Well here it is, the last post on http://allticketsplease.wordpress.com
From today, Sunday 6th November 2011, All Tickets Please will move completely to it’s new home on the Internet. For those who are still looking for their fix of railway news, humour, photography, video and model railways; please forward yourself to the new addresses below.
All Tickets Please Railway Photographs is a new site that has replaced my Photobucket account to allow for more control over images. The new address is http://railphotos.allticketsplease.co.uk
I will still be maintaining my Flickr Photostream with images of Charters, Steam Loco Movements, Unusual Freight Workings & Test Trains. The address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/allticketsplease/
Last but not least, my Youtube Channel is still open and is added to fairly regularly. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/allticketsplease for video of Freight & Passenger workings, London Underground, Network Rail Test Trains, Charters, Steam Loco movements and much more.
Finally for this post, and indeed the blog at this address, many many thanks to all of you, my readers, who have made this blog as popular as it is. I look forward to writing for you in the future at the new address.
Just a quickie to let you all know that as of Monday 6th November 2011, All Tickets Please will be moving to it’s own domain. This decision will allow more developments to the blog that are currently not allowed by WordPress for blogs hosted by them.
Also, we have launched a new rail photo site featuring over 500 images sorted by category.
Please update your bookmarks/RSS Feeds accordingly.
Many Thanks for your continued support of All Tickets Please and we look forward to you joining us in our new home (we may even give you a cup of tea).
Transport group Arriva has announced a takeover of North East-based Grand Central Railway.
Grand Central 180105 passing New Barnet Station
The company, which runs services to London from Sunderland, Hartlepool and Bradford, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum.
As an open access operator, Grand Central does not receive subsidy from, or pay any premium to, the Department for Transport.
It provides about 700,000 passenger journeys a year.
Tom Clift, Managing Director of Grand Central Railway said the company would remain a self-contained business with its own brand and identity, and would continue to be based in York.
He added: “The decision by Arriva, one of Europe’s largest transport undertakings, to acquire Grand Central is a huge vote of confidence in all our staff who have worked so hard over the last four years to deliver the very highest standards of customer service to the growing numbers of passengers using our routes.
“I will continue to lead Grand Central and will report directly into Bob Holland, MD of Arriva’s UK Trains division.”
Mr Holland said: “Bringing Grand Central on board means we have a live open access operation up and running, one which is popular with customers and which we believe we can develop to become a key commercial part of our UK rail operations.”
A “Walter Mitty” railway worker who “fictitiously” claimed he was sacked for removing a shopping trolley from a track withdrew his claim for unfair dismissal today.
Ian Faletto alleged he was sacked after 27 years’ service by South West Trains for removing the trolley at Lymington railway station in Hampshire, where he was ticket office clerk, in March this year.
Many local people supported his campaign to get his job back and New Forest MP Desmond Swayne handed a 8,400 petition to Parliament in support of the award-winning worker.
But after he was presented with new evidence, his counsel advised him to drop his claim, prompting a strong statement from SWT who described the allegations by Mr Faletto as “fictitious Walter-Mitty-style claims.”
It said it was angry about the trolley claim, that Mr Faletto stepping on to tracks were “foolhardy actions” and that it was “doubly upsetting that many well-meaning people in community were so misled”.
Mr Faletto, 50, had alleged he contacted the signalman to turn off the power and then removed the trolley to prevent an accident.
Speaking outside the employment tribunal building in Southampton, Mr Faletto, from Totton, Hants, maintained that the trolley was on the railway track.
“The way they have treated me after 27 years’ momentous service is very disappointing.
“It’s very difficult to fight such a large company. They have basically said they have other evidence and I have been strongly advised by my counsel to withdraw.”
Director of SWT Jake Kelly said: “We are pleased that Mr Faletto has finally withdrawn his case, which proves definitively that there was never any substance to the claims he made.
“However, we remain angry at the way these fictitious Walter-Mitty-style claims were so quickly reported as fact. It is also doubly upsetting that many well-meaning people in community were so misled.
“This was a matter of principle and integrity and we were fully prepared to outline the truth to the employment tribunal.
“We are confident that they had heard all of the evidence, they would have found in our favour. For the avoidance of doubt, we have made no payment to settle this case and nor have we ever considered doing so.
“As we have maintained all along, this case involved a serious breach of safety. The fact is that there is no evidence to show that there was a trolley on the track, as Mr Faletto claimed, and the safety of our passengers was not compromised at any point.
“The only safety risk was caused by Mr Faletto’s foolhardy actions in knowingly stepping down onto an area of live track for no justifiable reason.”
Finally Mr Faletto has realised that his lies could only go so far, unfortunately it has taken months of peoples time and also destroyed the trust of local people to get to aa point that should have been reached immediately. Due to the amount of bad press this case has caused Southwest Trains, I do hope that they themselves will look at taking action against Mr Faletto in some way.
RIP Sir Jimmy Saville 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011
From The Age of the Train to The Age of the Shareholder in 30 years. To illustrate the rise in fares since 1981, check out the difference in prices from the video to the modern day equivalent fare.
Birmingham – Liverpool was £7.80 now £32.40 Taken over a 30 year period, the rise in fare equates to 82p a year
Birmingham – Sheffield was £7.20 now £37.80 Taken over a 30 year period, the rise in fare equates to £1.02p a year
Nottingham – Manchester was £6.30 now £23.50 Taken over a 30 year period, the rise in fare equates to 57p a year
Wolverhampton – Manchester was £6.50 now £27.20. Taken over a 30 year period, the rise in fare equates to 69p a year
Leicester – Sheffield was £5.70 now £23.00 Taken over a 30 year period, the rise in fare equates to 57p a year
Although the above fares are all off peak, the fare rises don’t seem that harsh considering the rise in fuel prices, mainenance costs and staffing costs.
Punctuality on the railways reached 91.5% during period 7, according to monthly performance data released today by Network Rail. The data for Britain’s train services covers the period from Sept 18 2011-Oct 15 2011. This compares to 92.8% for the same period last year. The moving annual average is now at 90.4%.
London Overground Class 172 DMU 172003 at South Tottenham
The top performers in the period were: London Overground (96.9%), C2C (96.5%), Merseyrail (95.4%) and Arriva Trains Wales (94.5%). Lowest performers for the period were: London Midland (88.6%), CrossCountry (87.5%), Virgin Trains (84.5%) and East Coast (84.1%).
However, East Coast’s performance was hampered by a number of Network Rail infrastructure failures, including a signal failure at King’s Cross on Sept 26, a fire on the Nene River bridge, Peterborough on Oct 2 and damage to overhead line equipment caused by trespass and vandalism between Loversall Carr Jcn and Retford on Oct 5.
On October 27 the Department for Transport announced an eight-month extension of the franchise to operate InterCity West Coast services which is held by Virgin Trains.
Virgin Trains is a joint venture of Virgin Group and Stagecoach, and its franchise will now run to December 9 2012, rather than March 2012.
‘When this extension expires in December 2012, the government will have completed a competition for a new operator to run services on the line under a new longer style of franchise which gives the operator more incentive to invest and more freedom to innovate and deliver for passengers’, said Transport Minister Theresa Villiers.
DfT expects to issue final invitations to tender in January for the 15-year franchise. This will run to March 31 2026 with an optional 20-month extension; the shortlisted bidders are Abellio, FirstGroup, Keolis/SNCF and Virgin.
Additional Alstom Pendolino cars are on order, Villiers said, ‘but in the longer term, even with these improvements, the route is expected to be full by 2024. This is why we are considering proposals for a high speed rail line between London, the West Midlands, Manchester, Leeds and potentially beyond’.
In a press release from the Department of Transport this morning, The Minister of State for Transport (Rt Hon Theresa Villiers) announced:
I can today announce that Abellio Greater Anglia Limited has been awarded the Greater Anglia (Short) franchise.
The new franchise will begin operation on Sunday 5 February 2012. It will operate for 29 months (32 rail industry periods).
Bids were received from Abellio Greater Anglia Limited (NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen), Eastern Railway Limited (Go-Ahead Group PLC), and Stagecoach Anglia Trains Limited (Stagecoach Group plc).
Abellio Greater Anglia Limited has been chosen to run trains on the network, which operates across Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. The franchise will also play a significant role in transport for the London 2012 Games providing crucial services to the Olympic Park area.
The terms of the contract the Government has agreed with the winning bidder will deliver a series of improvements for passengers during the 29 month franchise.
These include providing better station and ticket facilities and measures to improve passenger information. A text messaging service to keep passengers informed if service disruption occurs will be introduced. New information desks will be provided at major stations including London Liverpool Street, Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich and Stansted Airport.
The new franchise will make it easier for passengers to buy tickets, including:
extending Oyster Pay As You Go between London Liverpool Street and all stations to Shenfield, and stations to Hertford East
improvements to ticket vending machines, and
introducing mobile phone and print-at-home ticketing facilities.
Abellio Greater Anglia Limited has also committed to provide an additional 600 car park spaces (subject to planning approvals), more cycle storage facilities and deliver a number of other measures to improve the service to customers including deep cleaning of stations and trains.
The train company will take over station leases from Network Rail, taking on responsibility for all repairs and renewals at stations. This accords with the Government’s overall franchise reform programme which advocates transfer of more responsibility for stations to train operators as the passenger-facing side of the rail industry.
To date, only overall figures for the performance of the franchise as a whole have been published. From the start of the new franchise, Abellio Greater Anglia Limited will start publishing a break down of punctuality figures by route giving passengers more transparency over the performance of the lines they use. The reliability requirements for the new franchise are also more demanding than the previous one.
When the franchise is renewed again in July 2014, the contract is expected to be 15 years in length. This forthcoming franchise will provide the opportunity to seek further improvements for passengers. We also intend to draw on the work of Sir Roy McNulty in setting the terms of the franchise with the aim of reducing costs and improving efficiency.
All together now, Nah Nah Nah Nah, Nah Nah Nah Nah, National Express GOODBYE!!!
A man and a woman have been arrested after a train struck an unoccupied car abandoned on a level crossing in Kent.
The driver and four Network Rail workers on board were unhurt after it hit the car in Ramsgate at 05:00 BST.
Southeastern said the incident had damaged the train and there would be disruptions to mainline and high speed services until the line was cleared.
The pair are being held on suspicion of obstruction and being in charge of a vehicle when unfit through drink/drugs.
The train, which was the 04:50 BST service from Ramsgate to Charing Cross, hit the black Vauxhall Astra on the Cliff’s End level crossing.
Southeastern said specialist equipment was needed to remove the car and repair the train, which was likely to take some time.
The crossing is expected to be closed for most of the day.
A replacement bus service is running between Ramsgate and Canterbury West, and between Ramsgate and Dover Priory. Some rail services are also being diverted via Canterbury.
Routes in and out of London’s Charing Cross station are among those affected.
A British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman said: “There was no-one inside the car at the time of the collision. The train remained upright on the tracks.
“A BTP investigation is under way to establish how the car came to be on the crossing and the full circumstances leading up to the incident.”
THE TRANSPORT SECRETARY Philip Hammond is moving to the Ministry of Defence, following the resignation of defence secretary Liam Fox. His replacement is Putney MP Justine Greening.
Mr Hammond has been in the top political job at the Department for Transport since the election in May 2010, and has overseen the launch of the controversial McNulty report into railway ‘value for money’ as well as supporting higher rises in train fares and the construction of High Speed Two, which is set to be the first domestic High Speed line in Britain.
He has also presided over and backed the award of the £1.4 billion Thameslink rolling stock contract to German-owned Siemens — a move which has been bitterly criticised in some quarters, particularly in the East Midlands where the losers Bombardier would have built the fleet of 300 trains.
He leaves as Network Rail is poised to move into a new era, with devolution of day-to-day management to route level due to take place on 14 November.
This change is being accompanied by hopes that Network Rail’s new route managing directors will be able to contain costs more effectively, particularly as the routes will be financially compared with each other over time through a system of benchmarking.
Mr Hammond will be handing the draft of a forthcoming railway White Paper to his successor.
His most controversial remark was probably his description of railway travel as often being a ‘rich man’s toy’, when he was being questioned by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee a few weeks ago.
This blog has been designed to allow me to post news & stories from the Railways, both real and model. I also intend to share a few stories from my work as a Revenue Protection Officer along the way.
The opinions expressed on this blog are exclusively mine and in no way, shape or form reflect the opinions of my employer.
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