RMT strike dates

Rail workers to strike for four days from April 6, the day after Easter, RMT leader Bob Crow has announced

With a bowler tip to @SkyNewsBreak, via Twitter

UPDATE: This from @Al_Green, via Twitter

So rail strike 6.7.8 & 9 April. Main impact will be the signallers walkouts 0600-1000 and 1800-2200. Some work for me to do now....

UPDATE: This from @Kevin_Maguire, via Twitter...

4-day rail strike from Tue 6 Apr. Day Brown tipped to go to Palace. Just as well PM lives in central London. And gets car

Waterloo International sees early return to use

Splendid news about the disused Waterloo International station which is currently costing taxpayers £2m a year.

Apparently it is to return to use within a matter of months!

This from luvvie rag The Stage...

A new stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children is to be performed in the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo Station.

Timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the film version of the book, the production will run from July 4, with press night on July 12, and is booking until September 4, 2010.

Eye is surprised that a children's play was selected.

Surely a good old fashioned British farce would have been more apposite.

Patricia Hewitt to Eurotunnel?

Transportb had this story yesterday at 08:58 and circulated it via Twitter.

Now Guido has woken up:

In a staggering move the board of Eurotunnel have voted to make the disgraced Patricia Hewitt a director.

Eurotunnel shareholders may of course take a different view.

So farewell Jarvis

This from the Evening Standard...

Jarvis, the rail contractor which admitted liability for the fatal 2002 Potters Bar Rail crash and is chaired by former Tory minister Steven Norris, today collapsed into administration.

Bye bye.

UPDATE: Jarvis is a major contractor on Evergreen 3 - Chiltern's £55m project to build and upgrade the railway between Bicester and Oxford.

Nothing about the implications of Jarvis entering administration on the Evergreen 3 website yet...

Sleepers to return to Marylebone - Shocker

Eye's favourite national newspaper hack is not a happy bunny!

Michael Williams, former Deputy Editor of the Independent on Sunday and regular Mail contributor, is about to publish his latest book.

Showing how it is still possible, in today's frenetic world, to breath, take stock and enjoy rail travel his new tome is a tour de force of Britain's best railway routes and companies.

And with an unrivaled contact book Michael had planned to welcome the greatest and good of the railway industry and government to the launch of 'On the Slow Train'.

But what's this.

Alas.

The brothers' threatened strike risks throwing his launch plans into disarray!

No matter.

Eye understands that whilst researching 'On the Slow Train' Michael learnt how BR execs managed to make it to the office during previous industrial disputes.

Perhaps passenger favourite WSMR can provide guests with overnight berths aboard a SLE/SLED stabled at Marylebone overnight...

UPDATE: This from A Trainspotter...

Unless the weather takes a sudden turn for the worse such that we can say "Merry Christmas Everybody", I think that Mail hack might "get more satisfaction" on strike days from an SLE+SLEP combination than an SLED - especially if he hopes for a beverage before bedtime.

Railway press - the gloves are off!

It's obviously getting tough out there for those selling ad space in the railway press.

This from the new ad sales team at Rail Amateur...

Our proposition to potential advertisers is a simple one; Rail Professional is the magazine read by the people with budgets, and who make the purchasing decisions in the rail industry. It is delivered to individuals, not dumped in bulk at messhalls. It is not a magazine for gricers, or for those engrossed by technical detail; it is a business magazine about the very serious business of running the railways professionally, and about the people who do just that - the rail professionals.

"Dumped in bulk at messhalls" (shurely 'messrooms'. Ed)

"Magazine for Gricers"

"Engrossed by technical detail"

Who can they mean?

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

Strange that they missed 'Written by BBC Transport correspondents in their spare time' from the list of plus points.

The battle for Arriva - Eye backs a winner!

This just in from Ol' Rosbiff - flexing his bowstring finger (and showing that he still has one).

In an attempt to revisit their takeover bid from 1056 years ago, the French Government is supporting SNCF in their pursuit of Arriva.

Meanwhile German rivals DB are dusting off more recent plans to show how railways should be run efficiently for the next 1000 years...

It's a close call between the two.

Of course our German friends are past masters at efficiently moving vast numbers of people in the most trying of circumstances.

But given the ORR's demand that the UK rail asset register is up to scratch perhaps the Old Enemy has the better claim - offering clear proof in the Domesday Book of how do the job very thoroughly (although regrettably they didn't list stations in the 1067 edition).

Either way the brothers must be celebrating.

What with a return to state ownership in the offing.

UPDATE: This from Herr Flickering Tail-Lamp...

Does that mean that DB is no longer interested in Go-Ahead?

UPDATE: This from Lazarus...

My pre-conquest history isn't that great but what actually happened in 954 AD (1056 years ago)?

Also, any fule kno the Doomsday Book came out in 1086. The 1067 version must have been a very early draft.

Perhaps it took 19 years to translate? Eye stands corrected. (Ol' Rosbiff you're fired. Ed)

UPDATE: This from a slightly over cooked Ol' Rosbiff...

I was at uni with the DfT team which worked on recent aborted new carriage procurements - so I must have picked up some bad habits in my maths calculations....

DfT swings the Axe - Official

This from the DfT, explaining where the efficiency savings announced in today's budget will come from:

Today the Department for Transport (DfT) announces that it will deliver £90 million of savings, as its departmental contribution towards £11bn savings that are being made across Government.

DfT will meet this target through a range of activities, including:

• £40m from streamlining back office functions across finance, HR and procurement;
• £30m from reducing spending on consultancies;
• £15m from reducing spending on marketing and communications;
• £5m from the senior civil service pay freeze and reduction in sickness absence for all staff across the department.

In addition to these savings, DfT also expects the Highways Agency to save a further £90m by 2012/2013 as a result of more efficient highways maintenance and renewals through longer-term planning.

As IEP is now a dead duck the £30m savings on 'consultancies' should be easily achievable.

And as for the £15m savings on 'Marketing and Communications' these should already be in the bag.

After all when you keep re-announcing old news all you have to do is change the date at the top of the press release.

UPDATE: This from The Archer...

I've already had too much pre-budget priced red wine to be bothered to work this out so I need your help:

Is the £5m reduction from the pay freeze / new improved healthy staff the same percentage of the overall budget in this department as it is in other departments, health, education, etc...

If not, is transport better than the others or worse?

If the percentage is the same, what kind of fools do they take us for?!?

Do you think the Government is taking us for fools.

Has The Archer had too much wine?

If you're drinking cider do you now give a toss?

Either way let Eye know and when we return from the booze cruise we'll be sure to publish your comments.

NR swings the axe - Official

Deep mourning today amongst Railway Garden fans!

In 2008 and 2009 Eye celebrated NR's masterful vegetation management in the Ambergate area of the Midland Main Line.


Sadly all good things must come to an end.

For it is an ex-tree, it has ceased to be, it has gorn to join the forest invisible!


According to our correspondent the tree was removed on Sunday (road closed beneath)

Eye salutes NR's Midland and Continental route for a job well done.

Pointless Hats - exciting new feature!

With a bowler tip to Chianothus Virginicus...


Although the makeover of St Paul's looks most splendid...

UK remains poor man of Europe

This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Compare and contrast, as they say.

Northern and EMT get 16 vintage DMU vehicles between them and the Government pulls out the PR stops boosting this £17.8 million deal.

Potty old Passenger Focus hails 'new trains'.

Now consider this routine statement from Bombardier.

BERLIN, GERMANY--(Marketwire - March 24, 2010) - Bombardier Transportation received an order for 49 additional Regio2N regional double-deck trains, as an option from the "Regio2N" contract signed with SNCF on behalf of the French Regions, on 24 February 2010. This additional order for 49 trains, which will be financed by the Regions, amounts to approximately 350 million euros ($ 474 million US).

And while so called experts say that the French Regions have been starved to pay for TGV, these really are very nice trains.

And it's going to get worse...

NR fesses up on Blackfriars - Shocker

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Here's the Note to Editors in the Network Rail press release on the visit by the PM and the Chancellor to the new Blackfriars station this morning.

Note to editors

• By December 2011 rail capacity into central London on the Thameslink route will increase by 3,500 seats each morning and evening compared with 2008 figures. Additional work at London Bridge (the next stage of the Thameslink Programme) will see an increase of up to 30,000 seats each morning and evening on the central London section of the Thameslink route. However, we don't know when London Bridge might be finished or what it will cost.

It's a fair cop, we may have added a sentence.

Alstom directors arrested

This from the BBC...

Three directors of French transport and infrastructure group Alstom have been arrested in a UK corruption probe, the Serious Fraud Office says.

More to follow...

More Buy-us claims - Shocker

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
In next week's Sunday Tymes - more Buy-us revelations

"I told Adonis IEP had to die"

Also revealed by the hottest lobbyist in the Westminster circus (shurley 'circuit'. Ed)

"Electrification was my idea" claims ex Transport minister

"Give Rocket a blast pipe and you'll walk the Rainhill Trials" - My advice to George Stephenson recalls Buy-us

"Think big! £5 billion subsidy is nowhere near enough" said my secret consultancy report for ATOC.

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...

Bid for a Class 57 cabride

This just in from Tony Miles...


My good friend Charlie Hulme who runs the North Wales Coast website - one of the oldest and the best - has been given the chance to auction a cab ride in a Virgin 57/3 whilst it tows a Pendolino along the N Wales coast line in aid of Virgin's charity (with free first class tickets from anywhere on the VT network to join the train).

Any chance you can copy his posting onto Railway Eye?

No sooner said than done!

Here is Charlie's original email:

In connection with Virgin's support for the London Marathon and the CLIC Sargent childrens' cancer charity, Virgin Trains have asked me to organise bidding for a ride for two with the Driver of the Class 57/3 which hauls a Pendolino on Saturdays between Crewe and Holyhead (One of their team of drivers will be running the marathon).

A first class return ticket from any Virgin Trains-served station is included, and you can bid for either the 'down' or 'up' runs.

For info about the offer and how to bid, please CLICK HERE

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Let's hope the winner doesn't try to use Virgin's T-Mobile WiFi to update the world with their progress.

TOCland issues clarion call in The Thunderer

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond
With all the excitement of yesterday's 'Lobbygate' an extraordinarily wooden and otiose letter in The Times may have gone unnoticed.

Signed by the great and the good of the passenger railway it ends with a clarion call designed to raise the spirits of all railwaymen, as well as admirers of the reckless use of the infinitive:

'We call on them (the main political parties) to commit to the investment to continue improving the railways making better use of the talents of train operators and creating an environment which makes rail a more attractive investment for the private sector.'

It is certain that this demand for lots more lovely lolly to go straight to TOCland will be seriously entertained by Whitehall in these straitened times.

And one can only imagine the gloom that has settled over Network Rail's Kings Place HQ, knowing that such powerful forces for change and naked self-interest have been released. Even now Iain Coucher is reported to be barely able to contain his white hot anger, having been so effectively outflanked.

Strangely one significant owning company was conspicuous by its absence from this ATOC led epistlefest.

Step forward Byers' 'client' - National Express!

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

What world are these people living in?

Everybody knows that the current cost of the railway is unsustainable.

The DfT Rail Director Technical & Professional has said in public that at current costs the railway is unsustainable

DfT and ORR have commissioned a review into Value for Money across the industry.

ORR is concerned about cost pressures on the full Thameslink programme.

DfT Rail has just decided that lengthening the rest of the Pendolino fleet does not represent value for money.

Engineering costs on Network Rail are reported to be double those of European Railways.

We face a period of unprecedented austerity in public spending.

Despite there being a war on even the Ministry of Defence has been ordered to determine the cancellation costs of every programme.

And yet here are these purported leaders of the industry asking for MORE money?

Sergeant Markoff, late of Fort Zinderneuf has advice for this multination legion of train operators.

"De merde toi Legionaire"

Which translates as "Not with my taxes"!

Sadiq says...

Via Twitter...

Just announced £235m investment for UK's 1st modern trolley bus scheme. Fantastic news for Leeds, especially on top of HS2

Pork barrels and trebles all round!

Adonis and Buy-us - the transcript

No doubt readers have seen the extraordinary piece about Stephen Buy-us in yesterday's Sunday Times?

£5,000 per day and boy, did National Express get their money's worth!

According to the Sunday Times 'a source close to Richard Bowker, who was chief executive at the time, said that the Byers version given to the undercover reporter was “pretty accurate”.'

Unbelievably Eye has come across a transcript of the very meeting between Buy-us and Adonis at which the future of NatEx was discussed!

It went something like this...

'Andrew, good to see you again. Look, you know that Richard Bowker's in a bit of a tight fix. You know a bit dicky on the cash flow and he's been a slightly reckless boy.'

'Well, we must help him out, Stephen, he really is too valuable to lose and Natex is a really great company. What do you suggest?'

'Andrew, I am not sure but just give him a bit of a bung. Nothing much, a couple of hundred mill will tide them over nicely.'

'Good as done Stephen me old mate, I'll get the cheque signed tomorrow.'

'Andrew, thanks a million, no pun intended,and by the way can I get Jo Moore to do a press release for you?'

'That's a great idea Stephen.'

You couldn't make it up.

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

It gets better.

Buy-us now claims that:

"I have never lobbied ministers on behalf of commercial organisations and have always fully disclosed my outside interests."

How does he reconcile this with his previous claim to the Sunday Times and Dispatches hacks that he had struck a secret deal with Lord Adonis last year on behalf of National Express?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

So Buy-us now claims that he lied about striking a deal with Lord Adonis on behalf of National Express.

Unless of course he is lying when he says he lied - if you get my drift.

Which makes him a liar which ever way you look at it.

Do MPs still have to resign when they are caught lying or doesn't it matter now?

And if Buy-us is lying about lying where does that leave Lord Adonis?

UPDATE: This via Radio 4's World at One...

The DfT has confirmed that Lord Adonis and Stephen Byers did speak about the National Express franchise.

UPDATE: Guido launches an on-line petition...

Asking the Queen to strip Stephen Buy-us of his Privy Council Membership

UPDATE: Lord Adonis on Byers...

Adonis confirmed this afternoon that he had had a brief conversation with Byers.

But, he said, "I had no intention whatsoever of renegotiating on favourable terms with the company; such a move would undermine the franchise system and would not be in the interests of taxpayers."

"I have had no communication with Mr Byers since, I have not the faintest idea why he said what he said to the undercover reporter."

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

Adonis confirmed this afternoon that he had had a brief conversation with Byers.

But, he said, "I had no intention whatsoever of renegotiating on favourable terms with the company; such a move would undermine the franchise system and would not be in the interests of taxpayers."

Oh really?

According to DfT notes of a meeting between The Thin Controller and NX on 9 June 2009 obtained under an FoI Request:

"AA noted that for NXEC if RB said it had to come back at the end of the month and the DfT had to step in, a management contract or Section 30 would need to be put in place. The DfT would need to get its skates on to get this in place."

So in June Lord Adonis was clearly receptive to the idea of a management contract.

What changed his position and made him determined that NX would never darken another franchises door again?

Perhaps it wasn't Richard Bowker who wound him up but Byers!

UPDATE: Tom Winsor on Radio 4's PM programme....

"Some have said Stephen Byers has an ambiguous relationship with the truth".

Not a view, Tom made clear, that he shared!

After all the former Rail Regulator has first hand experience of Byers' absolute commitment to the truth, gained when the then Secretary of State for Transport forced Railtrack into Administration.

Gaspaccio anyone?

Rail debate videos on line

Videos of last Wednesday's 'Election 2010 - The Rail Debate' have been uploaded to YouTube.

Here they are, with a bowler tip to a Mr Shipley:



















An excellent evening and a highly informative debate.