Thursday 2 April 2009

Bonus ball

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
According to the Daily Telegraph, the Rugby Football Union has agreed a deal that should ease the rail chaos at Twickenham during the Six Nations Championship.

Network Rail has now pledged to suspend disruptive work when England are playing at home in the Six Nations.

That would never have happened if Network Rail had not attracted the best international management talent with its modest bonus system.

Boris snow storms out

***BBC reports Mayor flounces out of the TSC***

Bombardier - braking news...

Telegrammed by Ithuriel
Good to see Bombardier is acknowledging its quality problems.

According to their latest press release on today's NXEA Electrostar order:

"The units will also feature the renowned and sophisticated BOMBARDIER MITRAC propulsion and controls system to recover and feed back energy while breaking".

Presumably that anticipates the underfloor mounted equipment-cases falling off as braking forces over-stress the faulty welds on their support beams.

Money for old rope...

This from an irate reader!

I received the following invitation to an event called "Railway Improvement: Rail services for the modern commuter".

"Rail travel has never been under the public spotlight as it is today," the blurb says.

But that's just not true.

It was more under the public spotlight after Hatfield, or when Railtrack collapsed.

It's much less under the spotlight now than then.

This is just nonsense verbiage, written without the slightest reference to the facts.

I also note Wolmar is a speaker, no doubt explaining how train lavatories should ditch paper and use his patent water-squirting device...

The Fact Compiler may attend just to hear this!


Network Rail bonus saga

***Coucher launches offensive in FT***

Project Argus: We're all suspects now!

This from a very concerned citizen...

It was revealed recently that the Government was training up 60,000 civilians to "fight terrorism".

This scheme is called 'Project Argus' and is being rolled out across the country.


Today I've seen some excerpts from the course literature. The general advice ( not referring specifically to railway stations ) includes ...

  • Tourists should not necessarily be taken as such and should be treated sensitively, but with caution.
  • Be on guard for anyone possessing maps, global positioning systems, photographic equipment including cameras, zoom lenses and camcorders
  • Be on guard for people taking pictures, filming, making notes, sketching of the security measure at tourist attractions
The Eye recommends interning all Tourists and Photographers on the Isle of Man immediately.

UPDATE: This from Bushcutta...


Good to see London Underground is already preparing the first boatload for Douglas.

According to the BBC...


"London Underground (LU) passengers are being urged to help log London's bird population by entering a photographic competition.

"Entrants are asked to photograph wild birds within a five-minute walk of a Tube station for a chance to win a prize in the Mind the Bird contest."

Just because you think you're innocent doesn't mean you're not Guilty!