Sorry for the lackof blogs but it’s been a very busy period that’s seen me working most of the time. Last weekend I was away in East Anglia documenting repairs to a culvert under the railway at a place called Spooner Row (near Wymondham). From there I hot-footed it back home to pack a bigger suitcase & head into London for a couple of days. After which I flew to Dusseldorf on a press trip to look at the new trains Siemens are building for Thameslink (the highlight of which was chance to drive one of the new trans at 80mph on the test track at Wildenrath). As soon as arrived back I headed up to Watford for Easter. I’m currently based here working on the rail blockade. A main element of this is the replacement of a bridge which carries five tracks of the West Coast Main Line over Orphanage Rd.

The blockade is going well. The Bridge push is currently 8 hours ahead. So,as you can appreciate, I’ve got plenty to blog about – but no time to do it!

Still, if you want to see some pictures of what I’ve been up to, have a look in these two galleries.

March
http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p755024368

April
http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p921265531

I’ll be back to blogging soon..

I’ve had a busy day attending the launch of the latest operator of the East Coast rail franchise, which is branded as Virgin Trains East Coast.

Don’t let the title fool you. Despite the branding, 90% of the share capital is owned by the Stagecoach Group & former East Midland Trains MD David Horne has been appointed to lead the franchise. Virgin are a sleeping partner in this one.

The launch went very well. The press pack turned up en-masse in the 1st Class lounge at Kings Cross to hear Transport Secretary Claire Perry & David talk about what the new franchise would offer. There was no shortage of things to hear. Both spoke well & despite the fact David had been up since silly o’clock on a hectic whirlwind of media interviews he was clearly up for the challenge. Then again, so were his team, an amalgam of seasoned Stagecoach & East Coast people who’ve been here before.

After the speeches the first fully rebranded train pulled into Kings Cross & many of the press took the chance to travel on it to York or Edinburgh. On board the media scrum were given the opportunity to quiz the new team on their plans for the new franchise. At the same time some First Class passengers found an opportunity to have 15 minutes of fame as the BBC, national journo’s & local media vied to interview them.

The East coast franchise has been a Bermuda triangle for operators since privatisation & has had more than its fare share of media scrutiny. One of the people I joked with on the day was long serving PR John Gelson. If East Coast ID cards were medals he’d have a chestful.

So, what did they talk about? Here’s some of the headlines:

A 10% cut in Anytime Standard fares on long-distance journeys  to & from London/Stevenage

£3.3bn of payments to the Treasury over the life of the franchise

£21m investment in the existing fleet in the next 2 years to improve reliability & the ambiance of the trains (despite the fact the fleet will be replaced from 2018)

A 50% increase in capacity by 2020

Additional services from Stirling & Sunderland by December 2015

Faster journey times (such as a sub 4 hr headline service between Edinburgh & London. OK, it’s actually 3hs 59mns but..)

From 2019 a new timetable will see changes on many routes, including new services to Middlesbrough & Huddersfield.

All in all it’s an exciting package of improvements. Sadly, it won’t be enough to slay the political dragon of rail renationalisation but, I do believe it goes to show what a sterile argument that is. Certain political sectors spend all their time talking about who owns the railways rather than what’s really needed by passengers & what can be delivered.

Virgin Trains East Coast have got off to a good start & it would be churlish not to wish them well – & applaud their ambition. Especially when one considers the legacy they may bequeath to the railway. Former operator GNER was often lauded but one question I’ve regularly posed is, what real legacy did they leave behind – other than fond memories? I suspect VTEC will do rather better.

If you want to see a few pictures of the launch, feel free to follow this link: http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p755024368

I’m back in London in preparation for tomorrow’s launch of the new Virgin East coast franchise. It promises to be an interesting day for a number of reasons.  The history of the East Coast franchise has been a turbulent one. It’s changed hands more than most & not always under the best of circumstances.That said, VEC have plans to extend & grow their operations. In fact, they promise far more than the oft praised GNER ever did. OK, some (like the new IEP trains) is down to the DfT, but route expansion isn’t. There’s a wider political aspect to the launch as well. The rail unions like to present this as a ‘reprivatisation’ (which is nonsense) but they & the Shadow Transport Minister are trying to make political capital in the run up to the election.

I may try & find time to blog about it but at the moment I’ve something else in my sights. Right now I’m wading through the Green Party’s transport policy. It doesn’t make great reading for anyone who knows anything about transport & their stance on rail (especially Hs2) is a mix of hand-wringing, confusion & downright porkies. Expect my next blog to dissect this.

For all those who might be fooled into thinking UKIP have anything to offer the NHS, take a look at this…

Yesterday the Shadow Secretary of Transport climbed back on his populist soapbox in an interview with the New Statesman

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/exclusive-michael-dugher-promises-public-control-railways-under-labour

Trotting out the usual trite lines, Dugher alleged that “”Privatisation was a disaster for the railways”

Really? Let’s look at the evidence. There’s no doubt that the early days of privatisation were a mess but that was over 20 years ago. No-one misses Railtrack but Labour put them out of their misery 13 years ago. Since then the railways have gone from strength to strength. We’re seeing record numbers of folk traveling, massive investment in the network by the private sector (something that British Railways could only dream of) and we haven’t had a single passenger killed in an accident since the Grayrigg derailment in 2007. So, if that’s a ‘disaster’ can we have more of it please.

The truth is, this is more grandstanding from Dugher. He’s offering nothing more than anodyne phrases that are meant to press electoral buttons. He goes on to say “”I’m not saying let’s go back to some sort of 70s and 80s British Rail, I don’t think sensible people are, actually” So, what is he offering?

Nothing of substance.

He adds that “I’m adamant about putting the whole franchising system, as it stands today, in the bin”

OK, so what are you going to replace franchising with & how will this improve the way the railways operate?

He fails to say.

We’re expected to vote for a party that proposes major changes in the way the railways work without a clue what they’ll do instead. Apart from trite phrases about more ‘public control’ (for this read more centralised micro-management by the Department of Transport) what is Dugher actually going to do. The old phrase ‘the devil is in the detail’ has never been more appropriate. Where IS the detail?

The more I hear of Michael Dugher, the more I hear of those who care about the railways switching votes.

As I’m still ostensibly on holiday & in a very different time zone I’m trying to keep my powder dry on some of the completely cretinous ideas that have emerged when Richard Wellings of the Institute of Economic Affairs has done an Indiana Jones & disturbed the tomb of ‘Transport Watch’.

So,I’m fortunate that I can give a hat tip to the brilliant commentator Tim Fenton, who has done a very good job of exposing this unholy alliance;

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/iea-exhumes-flat-earth-idea.html