The Fact Compiler's latest column in Passenger Transport published on the 26th April...
UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...
The Fact Compiler's latest column in Passenger Transport published on the 26th April...
This from the Daily Mirror...
Sir Richard Branson has been forced to buy his train staff new bras – because their latest uniforms are too skimpy.
Virgin Trains workers say their blouses are too short and so flimsy that passengers will see if they are wearing dark bras.
Virgin’s business support department is now offering them a £20 voucher for new underwear after delaying the uniform by three weeks.
Unlike Beardie Rail to get into a pickle over ladies' embonpoints, as this picture from 2009 shows...
Or should that read South Western Railway?
No matter.
This is the bespoke case that SWT's twitter supremo has had created for her iPhone.
Bad news for thirsty North British passengers!
This from East Coast...
Train operator East Coast is to
trial an alcohol ban on a morning train from North East Scotland to
ensure comfortable travel for passengers.
The four-week trial will apply on Fridays only from 10 May to 31 May
inclusive, and will only apply to the 09.52 service from Aberdeen, for
journeys as far south as Newcastle. The train calls at several stations
along Scotland’s North East coast, including
Stonehaven, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee.
The restriction means passengers will not be able to bring alcohol in
any form onto this train, or to drink it on-board. No alcohol will be
sold at the train’s cafe-bar, though other hot and cold refreshments
will continue to be available as usual.
East Coast’s Commercial and Customer Service Director Peter Williams
said: “We are trialling this for four weeks from next Friday, following
discussions with the British Transport Police.
“The trial follows a number of recent instances of anti-social behaviour
on this train between Aberdeen and Newcastle. Our aim is to ensure that
all of our customers can enjoy a more pleasant and comfortable journey."
Happily those travelling on 1E15 beyond Newcastle can break the fast at 13:59.
This from the Mad Hatter...
Passing through Gainsborough I thought I'd pay a visit to the town's Central station.
Alas!
This from the Canal and River Trust...
New chief executive appointed
Richard Parry is to swap trains for boats as he takes up the role of chief executive of the Canal & River Trust starting this summer.
Currently at FirstGroup, Richard headed up First's bid in 2012 for the InterCity West Coast line and more recently has been leading First's highly-regarded Hull Trains company as well as other wider development programmes across First's rail businesses
Before that he spent 19 years at London Underground (LU) and Transport for London (TfL) where he had a range of senior roles, spending eight years as a director of LU, including a year as interim LU managing director (2009-10), and then a further 18 months as deputy managing director, TfL Rail and Underground (2010-11).
Interesting. Does this herald some further moves at First?
UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...
Am I alone in wondering whether the role of MD at First Hull Trains is now timed to change with the same frequency as that of the Secretary of State for Transport?
If so anyone offered the job may want to take this into account! (Which one, Parry's or McLoughlin's? Ed)
This from the Thin Controller
Perhaps Eye readers can advise just how many of the industry's great and good (including one if not two ministers) made it to the Rail Delivery Group away-day at Westwood... before Freightliner's Felixstowe - Ditton sat down with a failed brake pipe, completely shafting the southern end of the WCML?
Just asking.
Much Sunday morning spluttering of cornflakes, courtesy of the Telegraph's business section.
In an interview Martin Griffiths, the soon to be Stagecoach supremo, offered the following terse observations on the railway:
HS2 - 'in the wrong place'.
Waterloo throat - 'knackered'
Railways - 'a middle class thing'.
Whilst items one and two will no doubt be causing palpitations in Whitehall, item three should at least endear Stagecoach to ministers.
After all it is only nineteen months since millionaire Philip Hammond, then Secretary of State for Transport, decreed that trains were 'a rich man's toy'!
Good to see that the Deep Alliance is at least delivering a marginally more inclusive railway...
Good news for fans of Mk3s!
This from the Railway Gazette:
Porterbrook Leasing has awarded Railcare a £5m contract to undertake the C6 scheduled overhaul and additional corrosion repairs to 111 locomotive-hauled MkIII coaches operated by Abellio Greater Anglia on London - Norwich services.
The work is scheduled to start in October 2013 for completion in July 2016, with five coaches undergoing overhaul at Railcare's Wolverton plant at any one time.
Good news indeed.
But what's this?
A number of cryptic messages have reached Eye suggesting that sales of soup have been rocketing in areas around Milton Keynes and Glasgow!?!
The Rail Delivery Group has published the minutes of its 22nd April meeting.
It contains a list of the first organisations to be accepted as Associate Members:
Time for an exciting new Eye feature - Railway Khazi Watch!
Our first entry is via the Hammer Man...
I found this sign in the salubrious traps at the National Railway Museum's workshops (those of a sensitive disposition may wish to stop reading here! Ed).
A new tome from Eye favourite Michael Williams is to be published on the 13th May.
Steaming to Victory tells the tale of how Britain's railways won the war against Hitler's Germany.
Agreeable promo video here:
Michael kindly donated a bottle of champagne as a competition prize for readers of this blog.
Unfortunately it arrived at Eye Towers... err... empty !
Good to see Simon Burns MP acknowledging the herculean efforts of his own employees!
Despite East Coast operating on a railway that last received significant investment in the 1980s and sweating a train fleet with an even older age profile our Burnsy is apparently peeved that the state owned operator isn't run by Beardie Rail.
Mr Toad opined in the House of Commons yesterday that East Coast performed ‘reasonably well’ but it is ‘plateauing’. "What it needs is an infusion of innovation and a stimulus, which I believe only the private sector can do".
Quite so minister, quite so.
And all those franchises in revenue support are clearly a testament to the private sector's skill at both innovation and stimulus!
Meanwhile the searing intellect that resides in the Honourable Member for Poop-Poop claimed he 'did not accept the premise' of an ORR report which last week announced that East Coast made the second highest TOC payment into Treasury coffers.
Still, a pleasure to see that Third Degree Burns is keen to throw good money after bad whilst belittling his own workforce.
Bad news for fans of good Route MDs!
Dyan Crowther, MD of NR's LNW Route, confirmed at yesterday's meeting of the Rail Freight Group that she is now a 'freight geek'!
Eye hopes this isn't the end of a promising career.
No matter.
On the upside that leaves the RfG with only 9 more Route MDs to convince...
UPDATE: This from Loose Coupled...
I think you'll find that the new Sussex Route MD is already aligned...
Good to see that the DfT is making the franchising process as simple as possible!