NatEx reinvogorated in the New Year!

The formerly-doomed National Express is playing hardball, is spinning or has taken Lord Adonis' shilling.

This from the BBC...

Rail fares for National Express East Anglia are either being frozen or being reduced, the train company has said.

Eye awaits confirmation from Readers, Passenger Focus or Barry Doe (to whom we wish a speedy recovery).

UPDATE: This from Passenger Focus...

There will be some increases peppered around but broadly it appears to be true!

Good for them!

Whether restrictions have changed is something we are still looking into...

2009 Railway Eye stat porn

In 2009 Railway Eye was visited 230,284 times by 53,152 unique visitors.


Top 100 corporate readership sources:

1. network rail
2. go-ahead-group uk
3. manchester metropolitan university
4. w s atkins
5. national express group plc
6. university of cambridge
7. oxford university
8. hsbc bank plc uk
9. east midlands trains
10. emap plc
11. hitachi europe ltd
12. norfolk county council
13. merseyrail electrics 2002 ltd
14. university of liverpool
15. pnn
16. denton wilde sapte
17. westinghouse rail system ltd.
18. london transport users committee
19. parsons brinckerhoff
20. west yorkshire public transport exec-1
21. the tube lines
22. hitachi europe ltd
23. scott wilson
24. abbey national treasury services
25. ipc media ltd
26. scottish water
27. south west trains ltd
28. university of exeter
29. science museum
30. pricewaterhousecoopers
31. english welsh and scottish railways
32. deutsche bank
33. arriva plc
34. lancashire county council
35. virgin trains
36. leicester city council
37. crossrail london networks
38. ove arup & partners
39. london 2012 ltd
40. university of durham
41. serco group plc
42. university of wales bangor
43. british broadcasting corporation
44. ashurst morris crisp
45. university of southampton
46. freightliner limited
47. centro birmingham
48. university of leeds
49. h bauer publishing ltd
50. south bank polytechnic
51. trainline.com ltd
52. competition commission
53. interfleet technology ltd
54. railcare (formally alstom)
55. houses of parliament
56. nottingham city council
57. central trains limited
58. university of bath
59. telegraph group limited
60. city of nottingham council
61. passenger focus
62. south east trains
63. university of york
64. aston martin lagonda limited
65. british airports authority
66. northern rail ltd (york)
67. the university of plymouth
68. andrews & arnold ltd
69. university college london
70. nspcc
71. commission for equality & human rights
72. lloydstsb cmf
73. hoare govett services
74. bbc broadcasting dataservices ltd
75. the university of bristol
76. greater london authority
77. amoco corporation
78. associated newspapers ltd
79. first group
80. haberdashers askes school
81. fords of winsford
82. laing orourke plc
83. london school of economics and political science
84. european court of justice
85. imperial college london
86. queen mary and westfield college
87. research in motion uk limited
88. university of wales aberystwyth
89. loughborough university
90. north lincolnshire council
91. university of central lancashire
92. royal bank of canada trust corporation limited
93. sheffield hallam university
94. city university
95. apple computer inc.
96. british sky broadcasting ltd.
97. university of sussex
98. ford motor company
99. research machines plc
100. leeds city council

N.B. The vast majority of readers do not have their own servers.

Top 20 referring sites...

1. google
2. wnxxforum.com
3. newsnow.co.uk
4. railforums.co.uk
5. rail-magazine.com
6. londonreconnections.blogspot.com
7. wimbledonparkdepot.spaces.live.com
8. tomharris.org.uk
9. twitter.com
10. boriswatch.co.uk
11. railchat.co.uk
12. facebook.com
13. theticketcollector.wordpress.com
14. polishrail.wordpress.com
15. christianwolmar.co.uk
16. firstgreatwestern.info
17. englishrail.wordpress.com
18. northernrailways.co.uk
19. districtdave.proboards.com
20. paulbigland.fotopic.net

Eye thanks all readers and contributors for their continued support throughout 2009.

UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...

*In best Mike Smash voice*:

"And in at number seven it's Driver Potter. Third rail-mungous, mate."

It's my pleasure to support, old thing.

All the best for 2010. Peace!

UPDATE: This from Chionanthus Virginicus (et uxor)

Thanks for your "in depth" probing in 2009.

Look forward to seeing if IEP can be killed in 2010!

Best Wishes for 2010 to you and to the Eye's family of compilers...

UPDATE: This from our man in the Four Foot...

My entry for the railway gardens and pointless sign competition - only in America!


Happy new year from Our Man in the 4'!

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

Our Man in the Four Foot is slightly out on his geography about the train coming into collision with the roadsign.

To save anyone coming out from Behind the Water Tower with the correcting fluid, it is actually in Poland.

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku!

Lord of the Jungle for Tory Transport Secretary?

This extraordinary suggestion from the Grauniad today...

The shadow transport minister, Theresa Villiers, lacks clout... So step forward, Lord Heseltine. Britain's transport revolution could be your lasting monument.

Hezza, one of the Tory Big Beasts, announced in December that he would surrender the day to day running of his Haymarket publishing empire to his son Rupert this month.

With second jobs outside Parliament now out of favour this would free him to take up a chunky role in any new Tory administration.

The Daily Mail had already predicted the return of Tarzan to the front bench last October:

Lord Heseltine, 76 – nicknamed ‘Tarzan’ after swinging the Commons mace at Labour MPs in the Seventies – would serve for the first year of a Tory administration as an unpaid Minister without Portfolio in the Lords.

And of course there is no longer any obstacle to an unelected peer running transport - this precedent was established by no less a person than the High Speed Evangelist himself!

The big loser, were such an appointment to be made, would be shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond, who has made no secret of his desire for the top job.

Of course the Guardian leader piece might have been influenced by media savvy Lord Adonis himself - keen to safeguard his High Speed legacy or merely create mischief for the opposition?

Either way 2010 promises to turn up several more surprises as we head towards the General Election.

Signal shighting - East Midlands Parkway

This from a Mr Powell...

If there are a spate of SPADs around East Midlands Parkway in coming months, this may be why...


Note the important sign refers to the now non-existent TT415, when the real signal is ST4497!

Does Network Rail know and can't be bothered to sort it, or have they just not noticed yet?

I think we should be told!

Mystic Adonis anticipates High Speed Two report

Telegrammed by Le Flaneur
Do not trust him gentle maiden!

According to a DfT press release, embargoed for 01.00 Wednesday 30 December:

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis has predicted 2010 will be the year of high-speed rail in the UK on the day he received what could prove to be a landmark report for the future of transport in this country.

High Speed Two - the company set up to advise the Government on the development of high-speed rail services between London and Scotland - delivers its highly-anticipated report today.

But what did I see whilst strolling along Victoria Street this very day, 31 December?

Outside No 55. the former home of the Strategic Rail Authority and now containing the offices of HS2L, but reports and engineering drawings galore, bearing the HS2 logo, being loaded into vehicle.

When asked where the load was going the driver replied 'Marsham Street, Guv'.

So why did the Noble Lord claim to have received the report a day early?

Presumably to avoid it being lost in the New Year's Eve news dead spot.

Railway Gongs

With a bowler tip to a Mr Murray...

ORDER OF THE BATH

Christopher BOLT
Arbiter, London Underground Public Private Partnership Agreements and lately Chairman, Office of Rail Regulation.
( Somerset )


CBE

Adrian SHOOTER
Chairman, Chiltern Railway Company Ltd.
For services to the Rail Industry.
(Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire)


OBE

Stuart Kemp BAKER
Deputy Director, National Projects, Rail and National Networks,
Department for Transport.
( York , North Yorkshire )

Michael Clifford HART
Director, Ffestinog Railway Company and Chairman, Welsh Highland Railway Construction Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry.
(Rotherham, South Yorkshire )

Heidi, Mrs MOTTRAM
Managing Director, Northern Rail.
For services to the Rail Industry.
(Holmfirth, West Yorkshire )


MBE

John Alfred BIGNY
For services to Edenbridge and District Rail Travellers' Association
Kent.
( Kent )

Richard John BURNINGHAM
Manager, Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership.
For services to the Rail Industry in the South West.
( Plymouth , Devon )

Peter Adrian ROBERTS
Chairman, Association of Community Rail Partnerships.
For services to Rural Transport.
(Sleaford, Lincolnshire )

Eye offers its congratulations to all the above.

UPDATE: This from a Mr 1.609344 kilometers...

Stuart Baker!?!

Presumably for services to HLOS and the Bionic Duckweed industry I guess!

Surely it can't be for the thinking behind the IEP?

Eye welcomes back Adonis - Shocker

(With a bowler tip to the latest edition of New Transit magazine...)

Foreign news...

This just in from the Disciple of the Third Rail...

This lesson is brought to us from the American Chapter of Gricers International and is entitled:

"How not to react when an innocent member of the public almost walks into you because they are using their bloody iPod and not watching where they're going as they're supposed to."

And up until 25 seconds in, the cameraman was doing so well...




Regards, Driver Potter (who doesn't own an iPod)

New Year's Honours List - Shocker

A Royal Warrant for the National Passenger Survey?


Or the Order of the Chop for cheeky Passenger Focus!

Snow way to run a railway

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
At around 08.45 yesterday the National Rail website listed no fewer than six entries that said that due to poor weather conditions buses were replacing trains!

The routes were:

+ Horsham & Littlehampton

+ Littlehampton/Bognor Regis/Chichester & Havant

+ Ebbw Vale & Cardiff Central

+ Gatwick Airport & Horsham

+ Guildford & Effingham Junction (good job the sage has moved)

+ Tonbridge & Hastings

Clearly neither Network Coach nor the Bus Bandits now see rail as the primary all-weather mode of transport.

Underground musings...

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
With Tube Lines over-time on resignalling and way-over the PPP Arbiter's budgetary allowance can it be before the Government calls in its project doctors of choice?

Jubilee Line Extension running late and over budget threatening the opening of the Dome - boot out inefficient old London Underground managers and bring in Bechtel.

West Coast Route Modernisation running late and over-budget - boot out inefficient old Railtrack managers and bring in Bechtel.

How long before the inefficient old Tube Line managers are also booted out and Bechtel are called in to fix the mess?

(Shome mishtake shurley Ed)

Cranmer identifies the elephant not in the room!

Wise words from the Tedious Old God-botherer...

Where is Lord Adonis?

Indeed.

Agency puffs as Eurostar burns

This from PR Week...

MD of conversation shop We Are Social, Robin Grant, has declared the Eurostar crisis as 'good news' for his agency in an interview with PRWeek.

Happy days!

Good to see that promoting the agency comes before safeguarding the reputation of the client.

No doubt this fabulous piece of PR puffery will do much to avert the ire of furious passengers, vindictive media and the governments of both Britain and France?

Eye salutes 'conversion shop' We are Social Jerks.

UPDATE: This from Robin Grant...

Bearing in mind the previous content of the PR Week story, I totally understand the content of your latest blog post.

However, as you'll note, their story has now been edited to reflect the words I actually used:

'From our perspective the way we have managed the social media is good news for us and our relationship with Eurostar.'

Which as I hope you can appreciate, has a different meaning to the way they originally reported it.

UPDATE: Richard Baker suggests how Eurostar should have 'digitally engaged'.

You should be integrating social media into your business to engage with your internal, as well as your external, customers.

Sound advice and no hint of PR Week puffery!

Aslef craps on Eurostar

Earth to Aslef, come in Aslef...

This surreal bollocks just issued by the brothers...

Further strike action will take place on Eurostar on 26 – 27 December.

We hope that we can resolve this dispute with Eurostar so that they can provide full cover to deal with further disruption caused by technical failures.

Is there a Darwin Award for Unions?

Brown apologises - Official

So Richard has gone where Gordon dare not.

About time too.

According to the Southport Visiter:

The high-speed rail company's chief executive Richard Brown said he was "very, very sorry" about what had happened.

Giggling Richard has even set his slice of humble pie to music.



Eye is waiting for something similar from infrastructure operator Eurobungle, who have much to answer for.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Don't for God's sake suggest it's the wrong kind of snow.

Although according to the pretty graphics on the Grauniad website that's exactly what it is.

UPDATE: This from PR Monkey...

Eurostar are clearly missing Simon Montague.

I bet he wouldn't have stuck his half dressed CEO in a broom cupboard and released the footage to YouTube!



If Richard Brown still has a job by the end of Christmas he needs to recruit a new PR team.

UPDATE: This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...

In a broom cupboard?

Looks more like a wrecker having been persuaded into confessing to his anti-soviet misdemeanours at a 1930s Moscow show trial before being taken out and liquidated.

And has any body seen the so-called Brown on TV again?

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

This is like the bad old days, immediately after privatisation, when the UK rail industry couldn't talk with one voice.

This is the headline from a Eurotunnel press release:

Eurotunnel rescues Eurostar

Bloody cheek!

Perhaps someone should ask Eurobungle who kept shoving trains into the Chunnell after the first couple failed.

UPDATE: Over to Longrider for words of wisdom...

Hindsight always illustrates missed opportunities.

More here.

UPDATE: Wolmar offers his reflections on the PR disaster over at The Times:

The tone adopted by Richard Brown, the head of Eurostar, said it all. He was vaguely apologetic, but he did not get the enormity of the cock-up. Like a football manager whose team had just lost 7-0 he still thought they had played well.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail has its sights on Eurostar Ops Director Nicolas Petrovic.

Petrovic was due to be promoted to the role of Chief Executive in the New Year when Richard Brown is supposed to become Executive Chairman.

Alas, with both the French and British governments looking for someone to blame the planned succession may now be in disaray.

The sound of industry CVs being burnished is almost deafening!

In between the tinsel, mince pies and frivolity...

...please spare a thought for those whose Christmas will be less than festive.




Help the Railway Children reach out to a child on our streets this Christmas by making a donation today.

www.railwaychildren.org.uk/donate

Hero signalman Bill Taylor recognised

This from the BBC...

A memorial plaque has been unveiled in Cumbria to honour a railway signalman who prevented a potential disaster 25 years ago.

Good effort.

At the forefront of Railway Research

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Good to see RSSB making good use of its £15 million Research Budget and finding topics British Rail Research overlooked.

• T703 Facilitating shared expectations between passengers and front-line staff

That's got to be first for the chop in DafT's value for money review.

UPDATE: This, surprisingly, from the late Enid Blyton...

I was disappointed to to see that RSSB ignored my my extensive oeuvre in this latest research project.

I would have thought that naughty goblins not being able to read the safety notices and thus coming to a sticky end would have been a point worth making in these days of falling child literacy.

UPDATE: This just in from Herr Ernst Mach...

Liebe Fact Compiler just to show that we Austrians have a sense of humour can I say that I was blown over by this latest report from RSSB.

Guidance on protecting people from the aerodynamic effects of passing trains

Very funny, ja?

UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...

I fear Herr Mach has not entirely understood the issues about aerodynamics of passing trains. Austria does not yet sport a station sign quite as promising as this one at Penrith.


In Britain the passenger comes first!

Queen FuCCs - Official

From Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph...


Dontcha love Her!

All together now... God save our gracious...

A reader writes...

With a bowler tip to UK.Railways...

You could make a full time job out of correcting the wilful and/or ignorant distortions on that blog. It's worse than the Daily Express, or the worst excesses of the DfT's press release department. I can't believe intelligent people read it.

Eye welcomes another satisfied customer.

UPDATE: This from a gentleman in Tunbridge Wells...

Sir,

The question is not whether intelligent people read Railway Eye but whether intelligent people write it.

I remain, sir, Disgusted