Exciting news from the LibDems!
This from the Evening Standard...
Crossrail not a key priority for us, warns Vince Cable.
Zzzzz...
UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...
At least Vince had a go at the "scandal" of the still empty Waterloo International Terminal.
The other parties are positively supine about it.
Hot on the tail of the Pilgrimage of Grice, the Noble Lord has taken to exploring the motorway network.
Details of the Marple's Memorial Meander here.
It will be interesting to see whether, after fighting his way around the UK road network for a week, Lord Adonis has an appetite to divert more funds into roads to relieve congestion, or whether he argues even more strongly that the railways should be developed, to get people out of their cars.
Can he hold his nerve, or will he bottle it?
UPDATE: This from Tom over at Boriswatch...
It's interesting that Lord Adonis meets up with the Chairman of the RAC Foundation straight off the bat, who are the spiritual successor to the rabid interventionist road lobby of the 1960s to 1980s.
On the other hand it's highly amusing that said gentleman had to take to the train to avoid the M25 jams...
UPDATE: Captain Deltic in calculating mood asks...
Shouldn't we know what car Lord Adonis is driving?
And what miles per gallon it is achieving?
And what average speed he is assuming to get to these various meetings on time?
This from Sim Harris...
Is anyone paying attention?
According to The Department...
Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said, "The new East London Line will be of great benefit to rail passengers in London with more frequent trains to more destinations."
Well, fair enough.
Except, err... it will be the 'East London Railway'.
The ELL designation has been dropped.
Who failed to brief the Noble Lord or did he merely fail to listen?
This from the Hastings Observer...
A teenager has been charged with endangering safety on the railway after a woman's hair was set alight on a train.
!?!
Tom Harris MP has the sordid details....
Meanwhile.
A respectful message to Ms Louise Ellman MP and the Labour whips:
Come the next Parliament please could you consider Tom for membership of the Transport Select Committee?
Tom - we'll make a Robert Adley out of you yet!
Seen on a wagon in the up yard at Cheyenne...
Indeed!
Telegrammed by Charles Yerkes
So the Thames has vanished from TfL's new Tube map.
Yadder yadder.
The rot set in when they failed to restrict 081 to South of the river.
You want to see a Tube map?
Try the inclusive Dyslexic's guide to the Underground.
This just in from Dyspozytor...
I greatly applaud your initiative to encourage the development of green corridors along England's railways.
The propagation of your idea by means of a 'Railway Garden Competition' is stunning in its simplicity.
The fronds of buddleia that I see adorning the previously dull brick built bridges and viaducts whenever I visit the UK shows the extent to which the management of Network Rail are giving your 'bottom up' initiative their wholehearted support.
However, it is only fair to point out that Network Rail's efforts are still at the nursery garden stage compared to the achievements of my colleagues on Poland's railways.
I enclose a picture I took earlier today of a Prussian goods van at Kalisz station.
I trust that you will be able to use this picture to encourage Network Rail's gardeners to even greater efforts.
Alas foreign railways are not currently able to enter the Railway Garden Competition. Although Eye understand that this is to be addressed as part of the EU's Fourth European Railway Package...
This just in from Driver Potter...
Perchance GNER is not dead, it does but slumber.
Potter, having attended his brothers wedding in Newcastle this last weekend, travelled to Kings Cross on the 15:50 Up service (1A53?) on Sunday.
I was astonished. If you believe the wibbling anoraks masses, NXEC have all but abandoned customer service. Potter begs to differ. The staff were nothing short of exemplary; prompt, courteous and all questions answered quickly with a smile.
I once mourned the loss of GNER - the blue and red, "Route of the Flying Scotsman", named locomotives and staff with pride. Now I see that perhaps I was wrong to worry.
All NXEC have done is change the livery and the uniforms; the pride remains unchanged. And even not knowing what the future brings has not dented the professionalism on the East Coast.
FC, would you be good enough to post this on your rather fine site? We hear enough wibble about poor customer service. Fine efforts should not go unsung; especially from staff who face an uncertain few months ahead.
This from the Railway Gazette...
Rotherham tram-train replaces Penistone scheme
Now there's a surprise!
Penistone too difficult so DafT changes the question.
Will the dysfunctional Department ever see a rolling stock procurement exercise through to a successful conclusion?
UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...
Look on the positive side.
At least Sheffield to Huddersfield passengers won't have to stand cross-legged on a train with less seats and no loo (cf the current pacers).
UPDATE: This from Sir Humphrey Beeching...
The Fact Compiler is losing his touch!
Has he not noticed the following paragraph at the end of the Department's press release:
The project partners are still planning to test tram-trains on the Penistone Line between Sheffield and Huddersfield via Barnsley at a later date after work concluded that, electrically-powered tram-trains are more economically viable for use in the UK than the diesel equivalent which was being proposed for trial on the Penistone line
Interesting.
Electrically powered tram-trains.
And yet the freight line upon which these are now supposed to run is not electrified.
And as the spec' for the tram-trains appears to have changed does not this mean the procurement process will have to be rerun?
Either way it would have been cheaper to cancel the entire project.
Unless, of course, you have the mindset of an 'insurgent'...
Lord Mandelson suggests this government should have the mindset of "insurgents" rather than "incumbents".
So what Improvised Economic Disasters will Mandy and Brown leave behind for an incoming administration?
This from Spycatcher...
Travelling in a cab with a Treasury wonk recently, I congratulated her on getting the Crossrail Act passed.
It was easy, she said, to take the short-term political credit for getting it onto the statute book, as the inevitable cost overruns on the £16bn project would land on the desk of the next government.
“Just like they did to us with the Dome” she added.
Charming!
This from Shiny Shoes...
Derby and Crewe - always great rivals.
Hanging gardens no exception!
A day to gladden the hearts of all railwaymen!
On this day in 1830, at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, William Huskisson MP interfered with the operation of the railway and paid for his audacity with his life.
Sadly it's been a bit one sided in the wrong direction since then.
Good news from Landor!
An invitation to an event called 'Getting Best Value from Transport Projects' thuds into the inbox.
As the blurb sagely points out:
The economic downturn will result in a reduction in the total amount of money available for the delivery of public sector services. This will impact on the structure and delivery of transport service.
Indeed.
And what better way to get best value for the cash strapped taxpayer than by spending £295 to attend a conference...
Much excitement this week along the abandoned section of the former Midland route from Derby to Manchester.
Chaps with theodolites and other ephemera are to be seen examining the old formation between Matlock and Blackwall Mill.
After several unsuccessful attempts to create a business case for reopening the line to passenger traffic (the last by Derbyshire County Council in 2004) it is now Network Rail's turn to have a go.
The new study, undertaken by Laser Rail, will examine whether the route might be suitable for a new W12 gauge freight line; relieving pressure on the overcrowded West Coast Main Line without forcing traffic onto the increasingly busy ECML.
Presumably the quarries at the Buxton end would also welcome a direct route to markets in the South.
Of course this is not such good news for Peak Rail, who are now finding it difficult to get their long promised access to Matlock's currently abandoned platform 2...
UPDATE: This from a Mr Selwood...
Shome mishtake shurely!
Ephemera: something transitory or of no lasting significance
Presumably you mean impedimenta?
The Fact Compiler stands corrected, unless of course this study goes the way of all the rest and is of no lasting significance...
According to an ICM poll for the RMT, 70% of the population want to see a return to state control of the railways.
General secretary Bob Crow said: "This poll shows that the Government are miles out of step with voters."
Bob went on to observe that the Bishop of Rome is Catholic and that bears have been known to relieve themselves in woods.
No shit sherlock.
UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...
Interesting that on the same day the New Zealand Transport Minister is begging someone to take their railway off their hands.
Via Twitter...
Parents relieved schools back as children now out of hair...
Presumably bald children will be mandatory under the Governments new Parent Licensing regulations.
This from the Gruaniad...
Mike Brown, chief operating officer at Heathrow, will return to LU as managing director a year after he quit as chief operating officer of the organisation to join airports operator BAA, which owns Heathrow.
As one old LU hand put it "better the monster we know..."
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