Peace breaks out between NatEx and DafT

Happy news for beleaguered National Express share holders.

Today there will be a veritable love in between the doomed company and the Department:

Chris Mole MP, The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport and Andrew Chivers, Managing Director, NXEA will launch the Service Improvement Plan by naming a train at Liverpool Street station at 10.00am and unveil a customer information brochure giving details about the improvements.

Good to see Moley out and about on the network, but a shame the Noble Lord couldn't make it.

Perhaps a late and unexpected diary conflict?

UPDATE: This from the Master...

Sadly 'twas not to be.

Someone at DfT must have 'contacts' as a cable theft at Chelmsford caused the event to be cancelled.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Adonis couldn't do it because he was at a meeting with Hitachi "discussing IEP".

To suffer one ministerial cancellation may be regarded as a misfortune...

WCML Upgrade underspend - Shocker!

Good news indeed from Moley.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary):
The North West has benefited considerably from the £8.9 million upgrade of the west coast main line.

Perhaps Lord Adonis and Iain Coucher could give their office sofas a quick rattle?

It looks like there's about £8.991bn in loose change down there somewhere...

Wind-up in the Willows #3 (or Laudate Bowker!)

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
Good grief. How much faster does poor old Moley have to back pedal?

Here he is yesterday - eulogising the same bus bandits who reneged on their contracts - or not.

"Punctuality, which is passengers' No. 1 concern, has improved dramatically. It has risen steadily since National Express East Coast took over the franchise, with the moving annual average rising from 81.7 to 87.6 per cent. Daily punctuality levels are now frequently above 90 per cent., and several 100 per cent. days have been achieved."

"We have seen tremendous innovation on the route, with wi-fi being introduced first to 10 trains and then to the whole east coast inter-city fleet—I have ambitions to see that on the service that I use every week."

"Stations on the route have also benefited from substantial and sustained investment, with the quality of the facilities being offered being recognised at places such as Durham, which was declared station of the year at the 2008 national rail awards."

"Finally, we should remember that the inter-city east coast franchise is one of those rare breeds that return a premium to the Department, and that premium is reinvested in the railway industry. Events of the recent past may have reduced the premiums available, but we can still confidently expect a significant return."

The phrase 'Eating sh*t whilst smiling' springs to mind!

Wind-up in the Willows #2

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
More brown trouser laundering by Moley.

"The hon. Member for Peterborough asserted that other operators have received revenue support sooner than four years into the franchise.

"It is true that the First Great Western franchise included a provision whereby revenue support became available after two years, but that was an exceptional arrangement."

So DfT never renegotiates franchise - except when DfT got the franchise specification wrong and First Group have us over a barrel in which case it is an 'exceptional arrangement'.

Wind-up in the Willows

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
It looks as though poor Moley has been given the task of cleaning up after Lord Adonis.

With Marsham Street suffering a collective brown trouser moment after Lord Adonis gave Beau Bowker and his boyz in da NEG hood a very public dissing, there may be quite a bit of cleaning up to do.

This written answer from Chris Mole on the 13th July:

‘Under the National Express East Coast franchise agreement, National Express Group is obliged to meet its parent company loan obligation of a £40 million loan facility. It is also open to National Express Group, at their discretion, to make available support in excess of this’

So NatEx isn't 'walking away' from its contractual obligations, as the Noble Lord repeatedly proclaimed, after all.

Although if Lord Adonis went round with the hat any discretionary tips would be gratefully accepted. And who determined the size of the parent company loan obligation for this 'medium risk' franchise?

Er, DafT!

DafT - As you sow, so shall you reap

There is certain information that voters and taxpayers might reasonably expect a Government department to know.

Or at least have a reasonable stab at.

Such as just how risky NatEx's very aggressive bid for the East Coast franchise was; bearing in mind that the previous operator had failed to deliver with a lesser bid.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport):
The Intercity East Coast Franchise was let on 13 August 2007. A January 2007 version of the Franchise Evaluation Process Charts was used in the evaluation process.

National Express East Coast bid was categorised as medium financial risk.

So wide of the mark as to be almost laughable, if it wasn't going to be so damn expensive.

So what does the supine Department for Transport actually know?

Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley, Labour)
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether maintenance work is planned on the West Coast Main Line on the weekend of 28 and 29 August.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport)
Maintenance work is planned on the weekend of 28 and 29 August when all lines will be blocked between Watford Junction and Leighton Buzzard between Saturday morning and Monday lunchtime.

I understand that Virgin West Coast is proposing to operate additional services between London and Birmingham via an alternative route.

How re-assuring to know that DafT is at least competent enough to provide MPs with travel information.

Perhaps the Tories might like to consider outsourcing the entire sorry Marsham Street operation to Bombay or Bangalore?