This from Our Norm as retold by The Argus...
The Lewes MP told a national newspaper his delay was increased by the fact that the rail replacement bus service needed replacing.
Quite so minister, quite so.
This from The Albatross...
This magnificent display of a beautiful rockery garden in full flourish on York Platform 11 – untouched my human hands since thousands of pounds was invested in replacing the hated, and simple to maintain, tarmac with the finest B & Q (other DIY stores are available) block paving.
I do hope our visually impaired passengers never have the misfortune to catch a train from the Platform 11 botanical retreat !
Rest in peace, Sir Jimmy.
This from a Mr Station Throat...
ATOC may be accused of being London centric but their latest oeuvre, a splendid glossy browbeater called "Keeping Britain Moving", is really going some!
On the front cover the Cumbrian Coast is no more, Suffolk is now part of the Thames, whilst Cornwall has sunk without trace (did the seawall at Dawlish finally give way?).
And the poor old Isle of Wight does not even exist!
It's all there to view on ATOC's website, or at least the bits that remain are.
UPDATE: This from Terminus...
This light piece of reading does bear scrutiny, page 4 for example trumpets the delivery of Wifi on Cross Country Trains!
Elsewhere mention is made of XC's new services to Glasgow, neglecting perhaps to mention that these are not additional but merely replace those withdrawn by East Coast.
Another great effort from Messrs Bowtie, Bow-tie and Glasses?
As predicted by Sid Spiv, the DfT's Director of Leaks, Virgin has been awarded an eight month extension to its West Coast franchise.
This from the DfT:
West Coast passengers in line for 28,000 extra seats as franchise extension signed
Passengers using the busy West Coast Main Line are set to benefit from extra carriages and more seats from April next year Rail Minister Theresa Villiers has announced, after the Government signed an extension to Virgin Trains' existing contract to operate services on the line.
Services on the line - which stretches from London to Glasgow serving Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and North Wales - will now be run by Virgin Trains until December 2012. Over the course of the extension three new 600-seat Pendolino trains will be added to the line. This is in addition to the new Pendolino which entered service in July this year. Also, 31 existing Pendolinos will be lengthened from 9 to 11 carriages, increasing the number of standard class seats on each train by almost 50%, from 320 to 470. In all, 106 new carriages are being introduced on the route making 28,000 extra seats available each day, an increase of 25%.
Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said:
"The West Coast Main Line is one of our busiest and most important rail arteries. Keeping the existing operator in place while these new trains and carriages are introduced should help ensure they are introduced smoothly onto the network so passengers reap the benefits as soon as possible.
"When this extension expires in December 2012, the Government will have completed a competition for a new operator to run services on the line under a new longer style of franchise which gives the operator more incentive to invest and more freedom to innovate and deliver for passengers.
"These extra seats are great news for passengers, but in the longer term, even with these improvements, the route is expected to be full by 2024. This is why we are considering proposals for a high speed rail line between London, the West Midlands, Manchester, Leeds and potentially beyond."
The Department announced its intention to seek an extension to Virgin Trains' existing contract in May 2011. At the same time the Department published details of how the new West Coast franchise that will take over in December 2012 will look, in the form of a draft Invitation To Tender. The new franchise will run from December 2012 to March 2026 with an option for the Department to extend up to 20 months.
The Government is currently considering responses to its consultation on proposals for a new high speed rail network and will announce its decision by the end of the year.
28,000 extra seats? A nice use of Tractor Stats.
Good news from Cruella!
Judging by yesterday's written answer it looks as if Marsham Street has experienced a damascene conversion:
Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport from which companies the London and South Eastern Railway and its predecessor franchisees have leased rolling stock; how many and what types of rolling stock have been leased; and what the costs of such leasing has been in each year since 1994.
Theresa Villiers (Minister of State Transport; Chipping Barnet)
Information on the numbers and different types of rolling stock leased by train companies, and from whom, is in the public domain. For example, the Rail Guide 2011 produced by Ian Allan Publishing.
Leasing costs are commercially sensitive. Inquiries on this subject should be directed to the rolling stock owners and train operators.
Eye congratulates officials for finally conceding that they know nothing about rolling stock.
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...
While delighted by this endorsement by DfT of our annual reference book, could I emphasise that Modern Railways will not accept responsibility for any errors in references to rolling stock made by Transport Ministers in Parliamentary Statements and written answers.
Has Virgin climbed into bed with Mystic Meg?
So it would appear from this poster which cannily reveals how well Virgin will perform next month!
Sadly, despite the benefits of such foresight, next month's performance will still be worse than in November 2010!
UPDATE: This from Virgin Trains...
Hands up, we made a mistake!
The performance poster for the four weeks ending 15th October does contain a misprint, and reference to November in the bar chart should read October.
This has now been corrected and updated posters will be despatched to stations.
UPDATE: This from Mr Tuppence Worth...
I don't know much about these things but what I do know is that a year comprises only 13 4-week periods yet despite the correction of November 2011 to October 2011 there will still be 14 bars for the year.
Still confused.
UPDATE: This from Our International Correspondent...
Actually, counting across from November 2010, the red bar for November is where December 2011 should go.
Thus they are still forecasting November's results, in the slot where December's should go, so two of the other grey bars, or one grey one and the red one are, er, bollox.
I must get out more.
This from the Beeb...
This from Marshy...
Sadly a disappointing entry, as it contains some genuinely useful, although slightly worrying, information.
Happily, it has a humorous aspect.
Eye hopes the 'missing' signal safely reverts soonest.
Guido reporting the following have been appointed as Justine Greening's Special Advisers...
Graham Hook as policy SpAd, he’s the former CCHQ briefer for Question Time. Victoria Crawford from the CCHQ press office will handle the media.
More here.
This from a Mr Contra-Flow...
Greetings from Coventry where our friends at CrossCountry are clearly a little challenged by their Gregorian vs Julian calendars.
"Sunday 31st October" is just so last year!
This from Rail Barbie...
I wanted to write and let you know personally that I will be stepping down from my position as both Chairman of Directly Operated Railways (DOR) and East Coast Main Line Company (East Coast), at the expiry of my contract term at the end of the year. I shall be taking up a new senior industry role at the beginning of January 2012.
I’ve immensely enjoyed being at the helm of East Coast, it’s a really good business and I’m genuinely sorry to be leaving. We’ve achieved a huge amount in the last two years and we’re just starting to see the benefits of the Company ‘turnaround’. The business still has a number of challenges to overcome – but I’m absolutely convinced we made the right base choices and have established a strong new foundation for our successes to be sustainable. The franchise extension until the end of 2013 will see this task largely completed – with Britain’s flagship train company in much better shape than when we started. I couldn’t have achieved this level of progress without the very strong support from the staff of East Coast, the board, and in particular Karen Boswell, East Coast’s Managing Director.
And so, I’m genuinely regretful of the fact that I won’t now be around to ‘finish the job’. The introduction of a major new timetable and the launch of a new complimentary catering offer in First Class in May 2011, have both been strategically significant and delivered positive results. Passenger numbers have increased by 3 per cent in the last year (2010/11), and East Coast is now one of the best financial performers in the rail industry.
I want to personally thank all our customers and stakeholders for travelling with us, but particularly for your engagement over the last couple of years. I can assure you that your feedback has been pivotal in helping us to drive our determination to, ‘get it right’. I know Karen and her team are passionate about carrying on the good work – and will welcome a continuance of the dialogue in the future.
Following my departure, Michael Holden will become Chairman of East Coast and Doug Sutherland Non Executive Chairman of Directly Operated Railways. Michael and Doug will fulfil these roles on an interim basis until discussions with the Department for Transport on filling these roles permanently are concluded.
- ENDS -
So congratulations to Abellio for winning the Greater Anglia franchise.
Meanwhile Eye understands that there is growing concern within the Department about how the news reached the market.
Sid Spiv, Director of Leaks at the DfT, said "My team has worked extremely hard to ensure that the winner of this franchise was well known before we had to go through all that boring, old, official announcement stuff. Even the Guardian had it two weeks ago for God's sake. Therefore, I find it completely unacceptable that scarce government resources were wasted on making a formal announcement this morning. Mark my words, heads will not roll for this."
A clearly angry Mr Spiv ended by saying "Did I mention that Virgin will get their franchise extension?"
This from Guido...
Policy wonk Sian Jones has gone with Hammond, and there was talk of Paul Stephenson, Hammond’s media SpAd going across too, but he has gone back to is old opposition boss – Andrew Lansley.
And according to Guido - "Justine Greening at Transport is hiring…"
Eye hears good things about our new Secretary of State for Transport.
The most frequently used terms are "impressive", "very bright", "on top of her brief" and "showed original thinking".
We shall see.
Meanwhile, Whitehall has been bending over backwards to welcome the Rt Hon Justine Greening MP into the fold.
According to @PaulWaugh:
No doubt this novel way of marking a colleagues 'entrance' was suggested to iDave by his near Cotswold neighbour Rebecca?
No matter.
Not to be outdone the Department for Transport laid on its own unique style of welcome for Greening, as these EXCLUSIVE Eye pictures reveal:
Once inside Great Minster House Justine was afforded a personal audience with the DfT's most senior Mandarin...
Resistance is Futile!
This from Robert Wright of the FT...
As many of you will already be aware and as others will be delighted and relieved to learn, I'm starting a new job.
Instead of covering transport in general for the FT in future, I've been appointed to a new job focusing on shipping and logistics.
My replacement, whom some of you will already have met or spoken to, is Mark Odell.
For those of you who have been helpful to me over the last eight years, I'm very grateful. Please continue to give Mark the same assistance.
For the rest of you, please help Mark in all the ways you didn't help me.
My new job will keep me involved in covering freight transport issues and consequently I will still be covering the freight or logistics arms of some of your operations. Mark will cover all forms of passenger transport all over the world, except aviation.
I will continue to write my Rail Professional column, which may keep me in touch with some of you occasionally. I'm also still open to chairing conferences and so on (within the FT's rules on these matters).
To those of you with whom I'll no longer be in regular contact, it's been mostly a pleasure and farewell.
So farewell to Robert from the railway, unless you are a freighty of course, and welcome to Mark.
Meanwhile, in happier news perhaps we can also wave goodbye to the preposterous soi disant 'veteran observer', Brennan-Brown, whose words of wisdom (sic) regularly peppered FT articles in the past?
Eye firmly hopes so!
UPDATE: This from a Mr Brennan-Brown...
Please stop referring to me as the "soi disant veteran observer"!
I have emailed you repeatedly about this, pointing out that it is neither funny nor... (sadly, owing to pressure of space, Eye is unable to publish the rest of this email from the soi disant 'veteran observer'. Ed).
UPDATE: This from John...
Your comment that, with the departure of Robert Wright from the FT, Rupert BB may also disappear, seems to be unfounded.
Not 24 hours later an article appeared from newcomer Mark Odell quoting one "Rupert Brennan-Brown, a long-time industry observer".
So its business as usual at the FT!
An amusing tale from the Daily Mail...
In a deliciously naff attempt to pretend that he is a common-man the Prime Minister has travelled on the Underground (just the once you understand).
And as if determined to prove that it was a completely alien experience iDave actually spoke, uninvited, to other passengers!
Sadly for the Downing Street spinners the loony eyed PM nearly had his collar felt by the BTP: "when the baffled woman had to ask her husband who the strange man was enquiring about their child".
Indeed.
Perhaps iDave should have learnt from his role model Mr Tony that these things can go badly wrong...
Message to Downing Street spinners: Get your man to fix the Tube, rather than pose on it.
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