LNW Railway (South) appoints Thin Controller!

This from Network Rail...

Network Rail announces today the secondment of Virgin’s chief operating officer, Chris Gibb, to the company.

Working collaboratively with Network Rail, Virgin Trains has agreed to this secondment for the remainder of this year to work with the Network Rail team on improving the performance of the infrastructure on the southern end of the West Coast Main Line.

Mr Gibb will retain a number of his current duties and responsibilities for Virgin Trains and will continue to undertake these alongside the role in Network Rail and will report to Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s managing director of network operations for the duration of his secondment. He will work very closely with Jo Kaye (the route managing director of the London North Western Route, which encapsulates the West Coast Main Line) and her team, using his 31 years of railway experience to bring unique insight to the task ahead.  

Gosh!

At this rate the entire railway is in danger of singing from the same hymn sheet!

Therefore, in the spirit of the new collaborative West Coast Main Line, Eye gives you...

The real Thin Controller!

Industry to bid Adonis farewell

Eye hears that ATOC members are planning a dinner to say a formal farewell to Lord Adonis.

And quite right too!

After all the Noble Lord was the most pro-rail Secretary of State we've had for ages (with due deference to the late Baron Ridley of Liddersdale).

Sadly, the Fact Compiler will be too busy to attend.

However, Eye would like to send a gift to the High Speed Evangelist.

Readers are invited to suggest what that should be?

UPDATE: This from Billy Connections...

A suitable present for Adonis would be the latest National Fares Manual.

He can practice falling off his chair in shock when he sees how much his Pilgrimage of Grice would have cost if he'd bought separate tickets on the day.

UPDATE: This from Charles Atlas...

Perhaps "dinner for two with Stuart Baker" so he can have one last chat with the Bi-Mode Evangelist before he is put out to grass? (Who, Adonis or Baker? Ed)

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Perhaps an All Line Rover before ATOC have another go at restricting its use on InterCity services until after 10:00?

UPDATE: This from a Mr Shipley of CSRE...

How about a scale model of a Chinese built HLOS type DMU, pushing a failed Class 319 EMU!

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong..

What about a tandem so that he and Wolmar can explore the delights of London together?

UPDATE: This from railway writer Peter Marshall...

The least he should get is a late night cuppa at Southampton (times is hard y'know).

Sadly as the Better Stations programme has been caped he may have a long wait... Ed

A word on Lord Adonis

Now that we have a new government it is time for a brief word on the former Secretary of State for Transport.

Eye subscribes to the view espoused in a recent edition of Railnews by Adrian Lyons, the former Director General of the Railway Forum:

Surviving and overcoming bad times means that getting the right message over is even more important.

The railway industry is not doing this.

To some extent this does not matter while Lord Adonis is Secretary of State as he is the most effective Railway Forum there has ever been.

Indeed.

Alas, he is now gone.

Eye hopes not for too long...

UPDATE: This just in from Ithuriel...

Can we stop this mindless adulation of Lord Adonis.

Just because he was pro-railways and a bit of a crank doesn't mean that we should mourn his being cut off in his pomp.

Oblivious to an emerging economic crisis and his Deprtment's warning that at current costs the railway is unsustainable, he happily dumped over a billion on the Network Rail credit card for a long overdue but ill thought out politically driven electrification programme totally unrelated to the realities of resignalling and rolling stock availability.

Why Great Western and not the more straightforward and financially more attractive Midland Main Line?

On high speed, it could be said that his promotion of HS1 provided a beacon to see the industry through a grim decade ahead. And at the worst he imposed second thoughts on his department's Gadarene rush to IEP. At best, he binned it.

He was the right-minded man at the wrong time. In 1997 he would have been in his element.

Now we have a Transport Secretary in tune with the times.

Sweating the assets is the order of the day.

Farewell Prince Rupert, Hello Oliver Cromwell.

Election 2010 - Farewells

So farewell former Transport Ministers Chris Mole (Ipswich) and Paul Clark (Gillingham) who both lost their seats.

Minister of State Sadiq Khan was returned as the Member of Parliament for Tooting.

And the unelected peer and Secretary of State for Transport also retains his House of Lords seat... for life.

Adonis exposed - Shocker

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
According to Wikipedia...

Adonis (we presume they mean our transport secretary) "is a central cult figure in various mystery religions".

Sounds about right.

The First Church of the Live Catenary, Community Rail, The Blessed Congregation of the Elevated Velocity, not to mention the Cult of the TramTrain.

Noble Lord we believe, help thou our unbelief.

Sadiq says...

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?

Train Lord's dark plans for Sheffield

Be careful what you wish for.

Regular readers will recollect that The Thin Controller surrendered Sheffield in the Battle of the Barriers.

Alas.

Evidently the Train Lord now plans to get his own back!

This from the Sheffield Star...

Rush hour commuters will be meeting Doctor Who's arch-nemeses tomorrow morning when the terrifying Daleks appear at Sheffield railway station.


As Davros might say "Do not anger me, Passenger. I can destroy you... and this miserable, insignificant station!"

The Thin Controller secures Jarvis jobs?

This just in from the RMT...

HOPES ROSE today that a new jobs rescue plan could save jobs lost following the collapse of rail maintenance firm Jarvis.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has told the leaders of the two main rail unions that Network Rail has agreed to re-allocate Jarvis work in a matter of days, and that workers on the new contract would be directly employed.

Just fancy that!

Is there an election in the offing?

UPDATE: This from The Major...

I'm quite sure the redundant Jarvis staff will be re-employed not least because TUPE applies if the work they were doing goes to another company.

NR knows this.

The RMT knows this.

But hey, no harm in the RMT claiming victory in a hard-won class struggle against private sector 'fat cats' while knowing all along the result was a legal certainty.

Thin Controller's election Pilgrimage of Grice

The Thin Controller is out and about on the network this month.


To help voters keep tabs on the unelected Secretary of State the Labour party has created a special website covering this latest Pilgrimage of Grice.

As policy is evidently being formulated on the hoof - Adonis used Monday's visit to Sheffield to concede the Battle of the Barriers - this should make for some interesting announcements en-route.

Eye would welcome details of said as well as any pictures or observations that might not make it on to Labour's official site...

UPDATE: This just in from Only2misters...

Thanks for providing a link to Labour's 'Pilgrimage of Grice' mini-site.

However, you may be interested to see from the screen-grab below that NR sees this as 'potentially damaging' content and a possible 'security threat'.


Indeed!

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Could not Eye itemise the miracles the Thin Micro-manager has wrought on his Pilgrimage of Grice?

Having had the casting out of the gates at Sheffield can we expect the miracle of the bodyshells and bogies which create 202 DMU vehicles?

Sadly the resurrection of IEP is probably beyond divine providence.

Battle of the barriers - Sheffield falls!

This from passenger and pedestrian champion Richard Malins...

Lord Adonis was in Sheffield yesterday.

The Sheffield Central constituency, which includes the station, is a Lib Dem/Labour marginal and the former Labour MP Richard Caborn is standing down.

It is being contested by Paul Scriven, leader of the City Council, for the Lib Dems, and the ticket barrier scheme is a political embarrassment to the Labour candidate as it has become a serious local issue.

Adonis announced that it will not proceed, pending the creation of an alternative pedestrian footbridge route, and EMT has announced that they have been relieved of the franchise obligation.

No shit Sherlock!

Could this volte-face by the Noble Lord be in anyway connected with events on the 6th May?

UPDATE: This from 28481k, via Twitter...

Hurray, so Park Hills regeneration project is saved (for access, for now)!

UPDATE: The Fact Compiler observes...

Apparently no deal has yet been signed with EMT on this.

So campaigners would be advised not to take their foot off DafT's throat yet...

Lord Adonis in Holy Week on Guided Busways

This from the Upper House on the 29th March...

Lord Berkeley (Labour)
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial contribution they have committed to the Cambridge guided busway project; what is its expected opening date; what is the estimated outturn cost; and whether they intend to contribute further funding to the project.

Lord Adonis (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Labour)
The Department for Transport's contribution has been capped at a maximum of £92.5 million. There is no intention to contribute further to this scheme. When approved in 2006 the scheme had an expected outturn cost of £116.3 million. I understand that Cambridgeshire County Council has recently indicated that the total may now fall between £140 million and £145 million.

I also understand that the council is in regular contact with the guided busway contractors regarding establishing an opening date.

And Pilate washed his hands...

Wit and wisdom from The Thin Controller

This from the Upper House on the 18th March...

Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan (Labour)
I thank my noble friend for that reply and congratulate him on the tremendous response that his White Paper has received. I declare an interest as the chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, whose power stations are responsible for something like 80 to 85 per cent of the electricity consumed by the British rail network; as a consequence, it is the base-load generation on which high-speed rail and an expanded electrified rail network will depend. Therefore, can he not nod too closely towards the false gods of intermittent renewable technology in preparing his plans for this exciting development in our transport system?

Lord Adonis (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Labour)
My Lords, being an Adonis I steer clear of false gods in all their guises.

En arche en ho logos, kai ho logos en pros ton theon...

Adonis moves and then paints the deckchairs

This from Railnews...

THE rebranding of East Coast last November cost £634,842, of which taxpayers had to find £339,190, according to official figures.

What a fabulous use of public funds!

Eye salutes The Thin Controller, DafT and Directly Operated Railways for enriching the vinyl makers.

Adonis secures HS2 funding - Shocker

This from Bushy...

It seems the printed copies of the HS2 report have already run out!

And at £26 a pop Adonis must be over half way towards paying for the new line already!

Eye is in awe of the Noble Lord's fiscal acumen!

Adonis eyeballs the brothers

Eye has in the past been a little critical of The Thin Controller.

But this is as nothing to the fury that will be directed against the Noble Lord for having the temerity to criticise UNITE and its members for threatening industrial action over Easter.

On Sunday Lord Adonis opined:

"Let's be absolutely clear the stakes are incredibly high in this strike and I absolutely deplore the strike,"

"It's totally unjustified, this strike, on the merits of the issues at stake, and I do call on the union to engage constructively with the company."

See the 'forces of hell' muster here, here and here.

The next big question is will Adonis dare to open a second front against the brothers by laying into the RMT and TSSA, who are also threatening to paralyse Easter travel on the railways?

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

It looks as if Adonis is getting his retaliation in first.

The plans for a super new 10 platform HS2 station at Euston will see TSSA's HQ demolished!

UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...

As the Clunking Fist backed Lord Adonis on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour today, it is pretty safe to assume that the 'forces of hell' have not yet been unleashed...

UPDATE: This from Biggles...

TSSA's head office gets reduced to rubble but ASLEF retains its Branch Office (The Exmouth Arms) which miraculously looks set to escape the bulldozers!

Yet further proof that ASLEF stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Eye salutes the man behind the 'Y' route for HS2

The Fact Compiler has been wondering where the Thin Controller got his idea for a Y shaped HS2 route?


No, it's not possible - is it?

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

I think this is what you are looking for.

It has been commissioned by a grateful nation and shows The Thin Controller in his HS2 trollies.


It will have pride of place in the new Euston Arch - gateway to the HS2 station.

Adonis rebrands before the HS2 announcement

So farewell then High Speed Evangelist - you are no more!

According to the Prime Minister's spokesman, in the Lobby today, Lord Adonis referred to himself as 'the Thin Controller' at this morning's Cabinet.

The Thin Controller also told cabinet that we now have the 'most reliable network in history' and that the Government would carry on with electrification of the network.

Clearly the Thin Controller remains unabashed by last week's derailment of the IEP.

Eye awaits Thursday's announcement on High Speed 2 with bated breath...

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

What's he mean, 'carry on with electrification'?

Nothing's happened yet!

UPDATE: This, surprisingly, from a Mr David Bowie...

Hey, guys,

I guess this 'Thin Controller' schtick is an homage to the original 'Thin White dude'.

Cool.

UPDATE: This from Prudence Rectitude...

At least the demise of the IEP won't add to the worsening trade deficit which in January stood at £8bn.

Although I'm sure I heard the IEP was to be built by a "British led consortium" - LOL!

UPDATE: This from IanFury, via Twitter...

(In response to a story in the Telegraph that the Chinese are planning a high speed line from Beijing to London)

My money is on the Chinese to finish before HS2 even starts.