head's courageous decision to order a train that no one wants continues to be welcomed with joy by absolutely nobody.

This plaudit from UNIFE which claims to represent the European Rail Industry:

N e w s R e l e a s e

UNIFE alarmed by Hitachi’s winning prospects for UK Intercity Express Programme (IEP)

Brussels 02 March 2011 – UNIFE, the European rail industry, is alarmedby UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond’s decision to resume negotiations on the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) with Hitachi. When launched, the IEP was considered the largest Rolling Stock order since privatisation of the British Railways, and is certainly amongst the largest orders that have ever been awarded to a rolling stock manufacturer in the world.

Whilst the UK government seems to content with the promised creation of 500 new jobs, a figure which is extremely low as compared to what could have been secured if the IEP was executed by a European supplier, this decision further reinforces the lack of reciprocity between Europe and Japan in rail procurement.

Thanks to clear and transparent public procurement rules transport-related tenders in Europe are largely open to foreign companies, while the Japanese market remains completely inaccessible to European rolling stock suppliers. Indeed, only 2% of the Japanese rail equipment market is opened to foreign suppliers. This de facto market closure is achieved through the extensive use of the so-called “Operational Safety Clause” by which foreign bidders are brutally excluded.

This situation is simply unacceptable as it provides Japanese companies with an unfair advantage when responding to tenders in Europe. With no competition to face on their home market, such companies are then able to submit highly competitive offers in EU countries, and are supported by the Japanese government to do so.

UNIFE and its member companies supply more than 50% of the worldwide production of rail equipment and services and strongly favor global market opening initiatives. However, we equally consider that reciprocity is a pre-requisite for fair competition. The rail industry cannot accept that European markets are increasingly opened to other countries’ suppliers whilst the latter remain closed.

UNIFE calls European governments put an end to such unbalanced market situation. In this respect, UNIFE Director-General Michael Clausecker stated: “The decision to accept the Hitachi bid is fundamentally wrong. It weakens the European position vis-à-vis Japan and shows the lack of interest of some governments to protect Europe’s industrial base against unfair trade practices.”

UNIFE wishes to remind that under the existing WTO agreements, Japanese firms do not enjoy any legal right to participate to procurement procedures in the field of railways. European entities may therefore exclude Japanese bidders under the provisions of the existing European Directives on public procurement. The UK Department for Transportation chose not to do so irrespective of the Japanese attitude to maintain their market closed and thus, not to offer equal business opportunities to European suppliers.


+++ ENDS +++
About UNIFE

UNIFE represents the European Rail Industry in Brussels since 1992. The Association gathers 73 of Europe’s leading large and medium-sized rail supply companies active in the design, manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of rail transport systems, subsystems and related equipment. A further one thousand suppliers of railway equipment partake in UNIFE activities through 15 national rail industry associations. UNIFE members have an 80% market share in Europe and supply more than 50% of the worldwide production of rail equipment and services.

UNIFE represents its members’ interests at the level of both European and international institutions. On the technical side, UNIFE works on the setting of interoperability standards and coordinates EU-funded research projects that aim at the technical harmonisation of railway systems. The association is one of the supporting bodies of the European Railway Agency.

Perhaps our Euro friends will now think twice before meddling in UK politics?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

When it comes to 'meddling in UK politics' it would appear that our Japanese friends have much to teach our 'Euro friends'!

According to the Secretary of State in the Northern Echo today...

"I have become firm friends and personal acquaintances with the Japanese ambassador over the last nine months - he has his own chair in my office.

"I even got invited to the Emperor's birthday party last year, in London."

Move along Alstom, nothing to see here.

How others see us - Ticketing

This from the Daily Mash, with a bowler tip to a Mr Wright...

THE new Semi-Super Saver Single Return Railroader Autumn Summer Traveller Student Nurse District Pet Family Oxbow Lake Pass is actually straightforward, according to train bosses.

The Mash clearly has a well placed mole close to the ATOC Board...

Whey Aye EP!

Exciting news from Newton Aycliffe!

Agility has made the first of its 500 or so much vaunted appointments…


The works' mascot!