Spot the Crank #3

There was a time when this Gentleman was so far to the left that the photographer would have had to be in the Guard's van to get his picture.

Happily age has mellowed him and he has now traded in his Trotskyite membership for that of the British Empire (as awarded in The Queen's birthday honours list for "Services to the rail industry").

Do you know who it is yet?

Answers on a postcard to

Dr Paul Salveson MBE
Head of Government and Community Strategies
Northern Rail Ltd
PO Box 208
Leeds LS1 2BU

Que bono?

Who stands to benefit from today's leak that Network Rail is to undertake a review into the construction of five new main lines?

Not Network Rail which is struggling with its obligations to maintain and renew the existing network. Were NR to conclude that more lines are required then it is unlikely it would be able to undertake such labour and capital intensive projects itself.

Nor the TOCs who would much rather the infrastructure owner addressed current capacity constraints through incremental upgrades (additional junctions and doubling of track) or infill electrification to allow better utilisation of scarce rolling stock.

Perhaps the greatest surprise of all is that this major review isn't being led by the Department for Transport which, after all, is responsible for transport strategy. More importantly it would fall to the DfT to steer any resulting schemes through Parliament and secure funding from a reluctant Treasury (which still hasn't stumped up for Crossrail yet).

The story emerged on Friday, not from within the notoriously leaky railway community, but via political sources in the Westminster village. Industry commentators, even the very well informed, were caught completely unawares.

The timing of the leak was telling, it followed the damning speech made by Chris Bolt on Thursday, in which he lambasted the industry for a lack of strategic vision and declared that the Office of Rail Regulation would now produce its own long term strategy to fill the gap.

By getting Network Rail to undertake this White Elephant of an exercise Ministers will achieve a number of aims.

Firstly they can spike ORR's guns by pretending that work on a long term strategy is just about to begin.

Secondly they can suppress calls for incremental capacity increases and infill electrification by making these subordinate to the results of this massive study.

Finally, it will effectively bury High Speed 2 - the proposed high speed route that will link London to the West Midlands and which has broad industry support. With todays announcement that five high speed lines are to be evaluated the industry consensus on HS2 will dissolve in a frenzy of self destructive self interest.

As if proof were needed of the cynicism of this exercise today's leak claimed that NR will review two options to Birmingham one alongside the West Coast Main Line the other alongside the Chiltern route. Thus setting even local supporters of HS2 against one another.

Sir Humphrey and his masters must be very pleased with the way yesterday's fag packet idea has been portrayed by the media today as a major development in railway policy !

Double Dutch

BASEL (Reuters) - Switzerland's national railway has told its workers to stop using their normal orange reflective vests after confused Dutch football fans started following them on to the tracks.

A railway spokesman said the changed strip had been prompted by an incident in the Swiss capital Berne when a group of Netherlands supporters followed a worker on to the lines after mistaking his uniform for their traditional orange dress.

"We have now given out yellow vests to all our staff who have to work on or cross the tracks in Basel, where the Dutch fans are now based," Oliver Tamas said on Friday.

Priced off the rails

Heritage Railways are suffering from rising fuel prices.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has threatened to reduce services as a growing number of its 400 volunteers cannot afford to travel long distances to help operate the 24-mile route between Pickering and Whitby.

Read the Yorkshire Post article here

Compass Rose

To paraphrase Holy Writ - "Can anything good come out of Porterbrook"?

Bucking the trend is Keith Rose, former Head of Safety at the ROSCO, who has become the new Chairman of the Railway Mission.

The Fact Compiler has a great fondness for the Railway Padres who have maintained a continuous pastoral presence, available to passengers and staff alike, on Britain's railways since 1881.

The mission's founding objective is to further “the moral and spiritual advancement of railway employees of all ages”. A role they continue today.

Keith is from the Evangelical tradition so, despite his elevation, those who meet him are advised not to try and kiss his ring.

Minister says sorry to bloody miserable Britons

Transport minister Tom Harris has apologised for asking why Britons are 'so bloody miserable'.

In his blog post titled 'Heaven knows we're miserable now', Mr Harris said:

"There are more two-car homes in Britain today than there are homes without a car at all. We live longer, eat healthier (if we choose), have better access to forms of entertainment never imagined a generation ago (satellite TV, DVD, computer games), the majority of us have fast access to the worldwide web, which we use to enable even more spending and for entertainment.
Crime is down.

" So why is everyone so bloody miserable?"

Mr Harris told BBC radio, " If you read the full article I hope you'll understand that what I'm trying to do is actually make a serious point.

" Even if I accept that phrase 'why is everyone so bloody miserable' - I wrote that in a humorous vein - I understand that if people want to take that as offensive, I apologise, that maybe it should have been phrased differently."

The Fact Compiler suspects the Rail Minister was thinking of rail passengers who continue to be bloody miserable ingrates despite the Government's investment of billions of pounds in the railways, 1,300 new vehicles, Crossrail, Thameslink, WCML upgrade, PPP... (cont p94...)

A victim of the WCRM?

Tom Harris provides an update on fans of his blog

"Today, as I was driving home up the M6, I received two calls from journalists. Apparently Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is a fan of my blog and has decided my comments about people being miserable are worthy of exploiting for party political reasons. So read the Mail tomorrow."

Driving Minister?

Not fit for purpose

Chris Bolt today announced that the Office of Rail Regulation would produce its own strategy for the railways.

Predicting record growth and growing role for the railways Bolt declared "At present, the industry lacks a clear vision of how it will meet that challenge. It does not have in place longer-term plans to transform the railways to meet increasing demand and service expectations. It needs to start to address this now, working in partnership.

"For our part, as the safety and economic regulator of Britain's railways, we will be reviewing how we can better contribute to the necessary transformation, and publishing our own strategy later this year." said Chris Bolt.

What a depressing day. The industry's economic and safety regulator has to tell DafT, NR and ATOC that they're not up to the job of planning for our future!

Pillow talk

It is well known that the Welsh Assembly Government and Arriva Trains Wales work closely together. But it took the press to discover quite how closely.

The Western Mail reports today that Tim Bell, MD of Arriva Trains Wales lives with a certain Alison Teague.

Ms Teague, when not living with Mr Bell, is tasked by the Welsh Assembly Government with monitoring the finance and performance of Mr Bell's franchise (ATW).

Defending the slightly unusual arrangement the TOC said “Arriva Trains Wales understands that the Welsh Assembly Government was made aware of this matter when Tim Bell was appointed managing director and has put processes into place to avoid potential conflict of interest.”.

So that's all right then.

The Fact Compiler understands that Ms Teague continues to be satisfied by Mr Bell's performance.

Planning ahead

***Determined not to be caught out by ORR again, Iain Coucher has summoned TOC owner groups to a meeting on the 1st July to discuss CP5 ! ***

Angel double counting?

***According to the latest Rail Business Intelligence the 14 five car Cl180 units are going to remain on-lease to First.***

This may come as a surprise to Virgin West Coast who believe they are getting two.

London to lose O'Toole?

A report from Railway Eye's International Correspondent:

Tim O'Toole, MD of LUL, looks set to return to his native America if a multi-billion dollar bid by UK Hedge Fund TCI for US Class 1 freight railroad CSX gets the green light.

O'Toole, 52, came to London in 2003 as part of a Mayor Ken Livingstone's inspired American invasion of Transport for London.

Recruited by controversial Transport Commisioner and vodka enthusiast Bob Kiley, O'Toole took the top Tube job after Gordon's ill-fated PPP had been imposed on the world's oldest metro. The resulting split between operations and infrastructure left O'Toole responsible for running the trains but not much more; a cause of frequent tensions with the new private sector infrastructure owners.

More at home with heavy freight than Oyster-card bearing Londoners he earned his spurs in Conrail, the cumbersome corporation created by the US government when the Penn Central ("Standard Railroad to the World") went tits up.

Conrail subsequently became part of CSX, the very corporation O'Toole is now tipped to be joining. He knows the patch, as they say. Or more likely where the bodies are buried.

O'Toole has been impressive at LU which carries over a billion passengers a year and he will be sorely missed. He was on duty when Islamic fundamentalists blew up three of his trains simultaneously and hardened LUL operators say he was a cool head in an unprecedented situation.

Finding a successor will be a challenge for BoJo and his New Best Mate Hendy.

Mike Brown (LUs current COO) has been headhunted by BAE to lift them out of the sticky brown stuff at Heathrow. Although his number two, Howard Collins, is made for the COO role the top job may elude him this time round..

Other possible contenders within the TfL empire include Ian Brown who currently runs the London Overground and DLR operations. Rumours continue to circulate that he is getting itchy feet after DfT blew a raspberry at TfL's plans to take over South London Metro services.

Perhaps the opportunity for Ian Brown to fold his "S-Bahn" empire into Tim O'Toole's "U-Bahn" may well keep him interested for a couple more years.

HMG sets NR an example

***HMG has decreed that Government ministers will give up their pay rise for the forthcoming year. A welcome development that would have been unthinkable in the days of the Tony & Cherie gravy train.***

Perhaps those Masters of the Trough - Messrs MacAllister, Coucher and the Henderson twins, can still be prevailed upon to withdraw their snouts from NR's bonus pot - bearing in mind the company's piss-poor performance over Christmas.

Rugby balls

***The Fact Compiler is being deluged with emails from passengers on the West Coast Main Line where yet another signal failure at Rugby is playing havoc with Virgin services. Top of the list of complaints is a complete lack of information on what is happening.***

The Fact Compiler hopes Beardie-rail remembers to keep passengers informed before putting the boot into NR

Sursum corda

***Alistair Osbourne in the Daily Telegraph is touting LCR's Rob Holden as a successor to NR's stay at home chairman Ian MacAllister.***

Railway Eye readers will recollect that The Times had previously suggested Tom Winsor for the role.

The Fact Compiler is gladdened that the bonus laden MacAllister's departure is now a matter of when, not if.

Surreal

***Martin Waller in The Times' City Diary reflects on the award, in The Queen's birthday honours list, of a "K" to Worst Group's Moir Lockhead***

IEP RIP?

It's almost July and the DafT boys and girls are looking forward to their summer holidays. And if there is a particular spring in their step it is almost certainly because they won't have to wade through IEP bid submissions on their return.

The original programme envisaged Civil Servants reviewing bid submissions in "Summer 2008" but it is becoming increasingly apparent that this timescale will not be met.

The IEP is already know as a Frankenstein Train having been beset by problems ever since the specification was drawn up and issued by Whitehall Mandarins. As befits the Masters of Compromise the train was to be both electric and diesel powered.

To their credit Network Rail quickly spotted that DafT was 'Talking Bollocks' and called at the end of last year for the diesel option to be abandoned.

Then Alstom, one of only three IEP bidders, abandoned the competition in February leaving just Hitachi and Express Rail Alliance (a Bombardier/Siemens JV) in the running.

Such is Hitachi's unhappiness with the IEP specification that it has had to issue constant denials that it was planning to give up on the competition. Meanwhile Express Rail Alliance, which was backed by RBS and Babcock & Brown, is suddenly looking very wobbly after last week's exit from the rail market by RBS (which sold Angel Trains to IEP partner Babcock & Brown).

Despite a collective raspberry from the market DafT continued to maintain that IEP was on track.

So it probably came as a shock to Mike Mitchell and his DafT chums when Ruth Kelly, in Rosa Klebb mode, stuck the stilleto into the project on the 9th June by recanting her previous faith in diesel traction and becoming a born again evangelist for electrification.

With Rosa having stiffed her own Department and thoroughly confused the supply chain it can't be long before the InterCity Express Programme derails

Meanwhile The Fact Compiler is keen to know exactly how much this barren process has cost the taxpayer to date?

Fares freeze?

David Cameron unveiled the Tories "Blue/Green Charter" today.

In his speech Cameron lamented "packed and expensive trains". In almost the very next sentance he identified the need for "High speed rail to connect the country quickly".

The Fact Compiler is very excited. Is this a Tory promise not to increase fares to pay for HS2? Somehow we doubt it.

Micromanagement

Much excitement at DafT this morning following reports from Down Under that Rio Tinto plans to introduce diverless trains on its 800 mile freight network.

For an investment of just $371m Rio hopes to be able to do away with drivers, increase capacity and control the network from Perth some 800 miles away.

The Fact Compiler looks forward to visiting the new DfT National Control Centre in Marsham Street.

Fare's fair

The gents of the press have an uncanny knack of plucking out the most expensive prices from the fares book when they want to run their favourite old chestnut about the the high cost of travelling by train.

But funny how you can prove the case the other way if the news editor so demands it.

Today's Guardian special supplement on How to Save Money quotes some staggeringly cheap train fares which beat even coach prices in the newspaper's comparison tables.

Bet you won't see these mentioned again next time a knocking story is on the agenda!