Someone's been a naughty boy!
This from The Grauniad on the 13th April:
The government is considering a £250m stimulus package for the railways aimed at boosting revenues and passenger numbers...
Nothing in the budget as far as we could see.
Qui bono?
This from Simon Jenkins in the Evening Standard...
Kill Crossrail to save the Tube.
Is the recession about to claim its first major railway project?
UPDATE: This, amazingly, from 'AA Milne'...
It's amazing how quickly journalists have changed their tune, only a few days ago, it was all "support the public sector" but now they're all banging on about saving money.
They're sensing the death of NuLabour, they want to be on the winning side at the next election.
Presumably Mr Milne is a Conservative gentleman?
Eye readers may recall that Labour MP and uber-blogger Tom Harris was caught advertising Caviar and Foie Gras on his blog.
Now Wolmar's at it; although he appears to be catering to somewhat earthier tastes.
Obviously the clever chappies who feed ads to his site have worked out that anyone interested in railways must be a billy-no-mates in search of love (or a quick knee trembler).
Near unalloyed joy last week, amongst the TOC community, following Iain Coucher's intervention on fares.
Speaking to the FT after his speech to Wednesday's Passenger Focus conference Coucher said:
"If people are genuinely not travelling because of high fares, that's an issue for us. If we want people to use the most environmentally sustainable form of transport, we should look at the impact of pricing."
But what's this?
According to consultants employed by both ORR, and Network Rail, the UK has the most expensive railway infrastructure in the world!
This year alone NR will receive a Network Grant of £3.76bn from the taxpayer.
With the government committed to getting rail users to contribute ever more to running the railway it seems timely to repeat Bowker's Law:
There are only two sources of railway funding - the consumer and taxpayers.
As the recession bites ever deeper passenger traffic is leveling off, whilst the global downturn in trade and the movement of goods is hitting railfreight hard. So getting more from the consumer will be a struggle.
Meanwhile, Network Rail has a fixed regulatory settlement that sees its funding guaranteed for the next five years.
So if fares are to come down, then somebody will need to pick up the slack.
Up to the challenge Network Rail?
This just in from Robert Wright over at the 'Pink 'Un'...
"Ithuriel is perhaps being a little disingenuous in his recent piece on the cost of French high-speed rail.
"I've regularly seen the figures the French quote for building their lines and simply don't believe any of them.
"Do you think they include half the costs the British figures do?
"Is there a cost in there for diversion of trains on existing routes when the building work interferes with them? But is that not still a cost the railways have to bear? Do you think French municipalities desperate to have a high-speed rail station charge RFF all the legal costs of getting planning permission, as I'm sure happens in Britain? I am certain many of the costs of such a project stay hidden in continental Europe and become exposed in Britain.
"On top of all this, the LGV Méditerranée is a relatively short stretch of line from Lyons to Marseilles through largely empty countryside with few interactions with the classic rail network.
"The Crossrail work will involve rebuilding entirely some of the busiest bits of the UK rail network whilst services are maintained.
"Whilst not surprised the costs appear similar I'd argue that the Crossrail money is probably rather better spent."
UPDATE: This just in from Ithuriel...
Busiest bits?
Reading remodelling, electrifying from Airport Junction to Maidenhead (sorry Reading, you'll have to use diesels) and what else?
In modern money the East Coast Main Line electrification cost under £1 billion, inculding resignalling and new trains.
Now that was a real project.
UPDATE: Robert Wright responds...
I'm fascinated by Ithuriel's defence of the ECML electrification, which is so often held up as an example of how these things should be done.
What I'd love to see is a costing for that project that includes the very low original cost of doing it, the cost of train disruption since as a result of the under-specification of the overhead line and the costs incurred so far and likely to be incurred in future putting the worst bits of it right.
The sums might not look quite as magnificent...
UPDATE: Ithuriel draws his spear...
ECML electrification was under-specified in only two respects.
1) The power supply requirement was based on a timetable which did not allow for the expansion in the timetable two decades after the specification was given to the engineers. Thus supply points have had to be strengthened.
2) The wind specification in the 1980s did not know about global arming.
Wind speeds are now higher than the design case.
But, this is irrelevant compared with what happened after 1996, when track maintenance was privatised. Briefly, maintenance of the OHLE was neglected and the importance of aligning the catenary with the tracks below was overlooked..
Finally, the introduction of the Eurostar, with the French GPU pantograph designed for TGV OHLE imposed much higher forces on the contact wire and catenary than the pantographs on the IC225 trains which ran successfully at over 140 mph..
As a result the neglected and abused OHLE began to fail.
A classic case of nurture, not nature.
UPDATE: Robert responds...
I don't want to prolong my debate with Ithuriel unnecessarily and I know anecdotal evidence is useless.
But his points do not square with my experience of using the ECML regularly just after electrification.
There were regular, serious overhead line failures in 1991 and 1992, long before Eurostars ever ran on the line.
I even got a complimentary first-class return from the InterCity press office when, in an early bit of journalistic endeavour, I started asking questions about what the problem was.
So I'm far from sure privatisation and GNER's Eurostars are entirely to blame...
This topic is now closed in case anyone starts asking embarrassing questions about who in the InterCity press office bought off disgruntled hacks with free tickets...
***Richard Parry to be London Underground's interim MD***
UPDATE: The Fact Compiler's view can be found over at Boris Watch...
The first from the outgoing Poet Laureate Andrew Motion:
Poor Alistair Darling's new budget
Invites us to listen and judge it
As though we'd agree
It was better to be
Au fait with hard truth and not fudge it.
But some difficult questions remain
When our pensions are all down the drain
Dole figures sky high
Debt figures awry
And high tax on what extras we gain.
Whose fault can we honestly say
Must it be for things being this way?
Banker pigs in the trough?
MPs? Sure enough.
And ourselves – what role did we play?
I'll just finish this short doggerel
With a personal comment as well
The duty of writing
Lines sharp and exciting
On this – it ain't mine, but my heirs as 'PL'.
The second motion is to be found on the Number 10 website (with a bowler tip to Guido and Ian Dale).
It calls on the Prime Minister to resign and already has over 11,000 signatures. You may wish to add your own...
You pays your money you takes your choice.
Telegrammed by 'Ze Germans'
Pictured is Jezzer Clarkson admiring his handy work, having just dropped 1/2 a ton of coal into DB Schenker's flower bed at Tyne Yard, whilst attempting to coal up Tornado.
Time to review the results of the latest exciting Eye survey.
Readers were invited to vote on whether InterCity stations should have barriers.
Everybody, with the exception of My Lord Adonis, will be unsurprised to discover that 75% of Eye readers believe that InterCity stations should remain ungated and open.
That said, 15% of you voted in favour of ticket barriers.
But what's this?
Some sort of skullduggery afoot?
Readers who voted for ticket barriers were clearly asked to confirm that they were also Lord Adonis.
Eye can only assume that Lord Adonis, or his advisors, took advantage of the tax payer funded Pilgrimage of Grice and voted from multiple IP addresses as he toured the country.
For this clear example of electoral malpractice the Eye's returning officer has decreed that only one vote can be recorded in favour of gates. Disappointing news for the department.
Perhaps the most interesting result was amongst those who confirmed that they were not listening.
This option was only visible to browsers accessing the Eye from DfT's high-level gsi domain servers.
As a consequence the Eye can exclusively reveal that a majority of civil servants, who expressed a preference, are just not listening.
No surprise there then.
This from today's Mail on Sunday...
"Labour MP Jim Devine... also criticised Network Rail for using taxpayers' money to hire the £450-an-hour showbusiness law firm Schillings in an abortive attempt to gag reports of the race and sex abuse claims."
Showbusiness law firm!
Perhaps it's time we asked Simon Cowell to vote on NR board bonuses.
Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
The historic wishing well on the southbound platform of Dunbar marks the point where Britain's railways first crossed the border.
It is pictured from one of the few daily NXEC trains that stops here.
Exciting news from the East Riding!
The Hull Mail reports on a local lobby group's meeting with My Lord Adonis to discuss "reopening" a railway route:
Minister hears Beverley-to-Hull rail case
Perhaps they could extend the scheme to include Bridlington and Scarborough as well.
Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
The goths and vandals of Network Rail continue on their course of pillage through the nation's Victorian rail heritage.
This from a powerful Leader in The Herald....
"Should ScotRail be trusted with the £2.5bn franchise to run 95% of Scotland's train services?"
Gosh!
Telegrammed by our man in the 4 foot
The Fact Compiler would pay good money to see this on load 12 at Peterborough!
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
You have to hand it to DafT when it comes to long term thinking.
Over a particularly dry Amontillado, Sir Humphrey Beeching - the Eye's source at the Department, whispered that the next HLOS will form part of a Transport white paper, rather than the dedicated Railway white paper approach used in 2007.
The next High Level Output Specification is due to be published in July 2012.
What's the betting that it's sneaked out during the week of the London Olympics (or Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee. Ed) so that massive cut backs are lost in a rush of golden euphoria?
Eye raises a collective bowler to the DafT spin doctors.
From last night's Evening Standard City spy column...
BOBBLE hats off to trainspotter-in-chief Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine, who says the Budget will provoke a financial — and geometric — calamity for industry investment. “
"The railway,” warns Harris, “would do well to get its wagons in a circle to fight its corner”.
Err...
UPDATE: You're a bitchy lot!
This from John B at Here be dragons...
"Let's all go to Barrow Hill Roundhouse!"
Home of the 'screaming dog'!
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Today's announcement by Network Rail of £2.3bn worth of Crossrail work includes:
According to the latest NR press release:
Network Rail today gave passengers and the people of London a boost by taking a big step forward in the delivery of the Crossrail and Reading projects. It has announced the intention to appoint Bechtel as its delivery partner for these vital congestion busting projects.
This move heralds the biggest investment in improving the railway for passengers using services between London, Bristol and Wales since it was built.
The Eye's resident Consultant Psychologist Dr Heinz Kiosk* writes:
"Readers will note this further example of Network Rail's corporate Brunel complex.
"This Freudian desire to outstrip the achievements of the dominant ur-father figure is of course an early sign of penis envy and reflects Network Rail Board's suppressed feeling of under achievement, compounded by a deep neurosis that they receive inadequate recognition.
"I would prescribe either the adoption, across the network, of an 8 ft track gauge or a doubling of bonuses..."
*With apologies to the late, great, Michael Wharton.
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