This from the Daily Post...
Passengers warned they could lose Wrexham-London rail link
PASSENGERS are being warned to “use or lose” a direct train link from North Wales to London.
Rail boss Andy Hamilton fired the shot across the bows as he announced the first ever ticket price rise on the service.
Fares between Wrexham and London Marylebone will now cost £60 - a 12% increase on current prices.
Vorsprung durch Technik - not.
As we are now into the 'silly season' it's time for an exciting new Eye competition...
Politicians as trains!
Twitter users may have seen some early attempts at this yesterday.
For example:
Tony Blair = Voyager - fast, no room for baggage but an unpleasant odour.
Lord Prescott = 08 shunter - Slow, determined but getting nowhere fast. Some are preserved in their retirement
Ali Campbell = Pendolino - Flash, exciting, shapes the agenda. Sadly not much up front and easily broken
Philip Hammond = Wickham Trolley - Petrol powered, single purpose, get you there. Big problem when it encounters passengers.
David Laws = 458 Junipers - Sudden end but a prosperous comeback on the horizon... (with a bowler tip to @swlines)
Ron Davies = East Coast cl91+mk4 set - carried more liveries than anyone can remember and likely to change again soon (with a bowler tip to @Politic_Animal)
Ann Widdecombe = Parry People Mover - very hard to get going and not worth it when you do (with a bowler tip to @BorisWatch)
Boris = a Pacer - very hard to stop them bouncing around on rough stuff (with a bowler tip to @BorisWatch)
More welcome...
UPDATE: This from @clloyd3003, via Twitter...
Gordon Brown = HST set - Old, a bit noisy, keeps getting upgraded, desperately needs to be replaced...
UPDATE: This from The Major...
Harold Wilson = Class 56 - Heavyweight and smokes a lot.
John Profumo = Class 35 - Incompatible multiple working. Early withdrawal but later did much useful work.
UPDATE: This from 5741 Duck...
Nick Clegg = TGV - moves faster than you'd expect, goes down surprisingly well in other countries and orange
UPDATE: This from The Big Basher...
Dave Cameron & Nick Clegg = Class 13 Master-and-slave unit - 'Nuff said.
Much excitement following Sir Humphrey Beeching's revelation yesterday that the DfT plans to run a Pendolino on the ECML between Glasgow and London.
Eye reader and uber-blogger Tom Harris MP has submitted the following parliamentary question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans his department has to use Pendolino rolling stock for service on the East Coast main line and if he will make a statement?
Expect a statement from either the Department or state owned East Coast today.
UPDATE: And here it is...
EAST COAST ASKED TO COMMISSION NEW 11-CAR PENDOLINO TRAIN
Directly Operated Railways Limited, the company established by the Government in 2009 to manage Train Operating Companies that come back to the public sector, today announced that it is in discussion with industry parties concerning the possibility of commissioning a new 11-car Pendolino train on the East Coast Main Line.
Elaine Holt, Chairman and Chief Executive of Directly Operated Railways, and Chairman of East Coast, said:
“I’m very pleased that East Coast has been asked to commission the new Pendolino on the East Coast Main Line. Whilst a final decision has not yet been made, if it goes ahead, the train would add extra capacity to our fleet – and we’re sure our customers would appreciate the comfort and facilities that the new Pendolino has to offer.
“We’re currently talking with the manufacturers Alstom, and other key industry partners to understand the challenges and opportunities involved in the commissioning and certification of the Pendolino on East Coast.”
Under the plan, East Coast Main Line Company Limited (East Coast), the publicly-owned company which operates Anglo-Scottish services on Britain’s premier long-distance rail route, would take delivery of the new train in July next year. East Coast would operate the Pendolino in daily passenger service, principally between London and Edinburgh, for a period currently estimated to be nine months.
The new 11-car Pendolino Class 390 – which is being built by Alstom at its facility in Savigliano, Italy – forms part of an order for four such train-sets. Alstom started work on the new order in early 2009. The units will be very similar to the 52 Pendolino Class 390s, each of 9 cars, currently in service on the West Coast Main Line.
These train-sets were built by Alstom between 2001 and 2004 and are capable of speeds of up to 140 miles per hour*.
The 11-cars of the new Pendolino will be only slightly longer than trains in the existing East Coast fleet, enabling all current station stops to be utilised by the train without the use of Selective Door Operation.
Whilst the new 11-car Pendolino is being commissioned with East Coast, it would be fully integrated into the East Coast fleet and timetable – and would be maintained by the Alstom train care centre at Polmadie, in Glasgow.
ENDS
Note to editors:
*Speeds are limited to 125 miles per hour on both the East and West Coast Main Lines, due to infrastructure constraints.
UPDATE: This from The Shunter...
Someone must be having a laugh - this has disaster written all over it.
East Coast can't even manage their current fleet at the moment - judging by PPM and the fact they've had to hire in an HST set from EMT.
So what happens when the Barbie-lino fails on the ECML - what will East Coast use to rescue it?
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...
If the service ever gets off the ground it will be interesting to see whether a Pendolino, no doubt with riding techie monitoring every thyristor through a lap top and tilt switched out, can match IC125 reliability on the same route.
Period 4 NFRIP results: East Coast IC125 27,000 miles per casualty. Class 390 fleet, er, almost exactly half that figure.
Telegrammed by Sir Humphrey Beeching
Summer recess allows our Civil Service to get on with their pet schemes unencumbered by ministers meddling in matters they really don't understand.
Over an excellent Rules luncheon yesterday a former DfT colleague told me of the latest Big Idea to emerge from the department's very own, but much misunderstood, professional railwayman.
Code named 'Eastern Promise', the plan is to operate the single return Glasgow to King's Cross service, contained in the 'Eureka!!' timetable, with one of the four new Pendolinos ordered by Virgin Rail Projects.
As my luncheon companion put it, in the modern parlance that all members of the First Division Association must now use: "A Pendolino on the East Coast 'would tick a lot of boxes'!"
First it would counter the spin from that awful oik Branston that £100 million of brand spanking new trains will be left sitting idle in sidings simply because the department refuses to give him, and the unspeakably off-message McSouter, an extension to their West Coast franchise.
Secondly it will provide the fragrant Elaine at our East Coast Main Line franchise with more baubles to play with, where of course my DfT Rail colleagues can keep an eye on them.
And finally, if ministers do accept the reactionary views of naive bankers on the Intercity Express Programme, it will show that DfT Rail is proactively looking for alternatives to replace the IC225 fleet.
Of course all this depends on slipping the Pendolino service into the Eureka!!! timetable whilst Cruella is on holiday, so naturally I was sworn to secrecy...
UPDATE: This from Driver Bill Hoole...
With twice the power of a Deltic I'm sure I speak for all East Coast Main Line Top Link Men when I say we are all for this proposal.
Climbing Stoke at 140 will be a new experience.
But in today's risk averse culture has anyone thought about a safe walking route to signal post telephones?
I note that Pendolinos don't have a cab door, so when you climb down you're half a vehicle length from the SPT.
Presumably provision of safe walking routes has been written into the business case?
UPDATE: This from Billy Connections...
So DfT Rail continues inventing outrageously expensive projects in the Age of Austerity!
Whilst most civil servants are "re-chipped" at the change of Government so as to conform to the thinking of their new masters the DfT Rail team still appears high on the hog in the land of statist intervention, merrilly wasting millions on plans which have no business case.
When will Cameron and Petrol-head remind them that there just isn't the money to waste?
The East Coast Pendolino plan will cost millions of pounds in infrastructure and testing work, take Network Rail experts off more important work and deliver no benefits for the WCML where trains between Birmingham and Scotland are worked by 5-car Voyagers which are regularly full and standing.
So - a frugal DfT would put the four new Pendolinos onto the Birmingham - Scotland trains they were designed to work and, if needs be, facilitate the transfer of the 221s to East Coast.
These sets are already route cleared from Glasgow to Kings Cross (in non-tilt configuration), would provide much needed extra capacity and the move would cost almost nothing.
I though the DfT had been ordered to stop micro-managing the national train fleet? Ministers, wherever you are on your holidays, time to put that call in now!
UPDATE: This from The Archer...
Back in the last century (about 1999 I think) GNER wanted to buy Pendolini as part of their new 20 year franchise bid.
A well known technical consultancy from the Derby area was contracted to ‘Easternise’ the train’s specification, given the wider operating temperature range that would apparently be encountered on the East Coast.
The repeat order was therefore no such thing so the price shot up and the 20 year franchise didn’t get awarded anyway.
So unless the Eureka timetable is going to run this service in the summer months only, don’t expect 'Eastern Promise' to tick any of the reliability boxes.
UPDATE: This from The Major...
I trust that even now Alstom's engineers are busy disabling the tilting equipment on the trains destined for East Coast in order to form a specific sub-fleet purely for Barbie Rail.
And that the trains are booked into Doncaster Works to allow a repaint into the specific shade of silver that is now fashionable around King's Cross.
Finally, they will of course need a special dome to feed East Coast's feeble wi-fi signal into the passenger coaches.
Fortunately forthcoming cuts to the Royal Navy may release a few cheap second hand domes from various unwanted frigates and destroyers.
UPDATE: This from Reginald S Potter...
Sir,
Regretfully I have to take up my pen once again to correct Railway Eye.
Why oh why can't so called railway people get the spelling of Eureka! right?
Punctuation marks play a vital role in modern brand management.
In fact, might I humbly suggest to Ms Holt that an umlaut over the 'u' might further strengthen the impact of Eureka!?
Yours etc
UPDATE: This from our International Correspondent...
Why has Driver Hoole become so unhelpful since his death?
Many engines with cab doors half a vehicle length from the front end have operated over the ECML in recent years - Duchess of Sutherland, Bittern, and even Tornado with Jeremy Clarkson on board, to name but several.
So Elaine's new Barbie-lino will be fine.
And if the cess is too catastrophic for sensitive Knights of the Iron Road to walk in, a simple 10m SPAD will put the door handily near the SPT, or "Confessional".
This from our Independent Expert...
Who wins?
No contest between the platform tubs and the permanent way display at Middlesbrough last Thursday.
This from zstephen...
Presumably Dumbarton's Civic Father's didn't quite have this view in mind when making this award?
Perhaps the Railway Garden Competition needs a Forestry Category?
This from the Rover...
Taken just outside Waterloo...
Not sure if this is a garden or pointless sign...
Good news indeed for rail user and pressure groups!
So after all the huff and puff it is evident that we are not all in this together and that ministers are no longer to think the unthinkable.
Now let's see how Cameroon and Petrol-head fair against the power of rail users.
This from the Wicked Weaver...
Might Eye advise its readers of a bonus for those planning a trip on the "Scarborough Express" later this month?
The short platform at the Castleford stop enables the front carriages to be adjacent to the 'orchard'.
Just reach out and touch...
Some ripening is still required, but the opportunity for a free lunch should not be declined.
UPDATE: This from Retired BR, Railtrack, Network Rail...
This is of course the new green carriage washer.
It works well as long as its been raining, which I’m told it often does at Castleford.
It also washes the faces of gricers who are not quick enough to put their heads in, so is multi purpose.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
The Fact Compiler has received this plaintive email from Wolmar:
Please can you put this on your website:
Engines of war: Launch lecture for the Railway Children
I am giving a lecture on behalf of the University of Aberdeen at the German Gymnasium on September 28th on my new book, Engines of War, how wars were won and lost on the railways.
The drinks at the lecture are being kindly sponsored by Bircham Dyson Bell and all profits will go to the Railway Children.
Doors open 6 for 6 30pm
There are only a limited number of tickets available at £15 each which includes £5 discount on the purchase of the book and you can be sure of a place now by clicking here:
So what, I hear you say, nothing new in Wolmar rattling the Railway Children collection plate.
Indeed so.
But surely it can't have escaped Comrade Wolmar's notice that his lecture is taking place in London at the very same time that the Labour Party Conference will be in full flow almost 200 miles away!
Eye suspects that with Lord Adonis now a mere backwoodsman none of the Smelly Socks can be bothered to sign off Wolmar's delegate pass...
Telegrammed by Sir Humphrey Beeching
Although retired I still receive all the Departmental bumpf, including updated pages for the DfT officers handbook.
One replacement page in the post today foxed me, but my sharp eyed lady wife spotted the change
In the section on abbreviations and acronyms (there is a difference, you know), all the initials were the same, but IEP now stands for Intercity Extension Project now defined as 'Further life extension of IC125 high speed diesel trains, with re-engineering and reliability upgrades to 2025 or 2035'.
I look forward to seeing what my erstwhile colleagues will make of the SOFA (currently Statement of Funds Available) following October's Comprehensive Spending Review.
Telegrammed by Our International Correspondent
MVA – a UK based consultancy jointly owned by RATP and SNCF – recently completed a report for NR and ORR into West Coast performance.
Regular followers of the ongoing West Coast Main Line saga will recollect that following the introduction of the Very High Frequency service in 2009 performance has been, ahem, disappointing (76.4% "on time" in Q4 2008/9 with 559 complaints per 100,000 journeys - a record even for Beardie Rail).
Authored by the eminently respectable William Barter (who knows train planning inside out) the MVA report said, in language carefully designed not to offend the notoriously moody client, that WCML went to ratshit because no-one knew how to model a timetable that worked.
But, MVA’s own understanding of the West Coast may not be quite as robust as they would like us to think.
On their website the “How to find us” map for their Birmingham office helpfully shows that useful and heavily-used direct rail link between New Street and Moor Street.
Of course anyone wanting to know what Birmingham’s rail network really looks like should refer to Stuart Baker’s excellent Rail Atlas which is now in its 12th edition.
That would be the very same Baker who is the DfT's rolling stock and timetabling supremo and who, in a previous life, decided that diesel Voyagers should run under the West Coast wires.
Trebles and no IEPs all round.
This from a Mr Tony Miles...
Here at Thetford there is a similar sign each side of the footbridge where, I believe, there once was a foot crossing.
If anyone can remind us when the crossing was taken out of use we can work out how long these signs have been in place and possible how many times the black apostrophes have been lovingly repainted in the wrong place...
UPDATE: This from Sinoda...
I believe the Thetford foot crossing was removed in about 1987/88.
About 3 years ago, a Sunday rail replacement coach driver, having been guided by his Sat-Nav, was found looking for the road level crossing.
Although on the same site, this had closed in the early years of the last century!
Telegrammed by The Master
According to the Terence Cuneo Memorial Trust:
When Terence Cuneo died in 1996, there were many of his friends who felt that his achievements, as one of the 20th Century’s best and most versatile painters, should be recognised and celebrated in some way, to encourage future generations to know and enjoy his exceptional talent.
A few like-minded people, together with our family, formed a committee. The goal was simple, to raise enough money to commission a statue of Terence Cuneo and give it a home in the most public and appropriate place possible...
Along with the statue, the committee considered that it would be a fitting tribute if the Cuneo name could also be given to an annual prize at The Slade School of Fine Art, his alma mater. As a result of this ‘The Terence Cuneo Memorial Trust’ was formally established as a Registered Charity in March 2002.
It is a measure of the affection in which Terence Cuneo was held by the Royal Family that HM The Queen graciously agreed to head the subscription list.
Thanks to a magnificent gesture from an admirer of Cuneo’s paintings, Philip Jackson, the renowned sculptor was commissioned to create the statue.
With the help of Network Rail the 1.5 times life size Bronze Statue of Terence Cuneo now stands in the main concourse of Waterloo Station - adjacent to the Eurostar Terminal.
And how fares the statue today?
Sadly it stands neglected, covered in dust and detritus and almost invisible between a rash of new fast food kiosks.
What a reflection on the way the railway treats its heritage.
Come on Network Rail - you can do better than this.
UPDATE: This from Driver Potter...
Never really understood why they didn't put the statue under the station clock...
Good news for hard pressed Londoners!
To date most of the transport news about the Olympics has been entirely negative - what with the exciting introduction in 2012 of Zil Lanes across swathes of the capital for the exclusive use of bloated Olympic officials and their entourages, whilst oridinary Londoners face the threat of summery execution should they even think of straying into them.
Happily the tide has turned and those long promised transport improvements are finally starting to arrive!
This thrilling email announcement from the Olympic Delivery Authority:
Robert the Engine gets first makeover as part of London 2012 transport investment
A steam locomotive called Robert is receiving a London 2012 paint job after 78 years of pigeons, rain and wind left him feeling under the weather. Robert the Engine, built in 1933, is being given a makeover before resuming his place outside the main transport hub for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by the end of the year.
Errr... run that by us again?
The ODA has painted a knackered kettle and this is billed as "transport investment".
Yes London, the rest of the world really is laughing at you.
Telegrammed by Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
Browsing through the uncorrected note of Philip Hammod's evidence to the Transport Select Committee we came across this exchange:
Q18 Kwasi Kwarteng: My question is related to rail and the position of Railtrack. Clearly, you have been on record saying certain things about the governance there and there is a perception that that is quite poor because it is neither one thing nor the other. It is a private concern and then I suspect because the government did not want the liability to be on the balance sheet it is neither fish nor fowl. I was just wondering what your position on Railtrack was in terms of governance.
Mr Hammond: The Coalition came into office with a commitment to make Railtrack more accountable to its immediate customers and to its ultimate customers, rail passengers
Only goes to show what a strong and enduring brand Railtrack built in its short but unhappy life.
This from Centro...
Loxdale Metro stop has had a make over with a difference. Over the past month and a half offenders made amends for their crimes by clearing the vegetation around the area.
Centro joined forces with Travel Midland Metro and Wolverhampton Community Payback after receiving requests from local residents asking if the vegetation could be removed. Work started on 10th June 2010 and was completed on 30th July 2010. 
Quite right too - the way of the transgressor is very hard!
But what's this? 
Presumably the PCSO and observing officials are there to prevent these evil miscreants donning ear defenders, face guards, hard hats etc...
UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...
On the other hand given that this is Birmingham this could be sharia payback, with fingers about to go through the shredder...
This from the Wicked Weaver...
I wonder if I might share with Eye readers these photographs of the new platform 3 at Chesterfield station.
Observe the miles upon miles of Coucher Memorial Fencing here...
...and here...
The new platform also hosts some exciting new features - perhaps some of your readers can guess what this one is for?
A Zimmer frame bolted to the ground? Obviously the safest way for the infirm to negotiate highly dangerous stations in these safety conscious times.
Of course the piece de resistance is the dedicated fire escape from the end of platform 3 that runs almost the length of the new structure, just in case all that metal, glass and tarmac suddenly bursts into flame...
In these straightened times it is good to see that no expense has been spared to protect the passenger.
Perhaps the only disappointment is that despite the vast expense it's still not in use yet.
UPDATE: This from Geo.Stephenson (Retd), Clay Cross
I fear I must point out, Sir, if no more immediate source has done so yet, that there are reports this new Passenger Wharf was used on 29th July to accommodate trains after a passenger was taken ill and the train he was travelling on detained in platform 2 awaiting paramedics.
Yours, laying tracks faster than the gricers can grice!
UPDATE: This from Chionanthus virginicus...
..and it's only been constructed for use during engineering works !!!
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