Recent content by Pretendolino

Any idea how GBRX fit into this? They have their own page on Linkedin and I presume they are a separate thing?

There will be some dejected bid teams after all their hard work, but there can only be one winner. Some back of a fag packet calculations suggest it was a very competitive bid financially. Hopefully all above board...

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1179257/26580_HS2_Annual_Report_2022-2023_CS1813_WEB_accessible_reduced.pdf See page 51 onward for Remuneration and Staff Report. You may also look at high salaries across fhe cabinet office here...

There's yet more of a clearout at the Exec/Director level. Director of Corporate Affairs is leaving soon and Exec Director Projects will be gone by end of March. The reasoning for the latter being something about the fundamental change in the way rail contracts are managed. Seems a bit odd...

My best guesses are: First chart is duff. There's the Class 171 Turbostars on Southern that should be diesel, albeit a relatively small proportion of traction costs. Figure 24 in the report shows c2c as fully electric, so again I think that's just a mistake in the figure shared here. Second...

The article doesn't say anything especially new. However, keep an ear out for an announcement this week. As far as I'm aware, a decision has been made and it's just a matter of time before making it public. The options are either: - Avanti hand back the keys and OLR take over - Avanti are...

That's the Electric Asset Usage Charge. It's relatively small compared to EC4T and is charged on a £/vehicle mile basis depending on DC or AC operation. The rates are on the Network Rail CP6 Access Charges site if you're interested. The non-commodity EC4T costs are bundled up into the single...

This is managed through the EC4T Scheme Council, which I believe now has all the TOCs on it. It's supported by Schneider Electric who help with buying the forecast quantities. As others have stated, the electricity gets bought in advance and effectively the prices get fixed/locked in ahead of...

It's genuinely a perfect storm. Franchise handovers are tough at the best of times but going from a Virgin culture (embedded since privatisation) to a First culture is quite a stark change. Not only that, VT were running on short-term extensions with minimal investments and continual sweating...

You may also find that industrial action can be treated as a 'force majeure' event in the eyes of a Franchise Agreement / EMA / ERMA / NRC. While train operators have an element of influence over staff, they do not have complete control (otherwise they'd be assets on the balance sheet, right!)...

Firstly, retirement isn't as easy to predict as you'd imagine. There is no longer a 'legal retirement age' and so staff are free to carry on working as they wish. Somebody could work to 62 or to 82 and beyond. It's up to them! What you can do is try and have great working relationships so that...

Train Operators receive Annual Business Plan (ABP) instructions which set out some of the key assumptions for the submission (e.g. indexation). The Train Operator submits their ABP, which should fulfill the Business Plan Commitments (BPCs), which are similar to the old Committed Obligations...

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I wasn't aware of those conditions on flexi-seasons, so that's useful to know! Is that £36.60 per month based on an annual discounted season ticket?

Hi all, My place of work is looking to get staff back into the office at least 2 days a week in the new year. As such, I'm exploring my options for train season tickets and hope you can help! Home Station: New Beckenham (Zone 4, Southeastern) Via: London Bridge (Zone 1) Work Station: London...

Being able to look at the finances of the entire company and budgeting/forecasting the spend for the upcoming years. Hugely challenging but quite fun.