This from PR Week...
Virgin Trains and Fishburn Hedges' successful campaign to save the brand's rail franchise has won Campaign of the Year at the PRWeek Awards 2013.
Inevitable and well deserved.
This is almost too good not to share!
Overheard recently in a coffee shop on Horseferry Road...
"DG Rail is extremely bright and definitely going places, we just have to wait until she does".
A higher recommendation you could not possibly receive.
Evidently waves are being made.
Carry on... please!
So farewell to the final remnant of the former British Rail International.
This from Travel Weekly...
European train ticket firm Rail Europe is being rebranded under the name Voyages-sncf.com.
The UK arm will join the French National Railways tour operating division and take its name by the end of the year.
Services currently dedicated to the UK travel trade will become part of a single Europe-wide offering, Voyages-sncf.eu.
Another UK railway brand bites the dust.
Another gem from the new railway minister...
Mrs Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate he has
made of the total number of passengers travelling between Birmingham
and (a) Manchester, (b) Leeds and (c) Wigan by rail during an average week day.
Stephen Hammond:
Though some estimates for journeys such as these have been produced for
departmental purposes, these estimates are not available for
publication as the underlying data belong to the train operators and are
considered commercially confidential.
Presumably this is civil service speak for can't be @rsed.
UPDATE: This from JH...
Presumably
this applies to all TOC's on all lines.
If so, where does HS2 Ltd get the
"current" data to use as a base?
A clearly contrite Wolmar writes...
"Oh dear, oh dear!
"I just broke the rule of a lifetime and said ‘do you now know who I am?’
"A FGW press officer returning my call about the absence of wi-fi on its trains, first made the mistake of calling me ‘Chris’ a name I have never answered to, and then he said, ‘where are you calling from?’
"I very rudely replied that I had only been writing a column for Rail magazine for nearly 20 years but perhaps he did not read it and then uttered the fateful words...
"Can I be forgiven?"
Quite so Chris. Perhaps you can let us know where you are from, so we can see if Eye can help...
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic, who is never knowingly out contritioned...
That is nothing.
This morning I have called RVEL of Derby, REVEL in my e-Preview blog (is that a plug? Ed) and promptly corrected it to REVL in a follow up e-mail to the over 2500 subscribers (that's enough plugs Deltic! Ed).
And I also got the loco class number, which I saw being worked on by RVEL, wrong.
Can anyone beat that?
Are
you a railway journalist of international standing? And would you like
to participate in Eye's very own Chapter of Faults? If so please email
the usual address...
Through the bullsh1t and bluster there appeared a great light...
Newsnight's shock revelations that #HS2 will benefit some areas and not others will go directly into my "No shit, Sherlock" folder.
— James Gleave (@jamesgleave1) October 19, 2013
So farewell Graham Smith, the man who acted as midwife to the mighty Rail Delivery Group!
Graham steps down as Director General of RDG today, after two and a half years in the job and prior to that spending a year supporting the Rail Value for Money study.
Not one to go quietly into the night Graham's renewed focus will be on the Railway Benefit Fund, where he will set up a central fund-raising group concentrating on encouraging corporate donations and contributions from the major players in the industry.
Owner Groups and suppliers can expect knocks on the door where Graham will deliver a pointed message encouraging those who profit from the industry to put something back for those employees that have fallen on hard times.
And quite right too!
With bags of experience Eye suspects that a number of people will also be knocking at the door of Albany Smith Management.
However, Graham assures Eye that he will not be taking commissions, although: "if somebody wants me to help them on other things and it's something that interests me I'll consider it".
Quite so, you can't keep a good consultant down...
Exciting news of rebellion from deep within the state owned monolith that is East Coast!
According to Peter Williams, East Coast commercial director, in an interview in Management Today:
‘A lot of people will say East Coast is a model for how public sector-run companies can be successful,’ he told MT.
‘Personally,
it’s quite funny sitting here watching conversations take place about
what is the right thing to do. But if you look at the individuals behind
DOR’s success, the management team are all from the private sector.'
Quite so.
East Coast's success is, therefore, all the more impressive with so little nationalised experience amongst DOR's 'management team':
Michael Holden, Chief Executive Officer, & Non-executive Chairman of East Coast Main Line Company Limited
Michael Holden has extensive experience in managing railways and railway projects within the UK and Europe. He started his early career with British Rail as a traffic student in 1974...
Doug Sutherland, Chairman
Doug Sutherland is a chartered management accountant... In 1995 he moved to the public sector, initially as managing director finance for North of Scotland Water and then managing director finance and commercial for the Strategic Rail Authority... .
Andy Cope, Non-executive director
Andy Cope is a Chartered Engineer who started work as an apprentice with the Birmingham Division of British Rail in 1972...
David Walker, Finance Director
David Walker is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, who started his career with the National Coal Board...
Rob Mason, Non-executive director
Robert Mason has over 30 years’ experience in the rail industry... In the run up to privatisation, Rob was the British Rail Director of Privatisation Studies...
Each and every one of them unsullied by public sector taint!
So on which precise date does Private-Sector-Year-Zero begin at DOR?
Not sure what sort of raptor this is meant to be, located atop the entrance to the ladies' loos at Marylebone...
Time for an exciting new Eye feature!
Hammond Eggs records the searing insights of the latest member of the ministerial transport team to take responsibility for rail.
This from a written answer on the 14th October:
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the contribution of open-access operators on the East Coast Main Line in support of the franchised operator.
Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, Conservative)
The impacts of open access operation have been assessed against three criteria: (a) performance; (b) network utilisation; and (c) revenue of the InterCity East Coast franchise.
(a) Open access operators on the east coast route have typically delivered lower levels of performance than the franchised operator, in part because one of them operates relatively old diesel trains;
(b) Open access operation has had no material adverse impact on network utilisation, although the constraints on platform occupancy at Kings Cross, in particular, and Doncaster, to a lesser extent, have complicated operations at those two stations;
(c) Open access operators have generally tended to abstract revenue from the franchised operator. Furthermore, where bidders in the forthcoming InterCity East Coast franchise competition perceive a risk of additional open access competition causing further abstraction, they are likely to offer lower bids.
No sources cited of course.
Good to see that Stephen Hammond (of all people) is happy to repeat the prejudices of his civil servant masters (is this right? Ed).
As usual that old 'abstraction' canard gets an airing - perhaps Pete Wilkinson (Director Franchising and late of Renaissance Trains) can explain to Mr Hammond the 'not primarily abstractive' test, which the ORR uses to validate all Open Access bids?
At the same time the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State may even wish to read the Office of Rail Regulation's June 2013 consultation on On-rail competition, which states:
Despite the very limited role that competition currently plays, there is evidence that it drives passenger benefits including lower fares increases, higher growth in passenger numbers, direct services to new destinations, and various service quality benefits.
Open access entrants, who always face strong competition from franchised operators, have higher passenger satisfaction scores than franchised operators, including other intercity operators, who in the main do not face on-rail competition.
Quite so.
But then, since when have the residents of Great Minster House ever been interested in driving passenger benefits?
UPDATE: This from Depot Lad...
On the subject of “old diesel trains”.
I thought the following key points might be helpful for Mr Hammond who is evidently new to his brief.
| Operator | Fleet | Primary DPI | Primary DPI MAA | MTIN | MTIN MAA |
| Grand Central | Class 180 | 25.4 | 24.3 | 13,118 | 8,641 |
| East Coast | IC225 | 38.4 | 33.3 | 11,537 | 12,326 |
| Grand Central | HST Set | 0 | 19.3 | 41,421 | 13,188 |
| Hull | Class 180 | 18 | 27.9 | 14,380 | 14,561 |
| East Coast | HST Set | 34.9 | 47.3 | 18,653 | 18,619 |
Good news for fans of greater RDG and ATOC integration.
Word reaches Eye that tomorrow's RDG meeting is likely to see closer co-operation between the two bodies placed firmly on the agenda.
An ATOC spokesman observed today: 'Discussions are on-going'.
Quite so.
In fact so 'on-going' are discussions, that in certain recent conversations you might almost have mistaken ATOC speaking for RDG!
Perhaps helpful to recall that transparency is, as transparency does.
UPDATE: This from Sidney Supplychain...
No doubt there are plans in hand to communicate these exciting developments to, and engage more fully with, RDG's Associate Members?
Didn't think so.
UPDATE: This from Leftoutin Thecold...
This is the full list of RDG Associate Members, as at 16th September.
It will come as no surprise to regular readers of Eye that Hitachi have been lobbying HMG over relations with the EU.
In July Eye noted that the Hitachi website offered the following reflections on Britain's membership of the European Union:
"The Government of Japan expects the UK to maintain this
favourable role."
According to Saturday's Daily Telegraph the president of Hitachi also bent iDave's ear:
David Cameron has been warned by one of Japan's biggest UK investors that
pulling out of the European Union could put at risk £1bn of funding for
Britain's railways and nuclear energy programme.
The president of Hitachi, Hiroaki Nakanishi, has revealed that he met the
Prime Minister in May and raised his concerns. Speaking in Tokyo yesterday,
he said that any exit from the EU could lead to less investment by the
industrial giant.
In November last year, Hitachi signed a £696m deal to buy Horizon Nuclear
Power, a joint venture with GE to build as many as six new nuclear reactors
at two sites, Wylfa in North Wales and Oldbury in south Gloucestershire.
Last summer, a Hitachi-led consortium also won a £1.2bn government contract to
build new trains under the Intercity Express Programme. The deal will
provide new rolling stock for routes to the south-west and on the East Coast
mainline.
Of course there is no suggestion of any connection between Hitachi rescuing the government's moribund nuclear power programme and DfT awarding Hitachi contracts to replace both HST and IC225 fleets on the ECML.
Even so the decision to replace the 225 fleet raised one or two eyebrows. As Eversholt Rail said when the DfT announced that it would proceed with IEP Phase 2:
“We continue to believe that the best option would have been to let the market decide...", a view shared by many in the industry.
No matter.
What is perhaps more surprising is this section of the interview where Hitachi's President said:
"One
of the requests [from the DfT] was to set up the current Intercity Express
Programme," Mr Nakanishi said.
"The Government requested me to set up the whole supply chain in the UK
and try to sell UK-made train systems to the continent."
Eye can only presume that this was after Hitachi was declared preferred bidder in a procurement competition with the Bombardier/Siemens consortium!
With Her Majesty's Government and Hitachi evidently hand in glove, what price now for Cameron's much vaunted 2015 In/Out EU referendum?
According to the Sunday Times, Richard Branson has gone off-shore.
Has Beardie also taken all his webbies with him?
The forlorn picture of a recently departed VT director of communications still greets visitors to Virgin Trains' Media Room:
This from the Sunday Torygraph...
Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, said he was “looking into” the
mix of first class and standard class after the findings were presented to
him. He agreed that there might be ways of “delivering a better passenger
experience” by increasing the ratio of standard-class carriages.
So what exactly are supposedly private sector train operating companies responsible for?
And which bits of Maria Eagle's renationalisation plans does this government now reject?
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