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This consultation has been kicked off by the DfT in advance of the October ITT. http://assets.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2012-23/consultation-thameslink.pdf Lots of detail about the progessive merger and proposed services. However, a quick skim did not reveal anything about rolling stock...

In a very dry announcement from ORR: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/290512-performance-breach-letter.pdf NR will be fined £1.5m for every 0.1 point below the agreed 92% performance target in 2013/14 for the Long Distance sector. If it does not improve from the current figure (89.1%)...

The celebrated parliamentary service from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road via Kensington Olympia is proposed for withdrawal from Dec 2012. The DfT 32-page consultation is here: http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2012-17 Part of the rationale is the new LO service into Clapham Jn...

Something to cheer the loco-haulage brigade. The ATOC Rolling Stock Requirements for CP5 (http://www.atoc.org/latest-publications) scarcely mentions loco-hauled operation, but it does offer one intriguing option. This is to convert the class 442 EMU fleet to loco-hauled mode (because their...

It seems an age since the ITT went out in January, but the four bids for the Intercity West Coast franchise were due in at noon today (extended to Friday 4 May I hear). So the DfT now knows what goodies Virgin, First, Keolis and Abellio are offering for the next 15 years. We have to wait till...

George Osborne has just announced the "upgrade" of the Hope Valley, Manchester-Preston and Manchester-Bradford routes, linked to the Northern Hub. What does this mean? Electrification? Resignalling? Gauge Clearance?

The ORR has refused the London Midland application to run an hourly Birmingham-Preston service. This would have been achieved by diverting one of the 2tph Birmingham-Liverpool services to Preston, calling at Hartford, Warrington and Wigan. The Euston-Trent Valley-Stoke-Crewe service would be...

Crossrail has started the procurement of its trains, with tenders going to the four bidders: Bombardier, Siemens, CAF, Hitachi. Justine Greening has issued a statement about the procurement: http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/statements/greening-20120228/ and Crossrail has issued this statement...

It's now on the DfT web site: http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/rail-passenger-franchise-intercity-west-coast/# Having skim-read it, it's all very disappointing and unambitious. No change to the service plan - current baseline with no new routes, beyond deploying the 4 new Pendolinos (ie...

It's an odd day for such news, but the BBC and some newspaper sites are reporting that Bombardier have won the expected 130-car order from Southern. The story seems to be from Justine Greening herself - nothing on the DfT or industry sites. Anybody know any more? The timing suggests this is...

The initial announcement of the intention to let these 3 franchises has appeared on the DfT web site. This includes an OJEU notice which is the formal announcement of the public procurement for each one. Bidders are asked to pre-qualify to receive the ITT, as happened last year for WC. They...

A broken down train caused by vandalism is disrupting services near Peterborough. So what bit of the ECML has gone missing tonight? Delays up to 183min (NRES claims "up to 90 min").

VT punctuality performance was down to 77.5% for the last month (p8, 16 Oct-12 Nov). NR gives plenty of reasons/excuses worthy of Reginald Perrin, but in all seriousness this must be very worrying for NR and VT. It's three years since the £8b WCRM was completed and the route is still in deep...

DfT have refused to approve Chiltern's TWA proposal for Evergreen 3 until there are better mitigation measures for endangered wildlife between Bicester and Oxford - bats in Wolvercot tunnel and great crested newts in two locations. However, it looks like the TWA order will be approved if...

Justine Greening has made her first pronouncement: http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/statements/greening-20111115 Sounds like significant changes to railway policy are coming, but most of the recent ones have been rather small beer. More devolution to the regions (I assume that means PTEs) seems...

Posters at Chester station say that the popular free bus link between the station and city centre is to become a commercial service from November 21, fare £1 each way. The service will have a new operator but run at the current frequency (every 10 mins). Funding for the free bus was from the...

I've just been listening to (most of) this afternoon's Commons debate on HS2. A lot of it was local nimby-ism at its worst, but I was surprised by the level of support for the general idea, if not for the specific route. The most vehement opposition came from an unexpected source - the MP...

Another conundrum: You can't do Chester (where I was starting from) or even Birmingham to London via Worcester and the Cotswold line, though I feel sure this was a permitted route in the distant past (a GW/WR route from Wolverhampton or Birmingham via Worcester and Oxford). The Routeing Guide...

Stagecoach Group have issued an interim management statement today on recent revenue April-July 2011. http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2011/2011-08-19/ On the rail front: UK Rail (ie SWT, EMT) revenue up 8.4% on same period last year. VT up 11.1%. Nothing said about...

Does anybody know why there are NO FARES via London for this journey, even though it is a good bit quicker than the route via Peterborough-Nuneaton? If you try and book a ticket NRW-CTR you only get offered the cross-country route (fare set by EMT) usually involving 3 changes (Ely, Nuneaton...