Search results

No, the fine was more than the cost of sorting out the warning labels. It isn’t coverable by insurance so GWR (DfT) will be paying it.

Unless it was covered in the agreement that ended the franchise in 2020, it will probably be the Taxpayer. The current National Rail Contract doesn’t cover past liabilities.

Mallard didn’t haul a special to York - it was hauled to York as part of one of the trains bringing ex-Clapham exhibits up to York Museum. It wasn’t put back into steam until the mid 1980’s. It remained at York Museum during the late 1970’s/early 1980’s unless it was required to be an exhibit...

The TOCs will still exist as separate entities until the Bill is passed and GBR comes into being. Then the TOCs will be subsumed into GBR (as will NR) and the new structure (whatever that will be) is then put into place.

The.biggest problem in trying to take anything back in house early on performance grounds is that the DfT are effectively now deciding the resource levels at each TOC. Therefore any move to take back early is legally fraught. It would be a huge opportunity for any of the Owning Groups to go...

That’s due to the time between any work being authorised and the time it was carried out, especially maintenance activities, which were not usually curtailed unless anyone spotted them. Re-painting was a very common one. So much so that if a guv’nor announced to his staff that a depot or office...

The transfer plan is basically being done in (former) franchise award order, at around 3 to 4 monthly intervals. The XC contract break point is effectively the end date for the whole process. There is no real change to the existing DfT TOC business plan on transfer - all they are doing is...

All they are doing at this moment is removing the private sector management element. They are still working to the existing DfT business plan for each TOC, irrespective of ownership. Change of ownership doesn’t mean change of plan.

It would have been the condition of the existing equipment that would have prompted the work. A scheme would have drawn up at Regional level (involving all relevant departments) and the Regional GM (or Regional Board) would authorise a New Works Order. The relevant departments would then...

I was setting the NRC context, not talking about the precise details of the current dispute. In this dispute, these agreements come under the “conditions” rules for the purpose of NRC compliance. No TOC should be stepping away from or altering any written agreement with any group of employees...

Each National Rail Contract (NRC) has the same clauses when it comes to staff pay and conditions. You can only negotiate or make any changes if you have a mandate to do so by the DfT. You cannot do anything on your own as that is a breach of contract. As the NRC’s are such tightly drawn up...

I strongly suspect the DfT have become heavily involved and are also mandating what XC can say publicly.

Which caused a real stir in Carpenders Park when the book was published as the real identity of most of the characters in the book could be identified. It led to some very awkward family conversations. The comment about Walford and Eastenders reminds me that they have used Watford a lot for...

You need space to split a set right up to do a No 7, which OOC certainly had. Otherwise you tended to have to do each coach in turn. I suspect Euston Downside didn’t have enough space and they just let that job go. The Kings Lynn sets were in very good condition below the solebar. That’s the...

In the last year of the NSE Thames loco hauled, the CK’s were very useful. With no C3 or C4 repairs forthcoming all the coaches were running out of shopping “life”. This affected the TSO Mk 1 fleet more than it did the others and door lock overhauls became key. I sent a couple of out of time TSO...

The Margaret Rutherford film version (Murder She Said - 1961) also has some great GWML action, shot near Taplow. D603 features in those sequences. Paddington and some spurious WCML stock shots also feature as well as her train overtaking 2221 with its numberplate reversed!

In which case you would probably do away with OA. OA. Operations are designed around specific business plans stopping at specific stations. Alter them and you start to affect their viability so unless they get Part J compensation for it, they won’t agree. The Jacobs report is pants. It has...

The timetable isn’t fine - there has been too much “forcing” to make the paths work so it will be vary difficult to run in times of perturbation. It doesn’t as “flow” as well as Eureka has done. There is naff all ORCATS for anyone to raid anymore. Dedicated is the name of the game now...

Despite various management “initiatives” at KX, weaselling was common there in LHCS/early HST days and there was a seniority, and not based on rank either! I used to see it all happen just looking out of the office window which overlooked the station and platform 8 in particular. Pullman...

Any, and I mean any, changes to pay and conditions has to be approved by the DfT. It is a breach of the NRC to do otherwise. Sitting down to negotiate any change also has to be prior approved by the DfT. I am surprised the Union hasn’t asked the question as to who is really behind this move...