Hackgate the Video!

That is all.

Brooker-Carey joins Crossrail

This from PR Week...

Crossrail has hired the former comms director of Tube Lines to shake up its PR team.

Louise Brooker-Carey will join the company behind Europe’s largest civil engineering project in August as head of public affairs.

She will report to newly appointed chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme, who also starts in August and will be responsible for shaping the future of the comms team.

As Head of Public Affairs Brooker-Carey will also need to have a good working relationship with other board members, especially the chairman of Crossrail.

One Terry Morgan who, before joining Crossrail in 2009, was CEO of Tube Lines and her former boss.

Strachan returns to beef up Dept for Transfer

This from the Brisbane Times...

The man in charge of southeast Queensland’s transport network for the past two years has quit to take on an Olympic challenge overseas.

Translink chief executive Peter Strachan will end his role in October after landing a key posting in the United Kingdom government.

As the UK Transport Department’s Director-General responsible for Major Projects, Mr Strachan is set to oversee transport for the 2012 London Olympics.

UPDATE: This from the Shunter...

Mostly harmless.

Lookalike - You won't like me when I'm angry

Bombardier Chairman Colin Walton appears to have tired of playing Mr Nice Guy!

This from today's Daily Mail...

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said at the time that he had no power to overturn the decision.

But Walton said questions in Parliament had shown Hammond did have the power to reconsider the bid and bypass Siemens. He said: ‘It now looks like the Secretary of State has a lot of questions to answer.’

He added: ‘I do find it completely incredible that nothing to do with socio-economics has been taken into account. They have had every option to do that in the invitation to tender.’

Walton was speaking as he was supposed to be on a South African trade trip with the Prime Minister, but was snubbed just 48-hours before the flight took off.

His absence meant he missed the chance to secure key contract there. He said: ‘It would have been a golden opportunity for the Government to demonstrate commitment to British exports. Is it the case that they no longer back British exports? I really hope that’s not the case, but I don’t know.’


Unsurprisingly, Eye prefers it when he's angry!

How the media works. No 94

Do the genii behind Viz read Modern Railways?


Eye thinks we should be told!

Brown backs Bombardier

This from M'Duck...

Thought Eye readers might be interested to see this which has been circulated around Litchurch Lane:


Good to see London backing Derby.

UPDATE: This from Howard Wade...

Will Mike Brown's overt support for Derby extend to putting in a good word with his TfL chums working on the Crossrail fleet procurement?

Bobby flags a warning

This from Messrs Saxby and Farmer...

With so much attention devoted to the job losses at Derby caused by the importation of railway rolling stock, it behoves us to point out that employment is at risk at our former partner Messrs Westinghouse at Chippenham, which we now understand is known as Invensys.

This is because of the decision by the Metropolitan Railway to resignal its sub-surface lines in London with a signalling system from Bombardier.

Given the eximious performance of Messrs Westinghouse in resignalling the Victoria line, and how gratifying to see the late Queen so honoured, it seems perverse to import yet another novel signalling system, untried in the UK.

As Mr Douglas Hames, the Honourable Member for Chippehnam has remarked, 'When we have such exceptional engineering talent in our country that wins contracts abroad, some of us may wonder why we are not more successful at winning contracts at home'.

We remain sir, your obedient servants...

Derbygate - The rally.

This from M'Duck...

Please could you alert Eye readers to a rally in support of UK manufacturing jobs that is taking place on Saturday?


Be there or be square!

UPDATE: This from the BBC...

More than 50,000 people have signed a petition urging the government to reverse a decision to give a £1.4bn contract to a German train maker.

Good effort.

Virgin overthrows NR - shocker

It took Virgin Trains just 8 minutes to respond from a tweet by Tom Harris MP criticising their coffee.


That makes NR's famed Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit seem slow in comparison !

The Stripping of the Altars

This, from a decidedly stroppy, Captain Deltic...

According to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, at the launch of the GWML modernisation programme on 14 July:

‘This is another fantastic step on the journey of renaissance which the railway is taking.

'Nobody would have believed 20 years ago that we would be building new railway lines, refurbishing our rail infrastructure, electrifying hundreds of miles of additional track, seeing passenger numbers double and passenger satisfaction improving dramatically.

'This is literally a new age of the train in Britain and a very exciting one too’.

Er, 20 years ago, that's 1991.

So presumably our expectations would have been more-of-the-same based on the previous decade:

• With 900 route miles electrified by 1991 we would have been expecting more routes under the wires in future.

• With passenger miles up by a quarter to the highest levels since 1949 we would have been expecting more growth.

• With Network SouthEast starting total route modernisation we would have expected more refurbishment.

• In 1991 new trains were rolling out of York, Derby and Washwood Heath. Whither those centres of excellence now? (Or should that be 'wither'.)

• The Crossrail Bill had just been submitted so we were expecting new lines and overcrowding in the South East to be addressed.

What we didn't expect was a dire recession, as a consequence of economic mismanagement.

What we didn't expect was a botched privatisation which multiplied the railway's subsidy fivefold.

What we didn't expect was a stop start rolling stock procurement that saw a period of 1064 days without a new train order and the current hiatus at 838 days and counting...

What we didn't expect was the Civil Service specifying a replacement for the HST

And we most certainly didn't expect McNulty to have to remind a once integrated industry to work together for the good of the passenger.

I'm inured to politicians claiming daft self-serving things, but we can't let them airbrush out the past in their attempt to turn a pig's ear into a brushed polyester purse.

So renaissance? Well, yes, so long as we don't forget that it followed some very dark, dark ages.

TSC to look into UK Rolling Stock Procurement

This from the Transport Select Committee...

13 July 2011
For Immediate Release: SCA 76/2010–12

UK ROLLING STOCK PROCUREMENT – ORAL EVIDENCE SESSION

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Committee Room 15, House of Commons

Following the recent choice of Siemens Plc as the Government’s preferred bidder for the supply of the new Thameslink trains, the Transport Committee will be taking oral evidence on Wednesday 7 September at 9.35am from ministers and other key stakeholders to discuss matters related to UK rolling stock procurement.

The Committee will question witnesses about the recent Thameslink announcement and broader issues related to the way that rolling stock is procured in the UK.

These timings are approximate and the session may start slightly earlier or later than advertised. The room the session takes place in may also change. Please check our website for up to date details of this session.

- ENDS -

Pointless signs - Bolton

This from a Mr Oi!

£4M has been spent on refurbishing Bolton Station.


Although it seems the budget didn’t quite stretch to removing the residual detritus of a long-dead business!

Lookalike - Nice... but dim?

This from the recently published CRESC Research Report: How not to build trains...

But what has happened now, with the train crash at Bombardier?

The public debate about the Siemens Thameslink contract reveals that like Hugh Grant, the Coalition ministers and civil servants who make industrial policy uneasily sense that something is wrong.

But the problem is not simply that the micro-economic answers aren’t answers, though this, of course, is true.

More profoundly, the problem is the long reign of micro-economic question framing in the Whitehall centres of policy making, in the broadsheet media, and in the economics departments of the ancient universities.

These distinct spheres are of course densely interconnected, not least through elite careers. Many of the best and brightest undergraduates may now choose the City, but the BIS and Treasury middle ranks are still heavily populated with Oxbridge recruits and those trying to pass as such.

Indeed.

Villiers Vignettes - UK Supply Chain can go hang

This from Ithuriel...

Theresa Villiers did her best to talk up the prospects for the UK rolling stock market in a Westminster Hall debate debate on 12 July,

The fact that the coalition Government have secured funding for such a major programme of capacity enhancement will result in major opportunities, not just for Bombardier but for other train component and supply chain manufacturing businesses in this country.

Following its nomination, for example, as the preferred bidder for the intercity express programme contract, Hitachi has announced that it is locating its train manufacturing services for Europe at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. That will provide significant opportunities for UK component manufacturing.

As has been said, if the Siemens Thameslink bid proceeds to conclusion, it will involve the creation of 2,000 jobs in the UK. It has indicated that it intends to use elements of the UK supply chain to supply its bid.

Message to the supply chain - don't worry about Bombardier, we're sure you can find something to sell to Japan and Germany.

Cruella really doesn't do 'industrial strategy', does she?

UPDATE: This from Howard Wade...

Replying to the debate on the Thameslink contract on July 12, Theresa Villiers said:

My hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson) was concerned about the amount spent on consultancy. The bulk of that happened under the previous Government, but I agree that we need a more efficient approach to spending on consultancy in relation to procurement in the future. Since the general election the consultancy spend has been considerably reduced.

With Derby the home to the worlds leading railway consultancy the news for the City gets worse.

UPDATE: This from Dick Burton, Special Agent...

It's time that someone pointed out that a fair few of the 2,000 jobs that those nice people at Siemens are creating will be at Three Bridges and Hornsey and would also have been created by the gallant losers from Bombardier.

Franksy makes return to Big Railway

This from Keolis...

Today Keolis, the international transport operator, announces the appointment of David Franks as Managing Director for New Franchises at Keolis UK.

Franks comes to Keolis UK from his position as CEO at Stockholm Metro and brings with him extensive UK and international experience in the rail industry.

Eye welcomes Franksy back to the real railway.

No doubt similar celebrations are occurring in Marsham Street?

Cascaded D stock for Community Railways?

How very like the western branches of the District line.

You wait for one D stock story and then two turn up at once.

Interesting news from Harrogate Chamber of Commerce...

Harrogate Chamber of Trade & Commerce is now bidding for a complete upgrading of the Harrogate Line train services between Leeds, Harrogate, Knaresborough and York.

The Chamber’s solution is a modern low-cost ground-level electrification system, similar to that used on the Docklands Light Railway.

The proposed rolling stock is a fleet of around 20 six-car light rapid transit electric trains, originally built by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham, which have been totally refurbished within the past few years, with 280 seats per train and lots of proper standing room as well.


If this idea gets any traction then it may catch on elsewhere. The Harrogate proposal envisages using only 20 of the 78 six car D stock fleet.

Could this be a better private sector inspired solution for Community Railways rather than Tram-Train which remains mired in the usual DafT treacle?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles...

Harrogate Chamber of Commerce appear to suggest that the juice rail should sit about 2' above the running rails…

Happy badgers, unhappy farmers.

Pointless signs - D Stock

With a bowler tip to @DriverPotter...


Perhaps a method of PIDD signage that in future may benefit the North?

Germany sends gunship to enforce Thameslink!

This from Ann Adaptor (with additional reporting by Mike Flex and Mike Stand)...

Just three weeks ago it looked as if Berlin had successfully annexed the Thameslink Corridor.

In what was seen as a deft political move the previous administrator of the region, Sir Paper-knife, was kept in post and given an unlimited supply of stationery with which to keep his subjects happy.

Yet three weeks later all is not well in Germany's newest enclave. The leader of Sir Paper-knife's political party, David 'Lap-Dog-Murdoch' Cameron, has gone into hiding. There is growing and voluble dissent in the area known as the 'Westminster Village' and Sir Paper-knife's hated enforcers, the Marsham Street Macoute, have been inciting East Midlands dole queues by waving envelopes at them.

In response to the deteriorating security situation Berlin has been forced to dispatch its latest gunship, the MS Deutschland Uber Alles, which berthed today at London's Docklands.

Defence sources believe that today's deployment places the Uber Alles within easy shelling distance of Great Minster House, home to the increasingly unstable Sir Paper-knife and his loathed Macoute.

According to Der Daily Mail, a news paper with historic links to Berlin...

Isle of Dogs-based Mr Smith, who has worked on the River Thames and in the docks since 1962, said: 'This is the largest ship that I have ever seen navigate through the lock.'

'Bringing MS Deutschland into the docks is a real achievement.


'The manoeuvre into the confined space of the lock shows how good planning, combined with the skill of the teams involved, worked to ensure the berthing operation was successful.'

Despite such German ingenuity resistance to the Teutonic expansionists continues to grow, led by an enigmatic figure whose very name resonates amongst all free born Englishmen. According to resistance sources their leader is a shadowy figure known only by the iconic name of St Margaret a Beckett (cont' p94)...

iDave remains in hiding. Sir Paper-knife remains convinced it is everyone else's fault.

DfT to review competition weighting - Shocker

This from the Man Locked Out of His Room...

Siemens lose at something!

No doubt the Department for Transfer will conduct an inquiry into the weighting of such competitions to avoid future embarrassment?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Interesting to note that not a single London based team won any Gold medals.

Clearly the alleged Northern diet of pudding, chips, peas and gravy works wonders.

Better let the UK 2012 team manager know!

Railway Garden Competition - Darlington

This from Bertie Forest...

Contrast the lush green verdant track gardens of Network Rail's estate with this dried and withered planter at Darlington Station.


Perchance the state-owned rail franchise has run out of funds to water its plants?