HS2 - Close but no cigar

This from Biggles...

No you fools, I said 'Alison' Munro!

Gibb transitions from poacher to gamekeeper

So. A big Eye farewell to Chris Gibb, as he moves from Chief Operating Officer at Virgin to a Non-exec role at Network Rail. 

With NR soon to abandon King's Place for pastures new it looks as if Gibby is keeping an eye on future travel expenses by selecting a sub-125 mode of transport.

Behold the Non-exec vehicle de choix - the Twizy, which Renault claims has a range of 61 miles between charges.

Alas, the actualité appears to be closer to 50 miles.

Chums of the railman be warned, a visit from Chris may see him clutching three pin plug in hand!

Moor Street Service of Remembrance

This from a Mr Tony Miles...

On Armistice Day I thought Eye readers might be interested to see picture of the West Midlands Railway Service of Remembrance, held at Moor Street station on Friday 8th. 

The event was attended by representatives of all TOCs serving the West Midlands, Network Rail, the emergency services, British Legion and members of the Armed Forces.

The GWR memorial plaque to the fallen in the Great War, on the concourse at Moor Street, notes that 25,479 GWR employees served in that war, 33% of the company's staff. Of those 2,436 lost their lives.

 

We shall remember.

Silver Stump Watch - Euston

This from the The Coneworker...

Platform 1 Emergency escape, Euston. 

 

Surely a hindrance to Escapees?

Burles to Greater Anglia

So. Jamie Burles will be succeeding Ruud Haket as MD of Greater Anglia.

Currently a bid director at parent company Abellio he will join the TOC after completing work on the Thameslink bid in April 2014.

With Ruud due to depart for Keolis in January, Adam Golton will be holding the reigns during the interregnum.

If the clog fits...

Engineering the Underground

This, from the Institution of Civil Engineers, is very nice...



Good effort.

Lest we forget

With Remembrance Sunday almost upon us here are some photos of the new War Memorial at King's Cross station, unveiled on the 27th October.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, 
We will remember them.

We will remember them.

Gideon signals panic in Tory marginals

This from Norfolk Broads...

Absolutely no panic in the Tory party about vulnerable seats in East Anglia.

No siree, none at all.

So what are we to make of this then?

According to this press release from the Treasury:

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a new taskforce to look at speeding up journey times to East Anglia to drive growth in the region.

Plans for a new expert group charged with finding ways to speed up rail services to the East of England by as much as 25% have been set out by the Chancellor.

The new taskforce will be made up of Department for Transport officials, experts from Network Rail, and local MPs.

Evidently not content with presiding over the most complicated railway structure in the world our Chancellor has decided to abandon boring old things like Route Utilisation Strategies, Control Periods, Statement of Funds Available, etc... etc..., instead he will improve our network by fiat!

Move over ORR, franchise bidders and RDG your skills are not needed, for we have SuperGideon and 'local MPs' to the rescue!

It's not as if our Chancellor has anything else important to do, what with a record deficit and all!

On the plus side, only another 18 months till 7th May 2015 and after that we can all go back to business as usual. 

Can you put a value on Goodwill?

Read it and weep.

This from the Beeb yesterday... 

The minister overseeing the HS2 rail project has issued an official correction after getting muddled over the size of his department's budget.

Robert Goodwill suggested in the Commons last week that the transport department's overall budget was £50bn. The actual figure is less than £13bn. 

Only £37bn out. 

FFS!

Hammond Eggs - On how not to hold a TOC to account

Another gem from the minister for rail!

Given as a written answer on the 4th November...

Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, Conservative)
It was never the intention to use the historic performance of directly operated railways as a comparator for future franchise bids. The nature of rail operations means that their circumstances change over time with infrastructure and rolling stock investment as well as changes in track access charges and the performance of the wider economy, which makes comparing any franchise to another or even to historical data on itself imprudent.

However, as with all franchise competitions, the Department has developed a comparator model to assess franchise bids against that is informed by base data from the current operator. 

What's that sound? It's the sound of DfT taking a chainsaw to the only believable benchmark of a new operators' performance! 

Modern parables No94

This from the Preacher...

It is easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to pass through the lie of a needle.

Here endeth the lesson.

Hammond Eggs - Woodhead dead

This from Stephen Hammond of DfT...

Written statement to Parliament: Woodhead tunnels

...In 2007 to 2008 ministers received many representations urging them to protect the Woodhead tunnels so that the Woodhead route could be re-opened to rail traffic in the future...

I am therefore announcing that the government will not be purchasing the tunnels from National Grid in order to instigate an inspection and maintenance regime and I shall be informing National Grid accordingly...

My decision does not rule the possibility of re-opening the Woodhead route to rail traffic in the future, should a new line ever be required...

So that's all right then!
 

 

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Today we mark the anniversary of a significant event in our history.
 
A day when some crazed ideologues, led by a deranged individual, entered the Houses of Parliament determined to do great damage to our nation.

Still, enough about John Major and the Railways Act.

Happy Bonfire Night.

TSSA Exec ushers in austerity Christmas

Here's a tale to warm the heart of every industry Scrooge.

The TSSA's Executive Committee Report for October records the following sad news...

Finances
In the light of the serious financial reductions that will need to be introduced over the next few months the EC set an early example by:
•    Not accepting an invitation to send a delegates to the International Transport Workers Federation Women’s conference in Delhi in January 2014
•    Cancelling its Christmas dinner

Such selflessness will no doubt be welcomed by members whose subs previously funded the Yuletide jolly.

UPDATE: This from Oliver Cromwell...

They've obviously gone for cheaper printers this year too...

UPDATE: This from Pendolino Warrior...

Saddened the TSSA is "Not accepting an invitation to send a delegates to the International Transport Workers Federation Women’s conference in Delhi in January 2014".

I wonder what their former president Harriet Yeo would have to say? 

Perhaps something along these lines...

Sun rises on talking shop as Ministers dodge talking tough!

A quite extra-ordinary release from DfT on Friday!

It began:

Strengthening Britain’s train-building industry
 
The creation of a new forum to strengthen the British rail industry at home and abroad has been announced by ministers during a visit to the site of Britain’s newest train factory.

The Rail Industry Supply Chain Forum was announced by both Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, when they visited the site of Hitachi’s new £82 million manufacturing facility at Newton Aycliffe, in County Durham, home of the new Intercity Express Trains.

It continued by outlining the following benefits of the new Rail Industry Supply Chain Forum as follows:

• providing the government with a better understanding of the capability of UK suppliers to inform our rail investment plans and identify where support or intervention is required
• building the capability of UK suppliers so that they are more likely to win work both here and abroad
• reducing the risk of UK suppliers facing “feast and famine” in their order books and providing early warning of potential problems to the industry
• improving how government and industry promote UK capability overseas

Sigh!

Ministers and Whitehall officials could do a whole heap more for 'UK suppliers' by telling our Japanese friends that if they don't open their domestic market to UK rail suppliers with immediate effect, then HMG will not hesitate to cancel the Ninky Nonk train.

Sadly, iDave's preference for 'chugging down sake' means you can be quite sure this won't happen.

Treasury Committee appoints Herod to advise on childcare

This really is just too good.

The Treasury Select Committee, chaired by Andrew Tyrie MP, has launched an inquiry into “The Economics of HS2".

And quite right too.

But what's this!

Tyrie has appointed, as a specialist adviser on transport economics, one Stephen Glaister.

Glaister, readers will recall, is of course the widely respected Professor of Transport and Infrastructure in the Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London.

He also just happens to be the director of the RAC Foundation; an organisation which, as any fule kno, is implacably opposed to new railways.

Here is Prof Glaister, in full modally agnostic flow, in a 2010 piece for the Gruan's Comment is free:

“The brutal truth is that for all the attention lavished on the railways, not least by politicians, it is a niche activity and will remain so – even if capacity is increased by a quarter, or a half, or even doubled. Anyway, significant expansion of the rail network is out of the question. Or at least it should be.”
 
Good news indeed for those looking for a balanced study into the economics of HS2.

Eye wonders what on earth could have induced HS2 denier Andrew Tyrie MP to appoint Glaister to such an important role?

No matter.

The select committee's first session on Tuesday 5 November will hear evidence from a range of witnesses both pro and anti the new North-South railway.

Eye will be listening with particular interest to the views of the last witness, who also hails from Imperial College...

Silver Stump Watch - Leeds

This from Northern Spirit...

Nicely placed, just where people might want to walk.

Pointless sign - East Croydon

This from Payroll No 1144...

 After a decade it still lingers on.

Now that the government has flogged off the Royal Mail perhaps time to resurrect?

Although getting agreement from 24 train operating companies as well as Network Rail managed stations might be something of a challenge!

Pointless signs - Duffield

PAC - Thameslink offers bright future for Pacers

This from The Man by the Photocopier...

Eye readers might be intrigued to learn that the new Thameslink rolling stock will be unrefurbished Pacers!

And all the time we thought it was going to be some wizzo-super new version of the electric Desiros from our chums at Siemens.

But the Public Accounts Committee knows better, judging by this highly appropriate picture on its website which accompanies the Committee's latest Thameslink moan (shurely "carefully researched and insightful report"? Ed).



An additional exclusive is an ERTMS semaphore. Another British first?

And where was this charming picture taken? Must be Radlett. There are certainly no overhead wires to spoil the view!