A quick update on our poll of polls asking "Who should replace Ruth Kelly?"
According to Railway Eye readers (see right) the top job should go to Rail editor Nigel Harris!
In this time of financial turmoil can there be a better occasion for Gordon to resurrect his "government of all the talents"?
Wolmar has written a Gruaniad comment piece on the Tories damascene conversion to high speed rail.
Read it here.
Mystic Wolmar is in the van of those who remain to be convinced...
Train spotter's French diary
"This was an American-designed, Canadian-built, British locomotive operating in France for a German company." Read more here.
The Fact Compiler suspects it wasn't a change of driver, more likely an SNCF sponsored work to rule.
So the Tories have come out in favour of a high speed line instead of a third runway at Heathrow.
Read the BBC piece here.
However, with Treasury finances going west as yet another bank bites the dust, The Fact Compiler fears that a new Government will be hard pressed to buy a cup of coffee let alone build a new railway.
The Spectator Parliamentarian Awards are “the Oscars of Westminster, the Booker Prize of our lawmakers, the Blankety Blank cheque book and pen of the political cosa nostra.”
This year the Speccie has introduced a new award category: "Readers' Representative".
The on-line blurb describes the award as follows:
"For the first time, a new Reader's Representative Award is being presented. The nominations for it will come from you, the readers. All you have to do is scroll downwards and - in no more than 250 words - nominate your choice. The person can be of any party you want, a frontbencher or a backbencher and you can nominate them for whatever reason you want. The sole criteria are that the candidate has pursued the noble art of politics in what they believed to be the public interest."
Tom 'Blogger' Harris and The Fact Compiler do not always see eye to Railway Eye!
That said we hope that 'Open Access Tom' receives some recognition for having "pursued the noble art of politics... in what he believes to be the public interest".
Telegrammed by Eboracum (50A)
Time is running out for ex Porterbrook flagship locomotive 55016 Gordon Highlander.
A group of Deltic cranks are busy saving up their used stamps, tinfoil and milk bottle tops in a desperate last ditch attempt to save the loco but despite this there seems to be no agreement in place on how this might be done.
With scrap prices remaining firm current owner Harry Needle Railroad Company is known to be comfortable wielding the gas-axe to convert D9016 into razor blades.
Curiously HNRC's near neighbours at Barrow Hill; The Deltic Preservation Society and the Napier Power Heritage Trust have remained silent about the whole affair and are probably saving their pennies for the expected spares windfall.
These parts are well needed bearing in mind DPS reliability problems over the last two years.
With the loco's last official outing at Peak Rail this weekend at least one crank website is trying to organise a 'protest' over the threatened scrapping.
Perhaps Peak Rail need to draft in their uniformed Nazi battle re-enactors to quell any potential civil unrest?
Unusually, serving Rail Minister, Tom Harris, elected to discuss transport on his now infamous blog.
What caused Tom to bend his own unwritten rule was the ruminations of a mad Vulcan to which he felt compelled to respond.
The posting proved an immediate hit with readers commenting in droves with thoughts of their own.
Needless to say both Captain Deltic and The Fact Compiler shoved their ha'p'orth in, to greater or lesser effect.
So excited became the debate over whether additional trains or new track would increase capacity (the answer is of course both) that Paul Bigland, the industry's very own 'Pictographer Royal', felt compelled to post.
The brave Snapper even signed off with:
"Of course, further electrification would allow greater fleet utilisation too..."
Of course extending the Pendolino network would also allow Snapper to recharge camera batteries on even longer distance assignments!
Telegrammed by Eboracum (50A)
The RAIB report into the collision of a train with a demolished footbridge at Barrow upon Soar was published today.
Section 9 of the report is reproduced below
"The causal factor was that the lorry driver forgot to fully lower the body of the lorry
because he was distracted from his normal routine by having to unlock the cab passenger
door to allow access for the COSS."
The COSS is of course the Controller of Site Safety – or perhaps not!
Telegrammed by Eboracum (50A)
Despite NEG’s promise that GNER’s high customer service standards would be maintained on the ECML this seems not to be the case.
Yesterday late afternoon 3 out of four sets of the automatic doors into
Perhaps passenger numbers would be a little higher if they could actually get into the station in the first place!
It would appear that The Fact Compiler is not alone in being irked by fatuous railway announcements.
A Railway Eye regular has been in contact to bemoan the decline in the quality of announcements at Derby station.
"Only last week" he moans "my ear drums were assaulted by the following phrase:
'The xxxx train will be delayed here for half an hour awaiting an essential member of staff.'
"Of course he's bloody essential, with stiff penalties for late running most TOCs barely wait for passengers let alone non-essential members of staff.
So if they mean "driver" or "guard" why not just say so?
Quite right Mr Westmount, but of course the essential member of staff may not be traincrew!
In these financially straitened times, with rising fuel costs, shares collapsing and banks failing it may be that Network Rail is only allowing trains to depart if the TOC Finance Director turns up with cheque book in hand.
A state of affairs not unknown to some of those in the charter train community.
Announcement on a Virgin service from Liverpool:
"We are now making our final approach into Euston".
Congratulations to Beardie Rail for discovering how to stack trains
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Telegrammed by our independent expert
Your correspondent is aboard a Piccadilly line train from Heathrow where the driver has just announced:
"Wishing you a safe journey with me."
Is LU about to enter the airline business we wonder?
Or have they all been listening rather too closely to the Stockwell inquiry?
Telegrammed by Barry Spotter
The Times online reports that a Eurostar service came to a stand in the Chunnel this morning.
Keen to make a mountain out of a molehill the electronic rag opined:
"The incident is likely to cause passengers further misgivings about travelling to France via the Channel Tunnel."
Well possibly, but only because The Times has suggested it!
A nice valedictory from Tom Harris to his soon to be erstwhile boss
Read it here.
The Fact Compiler wonders what the reshuffle holds for Harris.
Perhaps SofS for Transport?
More likely the blogging minister will be tasked with disbursing the £700 that Gordon has promised to each family so their kiddies can get on-line.
Should generate a few more readers for Tom allowing him to sell advertising on his blog a la Guido.
With the industry desperately hoping for a tangible commitment to electrification and additional capacity what did the Secretary of State actually have to say for herself this morning?
"So Labour will develop options for a rolling programme of electrification of our railways - potentially the largest programme of electrification in our history. I have asked Network Rail to consider the case for new lines if passenger numbers continue to grow in the future.
"And if we need new lines, of course we should be asking whether they should be high speed. We all know that in the current climate, with high food and fuel prices, getting good value for money is more important than ever.
So the promise of jam tomorrow but no 'bread'!
Telegrammed by Arrow Head
Be careful what you wish for.
The Apostle of the Pantograph did indeed slip in something radical, just not what was hoped for!
Mystic Wolmar can rest easy, for now.
Posts
