As any fule kno the railway industry is leakier than a vacuum brake.
So it came as no surprise when Eye received the following cyptic message from "NFRIP Insider"...
Nemesis advised to go short on lunchtime champagne at tomorrow's Golden Spanners.
What can this mean?
Hopefully such austerity will allow the Railway Children to benefit later that evening?
UPDATE: This from The Water Baby...
Enough slating of the PowerHauls please!
Surely we live in a society already spoilt enough by pressure to conform to visual stereotypes of a certain body[shell] image?
I have a hunch the distinctive '70's will one day be regarded as cult classics.
So, in keeping with the Eye's recent pop penchant, allow me to paraphrase an excellent Sugababes track: 'if they're ugly, then so are we...'
This just in from Brian Ayre (the low cost railway pundit)...
Will somebody please explain to the BBC that ending the c2c franchise on the date it was due to end, and not giving NXEA an optional three year extension, isn't "Stripping National Express of its remaining franchises".
I've had three calls from Aunty Beeb today - all using that phrase and when I tell them it isn't correct they go all glum, like someone has spoiled their party!
Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good story!
UPDATE: Captain Deltic calls to say...
Young Mr Miles did a sterling job on putting the record straight on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours.
UPDATE: I.K. Gricer has obviously kept Alistair Osborne up to speed over at the Daily Telegraph...
"Adonis backtracks on threat to take back franchises from National Express"
Indeed.
Whilst Lord Adonis is busy tidying up lose ends at National Express, the piss-poor performance over at FuCC continues.
This from Bacon Butty...
At least NXEA can run a full timetable.
FuCC still on half-service for a second full week
Come on Adonis, time for action...
Meanwhile infuriated passengers are being invited to get their own back on the shabby operator by tweeting FCC acronyms to the I hate Thameslink blog.
Perhaps frustrated Eye readers might like to have a go.
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
According to Lord Adonis:
In determining the future of the C2C and NXEA franchises, my overriding concern has been to minimise disruption to passengers and staff, and cost to the taxpayer, while ensuring that train companies stand by their commitments. I judge these objectives are best served by:
Network Rail played a blinder in providing flood stricken town Workington with a temporary new station to help reconnect the two halves of the divided town.
Now Northern have managed to magic up some 'spare' resources to strengthen existing and provide additional morning and evening services:
This from the News and Star...
It has doubled capacity on its normal services and the extra services begin today and continue tomorrow.
They are:
0845 Workington - Maryport
0900 Maryport –Workington
1645 Workington - Maryport
1700 Maryport - Workington
1730 Workington - Maryport
1750 Maryport - Workington
Good effort. Eye congratulates all involved - makes you proud to be a railwayman.
UPDATE: This from Bendolino via Twitter...
Wonder if Eye knew that NR allowed BT to run temp. cables over viaduct to back up dodgy links over road bridge?
Alstom may be counting its blessings, now that it is out of the running for the new Thameslink fleet.
This response from Moley to a question by Stephen Hammond MP given in the House on the 24th November:
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer of 12 November 2009, Official Report, column 639W, on Thameslink: Rolling Stock, when he expects to (a) announce the preferred bidder and (b) place the final order for the Thameslink rolling stock programme.
Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)
The identification of a preferred bidder prior to final award will depend on the progress of the evaluation and negotiations with the remaining bidders. As set in out in my answer of 12 November 2009, Hansard, column 639W, the Department for Transport is currently planning to award the order around autumn 2010.
So the order for these new trains will not be placed until Autumn 2010.
Which is of course after the date of the General Election (presumed to be the 6th May 2010).
And the Tories have promised an austerity budget within 50 days of taking power.
Is the Eye alone in thinking that this order is now doomed?
Of course it's a nice poison chalice to pass on to the Tories who will get the blame for cancelling the order.
Much excitement from the Chatterati over the 'news' that National Express is to lose its remaining rail franchises.
This, for instance, from The Times...
National Express is to be stripped of its remaining rail franchise three years early, leaving the troubled transport company with just its bus business.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said today that it was terminating National Express’s East Anglia franchise after a decision to nationalise its East Coast main line rail service this year.
First point to make - this is not the application of Cross Default as promised by the Noble Lord during his slightly excitable interview with the Today Programme on the 1st July.
First there was Yoghurt Rail...
Now there's Yoghurt Air!
Coming to an aerodrome near you soon.
Eye understands that there is some form of competition on the Devil's Lantern tonight.
Apparently it has the potential to help the Bluebell Railway convert a coach so that the mobility impaired can enjoy the railway.
This from Poser 500...
Any chance of a plug on your blog?
Later this evening, the ITV Meridian East region (essentially Kent & Sussex) local television news programme at 6pm will include a film detailing the Bluebell's prospective project.
Four other projects have already gone two-by-two on Monday and Tuesday. The runner up over the three days with the most votes will also receive a grant.
And this from the Bluebell Railway's website...
The People's Millions - Bluebell Railway project - Please vote for us today
Our project to restore London Chatham & Dover Railway carriage No.51 as our wheel-chair accessible Victorian carriage project needs your support today.
Please ring: 0871 626 88 51 between 9am and Midnight today, Wednesday 25th November
Calls cost 10p each from land-lines; calls via other operators may cost more. Only UK originated calls are counted.
See The People's Millions web site for more details.
Vote early...
This from railway peer Lord Bradshaw in yesterday's debate on the Queen's speech...
I should say to the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, that this is also a challenge to the Conservatives. We do not buy very easily into the idea that they were first in the field with high-speed rail. I remember working for the railway when a Conservative Government sent a member to the British Railways Board with a remit to preside over the orderly running-down of the railway, so I will take no lessons from them on that.
Indeed.
Telegrammed by Ithuriel
According to this written answer from Chris Mole MP on March 24
From 2005 to October 2009, the Department for Transport has spent £21 million on the Intercity Express Programme. This resource has included financial, procurement, programme management, technical, legal, industry, business case and other specialist advice required to ensure the successful delivery of a project of the scale of the Intercity Express Programme. This figure should be considered in the context of the Intercity Express Programme contract value of £7.5 billion.
Now, since the preferred bidder Agility Trains is struggling to raise £500 million in funding to get the project off the ground...
And since this will only buy around 170 vehicles...
And since DfT Rail is still talking about starting on the East Coast Main Line...
And since this would mean replacing the IC225 fleet prematurely and result in a substantially higher train leasing cost...
And since Great Western Electrification is still at an early stage and is unlikely to be completed before 2017...
And since the cautious civil servants at DfT Rail who aren't 'cranks' are discussing with the ROSCOs life extension of IC125 to 2035...
That £21 million is a scandalous waste of money and the project should be cancelled forthwith!
And before putting his name to answers like this Moley should ask for a breakdown of where that spurious £7.5 billion figure comes from.
This from William Dargan...
After years of playing catchup it now appears that the Rail Accident and Investigation Branch are able to investigate and publish reports into events before they even happen!
How very reassuring.
Twitter is abuzz with the news that Richard Baker, Virgin's social media guru, has quit.
Richard made the shock announcement via Twitter early this evening.
His 1,264 followers were directed to a statement on his website which said:
I just couldn’t get away from the niggling feeling that I wasn’t meant to be there. I was meant to be doing 'Something Else'.
I have a wealth of experience in service, communications, human resources, leadership and influencing at board level - and am studying for my MBA. I have a real passion for internal and external engagement.
Richard has spent almost ten years at the InterCity West Coast operator, most recently as General Manager for Liverpool and the North Wales Coast.
He also played a key role in giving the TOC a well respected presence in Social Media forums.
Eye commends him to any railway company seriously thinking about using Social Media to build both the brand and relationships.
Richard's blog post explaining why he is leaving, and with links to his CV, can be found here.
Hire him now!
This from the Gruaniad...
The budget airline EasyJet has been forced to withdraw almost 300,000 copies of its in-flight magazine because of protests over its use of Holocaust memorial sites as a backdrop for a fashion feature.
Eye salutes the marketing genius (sic) behind this and wishes them all the very best in their new career - with fries please.
Nice bit of video - but what an extraordinary piece of demode music...
With a bowler tip to @andylaird25 via Twitter
UPDATE: This from PZT over at errr.. Peezedtee...
What do you mean, "an extraordinary piece of demode music"?
It's very nice music - PROPER music, for a change.
Presumably to chime with the fact that the chef is talking about it being an old-fashioned service.
Nothing extraodinary about it at all!
Nothing yet on the DfT website but according to the RMT...
The government have also failed to trigger the cross-default clauses on National Express’s C2C service with that franchise being allowed to run its course until retendering and re-letting in November 2011.
No shit Sherlock.
UPDATE: This from The Archer...
RMT’s comments about c2c are more interesting for what they don’t say than for what they do.
The c2c franchise is due to expire in 2011 so an early termination now wouldn’t see a new franchised operator in place before then anyway, as per the current East Coast re-letting timetable.
RMT don’t however mention NXEA and here the franchise is due to run until at least 2011, with a potential extension to 2014 for good behavior.
Sources suggest that the late change in the handback date of NXEC, from December 09 to November 09, means that NXEA will now fail the good behavior test so DfT can appoint a new franchised operator on this route in 2011 rather than 2014, so a sort of cross default half-way house.
However, as the franchise payments agreed between NXEA and SRA were very back-end loaded, what the lack of extension of the franchise could actually mean is upwards of £200m that NX won’t now have to pay to DfT so I can’t image NX would be too disappointed to lose the extension.
An interesting Parliamentary Question from Blaydon MP David Anderson...
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer of 5 November 2009, Official Report, column 1103W on railways; franchises, which franchise operator received a payment from his Department in October 2006; and how much that payment was.
To which Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour) gave the following answer on the 10th November
The Department for Transport does not publish details on compensation payments made to individual train operating companies for net losses arising from industrial action on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
Hmmm... perhaps Eye can help.
Readers of the 11th November edition of Rail Business Intelligence will have noted an interesting table on p4, based on information given by Moley himself to the House on the 4th November.
It reveals that National Express East Anglia received a payment from DafT of £3.4m in 2006/07.
As Cap and Collar for NXEA didn't kick in till 2008 it seems reasonable to assume that the £3.4m was indeed given as compensation for Industrial Action, as suggested by Mr Anderson's pointed question.
Happily things are much improved today - for train operators.
One of the perversities of Cap and Collar is that it encourages TOCs not to run trains.
Consider this win - win situation.
An operator, for the sake of arguament let's call it First Capital Connect, is a beneficiary of Cap and Collar
Under Cap and Collar DafT pays for 80% of revenue shortfall.
Were FuCC to suffer industrial action with a consequent loss of revenue DafT picks up 80% of the tab, meanwhile the TOC makes a net saving on staff and operating costs by not running trains.
So don't expect First to be in any hurry to resolve its current IR difficulties whilst a supine DafT continues to shell out the readies.
Truly the economics of the madhouse.
This from then Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon, in February this year:
"This announcement demonstrates that this Government is prepared to invest, even in difficult economic times, by improving our national infrastructure. It is good news for the British Economy that over 12,500 jobs will be created and safeguarded; good news for the regions that the Government is supporting significant inward investment; and good news for passengers that we are taking the steps necessary to improve their rail journeys."
Good news indeed.
But what's this?
According to Hitachi yesterday, as reported by Yahoo:
The deal, expected to be inked by March 2010, is worth one trillion yen (11.36 billion dollars) and will create up to 500 jobs, the official said, adding that the location of the assembly plant remained undecided.
So where are the rest coming from?
UPDATE: This from J Alfred Prufrock...
Since the Agility Trains consortium is struggling to raise £500 million of funding for IEP, Hitachi must be wondering whether under 200 vehicles are worth building in Japan, let alone in a new factory in the UK.
No wonder DfT Rail is actively discussing life extension of the FGW IC125 fleet to beyond 2030.
And that's before the austerity measures cut in after the election.
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