War crime at the Bluebell

What is it with heritage railways and the Second World War?

A number of years ago Peak Rail managed to offend nearly everybody by running a picture of an SS 're-enactor' on their magazine's front cover.

Now the Bluebell has gone one better.

Pictured on this website are supposed British soldiers 're-enacting' the summary execution of a German spy at Horsted Keynes station!

And it would appear for nothing more treasonable than carrying a bottle of beer.

Granted it may be lager but the death sentence for a lapse in taste?

Note in particular the British Military Police corporal administering a shot to the back of the head in the style of the Einsatzgruppen Kommando.

Presumably a War Crimes Tribunal was also 're-enacted' immediately after this tasteful tableaux concluded?

Perhaps Boris and TfL should recruit this over-zealous lot to police the alcohol free Underground.

UPDATE: This from 'Top Link man' over at another heritage railway...

We were appalled at the mock execution.

We do also run a war weekend, but the emphasis is on the home front, long distance nostalgia for egg powder, a degree of fun dressing up in 1940s fashions, a collection of suitable vehicles and of course the Spifire flypast.

Yes, there are soldiers in uniform and yes, some German ones at that - but nothing like this.

The mock execution was a ghastly error of judgement by someone - but please don't damn the heritage movement as a whole with this particular brush.

UPDATE: This from Korschtal...

I see the point, but if we only remember the nostalgic things, and not the darker side, I think we run a greater risk of forgetting what a terrible thing war is, and what it does to people - this sort of thing did happen and often to people who were innocent.

I think it depends how it is done - and I can't comment on that as I wasn't there - but I don't think reenacting this sort of thing is automatically wrong.

It may also serve as a reminder of what a police state looks like and make people think carefully about whom and what they vote for.

UPDATE: This just from Our man in the four foot...

I’m sorry?

Was that re-enacting?

As a definition: ‘Historical re-enactment is a type of role-play in which participants attempt to recreate some aspects of a historical event or period’.

As I very much doubt that any such summary execution took place on the British mainland – where is the re-enactment aspect?

Once again this is simply a bunch of little boys in uniforms playing soldiers.

I would have expected better from the Bluebell but it appears they have also sunk into the mire of piss-poor heritage events.

Nostalgia is fine but this stuff is effectively ‘tabloid’ history and demeans those who fought for our freedom 70 years ago.

So do us a favour guys…..grow up!

UPDATE: This view from 'PD'...

As one of the "Little Boys who need to grow up".

May I first of all say I have been involved in assisting "Heritage Railways" to put on 1940s vents for over 15 years. In that time, I, and many of my friends and associates have directly contributed to bringing in tens of thousands of pounds, if not hundreds of thousands, to keep Steam Railways going.

Volunteers and willing helpers, not lofty elitists keep these things running.

And the so called "SS Soldier" on the cover of the Peak Rail journal is dressed in Army camouflage and representing an ordinary German Army Grenadier...



...just as I would not know a 2-4-4 Saddle tank from a 4-6-4 Deltic - please don't simply parrot another hack's scrawlings.

This is a big wide world and there is room for everyone except the intolerant!

Oh - and to address the point of the execution - Abhorrent - repulsive and out of place - No responsible group allied or otherwise would contemplate such a vile pantomime.

This is obviously the actions of two aged duffers out to shock or show off. It has no place or value in current Living History or Re-enactment.

UPDATE: This from The Master...

What's the preservation movement come to?

Summary executions as a form of family entertainment?

Thank heaven no railway has a rake of cattle trucks otherwise we might see a 'tasteful' re-enactment of trains to... (deleted for reasons of taste).

UPDATE: The Sun has picked up the story.

UPDATE: This just in from our Independent Expert...

The worst aspect of this debacle is that it feeds the view of most Fleet Street journos that railway enthusiasts are either saddos or weirdos!

UPDATE 13:00 Monday 26th May: Incredibly the offending page is still up...

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

My local Lidl doesn't seem to stock the lager shown but the label is not entirely clear.

Can someone advise on the correct brand name?

Whitsun madness UndergrounD

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
With Liverpool Street closed for engineering work this weekend weary travellers are being fed onto the Central line at Stratford - like meat into a mincer.

With the Jubilee shut beyond London Bridge and no Loo Roll there is little choice of trains into the centre except via this sweating hell.

So which muppet in S&SD programmed the train announcement system to proclaim: "Thank you for choosing the Central line" at every swealtering station?

UPDATE: This from D-Notice who rather helpfully advises that...

The DLR is working fine for people who want to go from Stratford to central London.

Stuff Weary Travellers; count the money.

Telegrammed by The Master
One of the beauties of rail over air travel is that you don't have to turn up two hours ahead and queue for check-in.

Alas the modern railway is doing its best to bugger up this benefit.

Despite arriving 28 minutes early at Waterloo today all my time was spent queuing at the self-service machines to try and buy a ticket.


Fifteen machines are provided, but despite this chaos descends as soon as anyone unfamiliar with them joins the queue.

Each transaction takes an age - and it's not as if you can just walk on to the train and buy your ticket.

Of course Waterloo is now gated and SWT take great pleasure in administering a penalty fare to any passenger foolish enough to attempt buying a ticket on the train.

So much for a pleasurable travelling experience.

I made my train with only a few minutes to spare and sans any refreshments.

Thanks SWT.

UPDATE 26/05/09: This just in from 'Mike'...

Victoria on 19th May...

Despite the two companies operating services there both being owned by Govia, there are separate machines, with only two on the South Eastern side. Only one of which was working.

Off to the South Central side only to see a notice taped onto all machines "Due to a download problem, Southeastern destinations are not available from this machine".

If it wasn't for the barriers, Southeastern are pretty good at selling tickets on Ramsgate/Dover trains.

How un-joined up is that?

NR low cost electrification shocker

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?

Scamalot

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
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Nice.

If the devil could cast his net...

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.

First for really peeing passengers off

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.

First to Twitter

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?

NXEA's Whitsun Bank Holiday relief

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...

Another NR fares intervention!

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

Lies, damned lies and TrainLies

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.

Hoon of that Ilk?

***Iain Dale suggesting that Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon may have the same CGT questions to answer as Hazel Blears***

Resounding success at Norwich

The Eye wishes to apologise for having opposed the gating of InterCity stations.

The Fact Compiler erroneously believed that barriers would:

• cause unnecessary delay to passengers with luggage
• discriminate against the mobility impaired
• prove dangerous to children and dogs
• destroy the age old tradition of seeing your loved ones aboard a train
• and remove the eyes and ears of the railway (gricers) from platforms.

Based on the experience of Norwich the Fact Compiler now knows this not to be true.


The blessed things have been taken OOU because they don't work.


No shit Sherlock.

The truth that dare not speak its name...

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)

Sinking ships?

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.

Your name's not on the list

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.

More on the PAC report

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.

International news

This just in from The Archer...

Spotted on a recent visit to China:


Are the days of Shanghai's branch lines numbered?

RMT opens branch on the NYMR

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.

DB Schenker 'anschluss' garages

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.