Network Rail unveils low cost option for Great Western Main line electrification...
With a bowler tip to both Captain Deltic and Frank Cheevers.
UPDATE: This just in from Driver Potter...
Most encouraging to see 'Almost' re-entering the UK Rolling Stock market with their latest EMU; not sure about the open-top concept.
Is this something to do with reducing power usage by making air conditioning redundant?
It has taken our North American cousins to come up with the best name for the Parliamentary troughing scandal.
This is Jon Stewart's take on Scamalot... (with a bowler tip to Iain Dale).
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Scamalot | ||||
| thedailyshow.com | ||||
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Interesting.
This from ShareCast...
Bus and train group National Express is to sell its London bus business, Travel London, to a subsidiary of NS Dutch Railways.
Of course NatEx and NedRail make good bedfellows.
What with both rumoured to be out of the running for the South Central franchise.
What bit of the current climate don't train operators get?
There is a recession on.
Everyone is feeling the squeeze.
So what in God's name made Worst Group think they could get away with this increase to First Class weekend upgrades, revealed in The Times...
On Sunday the cost of a one-way upgrade increased from £10 to £25 for journeys between stations in Cornwall and South Wales to London. On many other routes the price doubled to £20.
The public furore over troughing MPs with their tax payer funded clean moats, third homes and duck islands should have given them a clue.
The fact that Iain Coucher had the wit and gumption to sense the public mood and abandon a sizeable part of his annual bonus, should have shown them the way.
But no - in bus bandit land the mantra is 'screw the passenger for all we can get'.
Be of no doubt there is mounting fury over the avaraciousness of the 'service' sector.
The passengers (think voters, possibly as soon as October) will not put up with this cynical milking of their hard earned cash for long.
They will kick back and the railway will suffer, not that our short term TOC owner groups could care. After all they are merely "thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind".
No matter.
So what did Worst Group have to say for itself?
“We’ve changed the way Weekend First works to reflect the distance travelled rather than one, catch-all fare, which saw customers travelling from, for example, London to Reading paying the same price as someone going from London to Penzance."
So based on the fact that First have milked local passengers at the same rate as long-distance travellers over many years, does this mean that Weekend First prices between Reading and London have actually decreased.
Errr... no.
They of course remain the same.
Meanwhile those travelling to London from two of the most economically disadvantaged parts of our nation - Cornwall and South Wales - will be hit by the full 150% increase.
This complete disconnection between our industry and the world it is there to serve makes you weep.
This from Brand Republic...
Rail operator First Capital Connect (FCC) is to use Twitter to update passengers about delays and problems with rail network they are travelling on.
Good effort.
What with PJ running NR's 'Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit' and FCC using Twitter is the railway in danger of entering the 21st Century?
This from the Norwich Evening News...
Every seat for (today's and Friday's) 5pm and 5.30pm from London Liverpool Street to Norwich has been sold, National Express East Anglia bosses have warned.
An extra train has been scheduled for 5.28pm to run from the London station ending its journey at Ipswich ahead of the busy Bank Holiday Weekend.
Full marks to NXEA for running a relief and for publicising it...
This just in from PJ over at the Network Rail press office...
It's not my job to defend the cost of rail fares but I thought I had to share this story.
I have a packed agenda for a working day next week which involves four English cities.
This is my itinerary:
08:04 - dep King's Cross
10:07 - arr York
11:58 - dep York
13:19 - arr Manchester Piccadilly
15:07 - dep Manchester Piccadilly
16:31 - arr Birmingham New St
18:10 - dep Birmingham New St
19:35 - arr Euston
I don't have a status pass or get privs and all the tickets are standard singles booked six days in advance.
Any idea what it cost me?
£69 in total - the most expensive being £29 KX-York.
My gast is truly flabbered.
Thank you for this PJ.
Dear reader, was your gast also truly flabbered? Have you travelled a greater distance for less?
If so please let us know at this address:
The Moaning Minnies
Care of Geoff Hoon MP
999 Letsby Avenue
Westminster
SW1 W0E
So the supine Advertising Standards Authority has finally decided to act on the TrainLine's misleading and frankly rather insulting 'sheep ads'.
Not before time.
However, the spin has been spun and the resulting media coverage of the ban will probably give greater exposure to the TrainLies poxy website than the entire ad campaign.
The full ASA report can be found here.
There must be a better way to regulate crap advertising?
UPDATE: This just in from 'Sword of Truth'...
I was one of the complainants to the ASA about this TrainLies advert.
I initially took it up with Passenger Focus, who proved as much use as a chocolate fireguard. In fact I've lost count of the number of times I've received replies from the alleged passenger watchdog saying: “Passenger Focus is unable to help you on this matter”.
What do Passenger Focus actually do, apart from turn up on the TV, whinging about fares, overcrowding or rail passengers on buses?
All of which seems not to make a jot of difference to the journeys of real rail passengers.
UPDATE: Matthew Engel in his new book Eleven Minutes Late offers the following reflection on Passenger Focus...
Anthony Smith (is) the chief executive of something called Passenger Focus which purports to represent rail passengers.
Smith is appointed by the Board of Passenger Focus which in turn is appointed by the Government... this puts Smith roughly in the position of the court-appointed defence lawyer in a Soviet show trial.
He is allowed to put in the odd word on behalf of his clients - and indeed is frequently quoted in the news media - provided he does not do so too vigorously.
In the Soviet Union that would have got him shot. This being Britain he would merely endanger his OBE.
***Iain Dale suggesting that Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon may have the same CGT questions to answer as Hazel Blears***
The Eye wishes to apologise for having opposed the gating of InterCity stations.
The Fact Compiler erroneously believed that barriers would:
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
This written answer given in the House of Commons on the 19th May...
Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of the cost of running the rail network was met from passenger revenue in (a) 1997 and (b) 2003; and what proportion he estimates will be so met in (i) 2009 and (ii) 2013.
Paul Clark (Gillingham, Labour)
Details of historic passenger revenue and Government support are set out in National Rail Trends which is published by the Office of Rail Regulation.
An estimate of passenger revenue alongside planned Government support for the railway up until 2013-14 is set out in the White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Railway which was published in July 2007. Copies of both documents are available in the Libraries of the House.
(It really is as bad as we all thought then. Ed)
An extra-ordinary puff piece on Richard Bowker in tonight's Evening Standard.
Chris Blackhurst begins:
"There are some people I'd fancy my chances at poker with. Richard Bowker isn't one of them. The boss of National Express is in the midst of a crisis but he doesn't show it."
And so it continues, interminably, until the final icky making paragraph:
Hard to imagine now, but on the day National Express won the franchise, his wife was giving birth to their second child. They were so thrilled that they discussed calling him Waverley, after the Edinburgh station. Young Charlie Bowker at least can give thanks that better sense prevailed.
Nice of Bowker to drag his own family into the media spotlight. Of course we should be grateful for small mercies. Bowker, a friend of the Blairs, managed to avoid emulating Cherie and going for a full 'Balmoral disclosure'.
No matter.
So why did Bowker decide to bare his soul to the relaunched, good news, London Evening Standard.
Obviously any connection with the current search for a London Underground managing director is entirely co-incidental.
UPDATE: This just in from Charles Yerkes...
Interesting. Applications for the MD's role have to be in by the 22nd of this month.
And of course Bowker started his railway career at the Underground.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Not content with upsetting the transport correspondent of a national newspaper it now appears as if the Virgin media machine has annoyed the trade hacks.
The invitation to yesterday's PR junket at Euston station curiously failed to reach a number of key columnists including Captain Deltic and Wolmar.
Could this have anything to do with the fact that the event contained such thin gruel that it would have been ridiculed by anyone with an ounce of industry knowledge?
At this rate Beardie Rail will have no friends left amongst the chattering classes.
UPDATE: This just in from Nigel Harris over at Rail...
Just seen your piece and can confirm that despite also being excluded from the 'press conference' we were nonetheless showered with press releases and pictures - while Virgin media staff are eagerly offering to 'talk us through it.'
Hm. How odd. Why not just let us go in the first place? Ah. You also seem to have tumbled that one. Consensus amongst the specialist railway journos is that there was a desire to not have anyone there who really knew the railways.
"The event was for business desks only" we were told.
Which is presumably why it was also leaked to the Sunday Times Dominic O Connell, who ran a story two days before the event revealing what 'Richard Branson will say etc etc...'
Once upon a time, Virgin was desperate to have specialists journalists around - not least at its numerous Pendolino launches.
As My Lord Adonis described Rail as "essential reading" we can only hope Nigel doesn't run the non- story in the next issue. That way DafT will be unsighted on this latest piece of Beardie Rail puff.
This just in from Mutley...
Scrolling through the Letting of Rail Franchises report and paragraph 7 in chapter 1 caught my eye and may help explain a few things:
"The Department has operated with fewer staff than the Strategic Rail Authority, bringing the cost of managing franchises down from £7.3 million in 2004–05 to £5.7 million in 2007–08. Some 30% of staff had departed within two years of the change in responsibility.
The Department expects people to move on every two or three years and many Strategic Rail Authority staff had been in post for some time. The Department’s rail service delivery team does not normally recruit from the wider civil service. It recruits largely from the railway industry itself instead, and has difficulty in attracting and retaining staff because it pays salaries towards the bottom quartile of that industry."
The department expects resource to 'move on' every two to three years and has difficulty attracting and retaining staff because it pays 'bottom quartile' industry salaries.
As a result, 30% of staff have gone and operating costs reduced to £5.7m in 2007-2008.
In other words DafT franchise management costs have come down but the result is that the department is now populated by a revolving door of demotivated staff on burger-flipper wages!
But hang on a minute, is this the same department that spends £15m on consultancy fees to procure the frankenstein train which may or may not actually happen?
UPDATE: This just in from Robert Wright over at the Pink 'Un...
The section on how the DfT's franchising people weren't up to much because the organisation didn't pay enough was fascinating.
Perhaps a sign of how Network Rail may end up if the bonus-hackers get their way in future years...
UPDATE: This just in from J Alfred Prufrock...
So let's get this right.
If Coucher doesn't have the prospect of doubling his basic half a million plus a year he will either
A) Be demotivated and only go through the motions for his £250 per hour,
or
B) Say 'blow this for a game for soldiers and go and do something better paid and/or providing greater job satisfaction.
Must be hell being trapped in a job because you need the money.
I blame the ORR.
It's the system that's wrong.
They didn't need whips to get the rowers going flat out in the Greek triremes at the battle of Salamis.
But ORR assumes that the only way to get railwaymen to do a proper job is to make them dependent on bonuses for a half decent standard of living.
This just in from The Archer...
Spotted on a recent visit to China:
Are the days of Shanghai's branch lines numbered?
The RMT has opened a branch on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where it has signed up 50 paid and volunteer staff.
Is this the first RMT branch on a heritage line?
UPDATE: This just in from a Mr M-B...
There has been an RMT branch on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways for about five years.
As with the NYMR, a good number of both staff and volunteers are members. I am one of several volunteer drivers who are RMT members.
Here is a link to the RMT News dated October 2004 which includes a reference to the FR branch and a photo.
This slightly incredible story from getreading...
A group of pensioners living in Theale who refused to pay a massive hike in an access charge have had their garages barricaded.
There is obviously no messing with our Teutonic friends.
Passengers of Chiltern and WSMR may wish to take note.
Telegrammed by Sir Arthur Sullivan
There are those who work upon the railways, and those who live and breath them.
The latest exciting Eye feature draws attention to the Gentlemen of the Iron Road.
This particular gentleman, looking nervously down from the cab as 87 crosses the Cambrian, is a highly respected engineering director of one of our major rolling stock companies.
In a previous life he was right hand man to a former BR chairman.
He also made the following photograph possible - which makes him a 'good egg'.
Do you know who it is yet?
Telegrammed by J Alfred Prufrock
From a Press Conference at Euston today:
Turning to trains and track, Sir Richard continued: ”With a £1bn investment we could, within 3 to 5 years, see our trains running at 140mph with reductions in journey times between London and all West Coast destinations. What we are asking is that the Government re-thinks the franchise situation to give train operators the opportunity to invest, grow the rail business and lessen the burden on taxpayers.”
So three to five years. That's by the end of the current control Period. When Network Rail still hasn't decided what to do about the Stafford Bottleneck.
And nothing's going to happen until the next election in 2010, and then there's going to be a hiatus while the new government sorts out the funding priorities, then the Intercity West Coast franchise has to be re-let, then it's 2012.
There's more chance of Sir Beardie going into sub-orbital space than Pendolini running at 140 mph.
UPDATE: Dyspozytor over at Behind the Water Tower takes a different view...
Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
Welcome to Scotland - land of tolerance
This from the Caledonian Sleeper latest brochure.
"You may have to share your berth with a person of the same sex".
Just don't light up afterwards.
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