Telegrammed by Billy Connections
Not a new magazine but Eye's latest, exciting, competition.
Using your skill and judgment you are invited to guess which of the two plaques below was formally unveiled today.
This one...
Or this one...
The former or the latter?
What a forgiving friend Mrs Paint-Shoppro can be...
This from Thomas Crapper...
Unveiling plans for a new 'bog standard loo' for train travellers, Chris Green said ancient, dirty and inadequate toilets that hark back to the Victorian age of steam must be ripped out.
He urged Britain's 2,500 stations to install a standardised national model that is clean, efficient and available to waiting passengers.
Clearly the so-called 'station tsar' is behind the times. 
This three year old photo of the formal opening of the new toilets at Welwyn Garden City shows that the Government's rail manager of choice was well ahead of the times.
UPDATE: This from S N Barnes...
I do hope that the new equipment will come with the same clear instructions, here is an fine example from the urinals which graced the facility at Stirling Station.
Of course Crapper's patent actually refers to the U bend, which forms the airtight seal to stop the smell of the sewer from coming back up the pipe.
Could we perhaps see this as a retrofit to some of the more modern on-train 'facilities' that seem to suffer from this problem?
Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog's flinty old heart was warmed by Mike Horne's and Jonathan Roberts' launch of their book 'A Century of Change - Britain's Railways and the Railway Study Association' at the German Gymnasium Kings Cross last night .
It is a packed hamper of a book bursting with nuggets skillfully gleaned from the RSA archives by Mike complemented by some crystal-ball gazing by Jonathan.
Bulldog, who wishes to make absolutely clear he is not in any way related to Orlando Figues, was genuinely impressed.
The Railway Study Association may be struggling a bit to make its voice heard in an industry where many bosses take a Year Zero view of the profession they have joined. In this rather dismal environment Mike and Jonathan have significantly added to RSA's credibility and produced a great read.
Make a stand, be a thinking railwayman. Go out and buy this book!
This from the BBC's Nick Robinson...
The American economist David Hale says that the governor of the Bank of England has told him that the next British government will need to launch an austerity drive so tough that it will threaten its political survival, potentially leaving that party out of power for a generation.
Farewell electrification, Crossrail, a new Thameslink fleet, add your own pet project here, etc...
Good to see that the new Stratford International station is preparing to enter Railway Eye's famed Garden Competition.
Or is the shed perhaps Eurostar's new first class lounge?
Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond...
Nick Hassell in his Times Tempus column today does quite a good job analysing Stagecoach's recent (fairly creditable) performance.
But he ends up talking, as most analysts do, of upcoming sector consolidation.
Have any of these deep thinking hacks paused for a moment to think what the Competition Commission response will be?
The Government contracted passenger transport industry is already reduced to a handful of serious players.
Any fewer and CoCo will, rightly, see huge conflicts of interest.
What buses and railways want are more varied and interesting players rather than the present narrow field dominated by European nationalised railways and Scottish bus bandits.
This from Richard Trevithick...
With the ubiquitous 'Tornado' strangely missing from Captain Deltic's collection of IEP alternative "Top Trumps", the owning Trust is now looking to join the horsepower race by building a second replica.
This time a Gresley P2 - allegedly the most powerful kettle to run on British metals.
How soon before they set up a production line?
If Government doesn't get its finger out on a nuclear power programme the Carnot Cycle locomotive could be the saviour of the railways.
So who is really interested in buying First freight subsidiary GBRf?
Apparently at least one domestic freight operator is.
Sources suggest Freightliner; as the avaricious DB is now too busy consuming Sunderland based bus and rail combo Arriva.
Meanwhile, Eye understands that a number of overseas money houses are sniffing round.
Interesting.
Who might have form for buying freight operations with a "nationwide network"?
Particulalry with rising oil costs making "rail freight more profitable against the rival truck-based freight"?
Eye likes the sound of WBRf!
This from @SWLines, via Twitter...
XC have definitely reduced the NQY - KYL fare and everything derived from it.
It's now £921.
Too late - the £1,000 fare has already entered folklore. (with a bowler tip to @PlanetAl)
UPDATE: From Steve Strong...
Now that Lord Adonis has sorted out Cross Country fares can he please hold them to their franchise commitments.
Still no WiFi aboard Arriva XC despite a franchise promise to deliver it by 11th November 2009!
UPDATE: This from @SWLines...
@TheFactCompiler got another missing franchise commitment.
XC don't do at seat catering north of EDB/west of PLY.
In fact, they withdrew it!
UPDATE: This from Billy Connections:
Here's a whole list of things XC promised to do...
Introduction of five High Speed Train (HST) sets each with eight state-of-the-art refurbished coaches (total of 550 seats per set), providing longer trains with more seats and luggage space on the major North East-South West route...
Errr... all HSTs reduced by one vehicle and only 2 in daily service - plus two hired to East Coast at the moment...
High quality service on board:
Hot on the heals of losing Michael Caine it now appears First has lost another one.
Tom Joyner, Ops Director of FuCC, has also been misplaced.
Happily all is not completely lost.
Eye understands that Jackie Townsend returns to the industry in his stead.
UPDATE: This from the Shunter...
It's a bad day.
This from Sadiq Khan, via Twitter...
I uploaded a YouTube video -- £8 million for Earlsfield Station refurbishment
Eye is happy to say, judging by the video's quality, that this was obviously not filmed by DfT press officers.
A shame the original DfT training video has been removed from YouTube - Sadiq's team might have found it useful.
UPDATE: This from @SadiqKhan, via Twitter...
@TheFactCompiler thank you!
Has the Fact Compiler been had?
According to the latest issue of Modern Railways the Department for Transport has it in for Open Access Operators.
Lets hope the Mandarins weren't watching the Weakest Link tonight then.
In the final minutes there was a head to head between Dan, who books training courses for NHS employees, and Anne, who works for "a railway company in York".
Eye understands that Anne is being far too modest - she is in fact the Finance Manager for Grand Central.
So what was the result of this latest, televised, battle between the public and private sectors?
Anne - you are the strongest link!
Eye hears that First Group has misplaced no less a person than Michael Caine!
Caine, nee Micklethwaite, was apparently FGW's commercial director.
Not a lot of people know that.
Exciting news from Osama Saeed the SNP candidate for Glasgow Central.
Keen to better understand the views of his potential constituents Osama has sent out the following survey.
All very laudable and good to see that the people are finally being listened to.
But what's this?
Not content with destroying The Union do the Scottish Nationalists also plan to repeal Einstein's General Theory of Relativity?
Mind you if they can cut the distance to London the business case for High Speed 2 gets even better!
UPDATE: This from a Mr West...
Actually, the SNP seem to be a very solid grasp of Einstein's relativity.
As any fule kno, a rail passenger travelling at (high) speed will observe a smaller distance from Glasgow to London than a stationary observer due to compression of the space-time continuum.
It's basic rocket science, really.
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...
Indeed, as the famous limerick explains
There was a young fellow called Bright
Who thought Einstein's theory was right.
He departed one day
In a relative way,
And came back the previous night.
According to @PoliticsHomeUK the Labour Party is calling on broadcasters to focus on policy.
Labour is trying to get the LibDems and Tories to sign up to a draft letter saying:
We are writing to broadcasting organisations with a public service remit to ask you all to ensure that during the last ten days of the campaign your programmes analyse our policy proposals to the same level of detail as at previous election campaigns.
What a splendid initiative.
Despite the parlous state of the economy not a word from any of the major parties on where post election transport cuts will be made.
We all know they are coming so surely its time to end the equivocation and spin.
Brown, Cameron and Clegg don't take us for fools - it's time to tell us where the cuts will fall.
With a Bowler tip to @Captain_Deltic...
For the non grease monkeys amongst you the large metal thing on the table is a Deltic piston.
Mr Khan reports on Nick Clegg...
Genius!
Thursday 22 April 2010
Dear Colleague
Today it has been announced that Deutsche Bahn, the largest German public transport operator, has made an offer to buy Arriva at 775p per share. Over a period of weeks we have negotiated hard with Deutsche Bahn, and the Board is unanimous in recommending the offer to shareholders. The full announcement can be read at www.arriva.co.uk.
In the mid 1990s Arriva took the decision to develop a pan-European business which would position the company well to benefit from the liberalisation of passenger transport markets. We are now in 12 countries and one of the leading private operators in most of those territories, helping passengers to make over 2.5 million journeys a day. Even though we are one of the leading private operators we still only have a tiny proportion of the market and therefore the potential for growth is significant.
The chief executive of Deutsche Bahn, Dr Ruediger Grube, also sees this opportunity, and the potential to build a strong international business. He and I both recognise the value of Arriva's senior management team and employees.
The plan is for Deutsche Bahn to build on Arriva's international platform and for Arriva's current management team to lead the enlarged group's regional and urban transportation business outside Germany.
Deutsche Bahn intends to ensure Arriva's continuity of top management, and high employee motivation. Its plans include maintaining our head office in Sunderland, under the existing management team, and keeping the Arriva brand.
For our shareholders who have invested in us and supported us over the years, this is an opportunity to receive a cash offer which fully recognises the current and future benefits of our strategy, and of the business we have built up.
For Arriva this is a great opportunity for our employees and management team to work with Deutsche Bahn and accelerate expansion in Europe, building on our leading position.
For our customers and passengers, it is business as usual and we look forward to continuing to serve them.
There are several stages to go through and conditions to be met before the offer can be implemented and the process is expected to take a period of some months. Our management team across all our divisions will be briefed over the next few days and will be in position to hold further briefings and start answering questions shortly. We will do our best to answer questions as they come up, though it may not be possible to provide an immediate and definitive answer for every question.
If you are asked questions by the media or other external stakeholders, please continue to refer them to Corporate Communications where they will be channelled to the most appropriate point.
David Martin, Chief Executive
This just in from D1048...
Into the inbox thunders a missive from Network Rail, with the announcement of a thorough refurbishment for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iconic Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.
Welcome news.
But what's this comment from Route Director Chris Rayner?
“It will be the most complex refurbishment work since the bridge was built”.
Hrmmph!
Given that NR is expecting to spend around £10m to 'strengthen, restore and repaint' the bridge over the next three years, it may certainly be the most expensive refurbishment in the bridge's 150-year history, but the most complex?
Just for the record, the Great Western Railway undertook a major refurbishment of the Royal Albert Bridge back in 1928, when the main girders supporting the 15 approach spans on both banks were completely replaced.
In an eerie foretaste of NR's proposed high-output 'factory train' model, the innovative GWR developed a special wagon to undertake the renewal work. This carried the new girders to site, supported the deck whilst swinging the old girders out and lifting new ones into place, before retreating again with the old girders for removal. A very good explanation of how it was done - with pictures - can be found here.
And what is more the whole process could be carried out - with manual labour - in just 3 1/2 hours, allowing an entire span to be replaced in a 5-hour Sunday morning possession. Certainly not three years!
Is this another case of today's railway having no corporate memory before 1993?
UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...
Or 2002 in the case of Network Rail.
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