Via twitter...
In office trying to complete Red Box while listening to Rosie W doing great job at Report Stage of Bill I would be doing but for reshuffle..
Eye hopes the Noble Lord will soon give his Transport Minister something to get his teeth into.
Splendid policing from the BTP.
This from the Grauniad...
"He walked over and said: 'Do you know that young man?' I said no. He said: 'Fuck off, then. It's got nothing to do with you,'" Hinds said.
After insisting calmly that he was within his legal rights to remain, Hinds was first threatened with arrest and then marched across the station in handcuffs by two BTP policemen.
But why, when this alleged 'offence' took place in 2004, has it taken five years for Mr Hinds to receive justice?
Good effort though, errr... 'mislaying' the CCTV footage and all.
Exciting news from Arriva Cross Country
Click here to visit their new Beta site.
Eye wonders if it will ever make Release 1.0
UPDATE: This just in from J Alfred Prufrock...
Congratulations to Eye for this link to Cross Country's Beta Site - a classic example of how yield management gone mad is crippling the train operators' finances.
For example, £4.50 for Manchester-Reading?
At a time when the company is engaged on a major cost cutting exercise?
The madness!
UPDATE: This just in from Alex Gill, Account Director at GraphicoDMG...
Hi “Fact Compiler”
Thanks for posting the beta link on your blog. Always a good read!
Hopefully the new beta site will see the light of day (and very soon J) . We listened to what users were telling us, and are trying to improve the experience of searching for cheap tickets, as well as helping them with features like recent and favourite searches.
It works best in Firefox at the mo – we are now adding all of the required “Browser hacks” needed to make sites work across the plethora of slightly different or newly updated web browsers like IE8, chrome, safari…..as well as fixing the usual teething problems.
Would it be possible for you to amend the link to this.
This page explains what works and what doesn’t yet, as well as what’s new, and is a good place for people to start.
Any feedback welcome!
This just in from Woodhouse Communications....
Good news - the closing deadline for entries to the Rail Business Awards has been extended until Friday 23 October 2009.
Good news indeed!
Hopefully sponsor HSBC will be equally generous to mortgage customers who also miss their deadlines?
No matter.
Those who have already submitted an entry must be hoping that the field remains errr... 'perfectly formed'.
Let Railway Eye be the first to congratulate Wolmar on his exciting news.
As reveled on his very own website:
Eye didn't know he had it in him!
UPDATE: This just in, amazingly, from the late Marje Proops...
Many may think it an old wives' tale but my long experience as an agony aunt tells me that a new partner, a new book published and a new mansion invariably leads to choosing the decoration of the new nursery.
And there are so many railway themed children's TV programmes to choose from.
But with 'steam' so popular in the titles of Christian's books I think we can safely assume it will be Thomas the Tank Engine wall paper.
This is an absolute disgrace.
Ian Dale has the story here.
Whilst Guido, who is offshore, furnishes further details.
Log on, get outraged and reclaim our ancient rights!
UPDATE: It was the web what won it!
Via Twitter...
@arusbridger: Victory! #CarterRuck caves-in. No #Guardian court hearing. Media can now report Paul Farrelly's PQ about #Trafigura. More soon on Guardian..
@arusbridger: Thanks to Twitter/all tweeters for fantastic support over past 16 hours! Great victory for free speech. #guardian #trafigura #carterRuck
UPDATE: Grauniad story here:
Gag on Guardian reporting MP's Trafigura question lifted
UPDATE: And here is the BBC Newsnight story on Trafigura.
Dirty tricks and toxic waste in Ivory Coast
With a bowler tip to Carter-Ruck for bringing this to everyone's attention.
This from the Press Gazette...
The Evening Standard has won the right to use the distribution bins of rival free title Metro at London railway stations in the evenings.
Presumably Network Rail will be restoring station bins and making a contribution towards TOC on-train cleaners?
This just in from our man in the four foot...
Here is Hellifield down goods loop - a safe walking route? 
Note the big yellow Colas lawnmower in the distance.
This just in from Captain Deltic...
Good to see that the extension of Oyster PYG from my home station, a mere 20 miles from Kings Cross, is going so well!
Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Phew, narrow escape there for Rick Haythornethwaite and the Network Rail board.
It turns out that the Peter Waller, recently appinted a Public Member is not THE Peter Waller the railway writer.
Nearly had some dangerously subversive railway knowledge there.
Meanwhile, total radio silence from the normally forthcoming Lord Berkeley following the winding up meeting of his Members Review Group on 3 October.
Telegrammed by Party Animal
An impressive performance from NX railwaymen at this year's party conferences.
Despite challenging circumstances they put up a good show.
Each TOC sent their PR, the MD's took turns to be seen and Franksy was visible throughout.
But the pièce de résistance was reserved for the Tories. Bring forth Lord Bunting of Schmooze!
Impressive lobbying! But is it too late?
No matter - Good effort.
London Reconnections has photos of the first test train on the East London line/Railway.
Meanwhile Boris Watch unveils a nice spat between DafT and TfL on funding for the replacement South London Line service.
Great headline too: Sadiq Khan bitch-slaps Boris
Cameron's speech at the Tory Party conference appears not to have played well with the brothers.
Unite joint general secretary, Derek Simpson said, "At the height of the worst recession in decades Cameron said nothing about job creation, nothing about supporting our industries and nothing about reigning in his friends in the city who caused economic meltdown. "
But what's this.
Is this the same Unite who donated almost £4m to the Labour Party last year?
Or indeed the same Unite whose Deputy General Secretary is one Jack Dromey, husband of Cabinet Minister Harriet Harperson, and who is being lined up for the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Leyton and Wanstead.
Indeed it is.
So no chance of reopening the Matlock - Buxton route to freight traffic then.
This official line from Network Rail, with a bowler tip to Kestrel Eyes:
Rumours of work on the Matlock-Buxton line are exaggerated.
We looked at strategic freight route options on existing routes to the north that potentially could provide further capacity for W10 gauge clearance.
Matlock to Buxton was a no goer owing to the prohibitive costs involved.
Still no news on when Peak Rail will gain access to Matlock's second platform.
The Eye has been inundated by furious emails from Railway Garden fans following a shock Tube Lines announcement.
According to a press release issued today:
Tube Lines has become the first railway company in the UK to eradicate Japanese Knotweed (fallopia japonica spp), thanks to a pioneering weed killer.
Fortunately Network Rail can be trusted to keep the Railway Garden Competition in business for quite a few years yet...
But...
You'll have to wait till tomorrow!
UPDATE: Thanks for the emails and apologies for the delay - this one is evolving.
Eye will post details as soon as practicable...
Telegrammed by Leo Pink
In Network Rail's list of newly appointed public members, issued today, I note the name of J Bray.
Is this Jonathan Bray of PTEG fame?
And would that be the same J Bray who was on the previous list of public members helpfully provided by NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit?
I think we should be told!
Perhaps J Bray is in danger of becoming like Peter Simple's Alderman Foodbottom; the 'perpetual' Chairman of the Bradford Tramways and Fine Arts Committee.
This just in from Tony Miles...
Has nobody bothered to tell you that Advenza is no more?
The Fact Compiler apologises for being a little slow on the uptake.
But having recorded the demise of Advenza so many times Eye wanted to make sure it really had ceased to be.
Extra-ordinary.
The Department meddles in rolling stock specification and allocation (which it clearly isn't competent to do) whilst letting Worst get away with rewriting regulated ticket validity.
This from Politics.co.uk...
First Great Western used a loophole in the current legislation which allows them to change the time restrictions on certain regulated fares but not the prices to effectively increase the price of tickets. They re-named the ‘Off Peak Ticket’ as a ‘Super Off Peak’ ticket – meaning it was the same price but only available on a much more restricted timetable, whilst making some former ‘off peak’ prices 20% higher.
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