Saturday 11 April 2009

Passenger Focus shortsighted shocker

Is East Midland Trains about to be in trouble with the passenger watchdog?

Yesterday's Gruaniad ran a profile piece praising the role of Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of Passenger Focus.

Accompanying the article was a picture of Smith, taken at St Pancras station, which clearly shows him grimacing at EMT's departure boards.


Or perhaps Anthony was photographed en-route to Specsavers...

When you're in a hole...

Telegrammed by Thirsty Hack
An amusing piece in the Pink 'Un today on Virgin's decision to take its tanks off WSMR's lawn.


The FT solemnly intones:

Virgin began to take a hammering in bad publicity. The buccaneering balloonist was morphing into a bearded bully in the eyes of the public. Newspaper editorials blasted Virgin with salvoes against anti-competitive behaviour.

Could the FT's opaque reference to "bad publicity" have anything to do with a highly amusing email doing the rounds from the transport correspondent of another broadsheet, who took umbridge with BeardieRail's PR supremo?

The email thundered: "You have made it very difficult for me to trust you... I regret to say that this is the worst betrayal by a PR person which I have come across... I am copying this to other transport correspondents because this kind of behaviour causes problems for all of us."

No love lost there then.

In these troubled times probably just as well BeardieRail has decided to lay low for a while.