National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)

RMT: August 31 2006

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union renewed its call for the GNER franchise to be brought back in-house today, as news emerged that there had been a major cull of senior executives in the company.

RMT, which represents more than 1,500 of GNER's 3,000 staff, has said that it will resist wholesale attacks on jobs and conditions as the company's Bermuda-registererd parent, SeaContainers, attempts to squeeze the franchise to ease its financial crisis.

"It's all very well culling senior executives, but it is imperative that the slaughter is not extended to the hard-working front-line people who operate GNER's services," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"RMT will not sit back and watch jobs destroyed by people who are capable of seeing only the bottom line.

"The only sensible solution remains for the government to bring the franchise back in-house to secure the long-term future of GNER services and jobs," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 06:27 PM | Permalink

Edinburgh Evening News: 31 Aug 2006

EAST coast rail operator GNER today named Jonathan Metcalfe as its new chief executive.

The appointment of Mr Metcalfe, who takes up the post tomorrow, follows the surprise departure of Christopher Garnett after ten years with the company.

Although Mr Garnett announced he was leaving GNER in July, he agreed to stay on until the end of this month.

Mr Metcalfe has been with the rail firm since 1996 and is currently its chief operating officer. He will report directly to Bob MacKenzie, head of GNER's parent company, Sea Containers.

Meanwhile, GNER said directors Shaun Mills, Mike Gooddie and Clare Field would be leaving the group.

Mr MacKenzie said: "I believe this new organisational structure will serve us well to address the significant commercial challenges we have to face going forward.

"I would like to thank Shaun, Mike and Clare for their significant contribution in building GNER into the high-quality train operator that it is today."

Posted on 06:20 PM | Permalink

The Scotsman: 29 Aug 2006
ALASTAIR DALTON TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT

TROUBLED train operator GNER has cut the price of rail fares between Scotland and London to their lowest in decades in an attempt to boost income.

The cheapest tickets bought online are being permanently reduced by 11 per cent, bringing London return fares down to £22.30 from Edinburgh, £24 from Glasgow, and £25.80 from Aberdeen and Inverness. Virgin's cheapest Glasgow-London return is £35.

The move comes only weeks after GNER admitted passenger revenue was growing at one third the rate it planned. The operator said it had been hit by last year's London bombings, soaring electricity costs and higher-than-expected payments to Network Rail for track use.

GNER is also seeking to renegotiate its contract because it claims a rival firm that will operate on part of the east coast main line threatens its ability to pay back £1.3 billion for its ten-year franchise.

GNER said its new lowest fares were six times cheaper than in 1975, when an Edinburgh-London single was £11.89 - equal to £69.20 today.

A spokesman said: "We have challenging targets that have to be met, and this is one of the ways we can stimulate passengers to switch from other modes of transport."

He said improvements to the firm's website had been made since Chris Garnett, GNER's then chief executive, admitted to MPs in November it was losing business to airlines because passengers were "fed up" trying to find its cheapest fares online.

Posted on 06:05 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 29, 2006
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

A PLAN to build a 200mph North-South rail line is expected to be abandoned because the Government’s chief transport adviser has concluded that it would be too expensive and deliver too few benefits.

Sir Rod Eddington has spent more than year studying the long-term needs of Britain’s transport system and has decided that investment in rail should be focused on more modest schemes linking cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. He also wants more road tolls.

Sir Rod is a former chief executive of British Airways, and his conclusion will prompt accusations that he is favouring airlines, which would be the main losers if a new rail line halved the London to Edinburgh journey time to just over two hours.

However, Sir Rod promised to conduct his review with an open mind after Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, appointed him in March last year. He has conducted painstaking research into every mode of transport in every region, travelling the length and breadth of the country and interviewing dozens of transport experts.

A previous study, commissioned by the Strategic Rail Authority in 2001, found that a 400-mile-high speed line would cost £33 billion but would reduce Britain’s North-South economic divide by boosting the economies of Scotland, Yorkshire and Humber, the North East, the West Midlands and the North West.

Sir Rod believes that with a limited budget for transport investment, there are better ways of attracting businesses to northern cities. He supports improvements to rail lines between key cities to allow them to compete together as a well-linked economic zone. Under his plan there would be a fast and frequent train service between Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. Employers could establish themselves in one city but have easy access to others for business and recruitment.

Sir Rod also doubts whether investing heavily in rail will arrest worsening congestion, which the CBI says is undermining the economy. Half the Department for Transport’s budget is already spent on rail even though trains account for 6 per cent of the total distance travelled by the population.

Sir Rod, whose report is due to be published in November, believes that the key to preventing gridlock on the roads is to ration use with a nationwide system of road tolls. The Government will use his support for road charging to press ahead with trials, which may include some motorways.

But ministers will struggle to reconcile the rejection of the high-speed line with their repeated statements supporting the idea. Labour’s manifesto for last year’s election mentioned the line as a promising solution to transport problems.

Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, supported Sir Rod. Anthony Smith, the chief executive, said: “We are wary of big projects because they suck up all the resources for years to come. We want a series of smaller improvements.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “What Rod Eddington has to say on the North-South rail link will be considered very carefully.”

THE TIMETABLE

January 2001 Strategic Rail Authority announces feasibility study into new North-South line

Spring 2003 the study, which cost £1.3 million, recommends that the London to West Midlands section should open by 2016

February 2005 Tony Blair writes to a Labour MP that high-speed rail is being seriously considered, including magnetic levitation technology

April 2005 Labour’s election manifesto promises: “We will look at the feasibility and affordability of a new North-South high-speed link”

May 2006 Network Rail supports high-speed line, which it says could be built for £11 billion

Posted on 04:53 PM | Permalink

Zee News: August 30, 2006

Beijing: One of China's new trains to Tibet, the world's highest railway, derailed on Tuesday, disrupting the line for five hours and delaying thousands of passengers, state media said.

The 16-carriage train from the southwestern city of Chongqing derailed near Co Nag Lake, some 400 km northeast of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, the Beijing News said, adding that only the dining carriage came off the tracks.

China opened the 1,140-km railway linking Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa on July 1, saying it would help modernise the isolated Himalayan region.

"Six trains were delayed along the line, affecting more than 4,000 passengers," Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper said.

Trains were running normally five hours later and no one was injured, it said, adding that an equipment failure involved switches and signals.

China, which has ruled Tibet since its Communist troops invaded the region in 1950, extols the railway as an engineering feat that will bring economic prosperity to the underdeveloped area.

But critics argue the line could endanger the region's fragile environment and Tibetans' unique cultural identity.

More than 960 km of the railway was built at 4,000 metres (13,120 feet) above sea level and 550 km in areas of frozen earth, which researchers fear could melt as winter temperatures rise in coming decades and affect operations.

Three passenger lines are carrying tourists in pressurised cabins to Tibet from Beijing and the cities of Chongqing, Chengdu, Xining, Lanzhou. Oxygen is on tap if needed.

Posted on 04:46 PM | Permalink

Libcom: 29/08/2006

900 workers at South West Trains walk out in a row over management scabbing.

The workers at South West Trains (SWT) walked out at midnight for a 24 hour strike over management scabbing during previous industrial action, when managers drove trains. The striking workers are mostly members of Aslef, with some RMT drivers also involved.

SWT, which operates across the South from London's Waterloo station, said only 10% of its services would run. Drivers on the Heathrow Express from Paddington in London to Heathrow Airport are also striking on Tuesday in a separate dispute.

The SWT action will be followed by two further strikes on the 8th and 11th of September unless the deadlock is broken, the union has said. SWT Managing director Stewart Palmer said: "The unions claim we have breached an agreement only to use managers to drive trains in exceptional circumstances. We believe that a strike is an exceptional circumstance”.

Rail services crippled by strike

BBC News: 29 August 2006

A strike by train drivers has crippled services on some of the busiest routes into London.

Two more strikes are planned for 8 and 11 September

South West Trains (SWT) warned passengers not to travel as services were not running on many routes and just 10% were operating on others.

Many people drove into work as others took the day off to avoid the chaos.

About 900 SWT staff, who are members of Aslef, walked out at midnight for 24 hours, in a row relating to a previous strike when managers drove trains.

SWT said one in four drivers scheduled to work on Tuesday had reported for duty and that many trains were being driven by drivers rather than managers.

On many routes into London's Waterloo station there were no trains while buses were laid on to replace trains in some parts of the South East.

The company said stations where trains were running were quieter than normal, suggesting people had listened to the advice not to travel unless necessary.

Drivers on the Heathrow Express from Paddington in London to Heathrow Airport were also on striking in a separate dispute. The company maintained that services would still run.

Aslef said further strikes planned for 8 and 11 September would go ahead unless the deadlock was broken.

The dispute started earlier this year when there was a disagreement involving Waterloo-based drivers over the use of taxis to and from work.

Managers were used to drive trains but Aslef said SWT contravened an agreement they would only drive trains in cases of health and safety or the possibility of civil unrest.

"I am only sorry that the public will suffer, rather than this appalling management" - Aslef general secretary Keith Norman

The union also raised concerns over safety, claiming that one manager had not driven a train for 10 years.

The company denied the unions claims and insisted that only fully-qualified managers had driven trains.

Managing director Stewart Palmer said: "The unions claim we have breached an agreement only to use managers to drive trains in exceptional circumstances.

"We believe that a strike is an exceptional circumstance and that the prospect of leaving thousands of you stranded at stations and the subsequent overcrowding could have led to very real safety concerns."

Aslef general secretary Keith Norman said: "I believe the company is using its passengers to try to score points over the union.

"I am only sorry that the public will suffer, rather than this appalling management."

SWT FACTS:

SWT operates services to places including Windsor, Reading, Guilford, Plymouth, Weymouth, Portsmouth and Brighton
Operates 1,700 services a day
Carries a total of 400,000 passengers a day
Takes 350,000 passengers into and out of Waterloo
More than 80,000 commuters travel to Waterloo in the morning rush hour

Posted on 07:57 PM | Permalink

ABC Online: August 29, 2006

Hundreds of protesters at a rally in Perth have been urged to unite against the Federal Government's industrial relations laws. Act Now!

The protest is being held to support construction workers facing charges in the Federal Court today.

Earlier this year, 107 workers walked off the Perth to Mandurah rail line to protest against the sacking of their union representative.

Today, 60 of those workers face fines of up to $28,000 each in the Federal Court for breaching a lifetime strike ban imposed by the Industrial Relation Commission.

The president of the ACTU, Sharon Burrow, says the charges are unjust and has urged all workers to fight against them.

"This Government will be content when Australian workers are intimated and cowered and frightened to stand up," she said.

"But guess what, we've got a message for the Government: that day will never come."

The case is the first in Australia to test the new industrial relations laws.

See also:

Rail strikers disrupt Perth court

AAP: August 29, 2006
Adam Gartrell

WEST Australian construction workers fighting unprecedented fines for striking jeered and chanted in a packed Perth courtroom today, provoking warnings from the judge.

The 107 workers on the Perth to Mandurah railway project are fighting fines of up to $28,000 each for going on strike, in February and March, in protest against the sacking of a shop steward.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) issued writs against the workers last month under the federal government's tough building industry laws, introduced last year in response to recommendations of the building industry royal commission.

It is the first time individual workers, rather than unions, have faced such fines.

About 100 of the workers and their families today crammed into the Federal Court in Perth today after a union rally through the city streets.

The workers raised union banners and chanted their familiar slogan "The workers united will never be defeated!'' before the proceedings began, drawing warnings from court officials.

Judge Robert Nicholson entered the courtroom soon afterwards but proceedings were disrupted when the workers began chanting and hurling abuse at ABCC representatives, including barrister Richard Hooker.

"You have to understand that the processes of the law require every side to be heard and the law to be considered rationally,'' Justice Nicholson told the workers.

"They're unjust laws!'' one worker called back.

Justice Nicholson threatened to close the court when the workers ignored repeated instructions to quieten down.

The matter was later adjourned until October 18 to give the workers'  lawyers enough time to take instructions from each of them.

They are expected to file defences to the fines by November 1.

The solicitor representing most of the workers, Jeremy Noble, said the matter was likely to become complicated and protracted.

"There are many of these people who have defences and they will be vigorously fighting (the fines),'' Mr Noble told reporters outside the court.

Earlier today, workers around the country rallied in support of the 107 workers.

In Melbourne about 200 union officials and workers rallied outside the Federal Court in Melbourne to support the WA workers who face legal action.

Speaking at the Melbourne rally, ACTU secretary Greg Combet said the union movement had launched a fighting fund to defend workers prosecuted under the new regime.

"We'll fight for them wherever we need to and anyone else who faces the same treatment,'' Mr Combet said.

In Adelaide, SA Unions secretary Janet Giles said up to 300 workers, mainly from the state's construction industry, attended a rally in the city to support the Mandurah rail project workers.

See also:

Unionists rally in solidarity with striking comrades

The Age: August 30, 2006
Meaghan Shaw

ABOUT 2000 unionists rallied yesterday in support of 107 West Australian construction workers who each face fines of up to $28,000 for taking strike action.

The workers are the first rank-and-file union members to be individually targeted under building industry laws that were introduced last year. They appeared at a rowdy Federal Court directions hearing in Perth yesterday, with about 1000 supporters gathered outside. Rallies were also held in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Wollongong and Newcastle.

The members were working on the strife-plagued Perth-to-Mandurah railway project and went on strike in February and March to support shop steward Peter Ballard, who they claimed had been unfairly sacked.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission, set up last year following the royal commission on the building industry, issued writs against the workers last month, claiming they had engaged in unlawful industrial action.

One of the workers, Mal Peters, said the longer the case dragged on, the harder his and his workmates' lives would be. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union claims Mr Peters was sacked because he spoke out against the fines he and his colleagues were facing.

"I've just got to get on with it and pick up some more work, which is going to be hard, especially with all the attention," Mr Peters told the ABC.

ACTU secretary Greg Combet yesterday told about 300 unionists outside Melbourne's Federal Court that more union delegates were being victimised under new workplace laws.

He said delegates had been targeted at Amcor and Boeing in Melbourne, while three metalworker delegates in Adelaide had also been sacked.

"The Australian people will not stand for the Government suing individual workers and putting people's homes and their assets in jeopardy, and this will be a focus of our campaign in months to come," he said.

Mr Combet said the workers had resolved the issue months ago through arbitration with the project's joint contractors, Leighton-Kumagai, and accused the Government of trying to intimidate the union movement. The ACTU has set up a fighting fund to support the workers.

But Workplace Minister Kevin Andrews denied the Government was involved.

He said the building commission was an independent statutory body that was simply doing its job.

He said the workers had refused to follow an order of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to return to work and the building commission had sought to prosecute them.

"Now that's simply saying that the rule of law ought to apply equally to all Australians," he said.

Mr Andrews rejected a suggestion that the 107 workers could be turned into martyrs and denied that unionists were being targeted. He said the strike had cost the contractor $200,000 a day and delayed the project by four months.

Leighton-Kumagai spokesman Ashley Mason said the contractor was not a party to the building commission action, but said it was suing the CFMEU for damages of up to $15 million for delays to the project.

See also:

Rail worker supporters rally in Perth

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: 29/08/2006
David Harrison

Perth unionists face massive fines for staging an illegal strike.

TONY JONES: Thousands of protestors have marched through Perth in support of a group of rail workers who are facing massive fines over an illegal strike. The unionists walked off the job in February because of the sacking of a colleague. As a result, they've become the first people to be prosecuted under the Federal Government's construction industry laws. If convicted, they could be fined up to $28,000 each. David Harrison reports.

DAVID HARRISON: Thousands of unionists marched through the Perth CBD this morning in support of their colleagues. 107 workers on the Perth to Mandurah railway project are facing fines of up to $28,000 each for walking off the job in defiance of a lifetime strike ban imposed on the project. They voted to take industrial action in support of a sacked union representative.

PROTEST SPEAKER: Touch one, touch all!

DAVID HARRISON: Mal Peters is one of the workers who's been charged.

MAL PETERS, RAIL WORKER: Yeah, it's getting pretty stressful but you just can't do much about it. We've got to keep hanging in there.

SHARAN BURROW, ACTU PRESIDENT: This is a terrible day in Australia's history. This is the day that a government takes working men and their families to court.

DAVID HARRISON: The workers and their supporters then marched to the Federal Court to face the charges - the first of their kind under the new industrial relations laws. The unionists continued their protest inside the court, chanting slogans and heckling the lawyer representing the building industry watchdog which is prosecuting the workers.

JOHN BOWLER, WA EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION MINISTER: This may be a black day, but there's a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. And the light at the end of the tunnel is the bloody end of John Howard, that's what it is.

DAVID HARRISON: Unions across the country have established a fighting fund and hope to raise over a million dollars. The Government denies the unionists are being unfairly treated, saying the charges have been laid by an independent watchdog.

KEVIN ANDREWS, FEDERAL WORKPLACE RELATIONS MINISTER: If these people have broken the law, well then surely consequences should flow from breaking the law.

DAVID HARRISON: Similar protests were held in Sydney and Melbourne. Thousands of workers marched through the city streets in solidarity with their WA colleagues. David Harrison, Lateline.

See also:

Construction Workers Nervous Ahead Of First Court Appearance Today

ACTU News: 29 August 2006

Families and supporters of 107 Western Australian workers being prosecuted under the new IR laws will hold rallies in support of the first appearance by the workers before the Federal Court today, Tuesday, 29 August 2006.

The construction workers from the Perth to Mandurah rail project are the first Australian workers to face prosecution under the Howard Government's new IR laws and face fines of up to $28,000 each.

"The workers are nervous ahead of their first court appearance and are worried that the case could run for many months before they know the outcome," said Sharan Burrow, ACTU President.

MEDIA ALERT

Support rallies take place today in major centres today - Tuesday 29 August 2006

* PERTH: ACTU President Sharan Burrow will address Perth rally. 8.30am - Assemble on The Esplanade, march to 9.30am rally at Perth Concert Hall. Media contact: Elizabeth Lukin ph 0414 295 693
* MELBOURNE: ACTU Secretary Greg Combet will address Melbourne rally. 12 noon-12.30 - Lunchtime Rally outside Federal Court, cnr of Latrobe and William Streets. Media contact: George Wright ph 0419 556 616
* Canberra: from 12 noon. Garema Place, under trees between DEWR and ampitheatre. Organised by ACT Union Solidarity Network - Phone Paul 0417 048 217
* Sydney: 10.00am Solidarity Rally, Trades Hall, 377 Sussex Street. Contact Tim Vollmer ph 0404 273 313
* Wollongong: 12noon, Corner Kembla and Crown Streets, Wollongong - details ph: (02) 4229 2888
* Newcastle: 1pm, Civic Park, King Street, Newcastle - details ph: (02) 4929 1162
* Adelaide: 12 noon Rally in Victoria Square - media contact Janet Giles, Unions SA ph 0419 825 845

More information: CFMEU Website

Posted on 06:59 PM | Permalink

Expatica: 29 August 2006

AMSTERDAM - A thousand of the 5,000 train journeys made by Dutch rail company NS daily are carried out by trains that are too short.

Of these 1,000 trains, there is a 'serious shortage' in 400 and another 50 are considered to be 'crisis trains', Head of Planning Léon Jansen wrote to production director Nol Groot in an internal memo.

The document, which was leaked to the media, stated that the NS is particularly stretched at peak times because "everything is deployed". Dealing with one bottleneck during peak hours means enlarging the shortage elsewhere, Jansen wrote.

Apart from the shortage of rolling stock, NS also anticipates a greater personnel shortage that was earlier forecast. Jansen said the staffing problems have been exacerbated by the agreement with the consumers group Locov to have more train services at the beginning and end of the timetable.

NS has been looking for some time to buy or lease more carriages to deal with the shortage in material. It is also working to deploy its rolling stock more effectively. "We constantly vary [the make-up of] our trains to achieve the optimal occupancy rate," a spokesperson for the company said.

It has 2,700 carriages with a total of 240,000 seats. Approximately 1.1 million people travel by train on an average working day, giving an average occupancy rate of 30 percent.

Roel Berghuis of trade union FNV Bondgenoten said the internal memo is a warning to the management that something has to be done to ensure NS can implement its new timetable.

Posted on 06:50 PM | Permalink

Engineer Live ! Rail Industry International: August 28, 2006  

Due to historic developments rail networks throughout Europe use different track gauges. here, Matthias Schwartze reports on the construction of the DBAG/Rafil Type V gauge change wheel set which is design to provide an automatic transfer from one gauge to another.

In most of the European countries the gauge of 1435mm is used, which is also called normal gauge. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, in the Baltic countries and in Finland, the broad gauge of 1520mm is used. On the Iberian peninsula, a broad gauge with a gauge of 1668mm (Spain) or of 1665mm (Portugal) is used. Moreover, in Ireland a broad gauge of 1600mm is applied.

Due to an increased exchange of goods and public transport these limited systems represent an essential hindrance. The technologies of transferring from one gauge to the other one, which are normally practised at present, are that the passengers have to change the trains or that the goods have to be loaded on other trains or that the bogies or wheel sets are changed.

An alternative to this technology is represented by gauge changing systems, which provide for an automatic transfer from one gauge to another one. Gauge changing systems require special technical solutions both at the vehicle as well as at the permanent way at the intersection of the gauges. The so-called gauge change wheelset forms the centrepiece in the vehicle. A stationary gauge changing equipment forms the connection between the gauges.

Based upon the results of studies on economic efficiency and need performed by the German Railway (DBAG) and the UIC study group of gauge change wheel sets, the development of such wheel sets has been taken up again in 1995. The German Railway and the wheel set factory Radsatzfabrik Ilsenburg GmbH (RAFIL)concluded a contract on the further development of the DRIV gauge change wheel set including the construction of prototypes for the gauges of 1435/1520mm and 1435/1668mm. The prepared technical specifications contains the essential criteria, which should be considered during the development.

The DBAG/Rafil TypeV change gauge wheel set consists of a wheel set shaft and two axially displaceable solid wheels, which are joint to the shaft by a locking system. The solid wheel has been derived from the well-proved solid wheel of the 004 type of DBAG. It has got an adequately long wheel hub to guarantee the functions of locking and unlocking and the transmission of power and moment. A special plastic bush is pressed into the wheel hub.

The axle has been derived from the well-tried constructions for goods wagons. It has been equipped with prolonged wheel seats and seats for taking up the coupling star. If necessary, there are seats for brake discs realised, too.

Torque transmission

The torque transmission is performed by a clutch coupling between wheel and wheel set shaft, which does not hinder the axial displacement. The axial securing is done by a locking mechanism, which consists of unlocking disc, locking sleeve, locking levers and compression springs. Hereby, the locking levers are pressed into the respective grooves of the cams, which, on the other hand, are firmly connected with the wheel. The basic technical data can be summarised as shown in Fig. 1.

The changeover is done while the wheel sets are driving over a special gauge changeover equipment with a low speed of about 5 to 10km/h. The process of gauge changeover is done under full load of the wheel sets and uninterruptedly from normal gauge to broad gauge and vice versa. Depending on the gauges a respective stationary gauge changeover equipment is needed having a length of 16m or 28m.

After the gauge has been changed the position of the locking sleeve is checked by an appliance that is installed at the plant. This guarantees that only those gauge change wheel sets leave the plant the wheels of which are safely connected to the wheel set shaft.

Equipment of the vehicles

So that a vehicle can change the gauge without any obstacles there are some more components needed at the vehicle in addition to the wheel set. General for the transition from normal gauge to both the broad gauge a brake block changeover arrangement is necessary for vehicles with block brakes. For the transition from normal gauge of 1435mm to broad gauge of 1520mm the components KE-Matrossow 483 triple valve combination and Composite coupling SA 3/Screw coupling have been additionally developed. These vehicle components can be applied to all types of vehicles.

It is fixed in the UIC leaflet no. 510-4 and the specification for the development and testing of undercarriages for goods wagons for the gauge 1435mm/1668mm which calculations and tests have to be performed for getting an admission.

On the basis of the results of the investigations according to these leaflet existing so far we can assess that:

* The calculations and tests at the test stand have showed a sufficient strength of the wheels, of the wheel set shaft and the components of the locking mechanism.

* From the point of view of travelling and braking technology an application of the wagons that are equipped with gauge change wheel sets is possible for empty and loaded wagons with 22.5t of wheel set load and 120km/h.

* The functional safety has been proved under all climatic conditions of application.

* The proper locking of the wheels has been always guaranteed during over-running tests, driving over track torsions and under the influence of high longitudinal pressing forces.

* There is no impairment of the locking mechanism caused by a high thermal strain on the wheels due to permanent braking.

* The reasons of the irregularities, which have been sometimes stated during the operational tests (inner and outer sealing system, once an irregular locking), could be determined and the respective amendments were realised.

* The determination of limits as to the admissible wear of the components could be done after the completion of the entire operational tests only.

After completing the current tests in service the admission will be probably reached by the end of this year. The manufacturers of vehicles and their operators have already showed their interest in applying the gauge change technology for the traffic to Spain and in Scandinavia.

Dipl-Ing Matthias Schwartze is with Radsatzfabrik Ilsenburg GmbH, Ilsenburg, Germany.

Posted on 06:35 PM | Permalink

AP: 28 August 2006

PARIS (AP)--More than 200 families plan to press the French state rail network for compensation for its role in helping transport their relatives to Nazi death camps during World War II, a lawyer said Monday.

The families - French, Israeli, American, Belgian and Canadian - plan to send a letter this week to the SNCF rail network urging compensation of several million euros, said lawyer Avi Bitton. He didn't say when the letter would be sent. If that tactic fails, they plan to sue, he said.

The families were encouraged by a June ruling by an administrative court in Toulouse, southern France, which ordered the state and the rail authority to pay damages of EUR62,000 for its role in World War II deportations. The SNCF has appealed the decision.

In that case, European Green Party lawmaker Alain Lipietz, his sister, Helene, and other family members had brought a suit on behalf of four of their relatives taken to a Nazi transit camp at Drancy near Paris in May 1944.

The four were transported in cattle cars by the SNCF from southwest France to Drancy and remained there for several months until the camp was freed in July 1944, according to the lawsuit. Drancy was a stopover point for Jews deported to Nazi death camps including Auschwitz.

The June decision was the first of its kind. A similar 2003 case against the SNCF in a civil court failed because a 30-year statute of limitations period had passed. Such a time delay was not applicable in the administrative court.

See also:

New French lawsuits for WWII 'transport'

Ninemsn: Aug 28

The French state and railway operator SNCF face at least 200 new lawsuits for their role in the deportation of Jews during World War II, a lawyer handling the petitions said.

SNCF has already appealed against a French court ruling in June which ordered it and the state to pay total fines of euros60,000 ($A101,291) for transporting Jews to a wartime transit camp from where they were sent to Nazi concentration camps.

However, more lawsuits are pouring in before a deadline on September 1 which marks the statutory limitation for filing petitions against the SNCF, the lawyer said.

"We have about 200 petitions ... (and) we are expecting more," Matthieu Delmas, the lawyer dealing with these petitions said, adding that his clients included nationals of France, Israel, the United States, Canada and Belgium.

SNCF said it had no immediate comment. Its lawyer had said in June the railway could not be held responsible for the transportation because it had been forced to co-operate with German occupying forces during the war.

The court ruling in June came after a similar suit in 2003 failed when a Paris court ruled it could not establish that the SNCF was responsible for transporting Jews.

Of the 330,000 Jews living in France in 1940, 75,721 were deported to death camps and only about 2,500 returned alive.

Posted on 06:27 PM | Permalink

Xinhua: August 28, 2006

China's newly-built railway to Tibet will be extended to the border between China and Nepal, a local official said on Sunday.

Meeting with visiting Nepali Deputy Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said Tibet is a remote place that is looking forward to being connected to south Asia. The railway extension will promote business exchanges, he said.

Oli said Nepal hopes China can extend the railway to the border.

China and Nepal have more than 1400 km of border and five open border crossings. Nyalam, in Xigaze prefecture, is the only border crossing that boasts a highway. The Xigaze prefecture borders India, Nepal and Bhutan in the south.

According to current plans, a branch line will be built next year from Lhasa to Xigaze, the region's second largest city located at an altitude of about 3,800 meters and some 270 km from Lhasa. The project is expected to take three years.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which stretches 1,956 kilometers from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, was completed in July.

The city of Xigaze is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, and the prefecture is also an important production base for Tibetan agriculture and animal husbandry.

Oli, who is also minister of foreign affairs, arrived in Lhasa Saturday for a eight-day official visit to China.

Posted on 04:50 PM | Permalink

Trend: 28.08.2006

China has joined the Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki railway project, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim announced in his interview with “Zaman” Newspaper, Trend reports.

The Minister noted that Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki Railway Project had been drawn up at the beginning of 1960, adding that together with China, Kazakhstan also participates in the project. “In case of realization of the project, each person moving from Kars with railway may reach Shanghai,” the Minister emphasized, saying that on completion of the Marmaray Project, each Chinese citizen may travel to Great Britain.   

“The Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki railway will be ready within two years, and approximately 20 million tons of cargo will be transported through the railway annually,” the Minister stressed, spelling out that today the cargo transportation through all rail links of Turkey forms less than 18 million tons annually.

“The Project will change the face of all regions and help its prosperity,” Turkish Minister pointed out. 

In addition, the Turkish Transport Minister stressed that in relation to the problems with Armenia, the Eastern regions of the Country have shared closeness for many years. “Because of this, Caucasus and Asian countries were united for the railway transportations to Europe,” Yildirim said, mentioning that from a strategic point of view, the Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki railway is very optimistic. The Minister once again mentioned the figure of $250 million that is needed for the completion of the project. “The stretch of 79 km up to the border with Georgia will be constructed at the expense of Turkey, but the 25 km stretch in the territory of Georgia at the expense of allocations by the Georgian Government. At the same time, works will be carried out for the modernization of all stretches from Tbilisi to Baku,” Yildirim stated. 

It was further stated that the engineering works for the project started in 2001, and for the first stage, it was necessary to spend $463 million on the construction of the rail link. “Even China offered low rate credits for the commencement of works. Peking Government particularly voiced its readiness to allocate credit for 13 years, with 5.5% annual rate. However, Turkish government refused to receive the credit, as it did not wish to provide State guarantee for the credit,” Turkish Transport Minister concluded.

Posted on 04:35 PM | Permalink

NDTV: August 28, 2006
Anant Dwivedi (Jodhpur)

A mechanic in the 1960s developed a railway track safety system that can avert a collision when two trains get on the same track.

Its inventor is late Poonamchand Lakhaji Mistry of Takhatgarh village, 100 kilometers from Jodhpur.

The innovation in 1961 covered a wide range of security aspects including protection against derailment or sabotage.

Mistry's nephew Mohan Mistry says, the innovations were put before the railway board.

"Meetings were held where engineers asked him about the idea. He gave them a month to understand the concept, after which, he gave up".

"After making some changes to the innovation he got it patented from the Government of India," Mistry said.
Mistry's inventions began in 1941 with the one anna platform ticket machine.

He came up with his own variant of the machine, which would reject worn out coins. Six of his machines were installed at Bombay Central and Dadar railway stations.

Museum

His house today is a kind of museum, which displays his innovations.

He did not get past Class 4 but never lacked in ideas. His inventions range from an apparatus for trapping thieves when they opening a safe, to a tea maker and a water pump operated by an animal.

His nephew also followed the footsteps of his uncle. Keeping him company, on his new journey, are memories of his uncle, in the form of these innovations.

Impressed with a cycle pump innovation, the Maharaja of Jodhpur gifted Mistry a pistol.
Now with the research centre on its way, Mistry's nephew hopes to improve on his uncle's innovations and also encourage new ideas.

Posted on 04:27 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 26 August 2006

The family of a safety inspector who died in an industrial accident on a steam railway tourist attraction in Cornwall have paid tribute to him.

The family of 51-year-old John Betchley say they are "devastated" by his death.

Emergency services were called to the Bodmin and Wenford Steam Railway after the accident on Friday morning.

Police said Mr Betchley, from Weston-super-Mare, was crushed by a steam crane and died at the scene. The Railway Inspectorate has been informed.

'Family man'

In a statement on Saturday his family said: "We are absolutely devastated by what has happened.

"He was a great family man who had been married for over 30 years.

"His life was centred around his family and love of trains, he died doing a job he loved".

The site is a well-known local tourist attraction, operating steam trains on short trips.

Most of the staff are volunteers and enthusiasts and all repairs and servicing of the locomotives and rolling stock are conducted on the premises.

Crushed to death

The railway operates a steam-powered rail crane, which is used for track laying and other lifting.

It is annually inspected by an accredited inspector on behalf of the railway's insurers.

During the course of its annual inspection Mr Bletchely was between a jib and a cable drum winch while the crane was being operated.

He became trapped and crushed to death between the two items of apparatus.

Mr Betchley leaves his wife of 30 years, four daughters and five grandchildren.

Posted on 11:38 PM | Permalink

Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Aug 27, 2006

Harare - At least five people were killed Sunday in Zimbabwe when a passenger train collided head-on with a goods train near the resort town of Victoria Falls, state radio reported.

Bodies were charred beyond recognition in the accident that occurred early Sunday, 30 kilometres outside Victoria Falls, the radio said.

At least five people died at the scene of the accident and property belonging to passengers was lost in the inferno, which claimed at least eight coaches and two train engines, the radio said.

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) passenger train was on its way to Victoria Falls from the city of Bulawayo. The driver of the passenger train ignored warnings by the oncoming freight train, the radio said citing unnamed sources.

The rail link between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, which marks the border between Zimbabwe and its northern neighbour Zambia, has proven treacherous in recent years.

In 2003, a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train killed 50 people. In May, a passenger train derailed on the same stretch of railway, injuring 34 people.

Rescue teams reportedly took a long time to reach the scene of Sunday's accident due to the poor state of the roads, the report added.

The injured were taken to Victoria Falls hospital.

Posted on 11:35 PM | Permalink

The Hindu: August 26, 2006

Kuala Lumpu - Southeast Asian nations hope a proposed major railway project linking Singapore to southern China will be ready by 2015 to facilitate the flow of goods and people across the region, officials said on Saturday.

The Asian Development Bank has provided Cambodia soft loans of US$40 million (euro33 million) to build missing links and another US$5.4 million (euro4.5 million) has been secured as grants for the project, said Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But overall progress for the rail line spanning 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) from Singapore to the Chinese city of Kunming has been hindered by a lack of funds and other technical issues relating to building connecting rails to link it to major towns across the region, he said.

"The work is being done on a national level to join up with the rail link but we need more funding,'' Ong told reporters after a meeting of the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation.

Senior officials will meet in November in Kunming to review the project and identify new sources of funds, he said. The group did not set any target date for completion but ``we must have some connection'' by the time the bloc fuse into an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, he added.

Ong didn't say how much the project is worth but trade officials previously estimated it will cost at least 1.8 billion dollars (euro1.5 billion). Officials said construction has also been hindered by difficult terrain in some countries, clearing land mines in Cambodia and Laos, and harmonizing customs and immigration.

The railway project is expected to better bind the economies of the region and provide southern China with easier access to ASEAN markets.

ASEAN trade ministers earlier this week agreed to bring forward plans to turn the region into a single market and production base by 2015, five years earlier than originally planned. The bloc also aims to create a free trade zone with China by 2010.

Apart from the rail project, the group also needs funds worth US$44 million (euro37 million) for 15 projects involving capacity building, training and other projects to develop the Mekong Basin, said Myanmar Minister for National Planning and Economic Development, U Soe Tha.

To woo new funds, he said membership of the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation - currently involving only ASEAN and China - will be opened to interested parties such as the Asian Development Bank and the region's trading partners.

See also:

ASEAN hopes to revitalize rail project

Taipei Times: Aug 27, 2006

KUALA LUMPUR - Southeast Asian nations hope a proposed US$15 billion major railway project linking Singapore to southern China will be ready by 2015 to facilitate the flow of goods and people across the region, officials said yesterday.

The Asian Development Bank recently provided Cambodia soft loans of US$40 million to build missing links and another US$5.4 million has been secured as grants for the project, said Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member ASEAN.

China, which last month launched a rail track from Beijing to Tibet, has also shown renewed interest in ASEAN's plan for a rail line spanning 5,000km from Singapore to Kunming in China, he said.

However, overall progress of the project has been hindered by a lack of funds and other technical issues in connecting the rail to major towns across the region, he said.

"We want to revitalize the railway project which will be good for the region. With the rah-rah after the opening of the Tibetan line, I believe we can move faster," Ong said after a meeting of the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation.

"Work is being done on a national level to join up with the rail link, but we need more funding," he said.

A rail line already runs from Singapore to Bangkok. From Bangkok, Ong said there are plans for two separate rail lines to Kunming. One rail track will snake across Cambodia and Vietnam, with a connecting track to Laos, while the other line will cut west through Myanmar.

Posted on 11:24 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 26, 2006
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

THE buffet car, one of the few remaining civilised pleasures of travelling on Britain’s overcrowded railways, is to be axed on several routes between London and the West Country.

First Great Western, the country’s least punctual train company, claims that doing without a buffet will reduce delays by allowing its services to run faster. But the news has been greeted with outrage by many of its well-heeled passengers who do not relish the prospect of an aisle trolley as a replacement for the more generously stocked buffet.

The train company says that the removal of a 35-tonne carriage, not to mention a few dozen bacon sandwiches, will shave eight minutes off the trip from London to Bristol by making the train lighter.

The company is also removing many of the tables from the remaining carriages to pack in more seats.

Seats at tables take up more room than airline-style seating but many passengers prefer tables because they can work on laptops, do paperwork and stretch their legs.

The routes affected by the removal of 22 buffet cars are London to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Hereford.

Some longer-distance trains will keep their buffet cars and will stop at those stations. But most services will have only trolleys from December.

The loss of the buffet cars and tables has outraged frequent travellers, especially those living in Bath.

Karl Jaeger, the director of the International School of America, based in Bath, said: “Eliminating the buffet car will detract from the whole experience of travelling by train.

“It is deceitful of First to claim that the trolley will be a good substitute. It cannot carry anything like the range of products and passengers will have to wait while it is hauled all the way down the train.

“Trolleys also have an annoying tendency to be off-duty when you want them.”

Mr Jaeger said that the loss of a buffet would make train travel less attractive to visitors, who were more likely to drive to Bath and clog its Georgian streets with more cars. He added: “But First knows that people who rely on the train will have no choice but to put up with an increasingly rotten service.”

Chris Irwin, the chairman of Travelwatch Southwest, the region’s passenger watchdog, said that it was absurd to try to reduce delays by making the service less comfortable.

First Great Western has the worst punctuality record of the 25 train companies by a considerable margin, with just over a quarter of trains at least ten minutes late in the year to the end of March. It was one of only four companies to show an increase in delays over the previous year.

The company said that the eight-minute saving from running with seven carriages instead of eight would be used only to reduce delays, not to cut the published journey times. The company hopes that the move will result in lower penalties for running late.

Removing the buffet cars will also bring savings on fuel and train-leasing costs. The company is under pressure to reduce costs because it agreed to pay the Government £1.1 billion to run the franchise for the next ten years.

A spokesman said that only one in eight passengers used the buffet. He said that most people would prefer to be served at their seats rather then leave luggage unattended.

Passengers on First Great Western will, however, be better off than those on the King’s Cross to King’s Lynn route, operated by the same company. It lost its buffet car long ago, and the company recently cancelled the trolley service.

REFUELLING

* The first dining car on Britain’s railways was introduced in 1879 on the service from Leeds to King’s Cross. Known as the Pullman car, it had a primitive stove at one end, six tables, ten armchairs, a smoking room and a ladies’ dressing room. Access to it cost an extra half crown

* In 1949, British Rail introduced “tavern cars”, modelled on traditional pubs with signs painted on the outside, including the Jolly Tar, the White Horse and the Green Man

* In the 1990s, a McDonald’s burger bar operated on a carriage in Switzerland

* Britain has more train restaurant cars than any other country except Germany

* GNER offers the best existing restaurant service, according to Brian Perren, food critic for Modern Railways magazine. Three courses cost about £30

* Buffet cars are a film-makers’ favourite, having countless key cameos in, famously, North by Northwest, Murder on the Orient Express and White Christmas

Posted on 08:56 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 25 August 2006

An investigation has begun into how a train carrying hundreds of passengers split in two on Thursday night while travelling at 145km/h (90mph).

First Capital Connect runs the service out of King's Cross

About 700 people are thought to have been on the 1707 from King's Cross to Peterborough when it came to a sudden halt eight minutes into its journey.

The First Capital Connect train, made up of two four-car units, "decoupled" and both halves came to a halt.

A train company spokeswoman said passengers were never in danger.

She said: "It was travelling at 90mph but the trains are designed for such things to happen at those speeds and to stop safely."

She said the carriages had ended up stopping less than a carriage-length apart.

'Communication cut off'

Passenger Roslyn Magen, 57, said it was "the strangest" problem to affect the line so far.

Mrs Magen works for Lloyds TSB at London Bridge but lives near St Neots in Cambridgeshire.

She was in the second unit, to which communication with the driver was cut off.

"Everybody was getting agitated because nobody was telling us what was going on" - Roslyn Magen

"We sat there and sat there and there was no announcement or anything. Everybody was getting agitated because nobody was telling us what was going on."

Customer services first told her there was a "technical problem" at New Southgate, but as trains continued to pass them on the slow track, she phoned back 20 minutes later.

She was told the train had "decoupled".

'Nobody there'

"At first they (the passengers) were annoyed because there was no announcement, but once they realised what it was they saw the funny side of it," she told BBC News.

"There was no announcement because there was nobody there."

About 45 minutes later a replacement driver arrived to get the units moving again.

Larry Heyman, from First Capital Connect, said it was investigating why the coupling mechanism had failed, as the units were new stock, adding that it was very rare.

"Our number one concern is customer safety" - Larry Heyman, First Capital Connect

He said there was no danger of another train running into the carriages as safety systems would show they were on the track.

Both units came to an immediate halt when the carriages split, he said.

But he added: "We really would like to apologise for this, it's something that concerns us immensely - these particular units are quite new.

"Our number one concern is customer safety and the safety of everybody using the line."

The results of the company's investigation are expected to be revealed next week.

Posted on 08:13 PM | Permalink

The Scotsman: 25 Aug 2006
ALASTAIR DALTON TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT

It could be the end of the line for some Scottish stations - Picture: Alastair Jamieson
* Network Rail believe reducing needless stops will streamline journeys
* £300m package aims to improve services as passenger numbers rise
* Commuting workers could be hit with peak-hour car park charges

"For one [station] that is very lightly used, you have to question whether it should stay open. Some could be replaced with stations that are closer to communities and more integrated with buses." - Iain Coucher, Network Rail's deputy chief executive

SCOTLAND'S least-used railway stations could be closed or relocated nearer to centres of population under a new ten-year plan to develop the network.

Network Rail, which owns and operates the rail infrastructure, believes removing needless station-stops would reduce journey times for most passengers.

The company has proposed the moves as part of a new £300 million package on top of £1.1 billion of previously announced new lines, such as links to Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.

The package includes proposals to speed up services on some routes to help cope with a forecast 30 per cent increase in passengers over the next decade.

Iain Coucher, Network Rail's deputy chief executive, said closure of some stations would be considered.

"For one that is very lightly used, you have to question whether it should stay open. Some could be replaced with stations that are closer to communities and more integrated with buses."

Barry Links in Angus, for example, which is served by two trains a day, is used by only 26 passengers a year.

Network Rail's consultation blueprint, launched yesterday, also recommended ending the award-winning Edinburgh CrossRail service to cut delays. The link, launched in 2002, connects Newcraighall in the east with Dunblane and Bathgate. Network Rail recommended that passengers should have to change at Waverley, as preferable to improving the congested sections of line that cause the delays.

Peak-hour charges could also be introduced at station car parks to encourage off-peak travel. Parking is currently free at many stations.

The document also proposed faster Perth-Edinburgh services, longer Stirling-Glasgow trains, which are Scotland's most overcrowded, and more commuter trains between Fife and Edinburgh. These would be achieved by improved signalling and timetables.

Platforms could be lengthened to take six-carriage trains, including some at Waverley and Queen Street in Glasgow. Network Rail said running more frequent or longer trains on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line was not feasible, but journey times could be cut by reducing station stops.

Crowding on the route is expected to be eased by reopening the Airdrie-Bathgate line to create a new link between the cities in 2010 with four trains an hour. Journeys would also be cut on a third link via Shotts from 90 to 65 minutes, with services doubled to half-hourly.

New trains with eight carriages compared to the current six could be put on the Glasgow-Ayr line, which serves fast-growing Prestwick airport.

However, through trains between Glasgow and Stranraer after the ferry terminal moves to Cairnryan would be replaced, with passengers having to change at Kilmarnock or Ayr. But Glasgow-Kilmarnock trains would be more frequent and the Glasgow-Whifflet line would be electrified.

Network Rail said some improvements would be possible within the next three years, with others by 2014.

Its route utilisation strategy will be finalised in the spring and sent to ministers for them to decide which proposals to adopt. The firm said it was confident the £300 million cost could be found from both its own funds and the Scottish Executive.

However, doubts were cast over its plans last night. A spokeswoman for Tavish Scott, the transport minister, said: "There are no plans to close existing stations, because we are in a process of expansion." And Robert Samson, of the rail consumer watchdog Passenger Focus, said he would oppose station closures.

Posted on 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Herald: August 25 2006
MARTIN WILLIAMS

HOW to squeeze more journeys out of Scotland's rail network and get more passengers on to trains? The answer: boost services connecting people with the larger centres, while pruning back on less well-used routes.
Stations at risk

Such is the task that is facing Scotland's rail authorities and now tackled in a new document which sets out a vision of the future for rail passengers and the country's thousands of miles of track and railway stations.

Network Rail's route utilisation strategy is a £1.4bn plan setting out a ten-year range of options for improving the nation's rail links, concentrating on preventing overcrowding and log jams on routes into and within Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The rub, however, is that this may be at the expense of rural stations.

Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure, has confirmed that up to 23 little-used train stations could be closed as part of the shake-up.

The Glasgow Crossrail scheme, which would connect lines serving Glasgow's Central and Queen Street stations, and for the first time allow travel from Ayr to Edinburgh and Paisley to Dundee without changing train, is a surprise omission.

Network Rail has included it amongst a list of "potential enhancement schemes" which have not yet reached the feasibility study stage.

But many other schemes are set out to alleviate congestion and improve services, including more frequent and longer trains, better stations with longer platforms, and extra track and signal improvements.

There were more than two million rail passenger journeys a year between the Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2004/05 making it the most heavily used inter-urban route in Scotland.

Overcrowding of services between the two cities, particularly during the rush hours, has become a cause for concern and Network Rail is predicting it will get worse by 2016 when services are expected to have to deal with 30% more passengers than at present.

Network Rail is also expecting a steady increase in the number of rail commuters as people try to sidestep increasing road congestion and the rising costs of motoring.

"Track capacity is heavily utilised on many key sections of the Scotland Route Utilisation Strategy area," says Network Rail in its report supporting the strategy.

"This constrains the extent to which additional services can be accommodated and has a significant impact on the performance of the existing services, especially those out of Glasgow Central and Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley."

Network Rail has also been concerned about the growth in freight traffic over the next ten years.

In 2004/05 rail freight carried within Scotland totalled 5546 million tonne miles, a 17% increase on the previous year.The carriage of coal was the biggest element of the increase, and now accounts for 75% of freight traffic. Network Rail predicts this will rise by a further 10% by 2016.

"Freight demand is primarily focussed around the flows to and from Glasgow and Ayrshire," the report states.

"Freight traffic, particularly coal, has grown consistently in Scotland over the past five years.

"This demand is currently adequately accommodated by the existing network but further growth in certain areas would be constrained and there is a lack of diversionary routes which are able to accommodate 9ft 6in-high containers."

Options for improving the network include four projects worth £1.1bn which already have the support of ministers.

They include the provision of the Glasgow Airport rail link in 2010 as passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport are forecast to increase from 8.1m per year currently to 15m by 2030. It involves creating a double track branch from Paisley St James, on the Paisley Gilmour Street to Gourock line, to a new station at the airport.

The Edinburgh Airport rail link is expected to be completed a year later as airport passenger numbers are expected to treble between now and 2030 when 20m are expected annually.

The Airdrie to Bathgate line is planned for 2010 and Network Rail has lodged a parliamentary bill seeking powers to begin construction.

The main works involve the reopening of the central Drumgelloch to Bathgate part of the route and expanding the existing Airdrie to Drumgelloch and Bathgate to Uphall sections.

The reinstatement of 25 miles of the former Waverley route – from Newcraighall east of Edinburgh to Galashiels and Tweedbank – has already received royal assent and is expected to be finished for 2011.

The weighty 100-page strategy is not a fait accompli, Network Rail stresses.

Many of the options for improvement formulated with the input of key transport partners in Scotland, including Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, First ScotRail and GNER, can be funded by Network Rail.

Other funding can be obtained from Transport Scotland, one of the key consultees, and the agency that is responsible for helping to deliver the Scottish Executive's £3bn capital investment programme over the next decade.

The document will become the focus of consultation until November 16 before a strategy is finalised next spring.

Ian Coucher, Network Rail's deputy chief executive said: "This consultation looks at the challenges facing the rail industry in Scotland. It presents a series of ambitious but realistic options for getting the best out of the network."

The strategy recognises that there are gaps between what Scotland's railway system currently provides and the demands expected of it over the next ten years.

Posted on 07:53 PM | Permalink

The Herald: August 25 2006
Editorial Comment

Nothing stays the same, even on the permanent way. A 10-year plan to make the best use of Scotland's rail network was put out for consultation yesterday.

Depending on the response, the final document will show how the train will take the strain through to 2016. The pressures the network is under helped prompt the consultation. More passengers are using the busy inter-urban routes, causing overcrowding on services and, potentially, the track. The strain on infrastructure has been exacerbated by the increasing demands of freight traffic, especially on the Glasgow-Ayrshire routes.

A political will to encourage people to travel by rail rather than road or air merits endorsement and makes compelling the case for looking afresh at the network and how it can best respond. Such exercises invariably throw up losers as well as winners. The Route Utilisation Strategy envisages that perhaps 23 stations could be closed. This will rightly sound alarm bells in rural areas where the train is a lifeline keeping communities going and maintaining livelihoods. Much of the past decade has been spent undoing the harm of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s.

The reopening of the £155m Edinburgh-Tweedbank link, potentially shifting some of the prosperity of our overheating capital city to the Borders, is a case in point. The case for closing a line has to be irresistible, because the damage caused to areas blighted by a wrong decision can take many years to repair, if it can be repaired at all. If, on the other side, the case for keeping a line open does not add up on economic and social grounds, closure is very difficult to resist; particularly if pain somewhere means gain for a much greater number elsewhere.

The strategy sets out options for improving the network, and the lot of the passenger, from Inverness through Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt, to Ayrshire, at a cost of £1.4bn. However, £1.1bn has already been earmarked for four major projects, suggesting that every penny will have to be squeezed out of the remainder to reach the destinations identified. Even if this can be achieved (and it is a big ask) it will not mean the strategy has all the answers for Scotland's rail network.

The biggest loser is the largely-ignored Crossrail scheme which would link suburban networks north and south of the River Clyde in Glasgow with the rest of Scotland and, potentially, Glasgow Airport through Queen Street station. If the Scottish Executive is genuinely committed to developing an integrated, national rail network, the scheme, first mooted nearly 40 years ago, should be at the core of the document. Instead, it has been shunted into the sidings alongside other "potential enhancement schemes". This is a major disappointment. If Ministers are serious about reducing the alarming growth in road traffic volume, with all the misery and environmental damage that entails, linking the north and south of Scotland's biggest city by rail is exactly the type of imaginative project that should be embraced. Responses, please.

See also:
 

Network Rail’s omission of Glasgow Crossrail is staggering

Letters: August 28 2006

YOUR Friday leader, Future of our railways, forms an excellent, balanced assessment of Network Rail's outline of development submissions to the Scottish Executive; I invite readers to peruse further details from Network Rail directly.

Network Rail's omission of the Glasgow Crossrail proposal in an otherwise well-grounded survey is staggering, as, of all outstanding schemes, this is the one of cardinal importance, and its urgency rating highest. Various other solutions to the faultline running through the heart of Scotland's rail network have been suggested, such as reopening the Finnieston tunnel, or, at massive expense, excavating a direct underground line between Central and Queen Street high-level stations, whereas adopting the Crossrail proposals achieves all the benefits and more at a fraction of the cost. That imperative includes not only valuable new commuter services, but also efficient routes between south-west, central and north-east Scotland.

Failure to complete the link also effectively sabotages Glasgow Airport's hub status by denying it convenient through journeys to anywhere but the southern suburban rail network. Network Rail cannot simply feign blindness to these well-known issues.

The onus and final decisions lie, of course, with the Scottish Executive, and it remains to be seen whether it studies the interests of the whole country when ordering precisely how the railways are developed. The resources available should be more than adequate for all the other planned action if the preposterous proposal to build a mainline station under Edinburgh Airport terminal is categorically rejected as baleful, rather than beneficial, to the economy of the nation as a whole. Or is this to be another "reserved powers" issue, upon which, conveniently, Westminster will know better than we do?
Andrew W Heatlie, 109 Hyndland Road, Glasgow.
 
YOUR editorial, Future of our railways (August 25), quite rightly points out the untold damage, especially to rural communities, done by the Beeching rail cuts in the 1960s. RMT would also agree that Crossrail has been on the back-burner for far too long already. Never has the need for joined-up thinking on transport been clearer. The environment and the economy are crying out for massive reductions in emissions and road congestion, and yet once more the shadow of the axe has appeared over rural railway services.

Scotland's rail network should be viewed as an integrated national whole, with every part playing a growing role in getting people out of their cars and on to public transport.

Isolating individual rail services on the basis of profitability misses this essential point and underlines the need to reclaim public transport as a public service in the public sector.

Those motivated by the blunt instrument of profit-making shudder at the thought of using revenues from heavily used inter-city and commuter services to maintain and promote lifeline services. If rail lines, stations or services are under-used the question should not be whether to close them, but how to get people on to them. The downward spiral must be broken.
Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT, 39 Chalton Street, London.
 
I WRITE in response to your article, £1.4bn rail plan to boost commuters, and your supporting leader. You rightly say that the review of Scotland's railway, being led by Network Rail, sets out options for improving the network and the lot of the passenger – station closures, however, are not on the agenda.

The Route Utilisation Strategy that is being co-ordinated by Network Rail has no plans or powers to close stations; it is a factual review of the railway – including station use. Many stations in Scotland are lightly used; this does not imply a threat of closure; on the contrary, it often underlines the important role played by the railway in connecting rural communities, especially in Highlands.

Far from advocating closure of stations, the trend in Scotland is for growing the railway. Since 1978, 64 stations have opened in Scotland – 13 of these in the past 10 years – while four have closed, the last one at Errol in 1985. More than 90% of Scotland's trains have run on time for the past seven months, our railway is enjoying record levels of investment by Network Rail and third parties and this cross-industry review presents more than 40 options for accommodating forecast growth of 30% in the next 10 years.
David Simpson, Network Rail Route Director, 58 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow.
 
Network Rail's threat to 23 rural railway stations overlooks the importance of maintaining public transport for residents and tourists in the Highlands. The proposed rail developments in the central belt are very welcome. But closure of local stations on rural routes such as the West Highland, Kyle and Far North lines would save very little time or money, particularly as some of the stations are request stops, and at others the signalling system requires trains to stop in the passing loop even if no passengers are waiting.

West Highland trains go through Scotland's first national park, and pass mountains and lochs of world- renowned beauty. Oban and Fort William are among the most popular tourist destinations in Scotland, and important economic centres for the west Highlands. The Fort William-Mallaig line has gained worldwide publicity through the Harry Potter films and Jacobite steam train.

Based on a rail economic assessment, rural railways do not perform well. But a wider view of the economic importance to the tourist industry as Scotland's biggest employer shows these railways are valuable tourist attractions with worldwide appeal. Network Rail, Transport Scotland and First ScotRail should recognise the opportunity to develop the West Highland lines as an important part of the local transport infrastructure. There is a large market for day trips and short breaks from the central belt which could be more fully exploited.
Dr John McCormick, Friends of the West Highland Lines, Doonerak, Glenfinnan, Invernessshire.

Posted on 07:38 PM | Permalink

The Herald: August 25 2006
MARTIN WILLIAMS and DAVID ROSS

The biggest shake-up of Scotland's rail network in a generation would see up to 23 rural stations closing as the £1.4bn strategy focuses on improving services on commuter routes, it was revealed yesterday.

Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure including the 335 stations in Scotland, confirmed it was reviewing the future of stations which generate fewer than 1000 journeys each year and that closure was an option.

Proposed improvements worth £300m over the next ten years include extending platforms at Glasgow Queen Street, Edinburgh Haymarket and Waverley to allow for more six-car trains, while creating larger concourse areas for passengers at the three stations.

On some routes trains would be extended and run more frequently. The plans also propose new track and timetable enhancements.

The proposals contained in the blueprint launched yesterday received an angry reaction from communities in the Highlands that would be affected if station closures went ahead.

Network Rail's 10-year strategy, which has now gone out to consultation, aims to tackle the challenges posed by a predicted growth in the number of passengers of 3% a year and a 10% rise in freight traffic over the decade.

It says there is already overcrowding on suburban routes into Glasgow and Edinburgh during rush hours and it is expected to get worse by 2016.

The strategy, which is expected to be finalised next spring, concentrates on infrastructure improvements on the busier sections of Scotland's rail network, focusing on routes in the central belt, Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Glasgow and the South-west.

The Glasgow Crossrail scheme to connect routes north and south of the Clyde failed to become one of more than 40 options to improve reliability for passengers because it was felt there needed to be a further investigation into its benefits.

But the strategy does include a proposal to move Hyndland station in Glasgow's west end and improve the junction as part of a multi-million pound upgrade that would make it easier for people to visit nearby Gartnavel Hospital.

The work, which would also involve installing an extra track, would allow more trains to use the line and improve punctuality.

Transport Scotland, the Scottish Executive agency responsible for road and rail strategy, is expected to resist any station closures.

"In view of the current expansion of the rail network in Scotland, station closures do not fit with our strategic aims ," said a spokesman.

Alistair Watson, a former train driver and chairman of Strathclyde Passenger Transport, said: "Some rural stations are lifelines to communities and let's be careful we are not throwing the baby out with the bath water. What we cannot have is journey times speeded up and better performance at the expense of any town losing its rail service."

James King, Scotland's representative on the Rail Passengers Council, said he would be concerned about any large-scale closures. He added: "If there is a case for closure, and it is a big if, it has to be carefully thought out."

David Simpson, Network Rail's route director in Scotland, said closing stations would be examined as part of the review but in some cases it may lead to a reduction in the number of trains stopping.

"They won't necessarily be closed," he said.

See also:

No plan to fill in the ‘missing link’ in network

The Herald: August 25 2006
MARTIN WILLIAMS

THE Glasgow Crossrail scheme to connect services north and south of the Clyde failed to become part of the Network Rail's options for action for the next 10 years because the case for it had not been proven.

Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure, said the scheme that would connect Glasgow's Central and Queen Street stations, required further investigation.

The project, seen by those who have championed it as "the missing link in Scotland's rail network" would use a line between High Street and Shields Junction, and would resurrect the Strathbungo link between Larkfield and Gorbals Cross to link Queen Street and Central.

It was included in a list of "potential enhancement schemes" which were said to be still under discussion with project promoters.

Alistair Watson, chairman of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport which is promoting the £187m project said he would be pushing to get the proposal included in the strategy when it is finalised in the spring of next year.

"My opinion is that Network Rail should see the proposal for Crossrail as a unique opportunity to provide additional capacity within the network," he said.

"This is a project for minimal capital cost that actually provides substantial additional capacity and also provides the opportunity to meet the huge demand for cross conurbation traffic from Inverclyde, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire.

"I can assure you that what I will be doing is indicating to Network Rail that they have a unique opportunity to embrace the merits and the arguments that Crossrail present and will be pushing for the Crossrail scheme to be a committed project by the Scottish Executive."

Transport Scotland, the agency that is responsible for helping to deliver the Scottish Executive's £3bn capital investment programme over the next decade, said that Glasgow Crossrail "requires further feasibility work to establish the demand for services".

"It is crucial a robust design is brought forward to ensure potential Crossrail services fit successfully and reliably within the network as a whole. Transport Scotland will continue to engage with SPT on this," said spokesman Campbell Docherty.

It is thought the implementation of Crossrail would boost Glasgow's bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Posted on 07:28 PM | Permalink

Daily Trust: (Abuja) August 24, 2006
By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu

On Wednesday, the 9th of August, 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo made a nationwide broadcast to announce that the Federal Government would commit the sum of $8.3 billion to the rehabilitation of the country's railway system.

According to the plan, Phase I of the project will run from Lagos to Kano, while the Phase II will run from Port Harcourt to Jos, with the same criteria as Phase I.

Obasanjo talked about talked about "a new vision, a new commitment, and a holistic strategic plan encompassing expansion and modernisation of the railway to be implemented within a 25-year time frame. The new vision includes a planned expansion of the railways to cover all the state capitals and the major commercial centres of our country.

The president's speech envisages that the railway modernisation project will promote technology transfer, the building of new skills and the development of rail allied industries, using as much as possible local materials. Furthermore, the project is expected to generate improved socio-economic activity while reducing unemployment.

I feel particularly delighted that for the first time in a very long time, there is a decision taken by the Obasanjo administration that I can identify with. The decision to move on the rail track of national development, albeit lately in the life of the government is a very positive one. I have generally become the spokesperson for the railways in our Editorial Board at Daily Trust.

So convinced have we been about the importance of the railways system in national development that we once wrote an editorial titled WE VOTE FOR THE RAILWAYS, arguing that the nation puts the money accruing from excess crude earnings into the modernisation of the railways system. I also remember that I received a congratulatory text from the late Waziri Mohammed, then chairman of the Nigerian Railways Corporation, for a piece I did on this page last year which had been a very emotional recollection of the impact of the railways on my life as a young boy, which I had titled AN UNENDING PASSION FOR THE RAILWAYS.

There was just something incredibly short-sighted about the attitude of succeeding governments in Nigeria to the fate of the Nigerian railways: the deterioration of the system, the aging workforce, the near total lack of new investments to expand beyond the colonial lines, a criminal neglect of its strategic national value in preference for roads transportation and haulage. Whereby our country was held to ransom by powerful elements associated with a roads transportation lobby.

In over seven years, the Obasanjo regime too was locked into the illusions that its neo-liberal economic policies could somehow drive just on the roads, that received heavy budgetary allocations were badly done and had left us with roads with potholes, in the words of my brother, Sam Nda-Isaiah, big enough to swallow small cars. Of course, those budgetary allocations went in directions other than what they were appropriated for.

So fixated were the technocrats that the regime employed to sell our country cheap that they could not even appreciate the absurdity of their hare-brained idea to 'concession' the railways as they presently are. The system is so inefficient, outdated and badly run that nobody in his capitalist right senses would ever have taken up the offer of 'concessioning', because it could not make economic sense. Besides, where is the idea of concessioning coming from? These reactionary characters running privatisation projects have borrowed them from the experience of the British Railways, which went from the public service to the private sector under Margaret Thatcher.

So if it was good for the imperialist world, then we must take it as our only way of doing our railways business, line, hook and sinker. But the truth is that privatisation and concessioning have worsened the state of the British Railways, not improved it. In fact, Britain is not top of the league in Europe where railways are concerned largely because private operators have been known to cut corners in order to lengthen the margins of profit. The privatised British Railways are not working for the British people and a clamour for their re-nationalisation has become increasingly strident.

It is important to make this point now before the jokers of the BPE take our country along the "concessioning" and privatisation route. Even in the madness to be seen to be good errand boys of the Washington-based institutions of neo-liberal capitalism, it is important to look out for what might actually be in our national interest. In my view, we need to learn other lessons such as those that Russia and China teach about the railways.

The post-Soviet Russian state experienced 'shock therapy' capitalism during which just about eleven or so capitalists profited from the asset-stripping that was at the heart of the transition to the capitalist system. But the Russian state realises the strategic national importance of the Russian railways in binding such a huge country together. Decisions were taken to systematically continue a regime of investments in the public railways system through their updating, renewal and expansion. Russia did not fall for the Washington-taught doctrine of selling everything in the railways. It knew that its sovereignty as a nation could only be enhanced by a publicly run railways system and it remains committed to that.

The Chinese example is also instructive. The whole world now knows about the phenomenal growth and expansion of its economy, which threatens to outstrip those of the most powerful imperialist economies in the next couple of years or decades. A central aspect of the bourgeoning Chinese economy is the systematic renewal, development and expansion of the Chinese railways. One of the newest developments opened a few weeks ago, offering the opening up of the Chinese region of Tibet as part of the phenomenal development of China. These are worthy examples we should be learning from, not the ideological fixation with privatisation even when the ideas have not been properly thought through in respect of their relevance to our setting. The privatisation people have committed too many blunders in the past few years that we should build a national movement to keep the railways in the public sector because of the strategic importance it potentially could have in the making of a modern Ni geria.

Let us remember that the construction of the railways was a major engineering project of the early twentieth century. Generations of working people laboured and lost their lives, cutting through jungles, rivers, hills and plains to open up the country for the exploitative demands of British imperialism. The rail lines were constructed to take raw materials from the hinterland to the ports to feed the industries of British capitalism. They also took finished industrial and consumer goods into the various parts of our country as we became firmly entrenched into an international capitalist division of labour.

But as we all know, events in history often have unintended outcomes or consequences. The railways that were constructed to exploit our resources and country also helped the Nigerian people to travel around the country, and in that process, our people got to know themselves and could exchange ideas, including the anti-colonial ideas of nationalism and anti-imperialism. Two examples are useful here.

From the 1930s, especially with the emergence of Michael Imoudu at the head, the Railways Workers' Union became one of the most militant detachments of the anti-colonial struggle in our nation's march towards independence. It was also poignant that the railways also carried the late Sa'adu Zungur from Jos to Lagos where he took up appointment as the General Secretary of the NCNC, the most militantly anti-colonial movement in Nigeria's history. He had been a teacher in Bauchi Province and had left for Jos where the local branch of the NCNC organised a collection to purchase him a ticket for the rail journey.

An expanded, nationwide railways system, if it is truly followed through and constructed, will further help to bond Nigeria as an economic unit. It will assist to break down those backward and chauvinistic ideas which a reactionary political elite manipulates to the determent of the people and the nation's own development. This is especially important now when there are still reactionary characters who question the right of existence of our country.

It is important that the first phase of the railways modernisation, the Lagos to Kano line, be started simultaneously from both ends. That is from the Lagos and Kano ends of the development in order to immediately make the impact of the construction work felt from the two ends of the country. This is an economic and political choice that must not be underrated given the positive effect it would have on life at all ends of the country.

It was quite unfortunate that the Obasanjo administration procrastinated for seven years before it took a decision to make some major developments in the rehabilitation of the nation's railways system, just a few months to the end of the government. There cannot be much work done in the few months left to the regime, but the Nigerian people must insist that a successor government should be very focused to deliver an improved railways system, at least Phase I of the project in four years, because it can be achieved.

I was one of those who received news of the intention of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to enter politics with some reservation. This was because it coincided with the lukewarm attitude which our Comrade showed towards the struggle to scuttle Obasanjo's third term agenda. Many people had thought that Adams was hobnobbing with the political jobbers of the ruling party, because he wanted to run on the platform of the PDP.

His recent decision to run on the platform of the Nigerian Labour Party was a most welcome one. It offers the possibility of providing an alternative current of politics in a political space that has long been dominated by vampires and bandit elite who have never worked for the mass of the Nigerian people.

If Adams can help give the Nigerian Labour Party a better profile as a party of alternative ideas and a genuinely progressive politics, he would have done a major service to the Nigerian people. Historically, the Nigerian trade union movement has been one of the most genuinely national and patriotic institutions in the making of a modern Nigeria. The problem has always been how to build a mass-based political party of the left, which can articulate the interests of the Nigerian working people.

Our socialists, trade unionists, progressive intellectuals, Marxists, radical youth and progressive politicians have not succeeded in building a pan-Nigerian political movement which can offer a genuine challenge to the hegemony of Nigeria's ruling class. It is not that the ideas are not there, but we have historically been fractious, sectarian and in the post-Soviet period, many have even retreated into their ethnic laager, betraying a strange ethnic massada complex that has retarded the struggle for a progressive Nigeria.

The tragedy that has followed is that we have left the scene of development to reactionary agents of imperialism such as members of the so-called economic team of the Obasanjo regime to lead our nation on the road to perdition, the loss of its sovereignty and the wholesale dismantling of the public space in their dubious privatisation projects. We must try to redefine politics in a progressively pro-people direction.

Posted on 07:21 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 24, 2006
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

MORE than £1 billion has been wasted by the Government on transport projects that have been cancelled or delayed, leaving roads and railways struggling to cope with huge growth in traffic.

A dozen infrastructure schemes designed to ease congestion and overcrowding have been either abandoned or postponed until well into the next decade, according to an analysis of Department for Transport figures. The only major addition to the capacity of the network ordered in the past ten years has been an extra lane on the M25, and even this is not due to be completed until 2016.

The Government has repeatedly claimed that rising costs have made new road links, tram networks and rail upgrades unaffordable. But official figures uncovered by the Conservatives reveal that more than £1 billion has already been spent since 2000 without providing any extra capacity.

The most expensive single scheme on the list of stalled projects is Crossrail, the plan for mainline rail tunnels under Central London to relieve congestion on the Central Line. It has cost £254 million since 2001 without an inch of tunnel being dug. The Government has yet to commit itself to fund the £16 billion project and officials privately admit that, even if it goes ahead, it may not be ready until 2020.

Almost £300 million has been spent preparing for tram schemes in Portsmouth, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester that have either been cancelled or greatly reduced in scope. In 2000 John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, promised 25 new tram lines by 2010. So far two have opened: in Nottingham and the London City Airport extension of the Docklands Light Railway.

The Thameslink 2000 project to upgrade the north-south rail route across London was due to open six years ago but is unlikely to be ready for another decade. More than £80 million has been spent on preparatory works at St Pancras, including tunnels that will be boarded up and a station that will remain half-empty.

Another white elephant is Stratford International Station, in East London, which cost £210 million but might never be used by the Eurostar trains for which it was built.

Dozens of road schemes have been delayed or cancelled, including a plan to place the A303 near Stonehenge in a tunnel. More than £20 million has been spent on studies and inquires, but the Government dropped the scheme last year, saying that it was too expensive and that other options would be reconsidered.

The boldest proposal to emerge in recent years was for a 50-mile toll motorway between Manchester and Birmingham to relieve the overburdened M6. But last month the Government abandoned the idea, saying that it would be too expensive.

More than £35 million has been spent on various other feasibility studies and reports that have resulted in no action. A study on a 200mph North-South rail line was completed four years ago but then shelved.

Stephen Glaister, Professor of Transport at Imperial College, said that Labour’s insistence on getting the private sector to invest in transport schemes had resulted in several years of delay.

The £1 billion list does not include £455 million spent on fees and bidding costs for the London Underground Public-Private Partnership, which started two years late and will not create extra capacity on key lines for another five years.

Professor Glaister said: “There has been a lot of talk about the importance of investing in transport, but politicians know that health and education are what count in elections.”

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “The Government has made promise after promise about improving our transport system but has wasted a billion pounds while commuters cram on to even more overcrowded trains and sit in ever longer traffic jams.”

He said that the Conservatives would pay for new tram lines but were unconvinced of the benefits of the existing Crossrail scheme.

The Department for Transport said: “Billions are being invested in transport but things don’t happen overnight.”

See also:

Tories list Government's '20 broken promises' on transport

Press Association: 25/08/2006

The Conservatives today published a dossier of what they described as "20 Government broken promises" that will affect bank holiday travel this weekend.

Leeds Supertram - on hold

The list includes cancelled or delayed road and rail improvements to likely UK holiday destinations and festivals in Leeds, Reading and Manchester.

Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "Every bank holiday people in Britain getting away for the weekend seem to face traffic jams and rail disruption on our congested transport system.

"The Government has made promise after promise about making improvements, but hardly any of them ever seem to happen."

These are the schemes listed by the Conservatives, with what was promised and what has actually happened:

PROMISED: Completing dualling of the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick in north east England

ACTUAL: On hold

PROMISED: Modernisation and increased capacity on the East Coast Main Line (£4 billion)

ACTUAL: On hold

PROMISED: Stonehenge tunnel, announced in 2002

ACTUAL On hold

PROMISED: M5 Bristol to Weston route management strategy

ACTUAL: On hold

PROMISED: M4/M32/M48/M49 Swindon to South Wales route management strategy

ACTUAL: On hold

PROMISED: To increase West Country rail capacity by 50% as outlined in Department for Transport's (DfT) 10-Year Plan in 2000

ACTUAL: The Government has specified cuts in services running to Newquay, Falmouth, and St Ives

PROMISED: A30 Temple to Higher Carblake improvement in Cornwall announced in 2003

ACTUAL: Unlikely to be funded before 2016 at the earliest and rejected by the Department for Transport (DfT) last month

PROMISED: A30 Carland Cross to Chiverton Cross improvement, West Country

ACTUAL: Unlikely to be funded before 2016 at the earliest, rejected by the DfT last month

PROMISED: Further capacity enhancements on the London-Brighton and Chiltern lines, and increased capacity on the Brighton line from London

ACTUAL: Trains to the south coast remain overcrowded. Plans to upgrade the Brighton line have been shelved, and the Gatwick Express is facing the axe

PROMISED: Completion of Thameslink 2000 rail scheme

ACTUAL: Delayed with no construction date and no funding

PROMISED: A3 Hindhead improvement in Surrey

ACTUAL: Project announced but then shelved

PROMISED: South Hampshire Rapid Transit System

ACTUAL: Scheme approved in 2001 and then cancelled in 2004

PROMISED: Brighton & Hove Bus Rapid Transit System

ACTUAL: Rejected by the DfT until at least 2016

PROMISED: A66 Scotch Corner to Penrith upgrade

ACTUAL: On hold

PROMISED: Blackpool and Fleetway Tramway upgrade - phase one

ACTUAL: Rejected by the DfT this year

PROMISED: Manchester Metrolink phase three

ACTUAL: Government first approved funding in 2000, then withdrew it in 2004 and then gave it back in 2006 but only for phase one of the scheme

PROMISED: Work on developing and appraising a third platform at Manchester Airport Station, with the scheme hopefully implemented in 2008

ACTUAL: This was announced in May this year, five years after it was first mentioned by the Strategic Rail Authority

PROMISED: Mention in year 2000, 10-year transport plan of schemes to tackle strategic bottlenecks on the rail network, including those in the West Midlands and in the Manchester commuter area

ACTUAL: The suburban rail improvements around Manchester Piccadilly promised in the plan have not come to fruition and it remains a bottleneck

PROMISED: Upgrading of the Great Western Main Line as mentioned in the 10-year plan

ACTUAL: Reading station has not been upgraded to allow for additional capacity to the west

PROMISED: Leeds Supertram

ACTUAL: It was given approval in 2001 but cancelled in 2004

Posted on 07:06 PM | Permalink

Edinburgh Evening news: 25 Aug 2006

THOUSANDS more people are catching trains to avoid lengthy delays at airports caused by security alerts.

GNER carried 24,000 additional passengers in the past ten days - a seven per cent rise for the time of year. The east coast train operator ran 16 extra services between Edinburgh and London between August 10 and 20.

GNER said its additional services were to allow passengers to complete their journeys without being stranded or having to face lengthy airport delays.

The rise in rail passengers comes as security restrictions on airport hand luggage are set to be partially lifted within weeks. Department of Transport sources said the change was likely to be justified on the grounds that the threat had reduced or that airport security staff were now better able to cope.

GNER runs 38 services between Edinburgh and London on weekdays, about a third of the rail company's total services. In recent weeks it has seen these services increase by up to four a day.

Posted on 07:02 PM | Permalink

The Herald: August 25 2006
SIMON BAIN

GNER, the troubled operator of the Edinburgh-to-London rail franchise, is paying the penalty for a "staggeringly ambitious bid" to run the route, one of its rivals said yesterday.

GNER's parent company Sea Containers, which is struggling to strike a deal with creditors in the US, is thought to be pressing the transport department to renegotiate GNER's £1.3bn 10-year franchise, after failing to hit revenue targets.

It has blamed the London bombings, energy costs, track charges, and last month the failure of a legal move to stop a new operator running trains on the route under the department's "open access" provisions.

However, an executive at rival bidder Virgin Trains, 49%-owned by Stagecoach, said GNER's bid last year has been its undoing and will now be a test for rail franchise policy.

Chris Gibb, managing director of Virgin Cross-country, said in Edinburgh: "Everybody is watching the GNER situation and how things might develop. If they renegotiate with government, that sends an interesting signal to the rest of the industry. It was a staggeringly ambitious bid, expecting massive revenue growth, massive cost reduction and paying a high premium to government."

There has been speculation that GNER outbid Virgin and Firstgroup by as much as £300m, while recent reports suggest that either operator would now love to get its hands on the franchise at a far lower price, should GNER be unable to continue.

Gibb said the episode highlighted the need for careful examination of the totality of franchise bids, not just the highest offer.

A spokesman for Sea Containers said: "We will be raising with the department the question of open access, which will be one of a number of issues in terms of trying to get better value from our contract."

GNER will argue that Virgin for instance has a management contract which gives it more protection from revenue shocks and from open access.

One industry source said: "There has been quite a lot of sniping over the fence between Virgin and GNER – there is no love lost."

Virgin's Megatrain budget services, meanwhile, have exceeded all expectations, according to Gibb. Launched two months ago with fares starting at £1 on selected services, Megatrain has already sold more than 100,000 tickets. Gibb said the offer was now set to be expanded. "It could conceivably become the cheap bucket shop way of making domestic rail journeys." He added: "I would rather have £1, and a customer who might travel with us another day and pay more."

Virgin recently submitted its bids to retain the Cross-country franchise next year.

Posted on 06:55 PM | Permalink

Exmouth Herald: 25 August 2006

MPs Hugo Swire and Angela Browning should lobby the Department of Transport for a second passing loop on the Honiton to Waterloo rail line, according to district councillor Roger Giles.

EDDC's executive agreed there should be two strategic road and rail links to Exeter and East Devon, given the predicted increase in population and economy.

The executive supported calls for the dualling of the A303 road as another way to encourage visitors into the area.

Councillor Giles said: "Two loops on that line would enable a half-hour service. This is crunch time, the Department of Transport is making a decision on the loops in November, and it would be helpful if our local MPs lobbied for this," he said.

"We need to do everything we can in the next two months," he said.

Councillor Ann Liverton said: "There are very few who don't need to use a car to travel around the area," she said.

"There are a lot of places in Devon that are unreachable without a car.

Posted on 06:46 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 25 August 2006

A safety inspector has died in an industrial accident on a steam railway tourist attraction in Cornwall.

Emergency services were called to the Bodmin and Wenford Steam Railway after the accident at about 1130 BST on Friday.

Police said the man, from Weston-super-Mare, was crushed by a steam crane. He died at the scene.

The Railway Inspectorate has been advised and its officers are attending the scene.

Annual check

The site is a well-known local tourist attraction, operating steam trains on short trips.

Most of the staff are volunteers and enthusiasts and all repairs and servicing of the locomotives and rolling stock are conducted on the premises.

The railway operates a steam-powered rail crane, which is used for track laying and other lifting.

It is annually inspected by an accredited Royal and Sun Alliance inspector on behalf of the railway's insurers.

During the course of its annual inspection, the inspector was in a position on the crane between a jib and a cable drum winch while the crane was being operated.

He became trapped and crushed to death between the two items of apparatus.

Police said the casualty was a middle-aged man from Weston-super-Mare.

Posted on 06:38 PM | Permalink

ITF: 24 August 2006

The International Transport Workers' Federation has welcomed the release of Mansour Osanloo, leader of an Iranian bus workers’ union, who spent almost eight months imprisoned in an infamous torture centre in the country’s capital city.

Mansour Osanloo greeted by friends and family on his release from detention

Osanloo, President of the workers of the Tehran Bus Company, Sherkat e Vahed, was released from Evin prison on 9 August after bail was paid. He, along with 17 others, now awaits trial on charges that could include “propaganda against the system.” The exact nature of the charges is, however, as yet unknown.

Osanloo and 13 other trade union members were arrested on 22 December; all except Osanloo were subsequently released. On 28 January, bus workers took part in strike action in protest against Osanloo’s arrest; 180 of them were later sacked as a result.

Delegates at the ITF’s Congress in Durban, South Africa, who learnt of Osanloo’s release during the final session of the event, had passed an emergency resolution, which included demands for Osanloo to be set free, the reinstatement of the 180 bus workers and full recognition of the union’s rights. 

Mac Urata, ITF Inland Transport Section Secretary commented: “There are many people who worked behind the scenes to win Osanloo’s release, whose efforts must not be forgotten. At the same time, we must remember that 180 workers remain without jobs and Osanloo and other trade unionists still face charges. Therefore, our struggle continues until the union fully wins legitimate recognition as a free trade union by the authorities.”

On 25 July, the ITF and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) submitted a formal complaint to the International Labour Organization over the continued use of terror tactics against the union. Meanwhile, the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has claimed that it would declare Osanloo a prisoner of conscience if necessary.

A statement released by the bus workers’ union on 17 August thanked the ITF, the ICFTU and trade unions around the world for their support.

Related news

21 June 2006
Bus workers back women’s rights in Iran

5 January 2006
Bus workers in Iran demand release of arrested union leader

9 February 2006
Call to back worldwide protests over detained Iranian bus workers

22 March 2006
Iran – detentions remain while others released

26 July 2006
Repression in Iran condemned in International Labour Organization complaint

Tehran Bus Dispute
Information and a cronology of events regarding the Tehran Bus Workers' Union.

Posted on 05:20 AM | Permalink

Oxford Mail: 23rd August 2006

Poor timekeeping on First Great Western's long-distance express services is under investigation by the Office for Rail Regulation.

The ORR said in its quarterly National Rail Review, published yesterday, that the punctuality of the Oxfordshire operator's services had "deteriorated in absolute terms and is well below the sector average".

Nationally, 87 per cent of trains were on time in April to June this year - defined as being within 10 minutes of the time in timetables - compared with 84.3 per cent in the same period last year.

However, less than 75 per cent of FGW's expresses were on time, a slump of about five per cent.

Passenger satisfaction with FGW also fell over the same period, while other express operators saw satisfaction improve.

The ORR said that part of the cause of delays to FGW's express services was the large-scale track renewal programme on lines from London Paddington.

However, it said that track and signals operator Network Rail and FGW had drawn up joint plans to tackle the problems, which should be in place next month.

Among the ideas already implemented is for teams of FGW and Network Rail managers to 'adopt' poorly-performing services to identify why they are suffering delays and tackle the causes.

Posted on 12:16 AM | Permalink

South Wales Echo: Aug 22 2006
Lisa Jones

An elderly couple forced to stand for two and a half hours have criticised train staff who refused to let them use empty seats in first class.

The infirm couple, John and Peggy Huntley, aged 79 and 80, were told they would have to stand for the trip from Cardiff to London - or pay 50 per cent of an upgrade fee.

It infuriated the couple of Pentrebane, Cardiff, as they had reserved a seat on an earlier service that had been cancelled.

'We had already paid for our seats,' said Mrs Huntley, who turns 80 in three weeks. 'It's not our fault the train didn't turn up.'

The couple, who are both diabetic, caught the 9.25am service Paddington on August 8 to visit one of their daughters, Tracy.

Peggy, who has a tumour on each kidney, and John, who is crippled from arthritis, and suffers from asthma, booked seats on the 8.55am train, which was cancelled, so had to cram onto the later service. Former merchant seaman Mr Huntley added: 'We had to stand all the way to London.

'It reminded me of how it was in the war years. There were people crammed in everywhere.

'Every space was chock-a-block with cases and bags.

'I'm annoyed that my wife had to suffer it when there were empty seats. It's wrong.'

The grandfather of two said although his daughters had warned against it, he was considering driving to London the next time he visits.

To add insult to their injury, no-one offered their seat to the distressed couple.

Peggy added: 'People of today are different. There's no respect.'

A spokesman for First Great Western said: 'We would like to apologise for the difficulty they experienced.

'We expect our train staff to use a certain amount of discretion, especially where people with special needs are travelling.

'Our customer relations team is tasked with investigating the circumstances to ensure we give an appropriate response.'

* A report has revealed that the number of rail passengers who believe they are getting value for money is falling.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) report revealed that 87 per cent of British trains this April and June ran on time - up from 84.3 per cent in the same period last year.

But only 41 per cent of customers think rail travel is value for money.

This 'should be of concern' to train companies, said the ORR in the first of a series of rail reviews.

Posted on 12:07 AM | Permalink

Times Online: August 24, 2006

John Laing today cautioned of widened second half losses at its Chiltern Railways business as the collapse of a tunnel at Gerrards Cross weighed on first-half profits.

The infrastructure group said trains unit swung to a £2.4 million loss in the six months to June 30, from profits of £4.1 million in the same period of last year, largely reflecting the impact of the tunnel collapse at the site of a Tesco supermarket development.

The company said Tesco had accepted liability for the tunnel collapse and the two parties have started formal dispute resolution on the scale of compensation the supermarket group will pay.

In the absence of a compensation payment this year the group said it expects second half losses at the unit to exceed the £2.4 million losses reported today, because of cost increases and reducing government subsidy.

It said there remained "significant uncertainties" over the timing and quantum of the compensation claim on the tunnel.

The group cautioned in May that in the absence of compensation the tunnel collapse would impact the company's current year results. As well as the damage caused to the line the company said the collapse had had a longer term impact as passengers opted to use other forms of transport.

Adrian Ewer, chief executive, said it would take until the end of next year to settle the claim. He said the sum would be significant but declined to discuss the size of the possible payment.

Group pre-tax profits fell to £12.3 million, from £13.8 million last time, despite an increase in profits at John Laing's roads and accomodation divisions.

The company cautioned that the UK market for infrastructure projects is suffering from programme delays, in part because of government budgetary constraints.

Bid costs nearly doubled to £2.3 million and it said it expected these costs to rise further in the short to medium term, amid increasing bid activity.

The group said it was also increasing its bid activity overseas, emphasising in particular on Europe and North America.

The shares were trading down 19p at 271.5p at midday.

Posted on 04:17 PM | Permalink

Online News: 24th August, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Wednesday said that Pakistan would seek international expertise and assistance in brining railway at par with the international standards.

He observed this while talking to French Minister Counsellor for Pakistan Mr Philipe Casenave who called on him along with Commercial Counsellor Jean Phillipe Quercy in his office.

The minister said that Pakistan Railway was keenly interested to avail the modern technology of Europe in terms of locomotives, singing system and rail track and would like to go into joint ventures with French in order to bring improvements in Railway network and operation across the country.

The minister asked the French counsellor to participate in the feasibility study pf laying of high speed track between Rawalpindi and Lahore. He said that Pakistan Railways intend to run bullet train between these cities of over 60 million populations. He said that Mass Transit authority is being established shortly to set up rail transit system in major cities.

"the French having rich experience in transit system should assist Pakistan railways in this ambitious initiative," he told.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the Counsellor that the execution of work on doubling of rail track on Khanewal-Lahore section has been started in collaboration with Frontier Works Organization (FWO) which will be completed in one year. The completion of the project would bring a revolutionary change in the culture of Pakistan Railways. This will prove not only a catalyst in improving the train timings but also enhance the dependence of trains in terms of communication besides bringing efficiency and strength in the railways," the minister added.

Posted on 11:02 AM | Permalink

Pakistan Link: 23 Aug 06

KARACHI: A railway engine hijacking bid to use it for a terrorism act was foiled in Karachi. The railway police arrested three men involved in the incident under terror charges.

According to the railway authorities a railway engine parked at marshalling yard of the Port Qasim station was found missing, which later traced to be taken to the city. The officials informed the police control about it.

Railways staff tried to stop the engine at Landhi railway station but the engine driver didn’t respond to the signal. Railway men sparked off crackers to warn the engine driver but the driver still didn’t stop the engine.

At the time Farid Express and Karakoram Express were arriving to Karachi from the upcountry. The driver directed the stolen locomotive behind the Karakoram Express. The railway officials and police believed that the engine thieves trying to commit a sabotage act and the drivers of Karakoram and Farid Express were directed to speedup to take their trains away from the chasing locomotive.

Drigh Road railway station staff and police were made alert to stop the engine by any mean. The railway staff diverted the engine to a loop line and the engine was collided with the finishing point and grounded in the land.

The railway officials immediately reached to the place. The man driving the engine tried to flee from the scene but captured immediately. No identity card or other identification documents about his nationality found with him. The man was suspected to be a foreign national.

The Cantt railway police have registered case against the accused under terrorism and negligence charges, while engine driver Muhammad Khalid and fireman Ahmed Ali were also arrested with him.

Posted on 10:54 AM | Permalink

Xinhua: 2006-08-23

A private company announced Tuesday it had acquired 100 percent of the shares in a state-owned railway company for nearly one billion yuan (125 million U.S. dollars), after taking over the State's 84 percent share in the 62-km railway.

This is the first major private capital purchase of a state-owned railway company in China.

At the ceremony held in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, Cheng Qingbo, president of the Shenzhen Zhongji Industrial company, the investor, said that it was an ideal deal and the company expected to retrieve its investment in ten years.

The deal is considered a breakthrough for the policy issued by the central government last July encouraging non-public capital to take part in railway construction and reconstruction.

The Chunluo railway connecting Yangchun and Luoding cities in Guangdong was jointly owned by state-owned Luoding Railway Co., an unprofitable coal carrier, and the China railway construction and investment company. The Luoding Railway Co. held 84 percent of the shares in the Chunluo railway.

The government-funded Luoding Yongsheng Assets Management Company announced the auction of Luoding Railway Co. at the Guangzhou Enterprises Mergers & Acquisitions Services last month.

According to Cheng, Zhongji will take over the total debt of the Luoding Railway Co., which amounts to 793.66 million yuan.

Zhongji's first capital outlay is expected to be 40 million yuan, and the total investment will be nearly one billion yuan.

The Chunluo railway, brought into operation in 2000, has been handicapped by low freight transport volumes which are not even one-fifth of capacity.

Cheng is confident about future returns. When the railway is extended 76 kilometers and linked with the national railway grid, then "the profit margin will be large", he said.

The Zhongji company will invest 1.5 billion yuan to carry out the extension plan.

Established in 1996, the Shenzhen Zhongji Industrial company has been engaged in the operation of toll roads and bridges.

At the end of last year, the company reported total assets of 8.13 billion yuan and a profit volume of 440 million yuan, which "is sufficient to support the construction plan for the Chunluo railway", said Cheng.

According to Cheng, 65 percent of the investment will come from bank loans, for which Zhongji has signed a preliminary agreement with a national commercial bank. Construction is expected to be completed in three years.

"Non-public capital participation in railway construction and operation through acquisition will relieve local financing burdens and offer gains to investors", said Fu Dunan, general manager of the Luoding Yongsheng Assets Management Company.

According to Cheng, policy support from both local and central governments is a key factor in encouraging private companies to take over state-owned railways.

China is opening up traditional monopoly sectors such as power, telecommunications, railways, civil aviation and petroleum to private investors.

Non-public capital began to enter China's railway freight sector at the end of the 1990s. China's first railway involving non-public shares emerged last April.

Liang Renqiu, a Luoding government official acquainted with the whole takeover process, said that more detailed policies on construction, operation and income distribution will provide the assurances needed to see more non-public capital flow into the railway industry.

See also:

China Plans to Auction One Unprofitable State-Owned Railway

Xinhua: 2006-08-23
(First Published: July 24, 2006)

A 62-kilometer state-owned railway in South China will be sold off soon, which may possibly become the first railway in China to be completely owned by non-public investors.

The state-owned Luoding Railway Co., an unprofitable coal carrier servicing two undeveloped cities in South China's Guangdong Province, has been announced for auction at the website of Guangzhou Enterprises Mergers & Acquisitions Services last week.

An official with the Guangzhou Enterprises Mergers & Acquisitions Services told Xinhua Sunday that it's the first time for the agency to deal with an auction on a railway company's total assets.

"The local government has agreed to auction the Chunluo railway connecting Yangchun and Luoding cities, so as to raise money for constructing another railway," said Fu Dunan, general manager of the government-invested Luoding Yongsheng Assets Management Company, owner of the Luoding Railway Co., in an interview with Xinhua.

According to Fu, the Luoding Railway Co., has been cornered with a total debt of 793.66 million yuan (99.2 million U.S. dollars) by the end of last year.

"The main reason for the huge debts is the deficient freight transport on the Chunluo railway which failed to link with the national railway grid, " Fu said.

A new railway has been planned in the area to extend the Chunluo railway to Cenxi in the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which will be a key railway linking Guangdong and Guangxi in the coming years, and will surely help boost economy of Luoding city.

Fu said the 75.71-kilometer Luocen Railway, with 33-kilometer within Luoding city, will need a total investment of 1.47 billion yuan (183.6 million dollars), which will be an impossible mission for the Luoding government whose financial income was less than 200 million yuan (25 million dollars) in 2005.

According to the auction announcement, the buyers of the Luoding Railway Co., must have a registered asset no less than 300 million yuan (37.5 million dollars) in 2005, with the total asset no less than 7 billion yuan, debt to asset ratio lower than 50 percent and annual turnover no less than 2 billion yuan.

The buyers will not only take over all debts of Guoding Railway Co., but also undertake the construction of Luocen railway, said the announcement.

Chen Huiyong, vice general manager of Luoding Railway Co., said the company has applied to the Ministry of Railways whether the railway can be sold to foreign investors, but the ministry has no answer yet. "There is still possibility," said Chen.

China is opening up some of its monopolized industries to private investors in the recent years, such as power, railway, aviation, telecommunications, and petroleum.

Beginning with the end of 1990s, China's private investors were allowed to enter the railway freight sector, then expand business to passenger transportation on some railways.

But till April last year, the country has its first railway built with a portion of private investment. The Quchang Railway in East China's Zhejiang Province was jointly invested by Shanghai Railway bureau, Changshan county government and a cement company in Changshan, with the company sharing about one-third investment.

A document released by the Ministry of Railways last year said the ministry will encourage all kinds of non-public investment into the construction and innovation of the country's national rails, branch rails and local rails.

See also:

China Working to Reform Railway Finances

CRIENGLISH.com: 2006-08-06

The People's Daily Overseas Edition reports China is working to reform the finance system for its railways.

After initiating the reforms earlier this week, The Ministry of Railways is considering related measures, like absorbing more foreign investment, listing more railway enterprises and issuing more bonds.

China's plan to build 17,000 kilometers of new rail lines in the next 5 years, which needs a total investment of 1.25 billion yuan, or more than 156 million US dollars.

See also:

New Deal for Railway Investment

Measures are being drawn up to attract investors to China's 2 trillion yuan (US$250 billion) railway expansion.

The Ministry of Railways is fast-tracking legislation to encourage foreign and domestic firms to invest in railway construction projects, said a spokesman.

For the first time, the ministry plans to give investors more say in ticket and freight pricing, said Wang Yongping.

Other measures include setting up a transparent system to ensure railway companies receive a fair share of ticket revenues.

Meanwhile, three new regulations will be drafted to ensure foreign and domestic investors are clear about how to get into the railway construction and transportation industry, said Wang in a recent interview.

The moves are part of the creation of a new railway financing mechanism, which the ministry hopes will help it fulfill its long-term goals.

By 2020, China plans to build an additional 100,000 kilometres of track at an estimated cost of at least 2 trillion yuan (US$250 billion).

To fund the network's expansion, the ministry needs to find an average of 250 billion yuan (US$31 billion) every year, at least twice the current annual investment in railways.

To bridge the funding gap, the ministry has mapped out a plan to push forward changes in the financing mechanism during the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-10).

As well as attracting increased private foreign and domestic investment, the ministry aims to encourage railway companies to restructure and list on the stock market.

The ministry is also looking into establishing a nationwide railway investment fund, which large investors such as insurance companies could buy into, and increasing the issue of railway construction bonds.

But despite the reforms, investors who complain that the lack of a say in setting train timetables has influenced their returns will be left disappointed the ministry insists that it will retain complete control over network schedules.

"Keeping the railway network as a whole and centralizing timetables will be the prerequisite and base for our reforms," said Wang.

He stressed that only a centralized railway system would improve national productivity, the ultimate aim of the reforms.

In addition, a centralized timetable system would be more efficient and increase profits, he said.

At present, the ministry is setting up a transparent system for financial clearings within the railway industry.

Under the system, investors will be able to get information about their share of revenues from the ministry to help them minimize risks, said Wang.

Transport pricing reforms are also under way, with the aim of setting up a more flexible pricing mechanism.

"For restructured railway companies as well as new jointly invested railways, there will be a flexible pricing mechanism where prices can change within national guidelines," said Wang.

The reform will gradually expand the amount ticket prices can vary by. It is targeted at building a transport price management system in which the market is the key player and national guidelines are only a minor factor, he added.

Besides the reforms, the ministry is also drafting regulations on railway construction, passenger travel and freight.

"We are making efforts to have the regulations listed in the State Council's legislation plan as soon as possible," said Wang.

Through the legislation, the ministry hopes to safeguard investors' rights and specify the government's supervision responsibilities.

The ministry is currently looking for investors both at home and abroad and, so far, it has recommended 43 projects to investors, not 70 as some media had previously reported, said Wang.

The 43 projects include passenger lines between Wuhan and Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan, and Zhengzhou and Xi'an, which the ministry expects to be profitable as they connect provincial capitals.

In the first seven months of this year, 72.49 billion yuan (US$9.1 billion) was poured into railway construction projects, 73.6 per cent of which came from the ministry itself.

Local governments and private companies provided the other 19.13 billion yuan (US$2.39 billion), 5.5 times as much as they contributed in the same period last year.

See also:

China's First Railway IPO Set to Expand
China to Issue Railway Bonds Worth US$5b
China Pours Heavily into Railway Construction
Insurers to Invest in Rail Link

Ministry of Railways' New Plan:
• Drafting three new regulations;
• Give investors more say in pricing;
• Set up a transparent system for financial clearings.

Recent Railway Construction
China's Railway Investment Jumps 1.9 Times in First Half Year
Shanghai to Have Asia's Largest Railway Station
Railway to Cut Journey Time
Rail Network in Yangtze River Delta to Expand
China to Built Railway along Hainan Island's East Coast

Posted on 10:12 AM | Permalink

Swindon Advertiser
By Daniel Knowles

SWINDON'S rail operator has been criticised for running out-of-date trains.

First Great Western has been criticised by the Office of Rail Regulation for the age of its fleet.

The report also says more trains are running on time but passengers feel they aren't getting value for money.

The ORR long-distance rail services run by First Group have deteriorated and are well below average, it is claimed.

The regulator said it was working with interested parties on the western England problem and First Great Western and Network Rail are working on an improvement plan that should be in place next month.

First Great Western spokesman Adrian Ruck said the company was investing millions of pounds in updating its fleet of carriages and engines.

He said the company and Network Rail are working on a £750m upgrade of the 30-year-old track between London and Bristol and Cardiff.

"That will dramatically improve the reliability of the trains running on them," Mr Ruck said.

"We are investing millions on interiors and on brand new engines.

"They will be cleaner and greener."

Mr Ruck said all engines would be replaced within the next 18 months.

The regulator said 87 per cent of trains ran on time between April and June, compared to 84.3 per cent over the same period last year.

But that only 41 per cent of customers think rail travel is value for money "should be of concern"' to train companies.

The ORR said the complexity of fares and lack of knowledge of available discounts is another key area train operators needed to fix, as well as the misuse of level crossings by road users.

Like other sectors of the economy, train operators are facing significant increases in fuel and power costs' and the development of more fuel-efficient trains has become a higher priority'.

ORR chief executive Bill Emery said: "Our first review identifies many positive trends, and many challenges ahead. Overall passenger satisfaction stays at an all-time high.

"There is continuing steady progress in train punctuality, and stewardship of the network.

"However, Network Rail and its partners need to address the regional variations in performance.

"Maintaining and improving on this performance also requires the industry to meet the challenges of growing demand, and fluctuating energy costs."

Posted on 04:55 PM | Permalink

Which: 22 August 2006

The number of rail passengers who think train tickets are worth the price has reached a record low, according to the rail regulator.

Most say tickets aren't value for money

Only 41 per cent of passengers across the UK believe they get value for money from their rail journeys.

This slumps to 27 per cent for passengers in London and the South East, where many customers use services to commute into the capital.

The figures – released in a quarterly review from the Office of Rail Regulation – match similar low ratings in spring 2001 and spring 2005.

However, overall passenger satisfaction reached a record high of 80 per cent while 87 per cent of trains ran on time in the three months to June.

Consistently low
The report said: ‘At a time when service quality and overall passenger satisfaction are both improving, the consistently low satisfaction with value for money stands out.

‘Contributory factors may include the complex range of fares available and a low awareness of available discounts. This will need to be addressed with care to avoid losing the benefits of consume choice.’

A Which? survey last October found that about 47 per cent of rail users had been put off making a rail journey in the previous two years because of high fares.

In an interview in the June edition of Which?, Transport Minister Dr Stephen Ladyman conceded that rail fares were sometimes too expensive, but said the government was subsidising the railways to the tune of £87 million a week.

Posted on 04:31 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No. NP/100/06/AG
21st August 2006

RMT PAY BULLETIN - August 2006
Download file

July 2006 retail prices index rate: 3.3%
This is unchanged from June. Figures for August are available on 12th September 2006.

June 2006 average earnings: 5.0%
This is up from 4.4% for May. Figures for July are available on 13th September 2006.

The average earnings index measures changes in gross earnings per person, based on survey returns from around 8,500 employers. It includes basic pay, overtime, shift payments, bonuses and profit-related pay.

Full-time Average Weekly Earnings by Occupation:
Labour Research has recently published an analysis of average full-time weekly earnings based upon the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2005 (up-rated).

Occupation/Sector Weekly Wage
All workers £538.80
All male £592.90
All female £454.40
Managers £810.50
Professionals £737.30
Associate Professionals* £571.10
Admin & Secretarial £367.20
Skilled/craft £450.40
Services** £313.00
Sales £295.90
Operatives £412.20
Other manual jobs*** £327.30

* Associate professionals includes technicians, nurses, police, firefighters, media/PR workers, train drivers, legal and finance workers and sales reps
** Services means personal service occupations such as care workers, travel assistants, hairdressers, caretakers
*** Other manual jobs includes farm workers, labourers, dockers, postal workers, porters, waiters and cleaners

Recent non-RMT settlements:
* The average pay settlement for the 3 months to the end of July 2006 was 3% (the average has been steady since the start of the year). This measures the increase to basic pay only, excluding bonuses or lump sum payments etc.

Company /Sector Award Effective From
University Lecturers Deal worth 13.1% over 3 years
1st yr 3% or £515, whichever is greater
Further 1%
2nd yr 3%
3rd yr 3% or £420, whichever is greater
Further 2.5% or RPI, whichever is greater
August 06
February 07
August 07
May 08
October 08
Demolition industry 5.5% (2nd yr, 2-yr deal) July 06
Foreign & Commonwealth Office 4.06% increase in average earnings delivering a minimum start rate of £13,711 April 06
Severn Trent Water 4% July 06
Steeplejacks 2-yr deal
1st yr 3.75% delivering a minimum rate of £9.51ph
2nd yr 4.3%
June 06

June 07
Scottish Executive 3-year deal plus performance bonuses of up to £1,500
1st yr 3.5%
2nd yr 4.25% delivering a minimum salary of £12,300
3rd yr 4.25%

August 05
August 06

August 07
Construction Industry Joint Council 3-year deal
1st yr 3.5% delivering a rate of £7.01ph for a general operative and £9.32ph craft rate
2nd yr 4.35%
3rd yr 6%
June 06

June 07
June 08
First Direct 3.5% (rising to 5% in certain locations) April 06
Weetabix Engineers 3.1% delivering a rate of £8.24ph for a semi-skilled operative and £11.24ph for a multi-skilled fitter May 06
Dairy Crest 3% July 06
JVC 3% April 06
Sony 3% April 06
T-Mobile 3% June 06

Recent RMT settlements:

Company Award Effective From
Network Rail (Operations & Customer Services) 21-month deal (next anniversary date is January 2008)
1st yr 3.2%
Introduction of 35-hour week
2nd yr RPI + 0.75%

April 06
August 06
April 07
Miscellaneous
Chubb Security 2.5%
* Enhancement for staff working on passenger screening duties, which taken with the general pay increase is worth 18%.
* For members at Ashford the hourly rate improves from £6.36ph to £7.50ph, while at Waterloo it improves from £7.42ph to £8.75ph
* Additional improvement to Supervisors rates of pay
* All staff to be provided with the opportunity to undertake passenger screening duties training in order to attain a position on this roster April 06
Hotel
Turnberry Hotel 2.5% with the lowest paid grades receiving increases of up to 5.9% (allowing for the October increase in the National Minimum Wage) April 06
Shipping
P&O Portsmouth 2.5% January 06

Increase in living costs:
All RMT pay submissions contain a comprehensive analysis of the increase in living costs and key elements here are the increase in energy and property prices.

Energy prices
At the end of July a number of the major gas and electricity suppliers announced that customer bills would increase yet again because of the high wholesale energy costs.

British Gas has said that gas bills will increase by 12.4% and electricity bills by 9.4% from September for its 10.7m customers. These increases are above the 22% rise in both gas and electricity bill prices the Company announced in March.

EDF Energy responsible for London Energy, Seeboard and SWEB has recently increased its gas bills by 19% and Scottish Power has also indicated that bills are to rise. Again, both providers increased bill charges by 15% increase earlier in the year. The recent increases at Powergen, energy provider to 8.5m customers, mean that consumers’ gas and electricity bills have risen by 43% and 28% respectively in 2006 alone. The table below illustrates how consumers have been affected by the combined increases.

Company Increase in gas charges 2006 Increase in electricity charges 2006
EDF 33.7% 12.7%
Powergen 42.8% 28.1%
SSE 30.1% 18.3%
Scotpower 32% 18%
Npower 29.5% 27%
British Gas 34.4% 31.4%

An analysis by The Guardian newspaper concluded that gas charges have increased so sharply that the average gas bill is now as much as £340 more than in 2003.

Increase in typical gas bills 2003 - 2006

Company 2003 average bill 2006 average bill Increase in 3 years
British Gas £370 £707 £337
Powergen £311 £544 £233
EDF Energy £324 £642 £318
Npower £329 £536 £207
Scottish Power £319 £623 £304
Scottish & Southern Energy £326 £541 £215

House prices:

According to the Land Registry, property prices increased by 7.71% or £14,260 in England and Wales in the last year (April - June 2006 measured against the same period in 2005). The average property is now a massive £199,184.

The Registers of Scotland revealed that properties in Scotland increased by 8% in the last year (January - March 2006 measured against the same period in 2005). The average property is now £124,481.

The Halifax Bank’s recent Key Worker Review reached the shocking conclusion that key public sector workers cannot afford to buy an average-priced house in 65% of towns. Surveying 519 British towns the study concluded that owning a home is beyond the reach of many Ambulance staff on an annual salary of £21,384, nurses (£24,739), firefighters (£26,511), and teachers (£31,262). The average home in Greater London costs 9 times the salary of a nurse, but the region where key workers are least able to afford a house is the South West where property in 100% of towns is classed as "unaffordable" for public sector workers.

Public sector workers are priced out of the market in 10% of towns in Scotland and 50% of towns in the East Midlands, East Anglia, Yorkshire & the Humber, the West Midlands and the North West.

TUC database on company pay and performance:

The TUC has recently launched an online database which allows employees to see the financial performance of their company and compare their rate of pay with that of their managing director.

Using information collated from company returns and annual reports, the Database displays operating profits, profit per employee and major shareholders. Visit the site at www.worksmart.org.uk

Please be aware that the website is not exhaustive. Efforts are already made to include where relevant, the financial performance of each company in RMT pay submissions.

Posted on 01:46 PM | Permalink

Press Association: 2006

The Government should bring a major rail company back into public ownership to avoid jobs cuts and service disruption, a union said today.

There are fears over job cuts and service disruption

The RMT union is worried about the future of East Coast Main Line operator GNER whose parent company, Bermuda-based Sea Containers, has run into financial problems.

The RMT wants the Department for Transport (DfT) to take over the running of GNER in the same way that the now-defunct Strategic Rail Authority ran the South Eastern franchise after franchisee Connex was axed.

There is also speculation that GNER is trying to renegotiate with the DfT its franchise agreement to pay the Government £1.3 billion over 10 years.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today: "The number one priority is to ensure that our members' jobs and the services they provide do not fall victim to Sea Containers' deepening financial crisis.

"We warned when the new GNER franchise was let that the enormous price tag raised the threat of service cuts, massive fares rises and a squeeze on jobs and conditions, and it gives us no pleasure to be proved right."

Mr Crow went on: "Sea Containers were only ever interested in this franchise to wring as much money out of it as possible, but their current financial crisis makes matters even worse and it is absolute madness to allow a supposedly profitable franchise to be butchered.

"GNER's passengers have already had to endure a massive 8.8% hike in unregulated fares this year, but now the company plans to slash ticket-office staff by 50% and to impose similar staff cuts across the board.

"RMT will resist - with every means at our disposal - job cuts that are aimed solely at squeezing profits to satisfy Sea Containers' debtors and shareholders.

"We hope that passengers will also resist the attacks on their services and support the only sensible course, which is to bring the franchise back into the public sector, and keep it there."

There is provision under the Railways Act for the Transport Secretary to take over a franchise should the circumstances warrant it.

A DfT spokesman said today: "We do not renegotiate franchises once they are awarded."

See also:

Rail operator runs into more trouble

Sunderland Echo: 22 August 2006

RAIL operator GNER came under further fire today as a union leader warned of possible job losses.

The latest attack came amid mounting fears the company was set to increase prices as well as cut job numbers.

Last week, GNER’s incoming chief executive, Bob MacKenzie, paved the way for fare rises and did not rule out the possibility of job cuts.

This resulted in rail union, the RMT, saying it was time for the Government to take action to prevent the service being “butchered.”

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the deepening financial woes at Sea Containers, GNER’s parent company, could be a factor.

Mr Crow said: “Sea Containers were only ever interested in this franchise to wring as much money out of it as possible, but their current financial crisis makes matters even worse and it is absolute madness to allow a supposedly profitable franchise to be butchered.”

Mr Crow’s comments came as GNER backed down in its fight over plans to open up the East Coast mainline to rivals Grand Central – meaning direct train services between Sunderland and London will be running by the end of the year.

See also:

North train operator has hit the financial buffers

The Journal: Aug 23 2006
By Howard Walker
 
Its parent company is struggling under a mountain of debt and a triple whammy of lower ticket sales, higher energy prices and increased competition is now putting GNER in trouble. Howard Walker asks whether the North train operator is about to go off the rails.

It all looks so promising. "GNER is looking to the future, having won a new 10-year franchise to operate the UK's East Coast Main Line railway, against stiff international competition," trumpets the `Inside Story' section of the website of Sea Containers, the Bermuda-based parent company of the North train operator.

The article paints a bright future of a go-ahead service delivering extra trains, more modern stations and improved punctuality, all with the support of more than 30,000 passengers who backed the company's successful bid - including celebrity supporters such as ex-Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson.

"Everyone in GNER is delighted to have won a new franchise," GNER chief executive Christopher Garnett is quoted as saying.

It is extremely doubtful that is now the case. Fifteen months after the much-trumpeted franchise began, York-based GNER is finding out that the reality is very different to the vision.

The company anticipated ticket sales would rise by 9.9% a year. In fact, they have only increased by 3.3%, leaving GNER already £33m short of its projections. While the company claims more than half of the shortfall can be attributed to the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks on London, it is still a hefty miscalculation.

Costs are also racing ahead of predictions. Electricity prices for powering its trains along the London-Newcastle-Edinburgh line rose 28% in April and are forecast to rise another 65% next year, adding an estimated £11m a year of extra costs to GNER's projections from 2007. And that is before a further possible rise in April 2008.

If all that was not enough, GNER now faces competition on journeys between the North-East and London after the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) allowed rival Grand Central to begin running a Sunderland-London service, a decision subsequently upheld in the High Court.

But the root of GNER's problems lies in the price the company paid to retain the East Coast franchise. The £1.3bn it promised to add to the Treasury's coffers was at least £300m more than any of its rivals were prepared to pay for the contract and caused eyebrows to be raised even before the operator's subsequent problems came to pass.

At the time, Christopher Garnett said he would "rather overbid and win than underbid and lose". Garnett stepped down from the chief executive's job last month and, looking at the situation GNER executive chairman Bob MacKenzie is now in, it appears the company has overbid and lost.

MacKenzie, who is also chairman of GNER's troubled parent company Sea Containers, almost admits as much himself.

In a comment heavy with understatement, he told investors earlier this month that GNER had been "optimistic" with its projections when working out how much it could afford to bid for the East Coast franchise.

Even if ticket sales had hit projections and electricity prices had not shot up, GNER would only have made a profit margin of 3.75% - eye-wateringly tight by many standards and amounting to just £20m a year. With sales stuttering, energy costs soaring and competition incoming, the company believes even that potential profit will be wiped out.

While that is a serious situation for any company, the ramifications are magnified by GNER's role within the Sea Containers group.

The Bermuda-based business admits that it has previously been using GNER as "a cash cow" to prop up the rest of the largely loss-making companies in its portfolio, which include ferry businesses, a sea container leasing unit, property interests and a fruit farming division.

Sea Containers borrowed heavily against its assets to expand its interests further, but found itself in deep water when returns from some of its core businesses began to tail off.

Ferry passengers began defecting to low-cost airlines for their travel as operating costs continued to rise, but Sea Containers always had the reliable stream of cash from GNER to keep it afloat and mollify anxious debtors and bondholders. Now the group can no longer rely on its cash cow, the corporate pigeons are coming home to roost. Sea Containers is currently $610m (£323m) in debt, has delayed filing its 2005 accounts and has defaulted on "many" of its secured credit facilities after breaching various requirements of the loan deals. This is despite an extensive sell-off programme which has seen the group dispose of almost all of its ferry businesses and its 25% stake in the Orient-Express Hotels company.

The group admits it is in a cash crisis and chairman MacKenzie is now working on a life-saving refinancing deal.

Last week, he outlined the extent of Sea Containers' plight to key stakeholders and details of the group's financial restructuring plan are expected to be revealed next month.

Exactly what role GNER plays in the future of Sea Containers - and of rail transport in the North-East - remains up in the air, but the company's options are narrowing.

First, it can accept the status quo and try to boost the returns. While the conditions of GNER's franchise mean its actions are constrained to some extent, the company can hike prices in certain areas. It has already started pushing up the cost of parking at the car parks it operates at various stations along the East Coast Main Line while ticket prices have also increased, although if prices go up too much, sales could fall even further behind targets. Cutting costs are also on the menu. GNER will look to take advantage of the trend for more passengers to book online to trim down staff numbers in its ticketing operation, possibly halving the 300-strong workforce there.

Rail union RMT is expecting similar cuts in station staff, on-train personnel and maintenance workers, although Sea Containers has attempted to play down expectations of a mass cull.

Option number two for GNER is to renegotiate its franchise and get the amount of money it pays to the Treasury reduced.

The company argues that 15 months ago it could not have predicted the effects of 7/7 or the dramatic energy price hikes.

It is also smarting about a last-minute change to its franchise bid which it claims wiped out half of its potential profitability at the stroke of a pen.

The company says it was initially advised by the Strategic Rail Authority - the forerunner to the ORR - to put a clause in its franchise bid to ensure it retained exclusive rights to the East Coast Main Line.

A Sea Containers spokesman says: "About two to three hours before the deadline for signing, (the SRA) said to remove that caveat otherwise we would not be allowed to take part in any re-tendering. £10m of our projected annual profitability was wiped out when the ORR decided there could be open access on the line."

However, GNER may find itself given short shrift if it attempts to talk Ministers into renegotiating its franchise deal.

Firstly, the Government is unlikely to freely sign away several hundred million pounds worth of revenues it is already counting on and secondly, any renegotiation could prompt other operators to either push to get their franchise costs lowered or take the Government to court.

If it fails to get a better deal from the Government, GNER could simply walk away from the franchise, leaving the Department for Transport to pick up the pieces and run the railway while tenders were sought again - with any offers no doubt at a drastically reduced price to the original £1.3bn.

A last solution could be a sale of the company.

"There is no doubt that we have some extremely tough talks in front of us," says a Sea Containers spokesman.

"Nothing has been ruled out or ruled in."

May 2005: GNER wins East Coast Main Line franchise ahead of three rival bidders with promise of £1.3bn subsidy to Government. Observers warn the company may have paid over the odds.

July 7, 2005: Suicide bombers kill 52 people in series of attacks on London Underground, including King's Cross station. GNER blames subsequent disruption and travellers' wariness for more than half of a subsequent £33m sales shortfall.

January 2006: Office of the Rail Regulator approves Grand Central Trains plan for Sunderland-London rail service. GNER appeals against the ruling.

May 2006: GNER parent company Sea Containers announces it is delaying filing its 2005 accounts and warns of defaulting on several of its loans.

July 2006: High Court throws out GNER's appeal against the Grand Central ruling, opening the line up to low-cost competition.

August 2006: Sea Containers reveals GNER's sales are running £33m short, its costs are set to rise by £11m a year from April 2007 and the future value of GNER for its owner is "uncertain".

See also:

Ministers warned over GNER deal

Independent Online: 21 August 2006
By Barry Clement, Transport Editor

Ministers ignored warnings from senior officials that the Great North Eastern Railways' (GNER) bid to retain its flagship east coast franchise was flawed, according to sources close to the Department for Transport (DfT).

Economists at the Department told ministers that it was highly unlikely that the train operator could fulfil its promise to pay the Government £1.3bn over 10 years.

Despite the assertions of their own analysts, a minister has decided to award the licence to GNER which had tabled a bid at least £300m bigger than any of their rivals.

The news emerges within weeks of the operator telling the DfT that it wants to renegotiate the terms of its franchise, little more than a year after it signed the contract. Government analysts registered particular concern about the fifth year of the franchise when they considered that GNER would default on payments due to the Exchequer. However, the fragility of the bid has been exposed much earlier because of the seeming inadequacy of provisions for contingencies.

Bob MacKenzie, chief executive of the New York-listed Sea Containers, GNER's parent company is in talks with the DfT in an attempt to reduce the payment promised to the Government.

Mr MacKenzie has told ministers that at the time of the refranchising process early last year, GNER could not know that revenue would be seriously undermined by the bombings in London during July. Around 70 per cent of GNER journeys begin or end at London's King's Cross.

The Sea Containers' chief has pointed out that the company's financial predictions were undermined by the increase in electricity prices and the Office of Rail Regulation's decision to allow increased competition on the route from two rival operators.

Mr MacKenzie has told ministers that during the final phase of franchise talks senior officials insisted that the operator remove from the bid a contingency clause covering the possibility of such competition.

Recently the company lost a high court battle to have the Rail Regulator's decision overturned.

GNER lawyers are arguing that a force majeure provision in the contract would allow the company to renegotiate the £1.3bn it had promised the Treasury. They argue that the agreement allows for negotiations to be reopened where "acts of Government instrumentality" undermine profitability and therefore the operator's ability to pay the premium. It is being argued that decisions made by the regulator are explicitly covered in the clause.

Meanwhile, the train operator has imposed a freeze on new recruitment and is expected to announce hundreds of job losses in an attempt to cut costs. The company insists that no figure has yet been put on any possible redundancies, but the RMT rail union has warned it will resist any such decisions.

GNER's discussions with the Government come amid severe financial problems for the Bermuda-registered Sea Containers. Mr MacKenzie spent much of last week in New York attempting to placate share owners and bond-holders.

A spokesman for the DfT said yesterday: "We do not renegotiate franchise agreements. The franchise agreement is the final negotiated position."

Posted on 12:16 PM | Permalink

Next meeting of the Bristol Rail Branch is on Wednesday 23rd August, GWRSA Staff Club, Temple Meads ( Lounge), starting at 19.00

Items of special interest: a visit from John Leach, Bristol Rail Branch nominee for RMT National President and election of Health & Safety Representative for FGW Guards (former Wessex Trains), Bristol.

Posted on 08:30 PM | Permalink

Times Online: August 22, 2006

COMMUTERS could face slower journeys under plans to conserve energy

COMMUTERS could face slower journeys under plans to conserve energy by teaching train drivers to accelerate less quickly and coast where possible.

The Office of Rail Regulation has instructed train companies to introduce training sessions for drivers to teach them how to reduce fuel consumption. The techniques include learning the precise point where it is possible to cut the power and coast to the next station.

The companies will inspect data recorders in the cab of each train to check how well drivers have performed. Those who drive in a fuel-inefficient way, accelerating too quickly or for too long and then braking hard, will be sent for remedial training.

Regulators also want electricity meters to be installed in each train to show which routes use the most power.

The cost of supplying electricity to the rail network has risen by 67 per cent to £154 million in two years and is due to rise to £205 million next year. The cost of running diesel trains has also risen sharply because of global increases in the price of oil.

Modern trains consume more energy because safety and disability regulations have made them heavier. They also have air-conditioning and electric doors.

The regulator said Network Rail and the train companies had failed to take sufficient steps to conserve energy. In its quarterly review of the rail network, it said: “The very recent rapid rises are placing considerable strain on the industry.

“Faced with the prospect of permanently higher fuel costs, the importance of fuel efficiency becomes even greater.”

Michael Lee, the regulator’s director of industry analysis, said that it may be necessary to adjust the timetable to lengthen journey times if there was shown to be a significant fuel saving.

Mr Lee said there may be a trade-off between punctuality and fuel consumption, with companies accepting a small delay if it allowed them to conserve energy.

Modern trains can accelerate much faster and are often able to make up lost time if they are running behind schedule.

The companies would have to consider whether it was worth using extra energy to improve punctuality if 90 per cent of trains were already on time, “but it’s dangerous to give anybody an alibi for arriving late”, he added.

The regulator is also pressing Network Rail to upgrade the power supply, so that the energy lost by trains as they brake can be fed back into the system.

The process, known as regenerative braking, already operates on the West Coast Main Line, where it reduces energy consumption by 15 per cent.

Network Rail saved money when, after an upgrade of the power supply south of the Thames, it failed to make the modifications necessary for regenerative braking.

Posted on 10:58 AM | Permalink

Guardian Online: August 22, 2006

· Only 41% say rail fares offer value for money
· High energy costs makes greener trains a priority

Rail passenger satisfaction about ticket prices has hit record lows despite more trains running on time, rail regulators said yesterday.

Only 41% of customers believe they get good value for money from their train journeys. The report identified commuters in London and the south-east as the least satisfied customers. Ticket prices for some important routes are regulated but increases imposed in January were too much for many passengers, said the Office of Rail Regulation in its quarterly review.

"This is discouraging in a time of general service improvement," said Bill Emery, chief executive of the ORR.

The regulator reported that 87% of trains ran on time in the three months to June, up from 84.3% in the same period last year. Overall satisfaction with train services is also at a record high of 80%. But overcrowding on trains in and out of the capital has exacerbated concern over ticket prices. The ORR said train operators should make fares less complicated and make customers more aware of discounts.

A spokeswoman for Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, said many commuters could not afford the hefty one-off cost of an annual season ticket and instead had to buy expensive tickets to travel during peak hours. Train operators could ease the pain by allowing passengers to phase the cost of annual tickets over the course of the year.

"If you have paid quite a lot of money, have not had a lot of choice about when you travel because you're a commuter and your train is overcrowded, then your perceptions of value for money will be blown out of the water. It's about improving the experience and making fares easier to understand," she said.

The travails of commuters in the south-east of the country were also shared by passengers to Cardiff and Bristol, as the ORR warned that the long distance service operated by First Great Western had "deteriorated" over the past 18 months and was performing well below the national average. First Great Western and Network Rail, which runs the UK rail infrastructure, have drawn up a plan to turn around the service and will implement it next month, the ORR said.

More trains north of the border are running on time - but nearly 15% still arrive late, according to ORR. The report said performance in Scotland had now recovered following a series of problems last year, which saw lengthy delays on key commuter routes.

During the three months from April to June 86.5% of First ScotRail trains were on time, up from 83.5% from the same time last year. The improvements have been put down to better co-operation between First ScotRail and the track and signals operator Network Rail. First ScotRail last week raised some ticket prices by nearly 10%.

The regulator also warned that rising fuel costs were placing "considerable strain" on the rail industry, with train operators paying more than £100m last year for electricity. The regulator highlighted that running a franchise will become less financially viable if action is not taken and Network Rail should be more transparent about its energy charges for train operators.

"We think there is more work for [Network Rail] to do on this, on working with the train operating companies to find ways in which they can become more energy efficient and have stronger incentives on the train operators to operate more efficiently," said Mr Emery.

The ORR added that developing more fuel-efficient trains has become a higher priority within the industry, but the long replacement cycle for trains could slow down progress towards more environmentally friendly railway rolling stock. Short-term solutions include installing fuel meters in electric trains and introducing technology that returns electricity generated by the train to the network.

The ORR added that "fuel efficient" driving of trains was an option but that could lead to delays.

Posted on 10:44 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 22 August 2006

The director of Egypt's railways, Hanafi Abdel Qawi, has been dismissed after a train crash outside Cairo that killed 58 and injured more than 140. The trains were packed with commuters.

A railway official said one train ploughed into another which had stopped just outside a station in Qalyoub, 20km (12 miles) from Cairo.

An investigation has been launched into the incident.

It is Egypt's deadliest rail accident since 2002 when a fire broke out on a train, killing more than 370 people.

Egypt has a poor record on train safety, with several fatal accidents happening every year.

Blaze on board

The trains were both travelling from the Nile Delta south towards Cairo early on Monday morning, crowded with many passengers on their usual commute to work in the capital.

"We felt something like an earthquake, we jumped out the windows and saw fire at the back of the train" - Train passenger

The train rammed into the back of the other which had stopped on the line, causing carriages to overturn and catch fire.

One witness told Reuters news agency how bystanders had tried to warn the driver of the stationary train that another train was bearing down on him.

"We kept saying 'Driver, driver, a train is coming' so the driver moved... and while he was moving, the two trains impacted."

The trains were travelling from the towns of Mansurah, 130km (80 miles) away, and Benha, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, and were on the same line.

See also:

Egypt rail chief sacked amid outcry over crash

AFP: 23 August, 2006

CAIRO: Egyptian transport officials scrambled yesterday to deal with two disasters, as the national rail chief was sacked following a train crash that killed 58 and a bus accident left another eight dead on the country's treacherous roads.

Egyptian media and opposition politicians lashed out at the government amid the latest tragedies.

Transport Minister Mohamed Mansur announced that national rail chief Hanafy Abdel Qawi had been fired and his deputy Eid Mahran suspended pending a probe into Monday's catastrophe, a security source said.

At least 58 people were killed and 144 injured when a passenger train slammed into the back of another using the same track in the town of Qaliub, just north of Cairo, derailing carriages and setting one train ablaze.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told reporters during a hospital visit to see some of the injured that an inquiry had been launched and results would be known within 48 hours.

"Those responsible will be held truly accountable," he said.

Yesterday, at least eight people were killed when a bus carrying mostly Israeli tourists flipped over near the northern Sinai resort of Nuweiba, security and hospital sources said.

Hospital sources on the peninsula, home to resorts that are popular with such tourists, said 39 others were injured in the crash.

Most of the victims were believed to be Arab Israelis, the sources said.

Egyptian security sources said the accident occurred on a winding mountain road near the hamlet of Saada, about 45km north of Nuweiba, as the bus was heading to Taba, on the border with Israel.

The sources said the bus was speeding but did not rule out a technical fault as the cause of the accident.

In Cairo, Mansur said a technical committee would be formed to "study the causes of the (rail) crash and to prevent such accidents in the future," the official Mena agency reported.

The tragedies were just the latest in a series of Egyptian transport disasters, most of which have been blamed on negligence and poor maintenance.

"The state is collapsing, and corruption and ruin is creeping into it," said Gamal Badawi in the opposition Al-Wafd daily.

"Who is going to bear the responsibility for the blood that was spilled in Qaliub station? And whose turn will it be next, when new victims will die under the wheels of decaying trains, and twisted rails and equipment which does not work?"

Columnist Nabil Rashwan, writing in the independent daily Nahdet Masr, said the Qaliub crash "opened the file of disasters for the thousandth time, and no authority is accountable.

"We have lost more Egyptians in train disasters than we lost in all our wars with Israel. What is the price the officials will pay for the victims?"

Abdallah Kamal of the Rose Al-Yusef daily predicted that government investigations would fail to address the true issues or condemn the real culprits.

Egypt's largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, added its voice to the chorus of criticism.

"As usual, the authorities are looking for a scapegoat, without seeking to reform the administrative apparatus, which is plunged in corruption and sloppiness," a Brotherhood statement said.

Posted on 10:09 AM | Permalink

Informed Sources e-Preview: September 2006

Roger Ford, Industry & Technology Editor of Modern Railways and Founding Editor of Rail Business Intelligence has highlighted some of the more interesting aspects of GNER's recent High Court failure to overturn the Office of the Rail Regulator's decision to allow open access competition on the East Coast Mainline, which will have far-reaching consequences for the financial structure of rail privatisation in Britain.

GNER loses open access challenge

Leading off is the outcome of GNER’s High Court Application for a Judicial Review of the Office of Rail Regulation’s decision to award the available paths on the East Coast Main line to open access operators. Mr Justice Sullivan’s judgement provided an independent and dispassionate analysis of the structure and working of the privatised railway and, in particular the relationship between franchised and open access operators.

If you would like to read the full Judgement it comes as a recommended read. GNER's Press Release in response to the judgement is here.

GNER sought the Judicial Review on three grounds

First, charging access operators only variable Track Access Charges, while GNER paid both variable and fixed charges. was discriminatory.

Second, by not requiring Hull Trains and Grand Central to pay a share of fixed costs ORR was giving the two open access operators unlawful state aid.

Finally, ORR had breached its own policy by granting access to Hull Trains and Grand Central for new services which would depend more on abstracting significant revenue from GNER than generating new ridership.

On the second day of the hearing, GNER withdrew the third claim, so the case came down to the structure track access charges. And for someone coming cold to our convoluted industry, Mr Justice Sullivan did an impressive job. I particularly liked his conclusion that GNER’s fixed access charge is ‘an artificial construct’ which does not reflect the actual cost of maintaining the ECML.

He was also hot on the fact that GNER knew what the fixed charges would be when bidding for the franchise and so they were written into the much vaunted premium. ‘Even if the fixed charge were very low, then the level of fares set by the franchised passenger operator would not be affected as the lower fixed charge would simply result in a higher bid premium’ the judge explained.

He also highlighted the risky nature of open access operation compared with life as a franchisee. It may not seem that way to GHER at the moment, but the ‘blue machine’ is protected under its franchise agreement from increases in track access charges, enjoys cap & collar revenue-risk sharing agreements with the taxpayer and also has a force majeure clauses in the event of revenue shortfall due to external factors.

In contrast, open access operators are on their own. According to Mr Justice Sullivan, imposing fixed access charges on the open access operators would be discriminatory because ‘ORR would be treating two very unlike cases as though they were alike’.

In sum, any attempt to draw comparisons between the two types of business would be ‘an attempt to compare chalk with cheese’.

In rejecting the ‘state aid’ complaint, Mr Justice Sullivan came up with another memorable phrase ‘the charging regime simply treats them differently because … they are different (even though their trains may be distinguishable to the individual passenger only by their different liveries)’.

Naturally Sea Containers, GNER’s parent, disagreed with the decision, describing it as ‘truly extraordinary’. I have to say that when it comes to the contractually-bound, tightly-regulated UK passenger railway, Sea Containers just don’t get it – and who can blame them.

No sooner had I had sent the September column off to the Editor, than Sea Containers released an update on its financial situation which is posted here. This included the latest financial figures from GNER where the situation is dire, given that it covers only the first year of the new franchise. It was too late to get my preliminary analysis of this information into the column, but you will find it in the news section. More next month.

Something else emerged from the High Court hearing which could come back to haunt DfT Rail. At 16.30 on 18 march 2005, just as the InterCity East Coast Franchise Agreement was about to be signed, SRA’s chief negotiator received a phone call instructing him to withdraw the clause in the agreement protecting GNER against new open access competition. GNER was given two hours to sign the agreement without the competition caveat or see the franchise re-tendered.

As we know now, this was a massive bluff by SRA from a very weak hand. GNER’s £1.3billion bid was £300million ahead of second place, Stagecoach who also had the competition caveat. But determined to hang onto the franchise GNER folded.

Which leaves the question of who made the phone call. An informed source who was in the room, reckons it was DfT pulling the strings. This one could get very messy.

Posted on 08:27 PM | Permalink

RMT: August 21, 2006

EAST-COAST mainline franchise GNER should be brought back under public control immediately to stop jobs and rail services falling victim to the financial crisis engulfing its Bermuda-registered parent company, the industry’s biggest union says today.

The call was made by RMT as speculation grew that SeaContainers’ desperate attempts to squeeze a profit from GNER’s rail operations would mean further sharp fares hikes, service cuts and a wholesale attack on jobs and conditions.

“The number-one priority is to ensure that our members’ jobs and the services they provide do not fall victim to SeaContainers’ deepening financial crisis,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“We warned when the new GNER franchise was let that the enormous price-tag raised the threat of service cuts, massive fares rises and a squeeze on jobs and conditions, and it gives no pleasure to be proved right.

“SeaContainers were only ever interested in this franchise to wring as much money out of it as possible, but their current financial crisis makes matters even worse and it is absolute madness to allow a supposedly profitable franchise to be butchered.

“GNER’s passengers have already had to endure a massive 8.8 per cent hike in unregulated fares this year, but now the company plans to slash ticket-office staff by 50 per cent and to impose similar staff cuts across the board.

“RMT will resist with every means at our disposal job cuts that are aimed solely at squeezing profits to satisfy SeaContainers’ debtors and shareholders.

“We hope that passengers will also resist the attacks on their services and support the only sensible course, which is to bring the franchise back into the public sector, and keep it there,” Bob Crow said

Posted on 08:00 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No. IR0180/06: August 21, 2006

Dear Colleague,
Following many months of negotiation, the union was presented with a restructuring package for our On Track Machine members at Carillion Rail.

The views of our membership was sought through a referendum, and the GGC has considered the results as follows:

"That we note the ballot result is as follows:-

Total votes cast 49

Spoilt papers 0

The General Secretary is instructed to inform the company of our acceptance of the offer".

A copy of the new conditions will be placed on the RMT National Union website and is available on request from Unity House.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 07:34 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 21 August 2006

Thirty-four people had to be led to safety following a fire on a lorry being carried on board a freight train in the Channel Tunnel.

Smoke was seen coming from a Eurotunnel freight service

The operator Eurotunnel said it suspended rail services on Monday afternoon after a fire alarm went off.

Lorry drivers were taken off the train in the north-running tunnel. A fire was put out about 7.5 miles (12km) from Folkestone. No-one was hurt.

Eurostar said passengers were being told to expect "continuing delays".

The incident happened at about 1230 BST.

A spokesman for Eurostar said: "We are advising passengers to avoid travelling today if possible. Tickets can be exchanged for another day."

He added the London to Paris and Brussels service has had access to one tunnel since 1600 BST, but it was a single line with a speed restriction. Four services have so far been cancelled.

'Clear backlog'

Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said: "It was a freight shuttle going through with about 34 people on board, who have all been evacuated safely."

He added the small fire was extinguished quickly.

"Eurotunnel is conducting checks of the tunnel and its equipment. Once these investigations are completed, Eurotunnel will commence a progressive restart of commercial services."

Fire officers from Kent and France extinguished the blaze

The company said it was hoped train services through the Channel Tunnel could be resumed later on Monday.

"Unfortunately with this being a very busy time of year, it's going to take a few hours to clear the backlog once we've got started again," said Mr Keefe.

A spokesman from Kent Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Folkestone, Deal and Ashford were sent to the scene, along with firefighters based at the tunnel, to help with efforts to reach the freight shuttle.

The 30 passengers and four crew were escorted to the service tunnel.

"Although smoke has been seen there has apparently been no flames and there have been no casualties," he said.

French fire crews also attended the incident.

Traffic using the tunnel has been diverted to Dover.

Posted on 07:07 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 21 August 2006

Five people have been killed and at least 20 injured in a passenger train derailment in northern Spain.

Six carriages of the inter-city train came off the tracks near the town of Villada, in the Palencia province.

The crash happened shortly before 1400 GMT. There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the crash.

The train was travelling from the city of Vigo in Spain's north-west to the French border town of Hendaye.

There are still thought to be casualties trapped in the wreckage of the train, the BBC's Danny Wood in Madrid reports.

Helicopters and ambulances have rushed medics to the scene of the crash, and begun taking casualties to hospital.

Last month - in the worst accident of its kind in Spain's history - an underground train crash in eastern city of Valencia left 41 people dead and nearly 50 wounded. Officials said the metro train was travelling at twice the normal speed when it derailed.

Posted on 07:00 PM | Permalink

Jerusalem Post: Aug. 21, 2006
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two passenger trains collided in northern Egypt Monday, killing 36 and injuring 133, the Egyptian minister of health said. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at 80.

The early morning incident occurred in the town of Qalyoub, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital Cairo.

Egyptian state television broadcast a telephone call from Minister of Health Hatem el-Gabaly announcing the increased death toll.

Adly Hussein, governor of Qalyoubia province where the town is located, told Egyptian state television that two southbound trains headed for Cairo carrying commuters collided at about 7:45 a.m. (0445 GMT).

Four cars derailed and overturned which required closing the lines from the Nile Delta cities of Benha and Mansoura, where the trains originated.

The train from Mansoura was going at least 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour when the collision occurred after itfailed to abide by a stop signal outside Qalyoub train station, police sources said speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give statements to the media.

The driver of the Mansoura train was killed and the locomotive overturned, police said.

A fire that broke out as a result of the incident was extinguished, Hussein added.

Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, which are usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those incidents have occurred in the Nile Delta, north of the capital.

The most recent accident, in February, saw 20 people injured when two trains collided at a Nile Delta station.

Egypt's worst train disaster, in February 2002, killed 363 people, many of them headed home to the country's south for the Islamic calendar's most important holiday.

See also:

80 feared dead in Egypt train crash

Times Online: August 21, 2006
By Times Online and agencies

A collision between two trains in a Egypt has killed 80 and injured 163, according to the Reuters news agency.

The crash,  in the northern Egypt town of Qalyoub, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital Cairo, happened at about 7:45am local time  (0545 BST).

Two southbound  passenger trains carrying commuter collided and four cars derailed railway officials told Egyptian state television. Lines are closed from from the Nile Delta cities of Benha and Mansoura, where the trains originated.

Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, which are usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those incidents have occurred in the Nile Delta, north of the capital. The most recent accident, in February, saw 20 people injured when two trains collided at a Nile Delta station. Egypt’s worst train disaster, in February 2002, killed 363 people.

See also:

Egypt's history of train disasters

BBC News: 20 February, 2002

As in many developing countries, rail safety is not well funded

The train accident in which at least 300 people died while travelling from Cairo to the south of Egypt is by a long way the worst train disaster in 150 years of rail travel in the country.

This accident was caused by a fire, possibly started by a passenger - and not a crash.

One thoery is that the fire could have been started by a passenger preparing food

Egypt has a comprehensive rail network. There is a high standard rail service available to tourists and Egyptians who can afford it.

However, most Egyptian rail passenger travel packed into cramped compartments on old, slow trains.

Passengers on long-haul journeys often carry large amounts of baggage, take small animals onto the trains and prepare their own meals - sometimes using portable gas cookers.

Recent Egyptian train disasters:

* November 1999: Train between Cairo and Alexandria hits truck and derails, killing 10 and injuring seven.

* April 1999: At least 10 people die and nearly 50 are injured in northern Egypt after head on collision between trains.

* October 1998: About 50 people are killed and more than 80 injured in a derailment just south of Alexandria. The train failed to stop at buffers and ran into a busy market square. Reports suggested that passengers travelling on the roof of the train may have tampered with an air pipe, disabling the brakes

* February 1997: At least 11 people die after a collision caused by human error and a signalling failure north of Aswan.

* February 1996: Train hits truck on level crossing killing 11 people 90 kilometres north of Cairo.

* December 1995: In thick fog a train rams into the back of another, 75 people die. Driver was blamed after findings that the train was travelling well above the speed limit

* May 1995: Nine die after train hits a barrier just north of Cairo and derails.

* April 1995: A train and a bus collide on a level crossing in Nile Delta, killing 49.

* December 1993: At least 12 people die and 60 are injured when two trains collide head on about 90 kilometres north of Cairo.

* February 1992: Head on train collision just outside Cairo kills 43 people.

Posted on 09:21 AM | Permalink

Yorkshire Post: 19 August 2006
Mark Branagan

A SECTION of track on the East Coast Main Line was cut away by engineers while the railway was still open to trains in a blunder which could have caused an airport service to be derailed, a report has revealed.

The potential emergency was only averted because an automatic warning system held the train up at a signal before it reached the maintenance crew and the gap in the tracks.

The workmen had cut one of the railway sleepers at Thirsk, North Yorkshire, and were preparing to remove it when a call came through from a signalman, puzzled about why a Manchester Airport to Newcastle train was still waiting at the danger signal.

The train was stopped because the work had disrupted an electrical circuit. When the circuit is working it tells the train operators that there are no trains on that section of the line.

When the circuit is broken it makes it appear there is a train there and the danger sign goes up to prevent another one coming until the track is clear.

According to the investigation into the incident, on January 11, the construction crew were lucky to have severed the rail that made up the electrical circuit, so the train stopped without harm.

But a report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) points out that there might have been a different outcome if the men had cut the other rail.

This was not in the warning loop and the train might have continued.

The report concluded: "The consequences of this incident were benign due to the fact that track circuit was interrupted as the rail was severed. This caused the track circuit to show occupied and the associated signal was held at danger."

However, the train could have approached the work site if it had already passed the signal when the rail was cut or the other rail had been severed, or if the line had not been fitted with the warning system, the report underlined.

It added: "If the train had approached the work site there would have been a significant risk of serious injuries to the track workers and a possibility that the train would have derailed."

The report is unable to clarify whether similar incidents have happened in the past – when maintenance has been carried out on the line without all the procedures being followed to ensure everyone knew about it.

"However, the data collected from the Network Rail National Control Log indicates that there are still a significant number of incidents in which misunderstandings, miscommunication and planning errors contribute to serious operating irregularities," the report states.

The responsibility for the day-to-day maintenance of the track lies with the depot at Darlington while Network Rail's offices in Newcastle and York are supposed to share information about where work is going on so services can be organised around the repair sites.

In this case there was no evidence that a form explaining the work had ever been sent from Newcastle to York – so the Manchester Airport train was still scheduled to call at Thirsk station as the last one of the night.

The maintenance crew involved believed they were in a safe area already isolated for work elsewhere, though in fact they were outside it on a track still open to traffic.

The RAIB made eight recommendations following its investigation, seven to Network Rail covering staff briefings, procedures and documentation and one to the Railway Safety and Standards Board covering forms used to draw up maintenance areas.

Posted on 02:37 PM | Permalink

Reuters: Aug 19, 2006

BERLIN - The train station in the northern German city of Hamburg was shut on Saturday because of a bomb threat, police said.

A spokesman for the city police said someone had called city authorities and told them: "I have hidden a bomb in the main train station."

Earlier in the day, the train station in the northern city of Kiel was shut for five hours while police detained a suspect in a failed July plot to explode bombs on two German trains

Posted on 02:32 PM | Permalink

The Star: August 20, 2006

SEPANG: Cambodia hopes that Asean can resolve financing problems plaguing the long proposed Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project, which is estimated to cost US$1.8 billion (RM6.6 billion). 

This includes finding private sector parties willing to undertake the mammoth project spanning seven countries, Cambodia's Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said. 

He also called on his Asean counterparts to use the Kuala Lumpur meeting to also resolve the two missing links - 48km in Cambodia and 210km from Cambodia to Vietnam - of the ambitious rail project. 

OVERDUE PROJECT: Filepicture shows delegates from China, Thailand and Singapore attending the second special working group meeting on the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link in 1997.

“I hope that if we can find enough financing for these two links. I believe not later than five years, we will be able to take a train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and go up to China,” he said upon his arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for the 38th Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting. 

Prasidh said he hoped that during the Asean Mekong Basin Development Cooperation (AMBDC) meeting on Aug 26, countries could be found to provide financing for this project. 

“We are quite grateful to Malaysia which offiered used rails and fasteners to Cambodia Rail for the construction of the 48km-missing link section of the Sisophon-Poiphet railway, which forms part of the Singapore-Kunming Railway Link project,” said Prasidh. 

“If we can realise this project, it is going to be the first time that all countries involved will be linked by railways, thus speeding up the distribution of goods compared to transporting them by sea or roads,” he added. 

The AMBDC took off in 1996 within the grouping to enhance economically sound and sustainable development of the sub-region, but funding remains a problem. 

For instance, the Singapore-Kunming Railway Link project still needs more funds to finance the rail route that spans seven countries covering Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. 

Up to 55 AMBDC projects costing about US$183mil (RM671mil) were identified for implementation but only 31 projects valued at US$11 mil (RM40mil) have been implemented or are at various stages of implementation. 

According to Prasidh, the AMBDC is very important to support the development process of the Mekong Basin sub-region within Asean. 

“Of course, there were countries that showed less interest in this project but Malaysia, China and Thailand have played an important role in supporting and assisting towards its implementation,” he said. 

Malaysia has taken the lead role since 1996 by undertaking the US$533,000 (RM1.9mil) feasibility study and hosting the Singapore-Kunming Railway Link regional secretariat for three years since 2004.

Posted on 01:19 PM | Permalink

The Daily Star: August 19, 2006
Our Correspondent, Cox's Bazar

The Dohazari-Cox's Bazar Rail Line Project has been stalled because of funding constraints.

At present, the fate of the project is uncertain although this was one of the election promises of the ruling four-party alliance leaders.

Cox's Bazar

Because of this, Bangladesh was not included in the Second Trans-Asian Railway Route funded by Germany. The former Awami League Government had conducted a feasibility study to set up rail line from Dohazari to Cox's Bazar and Cox's Bazar to Ghumdhens of Ukhyia. Following empowerment of the 4-party Alliance Government, its leaders became eager to construct a friendship road from Myanmar to China (Bangladesh-Myanmar Friendship Road).

Political map: Chittagong province, Bangladesh

The government took an initiative to build a 120-kilometre road to Myanmar at a cost of several crores [1 Crore=10 million] of taka [official currency of Bangladesh] from own resources. But it is unfortunate that the government failed to manage the funding to construct the rail line.

It has been learnt that the provincial government of the then East Pakistan had asked the erstwhile East Bengal Railway (EBR) authorities to extend the railway line from Dohazari of Chittagong to the resort town of Cox's Bazar in 1953.

A resolution was adopted at an important meeting of the East Bengal Railway advisory committee on February 17, 1953 for conducting a feasibility study of the project. The study had estimated that about 2 crore [1 Crore=10 million] 22 lakh [1 lakh=1 hundred thousand] taka [official currency of Bangladesh] would be required for the purpose while its probable earning would be 4 per cent. A proposal was also taken to extend the line from Ramu to Ukhyia via Baipai.

During the British period, surveys were conducted on several occasions to establish rail communication from Chittagong to Myanmar to carry passengers and goods. Following detection of some flaws at the survey of 1957, another survey was conducted anew spending Tk 2.25 crore on September 25, 1957.

However, the project work did not progress due to lack of required official initiative and fund.

Later, a Tk 200-crore project proposal was taken. But the project went to obscurity during the period from 1957 to '71. After independence, the then government of Bangabandhu promised realisation of the project. But after the '75 political upheaval it was stalled again.

In 1989, the communication ministry asked the Cox's Bazar sub-divisional administration to submit a report on the resources and population in the project area. Accordingly, the then administration had submitted a report. In the report, the population of Cox's Bazar district comprising seven upazilas of Cox's Bazar Sadar, Ukhyia, Teknaf, Maheskhali, Kutubdia, Ramu and Chakoria upazilas was shown as 16 lakh while that of Bandarban Hill district was shown as 1.50 lakh, four upazilas of Chittagong district was shown as 10.5 lakh. The total population was 27 lakh which now increased to 37 lakh.

The then government formed a 11-member high powered committee to develop tourism industry as well as to set up the railway line. But the committee did not come into effect.

During the tenure of Awami League Government, Bangladesh Railway invited an international tender. Canarail, a Canadian organisation, got the work. Bangladesh Railway signed a contract with the organisation to set up the line at an expenditure of Tk 2 crore 95 lakh 24 thousand. Canarail started their feasibility study on March 9, 2001. In its report, Canaral said, on average, about 24 lakh 25 thousand passengers including 10 lakh local and foreign tourists and 8 lakh 70 thousand metric tons of salt, timber, fish, paddy, rice, cement and other commodities can be carried through the route annually.

An additional 30 lakh 70 thousand metric tons of goods would be ready for transport following industrial growth in the area. The entire amount of the expenditure cost will be recovered within 10 years, the report said. An amount of 19 crore three lakh US dollars (about 1,500 crore taka in Bangladesh currency) will be spent approximately to set up the rail line which included Tk 12 crore 94 lakh in foreign exchange. An additional 4 crore 24 lakh US dollars will be required if the line is extended further up to Ghumdhun, the report said further.

Posted on 10:05 AM | Permalink

Tribune Chronicle: August 19, 2006
By JOHN GOODALL

WARREN — A union representative said a proposed reduction in the number of workers on trains presents a serious safety hazard for the public.

That issue is part of contract negotiations between the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and railroad management. The BLET has been working without an agreement since Dec. 31, 2005.

A CSX spokesman was contacted, but did not have a response by the end of the business day Friday.

Railroad companies want to cut minimum personnel on trains from the two presently to one, said John Hill, chairman of BLET Local 565. That’s dangerous, he contends.

The change would greatly reduce the ability of the worker to detect a problem such as the wheel of a freight car coming off track, the union official said. If undetected, that kind of a problem could lead to a derailment, he added.

Hill noted that trains transport a great deal of hazardous materials. A common one is chlorine, he said.

The Chlorine Institute said a 90-ton tank car damaged in a crash could create a toxic cloud 40 miles long and 10 miles wide. It could kill 100,000 people in 30 minutes, the U.S. Naval Research Lab said.

Hill said CSX runs eight to 10 trains a day through this area. They operate on a line that runs from New Castle to Lordstown.

Norfolk Southern sends two to three trains per day along two lines. One stretches from New Castle to Lordstown and the other, a northern route, from New Castle into Ashtabula.

It crosses through such communities as Hubbard and Brookfield.

A widespread condition that Hill said is another major safety concern is the long hours that railroad employees work. Under the law, they can complete a 12-hour shift and start another within a 24-hour period.

BLET members worked an average of 10.2 hours on the day they completed their Safe Rails/Secure America surveys conducted by the union.

Long hours create fatigue, Hill said. That has played a role in some crashes that otherwise were avoidable, he added.

Posted on 09:54 AM | Permalink

Sai Gon Giai Phong: August 19, 2006
Translated by Thu Thuy

The Vietnam Railway Department (VRD) is working on a US$200-million plan to build a time-saving railway tunnel through the Hai Van Pass in central Vietnam, Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reported Saturday.

The tunnel is projected to be 10km long and wide enough for duel tracks with width of 1.425m, the newspaper quoted the Zone 2 Railroad Infrastructure Management Board in Danang as saying.

When completed, the tunnel will help ensure safety for trains traversing the treacherous Hai Van pass, and at the same time enhance the transportation capacity of the north-south railway.

The tunnel will serve to cut transport times on the lengthy north-south route by a full two hours.

The Hai Van Pass, which connects Danang city and Thua Thien-Hue province, has long been considered a bottleneck for north-south trains, hindering transportation because of high mountains and deep valleys.

Posted on 09:40 AM | Permalink

Monsters and Critics: Aug 18, 2006

Vilnius - Lithuania warned Russia on Friday that it may close a key transit railway line unless a Russian oil pipeline to Lithuania is repaired soon, local reports said.

An undersecretary at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Albinas Januskas, warned Russian Embassy officials that Lithuania could begin repairs on the Moscow-Kaliningrad railway unless repairs to a key oil pipeline were expedited, Baltic News Service BNS said.

The railway, which crosses Lithuania, is the main transit artery between Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave. Passengers are subject to a facilitated-transit regime agreed by Russia and the EU which allows Kaliningrad residents access to Russia via without an EU transit visa.

Any interruption could strain relations between Moscow and Brussels. Kaliningrad transit was a key sticking-point in Russia-EU negotiations over Lithuania's EU accession in 2004.

The pipeline at the centre of the dispute, known as 'Druzhba' ('Friendship'), carries crude oil from Russia to the Lithuanian oil refinery of Mazeikiai. The pipe sprang a leak and was closed in late July, an incident which all sides called a 'technical problem.'

Doubts over this interpretation began when it was revealed that Druzhba was still supplying crude oil to Belarus. The Moscow Times then quoted the head of Russia's transit company Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, as saying that the pipe might never be reopened.

Vainshtok subsequently claimed that he had been misinterpreted, according to Russian-language newspaper Telegraf. However, following his comments, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas hinted that the closure could be seen as a political move, BNS reported.

The Mazeikiai refinery has seldom been out of the headlines this year. Once part of the former Yukos empire, it was sold to Polish firm PKN Orlen in May despite protests from Russian bankruptcy receivers.

Commentators viewed the government-approved deal as an attempt to increase Lithuania's energy security. Orlen has no crude-oil production facilities of its own, but is headquartered in fellow NATO and EU member Poland, making it a more politically acceptable partner.

Some observers interpret the pipeline closure as a Russian retaliation for the sale. Russian companies Rosneft and Lukoil were also reported to be interested in Mazeikiai, the Baltics' only refinery, which is currently being supplied by sea.

Neither Januskas nor the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry were available to comment on the report.

Posted on 09:33 AM | Permalink

Deutsche Welle: 18.08.2006
 
Two suitcases containing bombs and found on trains in Germany were likely to have formed part of a terrorist plot, German investigators said Friday.

Police believe the bombs were meant to be part of a coordinated attack

The bombs were found in the German cities of Dortmund and Koblenz on July 31 with German Criminal Police Office (BKA) chief Jörg Ziercke saying that were arranged to explode simultaneously at 2:30 p.m. Neither of the bombs was detonated.

"It's more likely than unlikely that there was a terrorist background," Ziercke told a news conference in Wiesbaden. If the around 25-kilo (55-lb.) suitcase bombs had exploded they would have lead to "a fireball" in the train carriages and an "indeterminate number of injured and possible deaths," he said.

Speaking in Berlin Friday, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also warned that Germany should brace itself for similar attempts. "Unfortunately, we must assume that the danger of a repeat of these attempted attacks."

The discovery of the two bombed sparked a series of scares at railway stations across Germany with parts of the central station in Düsseldorf sealed off Friday after a suspicious suitcase was found. Officials in Düsseldorf later gave the all-clear, saying it had been a false alarm.

50,000 euro reward

The BKA press conference had been called to report on the investigation into the discovery of the suitcases which contained bottles of petrol, propane gas and a detonating device in trains at Dortmund and Koblenz railway stations. Speaking to reporters, the BKA chief said that it was unlikely that the bombs found at the two German railway stations represented an attempt to blackmail the German rail operator, Deutsche Bahn.

German police are searching for these two men

The investigators released images obtained from surveillance cameras of two suspects in the possible plot and announced that there would be a reward of 50,000 ($64,195) euros for any information which would lead to the capture of the two young men in the grainy photos, who were both described as being from "southern countries."
 
Terror plot "highly likely"
 
The BKA suggested that Germany was being targeted for attacks possibly by a terrorist organization operating in the country. If the explosive devices had been detonated, their size and construction would have created devastation and death on a scale reminiscent of the July 7, 2005 attacks on the London transport system, according to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
 
Both of the suitcases discovered on July 31 contained gas cylinders rigged up to an ignition mechanism and had been left in two regional trains which usually run at the height of the commuter rush hour. The suitcases were discovered by rail staff when the trains terminated at the two hub stations. The construction of the devices and the potential impact the explosions would have had suggests a sophisticated plot.
 

A German security official with one of the canisters

Investigations by BKA engineers revealed that the bombs were designed so that simultaneous detonation would have been possible and that they would generate "an explosive force so big that the explosion would have reached the dimension of the subway attack on London in the summer of 2005," a high-ranking security source told the newspaper.
 
In the London attacks, 52 people were killed and over 700 were injured when suicide bombers struck on three underground trains and a bus.
 
No Lebanon connection
 
The authorities dismissed claims that the German plot was connected to the on-going instability in Lebanon despite the discovery of a smaller bag within one of the suitcases which was printed with Arab text and comes from a business in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
 
Many of these bags could have arrived in Germany in the past few months and it was not sufficient evidence to connect the plot to Lebanon, investigators said.
 
The investigation has fired an intense debate in Germany regarding the expansion of video surveillance in railway stations and in trains. Some German states have already taken steps to increase their "big brother" security systems.
 
Debate rages on increased surveillance
 
The conservative-controlled Hamburg state government wants to add more cameras to streets and public places, not just railway stations and trains.

Opinions differ on what measures should be taken

In Brandenburg, Interior Minister Jörg Schönbohm of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said that the state was considering limiting surveillance to people getting on and off trains in an attempt to dodge the controversial topic of data protection.
 
However, federal data protection czar Peter Schaar has pleaded for more to be done, with extra staff and cameras placed at all railway stations and on trains to increase security.

See also:

German bombs 'mass murder' bid

BBC News: 18 August 2006

Police are still trying to work out why the devices did not explode

German police have ruled out blackmail as the reason why two bombs were left on trains on 31 July - and now believe it was a failed terror attack.

The bombs were in identical black cases on trains in Dortmund and Koblenz.

They had been timed to explode 10 minutes before the trains arrived, said federal crime chief Joerg Ziercke.

"We are now working on the basis that this was the work of a terrorist group... and was an attempt to kill a large number of people," he said.

Police want to trace two men seen on CCTV wheeling cases at Cologne station.

Initial suggestions that the bombs may have been an attempt to blackmail a train company had been ruled out, Mr Ziercke said.

He said police were working on the theory that the group responsible were based in Germany.

The Arabic note found with one of the bombs lists grocery items

The devices consisted of gas canisters, alarm clocks, wires, batteries and a flammable liquid in soft drink bottles.

A handwritten note in Arabic, listing groceries, a telephone number in Lebanon and packets of starch labelled in Arabic and English, were also found.

Mr Ziercke said up to 100 investigators were trying to work out why the devices failed to detonate. "We still have many unanswered questions," he said.

He appealed to the public for help in tracking down the people who planted the device.

See also:

Germans publish stills of botched terror suspects

Financial Times: August 18 2006
By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin

German investigators on Friday published photographs of two suspects wanted in connection with a botched terrorist attack on regional trains last month that was intended to cause casualties on an “unimaginable” scale.

Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister, announced fresh security measures in reaction to the attempted attack, including intensified police surveillance of railway stations and luggage searches. He urged regional governments, responsible for police work, and the public to raise their vigilance.

The stills, grabbed from security camera recordings at Cologne’s railway station, showed two men, aged 20 to 30, who investigators said had planted powerful makeshift bombs on two regional trains that passed through the station on July 31.

“We must take these events extremely seriously and, unfortunately, we must assume that there is a danger of a renewed attempt,” Mr Schäuble said. “We cannot afford to be sitting on our hands.”

The bombs – gas containers and fuel bottles packed in suitcases – were found by passengers after they failed to detonate because of what Jörg Ziercke, head of the Federal Criminal Office, called “a construction flaw”.

The detonators showed the bombs were intended to explode simultaneously shortly before the two trains – headed for Koblenz and Dortmund in western Germany – reached their final stop, causing “deaths on a considerable scale”, Mr Ziercke said.

The authorities have offer-ed up to €50,000 ($64,000, £34,000) for information on the men, who it said were being treated as members of a domestic terrorist organisation.

The dark-haired men of medium build are clearly seen on the shots, with one of them wearing a football shirt and cargo pants. The fact they were both carrying several pieces of luggage suggested they might have left the country after planting the bombs, security officials said.

Among items recovered from the suitcases were a pack of starch purchased in an Essen spice shop, a handwritten shopping list in Arabic and a scrap of newspaper, pointing to links with the Lebanon.

News of the aborted attack has caused shock in Germany, where opinion polls show terrorism ranking low on the list of people’s fears and far behind unemployment and declining income.

Since last month’s find, several regional governments have said they wanted to boost video surveillance of stations and other areas. Such plans have failed before over privacy concerns.

Posted on 08:45 AM | Permalink

AFX News Limited: 08.17.2006

LONDON - Civil engineering group Balfour Beatty PLC said its US rail division is launching a new regional office in Los Angeles.

Balfour Beatty Rail Inc said it is opening the office to expand the company's business in the western US.

The group said in its half-year results yesterday that it is repositioning the rail operations in the US to focus on 'specific market requirements'.

See also:

Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. Opens New Western Regional Office in Los Angeles

Press Release: Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. August 17

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. announced today the opening of their new Western Regional Office located in the Los Angeles, CA area. "Our new regional office is staffed with experienced personnel ready to provide safe and reliable transit systems that are fully integrated between the track, signal, communication, and traction power components," said Joe Reed, vice president for the company's western regional projects. Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. also specializes in the design and installation of overhead contact power distribution systems for high speed and light rail systems.

The company celebrated the opening of the new regional office with an open house reception at the Hilton Checkers Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. "We are very excited about our new facility, and the opportunity to show our customers and potential customers that we are committed to growing our business in the West," Reed said. "I encourage anyone that is in the Los Angeles area to stop by our new office and say hello."

Balfour Beatty Rail Inc. a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Balfour Beatty plc.

Company Information

Balfour Beatty plc is headquartered in London, England and is comprised of a group of companies that provide world-class engineering, construction, and services -- serving markets for rail, road and utility systems, buildings, and complex structures. The Balfour Beatty group of companies has annual revenues of $8.8 billion and more than 28,000 employees in 24 countries. We are one of the world's leaders in general infrastructure and rail construction, design- build projects, and PPP/PFI. The Balfour Beatty business was founded in 1909 and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (BBY.L).

For more information visit www.balfourbeatty.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc.

Posted on 08:32 AM | Permalink

Daniel Zukowsk: August 13, 2006

A rare view of Pacific Ocean surf from a full-length Budd dome car, pressed into service by Amtrak in March of 1999. The southbound train is passing through San Clemente: Amtrak, Southern California, photos

As our regular readers know, lengthy delays to some long-distance Amtrak trains have reached critical proportions, causing the railroad to lose valuable and perhaps unrecoverable passenger business. In recent days, major media outlets have begun to pick up the story.

Former Boston Herald deputy editorial page editor Guy Darst speaks from the experience of a 7,792-mile rail journey. "Amtrak increasingly is getting shafted by most of the railroads whose track its passenger trains must use," he wrote in "Host railroads put Amtrak on wrong track."

Kimberly Geiger, in her piece for the San Francisco Chronicle  ("Coast Starlight Losing Its Luster") reported, "Passengers who rode the train late last week reported seeing so many freight trains pass them by, they thought the freights had the automatic right of way."

Her piece was picked up in part by the Associated Press (Consistent delays discouraging rail users despite gas prices"): "With train tracks in disrepair and freight transportation on the rise, passenger trains are frequently falling behind schedule, discouraging all but the most die-hard train fans."

Our readers also know the story behind the story: declining ridership due to insufferable delays will provide cover for an anti-Amtrak administration determined to kill long-distance trains.

See also:

Connect the Dots

Dan Zukowski: - Commentary and coverage on Amtrak - July 31, 2006

Union Pacific, a notably uncooperative railroad when it comes to hosting passenger trains of any sort, recently reported a notably impressive 67 percent increase in second-quarter earnings. MarketWatch attributed the performance to “increased demand and a streamlining of operations.”

The railroad then proceeded to derail three trains in four days.

On July 26, a UP freight train derailed near Glamis, Calif., about 150 miles east of San Diego. On July 27, a 37-car train derailed near Klamath Falls, Ore. On July 29, a 62-car BNSF train traveling on Union Pacific tracks in Stockton, Calif. derailed, sending freight cars within 10 feet of some homes.

Two of the three derailments impacted passenger service running on UP lines: the Glamis derailment affected some 1,000 passengers on the Sunset Limited route; the Oregon derailment stranded passengers aboard the Coast Starlight. Freight service was interrupted in all three incidents, and shippers have been complaining loudly of late about poor service and rising rates.

Passengers are also up in arms: the Train Riders Association of California has noted the Coast Starlight’s “consistent, long delays ranging from five to 11-1/2 hours.” The group’s president, Gerald Cauthen, told the Oregonian, "We don't think that UP dispatchers really care enough about passenger service." The National Association of Railroad Passengers has written Surface Transportation Board Chairman W. Douglas Buttrey, stating, "Our members are increasingly alarmed at the on-time performance of many Amtrak trains operating on tracks of the freight railroads—especially CSX and Union Pacific." (Disclosure: I am a NARP member.) The letter stated, "This suggests that UP and CSX do not take seriously 49 USC 24308(c), which requires that Amtrak trains be given 'preference over freight transportation…except in an emergency' or where the Secretary of Transportation, in response to a railroad’s application for relief, has 'established the rights of the carrier and Amtrak on reasonable terms.'"

The Union Pacific has strong ties to the Bush White House, which tried to kill Amtrak last year and is still intent on eliminating all long-distance trains. Those ties just got stronger, as former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has been appointed to Union Pacific’s board of directors. The $105,000-a-year post (plus expenses, 1,000 shares of stock and annual stock options), backed by the highest political contributions to Republicans among all railroads (more than $700,000 so far in this election cycle), ensures continuing influence with the Bush administration for the railroad, which includes Vice President Dick Cheney, who also served on UP’s board.

So, let’s play connect-the-dots. Four trains which operate exclusively or in large part on Union Pacific tracks – the Coast Starlight, Texas Eagle, California Zephyr and Sunset Limited – consistently record among the worst on-time performance of any Amtrak trains. UP is responsible for 15.9 percent of Amtrak’s total train miles and 21.7 percent of host railroad delays. These trains’ unreliable performance has led to ridership declines, ranging from four percent to over 60 percent, and these ridership statistics will be used to justify discontinuance of one or more of these trains. It will happen this year.

Pity poor Norman Mineta. He just didn’t get the job done, and he’s out of work. But the arrow is still aimed at Amtrak’s heart. It starts in Omaha, connects through Andy Card and Dick Cheney, and will land soon on the system timetable. When Amtrak chairman David Laney names the long-distance trains to be discontinued, you can be sure they will be trains that ride the route of the Union Pacific.

Posted on 12:01 AM | Permalink

International Railway Journal: EDITORIAL - August 2006
David Briginshaw, Editor-In-Chief

THE inevitable looks imminent: Eurotunnel’s massive debt of £6.4 billion has proved too great a burden for the operator of the Channel Tunnel. Eurotunnel has sought protection from its creditors through the French courts as its latest attempt to reschedule its debt proved unworkable.

Eurotunnel expected an administrator to be appointed by July 25. Eurotunnel is then protected from its creditors and all interest payments are frozen. The administrator starts by observing the negotiations between Eurotunnel and its creditors, but does not take an active role in running the business, which continues as normal. The period of administration can be extended for periods of six months, up to a maximum of 18 months. If the negotiations prove fruitless, the administrator can impose an agreement. If this fails then, under Eurotunnel’s 100-year concession, the senior creditors would take over the business, leaving the unsubordinated creditors and shareholders with nothing.

The crunch has come now for Eurotunnel because of two key changes. The minimum usage payment by the operators of through passenger and freight trains comes to an end in November. This represents about 12% of Eurotunnel’s annual turnover, and the new system, based on a charge per passenger or tonne of freight, will produce a lot less revenue than the current usage payment. This year also marks the start of debt repayments.

Eurotunnel is supposed to repay £274 million between now and 2009. While Eurotunnel makes an operating profit of about £170 million a year, this is swallowed up by annual interest charges of around £300 million, so there is no way Eurotunnel can meet its debt repayment obligations.

Eurotunnel’s current predicament is a direct result of the insistence by Mrs Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister when the Channel Tunnel was being planned, that no public money should be used to construct it, plus a number of false assumptions and restrictions imposed on the tunnel. The cost of building the Channel Tunnel was originally estimated at £4.7 billion, but the final bill was £10 billion, saddling Eurotunnel with huge interest and debt payments.

When the tunnel was planned, it was assumed that the cross-Channel ferry operators would soon disappear as the majority of traffic switched to the fixed link. This happened when other fixed links opened, but the Channel Tunnel’s road vehicle shuttle trains are effectively rail ferries. In the event, Eurotunnel quickly found itself in a price war with the ferries, which reduced revenue hugely.

Traffic forecasts for the Channel Tunnel were wildly optimistic to justify its construction. Severe restrictions on the type of traffic and trains that can enter the tunnel have prevented it from realising its potential. The recent asylum seekers fiasco decimated freight traffic, and only now is Eurostar realising the potential benefits of good connections with other high-speed services in France and Belgium.

There is no doubt that Britain and France have benefited greatly from the Channel Tunnel. It has provided a reliable, high-capacity link that is unaffected by bad weather. Even with the Channel Tunnel, Britain’s southern ports are struggling to keep up with demand. The problem is the wider benefits for the economies of the two countries cannot be captured by Eurotunnel in terms of increased revenue, which is why a project of the scale of the Channel Tunnel should have been funded publicly rather than privately.

Whatever fate befalls Eurotunnel, the long-standing issues that have hampered the tunnel’s earning potential must be addressed. The main one concerns safety. The Channel Tunnel is inherently safe with its separate service tunnel and numerous safety features, so there is no reason why traffic and train-type restrictions should not be relaxed.

The Channel Tunnel could and should work, the question is: will it ever be given the chance to live up to its huge potential?

Posted on 08:16 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 17, 2006
By Angela Jameson

CARILLION has been barred from bidding for any new contracts with Network Rail after a survey found that its workers were twice as likely to have an accident on its sites as those of other contractors. [See: 'Bring track renewals back in-house for safety’s sake, says RMT' here.]

The construction and rail engineering group is the first big contractor to be suspended from competing for work with Network Rail since the contracting regime was set up at the time of privatisation in 1996. Network Rail said that the suspension would be in place until Carillion showed a significant improvement in workplace safety on track renewal contracts. “They will be suspended until a trend of improvement is counted — that will be in months, not weeks,” a spokesman said.

Shares in Carillion initially fell, although the company said that the decision would have “no material effect on earnings expectations in 2006 or 2007”. The shares recovered to close up 21⁄2p at 3071⁄4p.

Network Rail said that a survey across all its contractors had found an accident frequency rate (AFR) of 0.25. Carillion’s figure was 0.5. An AFR of one means one accident per 100,000 hours worked. A spokesman for Network Rail said that some serious accidents had occurred on Carillion’s sites, including broken bones and serious eye injuries.

Carillion acknowledged that “less serious accidents” at its rail unit had risen between mid-June and mid-July, while it restructured its rail business, but it said Network Rail’s decision was “wholly disproportionate to our overall performance in respect of workplace safety”

See also:

Carillion banned from rail work over employee safety

The Guardian: August 17, 2006
Hans Kundnani

A row has erupted between Carillion and Network Rail over the construction and support service group's safety record.

Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's railway infrastructure, yesterday banned Carillion Rail, a division of the Wolverhampton group, from bidding for any new business until it improved safety for its employees, saying it was "disappointed" with the progress it had made.

Carillion dismissed the ban as "wholly disproportionate". Carillion Rail has contracts with Network Rail worth £20-£30m a year to renew tracks, signalling and telecoms on the rail network.

According to a survey of contractors' safety records carried out by Network Rail, Carillion employees were twice as likely to be injured as the average for contractors.

Carillion said it believed the suspension was caused by a rise in workplace injuries during a period between mid-June and mid-July when it was restructuring its rail business. It said in a statement it was "disappointed" at the suspension. "We believe Network Rail's decision is wholly disproportionate to our overall performance in respect of workplace safety."

Network Rail said Carillion's safety record had been worse than other contractors for the entire 12 months of its survey and included head injuries.

"There is only one tolerable level of injuries and that is zero," said a spokesman.

See also:

Network Rail bars Carillion from new work

Independent Online: 17 August 2006
By Nic Fildes

The support services company Carillion has vowed to wipe out workplace accidents after Network Rail found that the company's contractors are twice as likely to be injured than those working for other railway maintenance firms. Network Rail has temporarily banned Carillion from bidding for any new business until its safety record improves.

Network Rail, the former Railtrack business, said it had been working with Carillion's rail unit to improve workplace safety but had been "disappointed with progress". It said it wanted Carillion to focus on improving its safety performance as opposed to winning new contracts.

A spokesman for Network Rail said that according to a survey, the average number of workplace injuries per 100,000 hours across the industry was about 0.25, whereas Carillion's average was double that figure. He said injuries ranged from relatively minor problems such as sprained ankles to head injuries. The spokesman said the ban on bidding for new work would stand until Network Rail was satisfied with Carillion's safety standards.

Carillion said it was disappointed with Network Rail's decision and that it aimed to wipe out workplace accidents altogether. It said that until recently, its rail business safety performance had been comparable to its rivals in the sector, but it had experienced an increase in "less serious workplace accidents" in June and July. The company attributed this to a restructuring of its rail business and reiterated its commitment to wiping out workplace safety improvements.

The company also emphasised that its rail business operates in a declining market and that it was only bidding on two new rail contracts. The rail business represents only about 5 per cent of Carillion's revenue compared with 25 per cent two years ago. That equates to about £250m a year amid overall annual revenue of about £4bn. Carillion said that Network Rail's decision to ban it from bidding for new business would have no material effect on the company's earnings expectations in 2006 or 2007.

Shares in Carillion rose slightly but some observers raised concerns about Carillion's future involvement in the rail support services business.

The rival support services company Balfour Beatty reported a decline in first-half revenue related to UK railways, but made bullish comments about its performance in the second half as work related to the track renewal programme for the London Underground and Heathrow airport gathered pace.

See also:

DERAILED - Contractor banned for poor accident record

The Mirror: 17 August 2006
By Clinton Manning

AN appalling catalogue of safety failings has forced rail chiefs to ban one of the industry's biggest contractors from bidding for any new work.

The unprecedented gettough stance from Network Rail could cost Carillion tens of millions of pounds, say experts.

Explaining the move, Network Rail claimed that Carillion's workers are TWICE as likely to suffer an accident as employees at rival firms.

It also accuses the contractor of numerous safety lapses such as failing to give workers hard hats, goggles and ear defenders.

And track gangs were not briefed on the times and speed of trains passing where they were working.

"It is lots of little things and their inability to put them right," said a spokesman. "Carillion's workers are twice as likely to have an accident as workers at other contractors.

"What's more the trend is going in the wrong direction." Network Rail experts are now working with Carillion to improve procedures.

But union leaders were furious that Carillion will not be stripped of its £200million worth of existing contracts.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: "If Carillion's safety regime is not good enough for new work then surely it is not fit to continue its existing contracts."

Carillion claimed the suspension would have "no material effect" on profits as the group gets only five per cent of its revenue from railways work.

And bosses insisted they were "committed to the highest standards of health and safety".

But industry insiders said Carillion would expect to win £100m of new contracts a year.

So even if it is only blocked from bidding for three months the ban could still cost it as much as £25m.

See also:

Network Rail suspends Carillion from future bids

Financial Times: August 17 2006
By Mark Odell

Network Rail has suspended Carillion from bidding for future rail projects amid concerns about the company's workforce safety record.

The decision by the national rail infrastructure operator to block the company from tendering for track renewal business came after a worrying rise in accidents involving Carillion employees between mid-June and mid-July.

It is the first time such action has been taken against one of the six primary rail contractors. Network Rail still contracts out renewal work but took maintenance work back in-house three years ago to cut costs.

Network Rail said it had taken the decision because of "disappointing progress" after six months of working with Carillion to improve the company's record.

"This is something we have been working on with the company since the turn of the year because we saw an increasing trend in the workforce accident rate," Network Rail said yesterday.

Senior executives from the company were called in by Network Rail this week after the most recent safety data from Carillion showed the accident frequency rate per 100,000 hours hit 0.5 - twice the industry average.

The company is suspended for the "foreseeable future" with one rail executive saying it would be "months not weeks" before the sanction was lifted.

Carillion hit back at the suspension and called it "wholly disproportionate". It argued the recent data was a "blip" that coincided with a restructuring of the company's rail business as it reduces its exposure to UK rail work, where margins have been falling and stand at about 4 per cent.

The company rejected Network Rail's claim that its accident rate over the past six months had been higher than for other contractors.

But it admitted its latest safety performance figures had been hit after seven accidents between mid-June and mid-July, against an average of three or four every four weeks.

The company said itwould work with Network Rail to "demonstrate this was a blip and to havethe suspension removed".

Carillion said the suspension would have no financial impact in 2006 as it had not been planning to tender for any further work this year.

Carillion has about £220m worth of work from Network Rail this year, equal to about 5 per cent of group revenues. But the company expects this to decline further and said that, should the ban extend into 2007, it believed between £30m and £40m of revenue would be affected.

Carillion shares rose 21⁄2p to 3071⁄4p yesterday.

Posted on 11:31 AM | Permalink

Computing: 17 Aug 2006
Dave Friedlos

Network Rail is issuing handheld devices to telecoms and signal maintenance staff to improve efficiency of repairs and cut paper and administration costs. Devices improve efficiency, cut paper and administration costs.

Some 1,100 devices will replace paper-based reporting of maintenance tasks, and will be in place by September.

A Network Rail spokeswoman says the devices will lessen the administrative burden of processing reports manually.

‘Previously, work groups had to go out with notepads and write down what the problem was and what work was completed, return the notes to the depot and have them signed off by management,’ she said.

Maintenance staff now pick up a device from a docking station at the depot and take it on site. The Symbol handheld contains information on the work to be completed and is updated on completion of tasks.

‘The device is returned to the docking station and downloaded into the central system,’ said the spokeswoman. ‘It can also include extra information needed by the work groups.

‘If maintenance staff need to flag up further issues for attention, they can use the device.’

Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says it is a simple work order system that is popular with many rail operators because of its reliability and accuracy.

‘The biggest benefit is data accuracy, because paper reports can be prone to error once they leave the work site,’ he said. ‘Symbol devices are reliable and durable, which is important for work in the field.

‘Because it is not wireless, information transmitted is not as timely, but maintenance staff often work in areas where there is no coverage.’

Posted on 11:27 AM | Permalink

Yorkshire Post: 17 August 2006
Kathryn Moore

STEEL maker Corus has announced it is to build a world-class rail welding facility at its site in Scunthorpe.

This development is part of an ongoing programme at the site, which was announced in February 2005 to further strengthen and grow the structural sections and rail and rods businesses within Corus.

The group has recently won a multi-million-pound contract to manufacture and supply Network Rail with more than 200,000 tonnes of track a year.

The new welding facility will be part of the new rail service centre, which is currently under construction and will replace existing welding facilities at Corus' Workington and Castleton sites. It is anticipated that welding will cease at the Castleton site from December 1 and the new facility will be operational from March 2007.

Joe Guérin, managing director of Corus rail businesses, said: "After reviewing a number of options we concluded that significant operational and logistics advantages could be gained by having the manufacture and welding of rail on the same site. Our customers will benefit from improvements in manufacture, testing and welding technology."

Corus' rail business supplies rail networks worldwide and has commercial and technical teams, supported by local representatives in more than 85 countries.

Posted on 11:22 AM | Permalink

RMT: August 16, 2006

TRACK RENEWALS work on Britain’s railways should be brought back in-house for safety and efficiency’s sake, the industry’s biggest union said today as Network Rail announced that contractor Carillion had been suspended from bidding for new work until it could show that its safety performance had improved.

“If Network Rail wants to ‘raise the bar on safety’ it should bring renewals work back in-house alongside track maintenance,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“NR bears ultimate responsibility for safety, and they can’t expect us to swallow a bland assurance that there is no specific risk even though they have barred Carillion from new work.

“And if Carillion’s safety regime is not good enough for new work, then surely its existing contracts must be brought back in-house immediately.

“Track maintenance was taken back in-house by Network Rail for safety and efficiency reasons in 2003, and both have improved dramatically as a result.

“Yet on the renewals side the fragmentation of privatisation, with the same tangle of contractors, subcontractors, one-man-and-a-dog outfits and, most importantly, the dismantling of the essential central command system, is still in place.

“It was exactly that mess of fragmentation which allowed cowboys to disconnect the brakes on a broken-down trailer and take the lives of four track workers at Tebay.

“And don’t forget that it was Balfour Beatty’s negligence on maintenance that resulted in four deaths at Hatfield in 2000, that Mowlem were also suspended after serious faults were found on work they had undertaken at Bushey last year, and that Jarvis tried to blame the seven deaths at Potters Bar in 2002 on sabotage.

“It is astonishing how executives who are handed millions in bonuses when they make a mint for their shareholders always manage to shrug off responsibility when their negligence leads to disaster.

“It is our members, whoever they work for, who are exposed to the unnecessary risks posed by fragmentation, and the time is long overdue to end it,” Bob Crow said.

Posted on 08:11 PM | Permalink

Daily Record: 16 August 2006

FIRST Scot Rail have announced inflation busting hikes of up to 10 per cent on their long-distance services.

The company claim the move will simplify ticket prices and ease overcrowding.

The new fares affect travel between the central belt to Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries.

It will cost £57.50 to travel between Glasgow or Edinburgh to Aberdeen before 9.15am - an increase of 9.9 per cent. And travel from the Central Belt to Inverness will see a standard open return ticket costing £47.40. Dumfries to Glasgow will also be hit with hikes of 5.8 per cent. But the Glasgow-Edinburgh route is not affected and season tickets and Flexipasses will remain the same.

To offset the rises, First Scotrail have extended their value advance tickets, offering discounts of up to 26 per cent.
But rail users' group Passenger Focus claimed communters would be the hardest hit when the new prices come into force on September 10.

Posted on 09:00 AM | Permalink

International Herald Tribune: August 15, 2006
By Susanna Ray

FRANKFURT Deutsche Bahn, Germany's state-owned national railroad, said Monday that first-half profit surged as the company served more passengers and got a boost from a U.S. acquisition.

Net income jumped to Euros 617 million, or $785 million, from Euros 82 million. Sales rose 19 percent to Euros 14.5 billion.

"With these fantastic results, we're achieving the economic conditions for an initial public offering," the chief executive, Hartmut Mehdorn, said in an interview, adding that it was the first time the railroad had posted a first-half profit.

The German transport minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee, said in June that the government would decide next year whether to proceed with a share sale. Mehdorn is adding to profit by expanding the railroad outside its main passenger and freight businesses, including the $1.1 billion acquisition completed in January of BAX Global, formerly the U.S. cargo division of Brink's.

Mehdorn raised his forecast for full- year earnings, saying that sales would gain at least 14 percent to more than Euros 28.5 billion and earnings before interest and taxes would rise 41 percent to Euros 1.9 billion.

An initial public offering before 2008 is not realistic, Mehdorn said, although he said he would not rule it out for next year.

Without the BAX contribution, sales would have risen 8.1 percent in the first half, Deutsche Bahn said. In addition to the BAX purchase, the railroad paid Euros 6 billion in 2002 for Stinnes, a German trucking and warehousing business.

The company is looking at further logistics acquisitions in Eastern Europe, Mehdorn said.

Traffic, measured as the number of passengers multiplied by the distance traveled, rose 5.1 percent through June, lifted by the World Cup soccer tournament. The World Cup, which took place at stadiums in 12 cities around Germany from June 9 to July 9, brought 15 million extra rail passengers, Mehdorn said. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent.

The German government plans to let the railroad keep its track network in the event the share sale goes forward, Tiefensee said June 30. The decision ended years of wrangling between Deutsche Bahn, the Transnet rail workers union and the Transport Ministry on one side, and German lawmakers and independent experts on the other, who have urged the government to increase competition by separating the tracks from Deutsche Bahn's other assets.

See also:

Deutsche Bahn Profit Soars on U.S. Acquisition; Raises Forecast

Bloomberg: Aug. 14

Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany's state- owned national railway, said first-half profit surged nearly eight-fold as a freight-delivery acquisition in the U.S. boosted sales. The company increased its earnings forecast.

Net income climbed to 617 million euros ($785 million), or 1.43 euros a share, from 82 million euros, or 19 cents, in the first six months of 2005, the Berlin-based railway said in a statement released today at a Frankfurt news conference. Sales gained 19 percent to 14.5 billion euros.

"With these fantastic results, we're achieving the economic conditions for an initial public offering,'' Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Mehdorn said in the statement.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said in June that the government will decide next year on whether to proceed with a share sale. Mehdorn is expanding the railroad outside of its main passenger and freight businesses, including the $1.1 billion acquisition late last year of Brink's Co.'s BAX U.S. cargo-delivery division, to add to profit.

Mehdorn increased his forecast for full-year earnings, saying sales will increase at least 14 percent to more than 28.5 billion euros, and earnings before interest and taxes will rise 41 percent to 1.9 billion euros.

First-half Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes) more than doubled to 936 million euros from 456 million euros, Deutsche Bahn said.

The German government plans to let the railway keep its track network in the event the share sale goes forward, Tiefensee said June 30. The decision ended years of wrangling between Deutsche Bahn, the Transnet rail union and the Transport Ministry on the one side and German lawmakers and independent experts on the other, who have urged the government to boost competition by separating the tracks from Deutsche Bahn's other assets.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government seeks significant returns from a sale of Germany's largest remaining asset to help her budget. Top executives at the railway have said an IPO that includes the tracks will reduce the government's rail-investment burden, which is regulated by the constitution.

Without the BAX contribution, sales would have risen 8.1 percent in the first half, Deutsche Bahn said today. In addition to the BAX purchase, Deutsche Bahn paid 3.6 billion euros in 2002 for Stinnes AG, a German trucking and warehousing business.

Deutsche Bahn is considering additional acquisitions, though legal barriers in Europe prevent passenger-railway purchases, Mehdorn said in March.

See also:

Deutsche Bahn profit jumps, says ready for listing

Reuters: Aug 14, 2006

FRANKFURT - German railway operator Deutsche Bahn [DBN.UL] said on Monday it was ready to be privatised after reporting a doubling of first half core earnings and raising its profit forecast for 2006.

"With these great results we have achieved the financial preconditions for a privatisation," Bahn chief Hartmut Mehdorn said.

The German government is expected to take a decision in the coming weeks on the timing and shape of a planned privatisation of the company.

There is disagreement over whether the operator should be listed with its track network or have that stripped out before the offering. Mehdorn has been adamant that a listing include the network.

Deutsche Bahn, which does not report a net profit figure, said earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose to 936 million euros ($1.20 billion) in the first half of 2006 from 456 million in the same period last year.

Stripping out special effects, EBIT rose to 918 million euros from 439 million, the company said.

Revenues rose 19.1 percent to 14.5 billion euros during the first six months of the year, boosted by the month-long World Cup soccer tournament which took place in Germany this summer.

For the full year, the company is now forecasting EBIT of 1.9 billion euros on revenues of over 28.5 billion.

German deputy finance minister Karl Diller told Reuters in an interview last month that Deutsche Bahn was unlikely to be privatised before 2009, but Mehdorn has said previously it could happen in late 2007 or early 2008.

See also:

Deutsche Bahn H1 EBIT more than doubles to 936 mln eur as cargo volumes soar

AFX News Limited: 08.14.2006

BERLIN - Deutsche Bahn AG said first-half EBIT more than doubled to 936 mln eur from 456 million euros the year-earlier, thanks partly to a sharp increase in cargo volumes following the acquisition of US freight and logistics company Bax Global.

Revenues climbed 19.1 pct to 14.5 bln eur from 12.2 bln eur in the same period last year.

Excluding the Bax Global acquisition, sales rose by 8.1 pct.

As a result of the strong first half result, Deutsche Bahn said its 2006 EBIT will now reach 1.9 bln eur, up from its earlier forecast of 1.6 bln eur.

Sales are expected to exceed 28.5 bln eur.

Deutsche Bahn did not provide a first half net profit figure, or any guidance on its expected full year net result.

Posted on 08:30 AM | Permalink

Portfolio.hu: 15, August 2006

The rail cargo business of MÁV Zrt (state owned, Hungarian railways) MÁV Cargo Zrt might worth about HUF 100 billion for its future owner, Magyar Hírlap writes.

It is unlikely that the privatisation tender for the rail cargo business will open this year, because tariffs for using the railways will only be prepared for next year and financial details of the privatisation tender can be specified only when the tariffs are known.

Based on the experiences from the recent privatisation of the Slovakian railway company`s cargo business, ZSSK Cargo, the price of the Hungarian cargo business might reach HUF 100 billion. ZSSK Cargo was separated from the passenger transportation business in 2005, and the privatisation tender was opened last October, but the new government cancelled it this spring.

Numerous investors were interested and 14 contenders took part in the Slovakian tender and the Hungarian cargo business is in better financial shape compared to the Slovakian one. This shows that the privatisation of the Hungarian cargo company is likely to attract strong attention.

MÁV Cargo also has a significant market share on the cargo market and few competitors can beat it on the railway business as well. While in Western-Europe rail cargo only has a 11-12% share in the cargo business, in Hungary this market share is 20%. The Hungarian company forecasts HUF 80 billion revenue and also some profit by the end of this year.

Posted on 08:00 AM | Permalink

RMT: August 15 2006

STATION STAFF in London Underground’s Canary Wharf station group are to be balloted for industrial action over a catalogue of issues including the imposition of attendance procedures, systematic harassment, and the victimisation of union reps.

"The Canary Wharf group is supposed to be LUL's showpiece station group, but managers there are running out of control to the extent that industrial relations have now entirely broken down," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"New attendance prodecures have been imposed on our members outside existing agreements and without any pretence of negotiation.

"Employment of one RMT member has been medically terminated despite his being passed as fit to return to work by LUL's own occupational health people.

"A female member of staff who was sexually assaulted on the barrier has suffered constant harassment from local management since.

"A gay member of staff has suffered homophobic remarks, and there is a widespread view that gay staff members are routinely discriminated against

"The RMT learner rep for the group has been harassed, along with the workplace colleagues who have supported him, and local management have refused to release the union's health and safety rep to undertake her duties.

"Local Jubilee Line managers are failing to comply with agreed flexible working arrangements, and are repeatedly telling staff that they have no need of union reps to attend meetings.

"Each of these problems is unacceptable, but taken together they are an appalling catalogue of harassment and victimisation that must be stopped.

"Repeated attempts to resolve these issues have proved fruitless and the RMT executive has agreed that the only option left is to ballot the more than 80 members concerned for industrial action," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 05:08 PM | Permalink

RMT: August 15 2006

TUBE DRIVERS on London Underground’s Jubilee Line are to be balloted for industrial action over the “blatantly unfair” sacking of a fellow driver.

RMT member Raj Nathvani, a driver with eight-and-a-half years' experience who had never previously passed a signal at danger or been involved in any safety-related incident, was dismissed after reporting that he had overrun a signal.

"When Raj over-ran a signal he reported it to his controller and proceeded at caution. Ahead of him were green signals and no points, but he was sacked without mercy because he didn't follow procedure exactly," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Other drivers who have made similar genuine errors have learned from such mistakes and are still driving today, and some managers who have made errors have not been disciplined at all.

"LUL have breached their own procedures by refusing Raj a union rep until the actual disciplinary was heard, and by collecting evidence against him in casual emails from other staff members.

"Jubilee Line managers are once more going way over the top and, to make matters worse, the RMT branch secretary and Wembley Park rep has now also been put on a gross disciplinary charge for a minor incident while he was driving an empty train.

"Les Bruty is being disciplined for a procedure used by Jubliee Line drivers every day, and without which no train would ever leave the depot.

"Instead of dealing with it locally, the matter was referred to a company disciplinary interview, where Les, despite promises to the contrary, was told he faced a gross misconduct charge and potential dismissal.

"The blatantly unfair dismissal of Raj and the victimisation of his union rep are the latest examples of the regime of fear that is being imposed on our members and the re-emergence of the dangerous blame culture we spent years trying to eliminate," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 04:49 PM | Permalink

RMT: August 15 2006

LONDON UNDERGROUND has been given until August 23 to stop stalling and table an acceptable pay offer, or face the prospect of a ballot for industrial action by the 6,500 members of its biggest trade union.

"More than three months after our pay anniversary there remains a massive gulf between what LUL is insisting on and what is acceptable to our members," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

 "From the start we told London Underground that we would prefer a one-year deal but are prepared to negotiate around that, but LUL are insisting on a rigid four-year deal that our members have told us they will not accept.

"LUL are also insisting that any deal is conditional on train operators agreeing to an extra half-hour late running.

"They have even told us that they will not guarantee not to impose draconian new attendance and disciplinary measures, even if we accepted a four-year deal.

"We were asked to submit our pay claim in good time and we did so. We have approached this pay round flexibly but the company has responded with intransigence.

"Even the private-sector Tube infrastructure companies have settled with us for better shorter-term strings-free deals, yet what LUL have put on the table would see the pay of operational staff begin to lag behind.

"Our LUL members' patience has run out and the RMT executive has therefore agreed that if LUL fails to address our concerns and table a serious offer by August 23 we will ballot all our LUL members for strike action," Bob Crow said.

ends

Notes to editors:

London Underground's offer is of a four-year deal: 

Year 1             4 per cent
Year 2              RPI plus 0.5 per cent
Year 3              RPI plus 0.6 per cent
Year 4              RPI plus 0.75 per cent

The LUL offer is also conditional on train operating staff accepting an extra half-hour late running. The company has also refused to undertake not to impose draconian new attendance and disiplinary procedures. 

By contrast, in an unconditional deal, Metronet has already settled for:

Year 1             4 per cent
Year 2              RPI plus 1 per cent (subject to minimum 3.5 per cent)
Year 3              RPI plus 1 per cent (subject to minimum 3.5 per cent)

 The Metronet deal also includes a minimum £1,000 pay rise to help the lowest paid which, if applied to LUL station assistants currently on £21,500, would give an increase equivalent to 4.7 per cent to the lowest-paid operational staff.

Posted on 04:49 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 15 August 2006

Millions of commuters could face a late summer of travel chaos as Tube workers threaten to strike over a spate of ongoing disputes.

Several ongoing disputes continue to threaten the network

A series of rows over pay, the sacking of a driver and claims of harassment have contributed to the strike threat.

The RMT union has warned it plans to ballot 6,500 workers over industrial action unless an "acceptable" pay offer is tabled by London Underground.

Union leaders said there was a "massive gulf" between workers and managers.

Pay deal
General Secretary of the RMT union Bob Crow said: "From the start we have told LU that we would prefer a one-year deal.

"We're prepared to negotiate around that, but LU are insisting on a rigid four-year deal that our members told us they will not accept."

The latest offer includes a 4% pay rise this year followed by increases above the rate of inflation in subsequent years.

Jubilee line
The union also announced it will ballot Tube drivers on the Jubilee Line over the "blatantly unfair" sacking of driver Raj Nathvani who reported over-running a signal.

Mr Nathvani was sacked "without mercy" and a union official dealing with the case now faced dismissal, according to the RMT.

The union is also balloting 80 station staff at Canary Wharf Station over a "catalogue" of issues, including claims of harassment and victimisation of union reps and discrimination against gay workers.

See also:

London Underground passengers face strike threat

Financial Times: August 15 2006
By Andrew Taylor, Employment Correspondent

London Underground passengers face the threat of industrial action over three separate disputes, the Rail Maritime and Transport union warned on Tuesday, writes Andrew Taylor.

The union plans to ballot 6,500 workers for on strikes unless London Underground “tables an acceptable pay offer” by August 23. LU has offered workers a four-year deal that includes a 4 per cent rise this year. The union, however, said the offer was worth less than increases that had been offered to workers at private sector infrastructure companies working for LU. RMT members would also prefer a one-year deal.

The union plans to ballot members involved in two other disputes with LU. The first is over the sacking of a driver for passing a signal and the second is over the alleged harassment and victimisation of staff and union representatives at Canary Wharf station.

LU said on Tuesday it was still waiting for a response from unions on its improved pay offer. On the sacking of the driver, it said it could not tolerate breaches of safety rules. LU said it had a strong policy against harassment and had investigated RMT’s claims at Canary Wharf and had concluded they “were not founded”.

Posted on 04:48 PM | Permalink

International Transport Workers' Federation: 26 July 2006

The ITF and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) yesterday made a formal complaint to the International Labour Organization (ILO) over the continued use of terror tactics against a bus workers’ union in Iran.

The union bodies submitted a dossier detailing continuing repression against the ITF-affiliated Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed). This not only flouts all norms of justice and human rights but also contravenes the principles to which the Islamic Republic of Iran signed up when it joined the ILO.

Since it was set up as an independent trade union in 2005, the union has been subjected to an ongoing campaign of harassment, arrests and physical attacks. These include the continuing detention of the union’s President Mansoor Osanloo; his poor state of health is now a major concern.

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company’s President Mansoor Osanloo

Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ICFTU, commented: "The Iranian government is mistaken if it believes that a continued campaign of terrorising the Sherkat-e Vahed workers will stifle either their resolve to fight for the fundamental right to belong to a union of their choice, or the international trade union movement's resolve to support them in that fight. We will continue raising the plight of these workers with all the relevant authorities and applying pressure wherever possible to convince the Iranian government to respect workers' rights."

Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF's Inland Transport Section, said: "This union has become a beacon both inside Iran and beyond. Maybe that's why the government and its puppet Workers’ House organisations are so determined to stamp it out. Only they're forgetting that the eyes of workers around the world are now on them, and we intend to keep exposing their terror tactics until Mansoor Osanloo is released and workers are allowed the freedom of assembly that Iran, through its very membership of the ILO, is sworn to uphold."

ITF/ICFTU complaint to the ILO: http://www.icftu.org/www/PDF/IranITFICFTU.pdf

Posted on 07:12 PM | Permalink

RMT: 9th August 2006
RMT Circular No. NP/099/06

Dear Colleague,
Notice of forthcoming Equality Advisory Meetings

1. National Women’s Advisory Committee Meeting – 20th September 2006 (EO/7)

Branches and Regional Councils are invited to submit items for consideration at the above meeting. Such items should deal solely with matters affecting female members and must not seek to determine Union policy. I would point out that the Committee cannot authorise the progression of claims. Branches submitting items for the agenda must inform their Regional Council of the content.

Branches and Regional Councils are reminded that observers are also welcome to attend the Advisory Committee, although expenses cannot be paid in this regard.

Items for the agenda must be received at Head Office no later than 30th August 2006.

2. Black and Ethnic Minority Members’ Advisory Committee Meeting - 27th September 2006 (EO/5)

Branches and Regional Councils are invited to submit items for consideration at the above meeting. Such items should deal solely with matters affecting black and ethnic minority members and must not seek to determine Union policy. I would point out that the Committee cannot authorise the progression of claims. Branches submitting items for the agenda must inform their Regional Council of the content.

Branches and Regional Councils are reminded that observers are also welcome to attend the Advisory Committee, although expenses cannot be paid in this regard.

Items for the agenda must be received at Head Office no later than 6th September 2006.

3. National Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Members’ Advisory Committee Meeting - 2nd November 2006 (EO/31)

Branches and Regional Councils are invited to submit items for consideration at the above meeting. Such items should deal solely with matters affecting our lesbian, gay and bisexual members and must not seek to determine Union policy. I would point out that the Committee cannot authorise the progression of claims. Branches submitting items for the agenda must inform their Regional Council of the content.

Branches and Regional Councils are reminded that observers are also welcome to attend the Advisory Committee, although expenses cannot be paid in this regard.

Items for the agenda must be received at Head Office no later than 11th October 2006.

Yours sincerely,

B. CROW
General Secretary

Direct Line: 020-7529 8821
Direct Fax: 020-7529 8808
p.wilkinson@rmt.org.uk

Posted on 06:56 PM | Permalink

AFX: 14th August 2006

LONDON - Eurostar, the high-speed train operator that links the UK with France and Belgium, said it has seen a 27 percent increase in passenger numbers since last Thursday's introduction of tougher airport security restrictions across Europe.

It said it carried an extra 28,000 travellers over the first four days (August 10-13) of air travel disruption following the police foiling of an alleged plot to blow up planes flying between Britain and the US.

Eurostar claimed that despite the unexpected surge in demand for its services between London, Paris and Brussels, its punctuality averaged 94 percent over the four days.

It said the company has also seen significant numbers of travellers using Eurostar as part of longer rail journeys between the UK and mainland Europe, making onward connections in France and Belgium via other high-speed operators.

Eurostar expects increased demand to continue this week, as travellers seek to avoid continuing airport delays.
Eurostar is owned by French state railway SNCF, Belgian state rail operator SNCB and Eurostar UK Ltd.

Eurostar UK Ltd is managed by the InterCapital and Regional Rail Ltd (ICRR) consortium, which comprises National Express Group PLC, SNCF, SNCB, and British Airways PLC.

Posted on 06:42 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 14, 2006
By David Robertson

SEA CONTAINERS, the Bermuda-based transport group, is to warn ministers that the future of its GNER rail franchise must be determined before the company defaults on its debts in eight weeks.

The company may be forced to hand back the franchise, which operates London-to- Edinburgh rail services, if the Government refuses to renegotiate the contract.

Sea Containers is due to repay £60 million of its £340 million debt on October 14, but sources close to the company admit that this may not be possible. Bondholders could then press to liquidate the company.

This would throw the future of the GNER franchise into disarray and Sea Containers is urging the Department for Transport (DfT) to change the terms of its contract to prevent this scenario.

Sea Containers won back the GNER franchise, considered to be the most lucrative in the rail industry, last year. Its £1.3 billion offer for a ten-year contract was at least £300 million higher than any other bid and now the company has admitted that it paid too much.

It has also been plagued by problems with its ferry operations, which included Hoverspeed in the English Channel, Silja Line in the Baltic and SeaStreak in New York. To cut losses, the company has sold Silja and is seeking a buyer for SeaStreak. Hoverspeed has been put into voluntary liquidation.

The GNER franchise, which Sea Containers took over last May, has also disappointed. In the first 14 months of the contract, GNER’s passenger revenue rose by 3.3 per cent to $918 million, against projected growth of 9.9 per cent. Last year’s terrorist attacks in London and the rising price of electricity have been blamed for the shortfall. The company has said that it will cut costs on the line, but this may not be enough for GNER to turn a profit.

If Sea Containers were to walk away from the contract, it would lose a £15 million bond and the franchise would be run by the DfT until a new auction could be arranged. Analysts have said that new bidders would be unlikely to pay anywhere near the previous amounts. Sea Containers argues that the DfT would be better to renegotiate its contract and accept a small reduction in payments rather than risk another auction and get considerably less.

A spokeswoman for the DfT said: “The situation is very clear. Our stance is that we never renegotiate contracts.”

Bob MacKenzie, Sea Containers’ chief executive, will meet the company’s shareholders on Wednesday and bondholders on Thursday to discuss the future of the rail link.

A spokesman for Sea Containers said: “We will have to see what the discussions with our financial stakeholders lead to this week. It is far too early to predict what will happen in the medium term with the GNER franchise.”

Sea Containers is also considering an appeal against a recent court decision that backed the Office of Rail Regulation’s allocation of a new commercial service on the East Coast line.

Posted on 06:32 PM | Permalink

The Times: August 14, 2006
From Raekha Prasad in Delhi

IT IS a train ride that defies earthquakes, extreme temperatures and volatile politics through one of the world’s most inhospitable terrains. India is building a billion-pound railway from the Himalayan foothills to the Valley of Kashmir, linking it with the heartland of India.

From 2009, it will be possible to travel by train from Delhi to Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir — a journey of 900km (560 miles). The 350km stretch, which is being built to complete the link, is hailed as “the most challenging railway project on earth”.

Not only are engineers blasting their way through the Pir Panjal mountain range, the first rampart of the Himalayas, they are also constructing the world’s highest bridge spanning the Chenab river in Kashmir.

At a height of 383m (1,257ft), the steel arch will be taller than the Empire State Building and stand 40m above the current record holder, the Millau Viaduct in the South of France.

Further testing Indian engineers is that the railway cuts through an uninhabited, inaccessible landscape without electricity, roads or water supply. The area is snowbound for most of the year and temperatures drop well below freezing.

“The technical aspect has never been attempted before,” said Vinoo N. Mathur, general manager of Northern Railway, the branch of India’s rail network responsible for the project. “We’re building a railway though a mountain range.” Making the environment all the more hostile is the railway’s journey into a warzone. An engineer at a building site and his brother have already been kidnapped and murdered by militants opposed to Indian rule in the Muslim region.

The threat from militants is a major constraint, according to officials. More than 1,200 labourers have to be moved between sites under security cover and are guarded by as strong a security force.

The railway is intended to integrate the restive region with the rest of India, Mr Mathur said. The project is also attempting to revive the once-thriving tourist industry that has been all but destroyed since the separatist insurgency against India erupted in 1989.

The 120km of tunnelling required for the passage through peaks as high as 4,000m is being made by vertically piercing a mountainside and then horizontally boring though granite, quartz and slate rock. The longest tunnel will be more than 11km.

The line falls into one of the Earth’s most seismically active zones, including the area hit by the earthquake last October. The tunnels withstood the disaster.

The railway will halve the time of the hairpin-road journey to the town of Jammu to six hours. “Most of the problems in Kashmir are related to its geographic and political isolation,” said Rekha Choudhary, Professor of Political Science at Jammu University.

“People cannot move easily to the rest of India and that has created a psyche of not being associated with it.”

Some Kashmiri academics question the gains the railway will bring. Nisar Ali, Professor of Economics at Kashmir University, said: “This region has been turned into a market for Indian goods and suffers from a dependency syndrome that has undone the state’s development since independence.” Professor Ali said that Kashmir was lacking basic infrastructure and had no electricity for up to 15 hours a day. “How will a railway get us out of this economic crisis?”

TRACK RECORDS

HIGHEST: Runs from Beijing to Lhasa reaching 5,072m

LOWEST: At 240m below sea level, the Seikan Submarine Tunnel, Japan

STRAIGHTEST: The 297-mile stretch across Nullarbor Plain, Australia

LONGEST: The 6,346-mile route from Moscow to Pyongyang, North Korea

Posted on 06:22 PM | Permalink

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Western Australia: 9 August 2006

LEIGHTON sacks Occupational Health & Safety Rep from rail job after he speaks out against Government's new Industrial Relations laws.
Download the media release:Mal sacking_9 August 06.pdf

Mal Peters, the last remaining Occupational Health and Safety Rep employed on the Perth to Mandurah rail construction job (city end) has been sacked by project builder Leighton after speaking out publicly about the impact of the potential $28,600 fines on him and his family.

Mr. Peters was told yesterday by Leighton that it was terminating his contract effective immediately for "operational reasons".

Leighton’s part of the rail job is not due to finish until at least April 2007, and there are still up to 200 workers employed on its part of the project. Of the six worker-elected occupational health and safety representatives that worked on the project a year ago, Mr Peters was the sole survivor.

Mr. Peters returned last week from two weeks annual leave, which he and his wife used to fly to the eastern states to report to the ACTU, the national CFMEU and to talk to workers in three states about the impact of the Government’s prosecution on 107 rail job workers and their families.

State Secretary of the CFMEU, Kevin Reynolds said that Mal had lost his job simply for speaking out publicly about the Government's building industry and work laws, used to serve 107 rail project workers with summonses for federal prosecution, with potential fines of up to $28,600.

"This is a case of an employer using the Government's new IR laws to intimidate and threaten any worker who wants to speak out about the Government's laws," Mr. Reynolds said.

"First, Mal's family was served a summons late at night threatening him and his family with a $28,600 fine. They were already worried about losing their home. Now he has been sacked.

"The fact that he is the OHS officer on the site just makes this worse. This is industrial relations the Howard Government way. Big businesses like Leighton can use these laws to sack people at will for standing up for their civil rights, and the rights of their fellow workmates," Mr. Reynolds said.

The CFMEU is meeting today with Mr. Peters to prepare to take his case to court.

"We will be standing by Mal and his family. We believe this is clearly a case of Mal being sacked for carrying out his legislated duties as a WA OHS representative and for just speaking out about the Federal Governments' work laws." Mr. Reynolds said.

Press queries: Jim Mellor @
CFMEU office, 82 Royal St., Level 1, East Perth
9221 1055 or 0404 066 671

See also:

Leighton Fourth-Quarter Profit Rises on Mining, Roads

Bloomberg: Aug. 14

Leighton Holdings Ltd., Australia's biggest engineering and construction company, increased fourth- quarter profit 14 percent on road and rail projects and mining demand. The shares gained 3.1 percent.

Net income increased to A$107 million ($82 million) in the three months ended June 30, from A$93.8 million a year earlier. The earnings were calculated by subtracting nine-month results from the record A$276 million full-year profit the Sydney-based company reported today.

"The outlook for the group is very positive, driven by a record level of work and an extended construction and resources upswing in Australia,'' Chief Executive Officer Wal King said in a statement. He forecast profit to rise at least 15 percent this year on sales of more than A$11 billion.

King plans to expand Leighton's fleet of mining trucks and excavators by a quarter over the coming years to meet Asia's booming demand for commodities such as iron-ore and coal, which boosted orders at the company's contract mining unit. Leighton also benefits from new road and rail projects in Australia.

"The suggestion of 15 percent growth has been taken fairly well,'' said Brent Mitchell, an analyst at Shaw Stockbroking Ltd. in Melbourne. Leighton will continue to win construction work because ``they've got the balance sheet, and they've got the track record of getting the job done,'' he said.

Shares Climb

The company's shares climbed 54 cents to A$17.95 at the market close in Sydney, their biggest rise in two months. Full- year earnings beat Leighton's A$258 million profit forecast while fourth-quarter sales climbed 33 percent to A$2.89 billion.

The company's work in hand, or projects to be completed in the next five years, was at a record A$16 billion, unchanged from March. It was boosted by the company's February takeover of bankrupt Henry Walker Eltin Group Ltd., Australia's biggest iron ore contract miner, which contributed A$1.6 billion of work.

"We believe our work levels will stay at least around the A$16 billion'' in the current year, King said in a Bloomberg television interview. The company has negotiated A$3 billion to A$4 billion of new contracts since the end of June and is waiting for them to be awarded, he said.

Sales at Leighton's engineering and infrastructure units surged by 52 percent to A$4.19 billion for the full year, boosted by work in Australia including Sydney's Westlink M7 tollway. The non-residential construction market is expected to be worth A$49 billion this year, the highest ever, King said.

Road Construction

In the three months through June, a group Leighton belongs to won a contract worth at least A$2 billion to build and manage Brisbane's North-South Bypass Tunnel. Leighton also secured contracts to build the A$300 million Australian Defense Force headquarters in New South Wales state, and A$545 million worth of work in Qatar.

"Transport infrastructure will continue to be a key driver of revenue over the next year,'' King told reporters at a briefing in Sydney. "There's no shortage of major infrastructure projects.''

Australian Treasurer Peter Costello has set aside A$2.3 billion for new roads and rail projects in his budget for the year started July 1. State governments will spend more than A$13 billion on water projects such as recycling and desalination plants around Australia over the next five years, King said.

Leighton, which is finishing a casino in Macau for Wynn Resorts Ltd., is also in talks to manage the $1 billion construction of the City of Dreams casino in the former Portuguese colony for James Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. and Melco International Development Ltd. "The decision should be finalized in the next week,'' King said.

Chinese Demand

The company's mining services unit, which mines coal, gold and iron ore for resources companies, increased full-year sales by 37 percent to A$2.6 billion on booming demand from China.

"Industrialization and urbanization in China is a tremendous driving force of demand for these resources,'' King said. "|We see this trend continuing for at least the next few years, with development in India starting to ramp up.''

Over the next months, there'll be more mining opportunities in India than in China, King said. He wants to tap the boom by winning contracts to build toll roads, railways, warehouses and factories.

Leighton would like to acquire more businesses to meet demand, after buying Henry Walker Eltin in February, King said on Bloomberg television. "We've got the financial strength to do it, it's a question of target companies appearing,'' he said.

The company will pay a second-half dividend of 41 cents a share, taking its payout for the year to 66 cents, up from 50 cents in 2005.

Leighton is 53.1 percent owned by Hochtief AG, Germany's biggest builder.

Posted on 10:40 AM | Permalink

New York Daily News: August 11, 2006
Owen Moritz

In a bitter setback for the Transport Workers Union, a Brooklyn judge yesterday threw out Local 100's bid to block a three-member panel from arbitrating a contract initially rejected by the rank and file.

The TWU - which says it will appeal - had claimed empaneling arbitrators is morally and legally wrong because workers ratified a 37-month contract in April by a wide margin after narrowly rejecting it in December.

But the Transit Authority and its parent, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, defended the right to arbitrate because the union had initially rejected the pact.

Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones didn't rule on the merits of the case, but said the court lacked jurisdiction. The arbitration panel held its first meeting last Friday. On its Web site, Local 100 attacked the MTA presentation because it "totally ignored all that had been agreed to in previous negotiations."

"The political interference continues," the union said in a statement yesterday.

The MTA had no response to the court's action.

Jones has already fined the union $2.5 million and suspended automatic collection of dues - and sentenced Local 100 President Roger Toussaint to 10 days in jail.

Posted on 10:34 AM | Permalink

The Guardian: August 12, 2006

Unions are following corporations and going multinational, as Group 4 Securicor discovered during a labour dispute in Indonesia.

For Yachya, a security guard in Indonesia, the strike hit his children hardest. "They should be in school by now, but we don't have any money for their school fees," he says. "We used to have health insurance, but now we have to borrow money for health care."

Over in Uganda it is alleged that security guards at one company have been denied the right to form a union. In India, some security guards claim their firm fails to pay the legal level of overtime.

What links all three disputes is the British security giant Group 4 Securicor. With 33,000 employees in Britain, 430,000 staff worldwide and a global turnover of more than £4bn, it is a major player.

One union official describes the multinational as "adopting a common sense approach" to labour relations in the UK. In June, Tony Blair, the prime minister, described a union recognition agreement between the GMB and Group 4 Securicor as "groundbreaking". It took 15 months to negotiate the deal, which says that the GMB is an appropriate union to represent the firm's 15,500 UK-based security officers and agents.

But a campaign highlighting Group 4 Securicor's operations in the developing world has put the blue-chip company under pressure. It began in the US after the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) got into a recognition dispute with a Group 4 subsidiary, Wackenhut.

"It became clear that they had no intention of resolving this," says Bill Regan at the SEIU. "The company said it was a good company and so we looked at it globally. They are reasonably well thought of in Europe, but it is a completely different story elsewhere. We came to the conclusion that they had one policy for Europe and one for the rest of the world."

So, the SEIU put its muscle into highlighting Group 4 Securicor disputes in India, Uganda, South Africa and Kenya. But the focus has been Indonesia where, at the end of last month, security guards concluded a bitter 15-month dispute.

That dispute began when Group 4 Falk merged with Securicor. Workers at Securicor Indonesia wanted reassurances about their terms and conditions and, when negotiations on this collapsed, they went on strike. They say they were illegally sacked, have not been paid over the past 12 months as the law requires and suffered intimidation.

A series of court rulings, including a decision by the supreme court in Jakarta, had found in favour of the strikers. Group 4 Securicor remains bullish in defence of its actions. It says a small group of workers suddenly claimed membership of a union it had never heard of. They demanded severance pay five times that legally required and have rejected all attempts at negotiation.

The deal finally thrashed out will see the strikers given back pay and generous severance terms - but it has tarnished Group 4 Securicor's image. Despite the huge resources at its disposal, the company has been wrongfooted by a nimble media campaign, which has drafted in grassroots support from trade unionists across the developed world.

A dedicated website was set up, there were demonstrations at the company's London AGM, speaking tours by strikers, a very successful email campaign, a high-powered PR firm was engaged and even Group 4 Securicor's Wikipedia entry altered.

Earlier this year, GMB representative Eddie Parker travelled to Indonesia to investigate the dispute. "It is difficult to think that they are the same company we deal with in Britain," he says. "It is appalling what has taken place because it is affecting lots of workers and their families. If it was not a country in the developing world and its employees were not black I do not think they would be behaving in this fashion."

Group 4 Securicor is not alone in having its labour relations in the developing world scrutinised. Coca-Cola has had to fight accusations of running anti-union campaigns at its factories in Colombia and India. Nike's use of developing world labour to make its products was a public relations disaster for the firm. Such companies have undoubted financial clout, but their iconic status also makes them easily identifiable targets.

While individual corporations receive attention, some countries, such as Colombia and Burma, have a particularly poor record on trade union rights. Therefore, companies that invest there can find themselves held to account. Activists have compiled a list of more than 400 firms that invest in Burma. These include Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco.

Group 4 Securicor absolutely rejected claims that it violated human rights in the developing world. A company spokeswoman points out that globally the company has agreements with more than 60 trade unions, that half its workforce is covered by them and that the firm supports international agreements on labour standards.

"This is all about recognition in the US, nothing else," she says. "The SEIU would consider themselves the new face of unionism. At a time when unions and employers are getting closer together in many countries, I think that their approach is retrogressive."

It could also be a sign of things to come, according to SEIU. "We are seeing more global companies like Group 4," says Regan. "Our members now work for companies whose headquarters are in Stockholm or London.

"For a long time we thought that globalisation only happened to industrial workers. We need to get ahead of this before it gets ahead of us."

Labour relations experts believe other unions may follow companies and transform themselves into multinational organisations. "This is a good example of the kind of strategy that recognises that international companies have got to be responsible for all that they do," says Keith Ewing, a law professor at King's College London. "Companies have to behave as good global citizens."

However, many unions in the developing world have concerns about following this model and supporting campaigns such as the SEIU's, says Gregor Gall, professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire. "They are not too keen to get involved because they see these campaigns as a ruse and, in the case of American unions, a form of US imperialism and protectionism.

"In the case of G4, it will be interesting to see, if recognition is won in the US, whether the concerns for G4 workers' rights elsewhere is maintained and campaigned on."

For Eddie Parker, the week he spent in Indonesia convinced him that such disputes do have a global impact. "What is the perception in Indonesia of people in Britain if a British company like Group 4 can behave like this?" he asks.

"How can they even be considered for Olympic contracts which are all about fair play and equal opportunity?"

When the strike deal was announced, Ferry Nelson, the general secretary of the Securicor Indonesia Labour Union, said jubilantly: "We've forced them [Group 4 Securicor] to respect human rights in Indonesia."

Yachya has a more prosaic response. "For over a year we have struggled and gone without pay and been unable to feed our families," he says. "Now we can make a new start."

Group 4 Securicor is not the only British company to find its foreign activities under the spotlight

Campaigns to hold UK companies to account for their treatment of workers abroad have had mixed success. Commonly, the focus has been on environmental behaviour by firms such as Shell and BP or the activities of arms companies rather than relations between corporations and employees.

Tesco and Arcadia have defended claims that some of their suppliers have provided garments produced under poor pay and working conditions in the developing world. The supermarket giant and the high street clothing chain are adamant that there are no sweatshop conditions behind their low pricetags. British American Tobacco, however, has been castigated for the way it treats tobacco farmers and its factory conditions in the developing world.

A new development took place this month when FirstGroup was forced by shareholders to adopt a human rights policy. It followed a campaign to highlight the anti-union activities of a US subsidiary of the British transport firm.

"Whether these international campaigns are successful is dependent upon a range of factors," says Gregor Gall, professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire. "For example, the campaign to save textile jobs in the global north by trying to raising labour standards in the textile industry in the global south has failed primarily because: a) The campaign was essentially to stop redundancies and when this is the case unions are always in a weaker position compared with when there is no threat of divestment or relocation over wage negotiations; b) There were always other countries the companies could move to even if some countries tried to raise labour standards; c) The key to the issue was wage costs; and d) These jobs could be subject to mobility.

"The campaigns can be effective depending on where they fit into these configuration of factors. Unions have to realistically address whether the companies have pressure points and how much leverage they can exert."

Posted on 12:16 PM | Permalink

Western Mail: Aug 12 2006
Martin Shipton

THE Assembly Government has been accused of making misleading statements over the opening of a much-heralded railway line.

Documents obtained by the Western Mail suggest that train services between Ebbw Vale and Newport may not start before 2012, despite Assembly Government claims they will begin operating in 2009. It will also cost almost £30m, which the Assembly Government has never explained how it intends to fund.

The new line is regarded as an essential ingredient in the regeneration strategy for Blaenau Gwent, and was a significant issue in the recent double by-election campaign.

Last month the Assembly Government told us further works, beyond those under way on the line between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff, would not be required before a service could be run into Newport in 2009.

But serious doubts have been cast on the accuracy of that statement.

Earlier this year the South East Wales Transport Alliance produced a long-term rail strategy for the most populous part of Wales.

It refers to the planned opening of the Ebbw Vale to Cardiff line next year, adding, "Further double track initially proposed to allow a second hourly service to Newport has not been provided under the initial reopening works".

The investment programme outlined in the report for 2005-09 refers to the Ebbw Vale to Cardiff line, but makes no mention of the spur to Newport. Instead, the Newport works are earmarked to go ahead in 2012-13.

The report states, "The half-hourly service (with one train going to Cardiff and another to Newport) will, most rationally, require the reinstatement of plans for double track to Aberbeeg (an additional seven miles) with two-platform stations at Newbridge and Llanhilleth."

The report says the extra infrastructure works needed before the Newport branch could open would cost £27.3m at 2002-03 prices, or £28.6m in 2005 prices.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Network Rail recently removed the track at the point where the Ebbw Vale line turns towards Newport, and is said to expect the Assembly Government to pay for a new track to be laid.

The board of Sewta, comprising representatives from 10 councils, has called on the Assembly Government to provide funds so that the Newport line could open in 2009.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said, "We are in close discussions with the Welsh Assembly Government to develop their aspirations for an Ebbw Vale to Newport service. Significant infrastructure enhancements are required for this project to proceed."

Trish Law, the Independent AM for Blaenau Gwent, told the Western Mail, "I am extremely dismayed to learn that the Ebbw Vale phase two Newport spur may not now be completed for another six or seven years. I cannot overstate the importance of the Newport link. In a statement to the Assembly as recently as July 14, Transport Minister Andrew Davies suggested that phase two would be completed in 2009.

"We were delighted at the prospect of the line between Ebbw Vale and Newport being open in time for the Ryder Cup in 2010. It presented Blaenau Gwent with the potential to exploit tourism opportunities while also providing local people with a long-awaited direct rail link to Newport.

"Furthermore, it is disturbing to learn that there is no financial commitment for phase two from the Welsh Assembly Government."

Mrs Law said she would be pressing Mr Davies to ensure funds were made available so the Newport rail service could be opened in 2009.

An Assembly Government spokesman said, "Sewta is an independent consortium of local authorities on transport, and is not a decision-making body - the Assembly Government is!

"As has been previously explained, there is currently insufficient capacity to provide a regular passenger train service to Newport, and extensive engineering works are required to remove this constraint.

"It is anticipated that the earliest all these works will be complete is 2009/early 2010, when Network Rail completes the first stage of the re-signalling of the main line at Newport.

"When the capacity constraints have been removed, the Assembly Government will review the service provision with Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail and in conjunction with Sewta decide the best way to then provide a service into Newport."

Posted on 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Scotland on Sunday: 13th August 2006
Business, DOUGLAS FRIEDLI

GNER, the troubled east coast train operator, was last night at the centre of takeover speculation as it emerged that a rival had offered to buy the company in an attempt to rescue it from its financial crisis.

A rival company had offered to buy GNER - Picture: David Moir

Its trading position has been made worse by its parent firm, Sea Containers, staggering under a mountain of debt which it appears unable to pay.

According to industry sources, another UK train operator has made an opportunistic approach to Sea Containers to take over GNER.

The identity of the operator is not known but industry sources believe it is likely to be one of FirstGroup, Stagecoach, Virgin, or National Express.

Sea Containers will this week meet shareholders in New York in an attempt to draw up a new financial structure to avoid impending financial collapse.

Investors and the company will discuss options for GNER, which include a sale, cost-cutting, asking the government for a discount on GNER's franchise payments and handing back the franchise.

Sea Containers, headed by Bob MacKenzie, last week issued a bleak assessment of GNER's prospects. The operator has been hit by slower than expected passenger growth, electricity price rises and higher payments to Network Rail. Any remaining profits are expected to be wiped out by revenue lost to rival operators Grand Central and Hull Trains, and further energy price rises.

Sea Containers is looking at a range of options, including a trade sale. Previous reports have suggested private equity groups are interested in GNER because it is a cash generative business. But GNER may struggle to attract a price which would make a difference to Sea Containers's financial problems because of its declining profitability.

MacKenzie, who is also executive chairman of GNER, is understood to favour negotiating a reduction in the £1.3bn which the operator must pay to the Department for Transport over the next 10 years.

Officially the DfT, headed by transport secretary Douglas Alexander, will not renegotiate railway franchises.

But GNER could argue that the assumptions made in its franchise application have been seriously undermined by events such as last year's terrorist attacks on London, soaring fuel prices and the unexpected decision by the Office of the Rail Regulator to let rivals run trains on the east coast.

An industry source said: "There cannot be a re-negotiation, but there are many ways of skinning a cat and it is not beyond the DfT to think if a way that this can be done without breaking the rules."

If GNER cannot get the DfT to change the terms of its franchise, it may simply hand it back. That would incur a penalty of £15m, which could be less than the losses made by GNER over a few years.

Such a move could prove embarrassing for the government, as GNER rode a wave of political and celebrity support when it won the franchise last week. It was regarded as the UK's best quality rail franchise operator.

The source said: "If GNER hands back the franchise, the other potential operators will look at the £1.3bn which GNER offered, look at the open access issue, look at higher electricity costs and lower revenues and may offer just £700m. That would be a £600m loss for the government."

GNER may seek to raise fares, although on its routes to Scotland it competes with airlines which in many cases already offer lower fares. The company is also looking to cut costs, but admits that regulatory and safety requirements mean that any benefits are likely to be limited.

See also:

Transport firm in crisis talks with creditors

The Sunday Times: August 13, 2006
Business, Dominic O'Connell

EXECUTIVES at Sea Containers, the embattled transport group, will begin talks with creditors in New York this week over a financial restructuring that may include a debt- for-equity swap.

More than 50 financial institutions, holding about $390m of Sea Containers bonds, have registered their interest in meeting Bob MacKenzie, the corporate doctor who stepped in as the company’s chief executive earlier this year.

Sea Containers set out its financial plight in detail on Friday, including a depressing assessment of its GNER subsidiary, the train operator that runs services between London and Scotland.

The company said revenue growth at GNER was running at only one-third the rate forecast when it signed an ambitious new 10-year franchise that should see it pay back substantial sums to the government.

Negotiations with the Department for Transport on the future of the franchise were under way, but “the timing and the outcome of these discussions are uncertain, as is the future value of the GNER franchise to Sea Containers”, the company said.

Sea Containers was founded in 1964 by transport tycoon James Sherwood, who left the company in March. In its heyday it was an eclectic mix of businesses, including such trophy assets as the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Orient Express train service, a half share in Harry’s Bar and the Hoverspeed fast ferry company.

It has since slimmed considerably — with the Orient Express hotel and train business spun off into a separate company — and is now struggling against a crippling debt burden. Uncertainty over its accounts has meant MacKenzie has delayed filing last year’s figures for several months.

The statement on Friday said Sea Containers had $42m in “free cash”, but $610m of outstanding debt. Its next big repayment comes on October 15, when it is due to pay back a $115m bond.

MacKenzie said there was an “anticipation” that it would not be able to meet the payment, or payments of bonds that fell due in successive years. This “puts a critical time pressure on the restructuring process”, he said.

MacKenzie is expected to meet a group of shareholders in New York before meeting the bondholders, who have set up an ad hoc committee to negotiate with the company. The committee will be advised by the restructuring specialist Houlihan Lokey and law firm Bingham McCutchen.

City sources said an obvious option for the company was a debt-for-equity swap, in which the bondholders exchange part of their debt for a stake in the business. But is not known whether shareholders, now principally American hedge funds, would entertain the idea.

Posted on 10:42 AM | Permalink

Calgary Sun: August 12, 2006
By SHAWN LOGAN

Workers who inspect and maintain railways are facing increasingly deadly risks, a union leader said yesterday as contract talks with CP Rail heat up.

Negotiations between CP Rail and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents about 2,500 employees who maintain the rails, have just begun with the last three-year contract set to expire at the end of the year.

Bill Brehl, the union's president, said the talks have to bring a renewed focus to the safety of railworkers who are imperiled by a lack of manpower and a declining emphasis by CP Rail on maintaining aging infrastructure.

"When you cut jobs to save money, (those tracks) are not going to be as safe as they should be," Brehl said.

See also:

CPR union warns of unsafe track as contract talks get underway

CBC News Health & Science: Aug 11, 2006
Canadian Press: BILL GRAVELAND

CALGARY (CP) - As negotiations for a new contract get underway, the union representing maintenance workers at Canadian Pacific Railway is warning Canadians may be at risk due to unsafe sections of railway track across the country.

"They're not being kept to the level they should be. There can be dangerous spots, unsafe spots that we're not aware of because we're not able to get out and inspect them," said Bill Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Maintenance of Way Employees. The union held a news conference and rally Friday in front of CPR's head office in Calgary.

"We find unsafe track all the time and maintain it and fix it but we're going to miss some," he said. "Some we miss cause derailments and if it's a derailment with dangerous commodities, you've got deaths, you've got destruction of private property."

The current one-year contract between the approximately 2,500 maintenance workers and CPR expires Dec. 31.

Brehl conceded he was bringing this out now partly because the union is fighting for better working conditions in a new contract.

But he also said the railway is more interested in continued expansion than ensuring there are enough maintenance workers to service the existing track across the country.

"Right now we have half the employees in the maintenance department working that were working 15 years ago, yet there is twice as many trains and tonnage running on that track," he complained.

"They're not putting the money back into the present infrastructure that still has trains running on it, that still hauls dangerous commodities by schools, playgrounds, rural areas and urban areas."

Ed Greenberg, spokesman for CPR, questioned the timing of the union's comments since only a single meeting had been held so far over the new contract. But as far as safety, CPR is the best in the business, Greenberg said.

The industry average accident rate is about 3.29 train accidents per million train miles, and CPR's is 1.41, "so we're clearly a leader in rail safety," Greenberg said.

"It is a priority and certainly by working with our employees we're going to continue being a very safe railway," he said.

Greenberg also said the railway has no intention of bargaining through the media.

Meantime, the Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the cause of last week's freight train derailment.

Twenty coal cars on a CPR train left the tracks July 31 near Lytton, B.C.

Investigators are taking a closer look at a piece of heavy-gauge rail as a potential cause of the accident.

Posted on 10:34 AM | Permalink

BBC News Magazine: 11 August 2006
A POINT OF VIEW, By David Cannadine

The state of a nation's railways has always revealed much about the state of the nation.

A few days ago, I received in the mail a brochure about a railway - not from a travel agent, trying to persuade me to journey on luxury trains in Canada or India or China or Australia, but from English Heritage.

Should Brunel's raillway become a world heritage site?

It proposes that the great line from London to Bristol, conceived and created by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was born exactly 200 years ago, should be recognised as a World Heritage Site, where it would join such iconic structures as the Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

Before I go any further, I must declare an interest, which is that I'm a Commissioner of English Heritage. But I had nothing to do with the production of this pamphlet, and I hadn't even seen it before it arrived unexpected and unannounced on my doormat.

In any case, it's no more than a consultation document, but it does make its case very powerfully, and it's easy to see why.

Art of engineering

The London to Bristol line was built between 1836 and 1841, and as befitted an enterprise called from the outset the Great Western Railway, it was conceived in its entirety not only as a work of engineering, but also as a work of art.

BBC NEWS: AUDIO
Hear A Point of View in the BBC Radio Player

The two terminal stations, at Paddington in London and at Temple Meads in Bristol, are among the finest in the country.

The Maidenhead Bridge and the Wharncliffe Viaduct are astonishing for their audacity and panache - and endurance. And the two mile tunnel under Box Hill in the Cotswolds was a wonder of the world on its completion, adorned with a great classical facade at its western entrance, which provided a fitting approach to the Roman city of Bath.

"In these things," observed Brunel's biographer L.T.C.Rolt in 1957, "we see the monuments of a brief heroic age of engineering as remote from our world as that of the great medieval cathedrals."

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by railways. I was brought up on (among other things), Thomas the Tank Engine, I was the proud possessor of a Hornby clockwork train, and I can still recall the feelings of regret and disappointment that I never graduated to an electric train set.

Among my most vivid boyhood memories are travelling each year from Birmingham to Wales on the Cambrian Coast Express, with its chocolate and cream carriages and its great, polished steam engines: John Major's world before he had ever been heard of.

And when I first visited the United States as a graduate student, in the early 1970s, I journeyed around the whole country by rail, from Chicago to New Orleans to Los Angeles, to Seattle and back to Chicago, on trains bearing such romantic names as the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder.

War's timetable

They were rarely on time, and occasionally they ran more than a day late; but it was an unforgettable way to get a sense of the vastness and variety of that great country.

Eurostar trains have linked Britain and France

In their heyday, trains were never intended to be just about recreation and romance. They moved people and goods to many different destinations and for many different purposes.

Pioneered in Britain, they had helped unify and consolidate the 19th-Century nation state: not surprisingly, railway timetables were very important to the belligerent powers when war broke out in 1914.

They had also helped hold together massive nations that extended across continents: the United States, Canada, Australia, and most famously in Russia, with its trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok.

They had been instruments of British imperialism: in India, lines criss-crossed the sub-continent, and in Africa, a railway was planned stretching all the way from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope.

And in Argentina, China and the Ottoman Empire, railways were one means by which European powers, especially Britain and Germany, intruded themselves into countries which they never officially ruled but over which they sought to exert influence.

Closed lines

By the time I was growing up, in the 1950s and early 1960s, railways seemed as outmoded as the great European empires, which were then fast dissolving.

Transcontinental lines could not compete with airplanes: Harry Truman's presidential campaign of 1948 had been the last to be waged from the back of a railroad car.

China has been investing heavily in rail technology

And short distance journeys were increasingly made by bus or automobile, as motorways and freeways proliferated across western Europe and north America.

In the United States, the remaining private railway companies were virtually bankrupt, and in Britain, the nationalised network seemed hopelessly uneconomic and out of date.

Dr Beeching would soon wield his famous axe, closing a third of the lines at a stroke, and on both sides of the Atlantic there would be some famous symbolic destructions: of the Doric Arch at Euston in London, and of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York. To railway afficianados, it all seemed very depressing.

As Ian Fleming put it in From Russia With Love, published in the same year as Rolt's life of Brunel, "the great trains are going out all over Europe, one by one."

Rail recovery

Yet that was not quite the whole truth. In western Europe, and also in Japan, one essential element of national recovery after the end of the Second World War was the creation of a new railway infrastructure, lavishly funded by the state and based on electric rather than steam power.

Berlin's new main railway station

And there was an international dimension to it as well, as the previously feuding nations of the continent were bound together by new fast trains, linking Zurich and Milan, or Paris and Bonn, called Trans European Expresses.

Since then, most governments in western Europe have retained their commitment to well-funded and well-functioning railways, as exemplified by the new central station in Berlin, opened in May this year.

It cost £490 million to build, it handles 1,100 trains a day, and processes around 300,000 passengers, travelling not only within Germany, but far beyond its borders to the west, south and east.

In Europe, trains are no longer expressions of national assertion, but of trans-national collaboration. Here in Britain, the record has been more mixed: there is a general recognition that trains are better for the environment than cars, and the current reconstruction of the stations at St Pancras and King's Cross is one of the greatest building projects in Europe.

Privatisation

But for all her invocation of "Victorian values", Margaret Thatcher disliked trains, rarely travelled on them, and refused to fund them at the level they needed. And despite John Major's nostalgic attachment to chocolate and cream carriages, rail privatisation during his government was scarcely an outstanding success.

"If you can tell a country's commitment to public services by how much it spends on its trains, then Britain scores much higher than the United States, but markedly lower than Japan or western Europe."

In the United States, the position is different again. Since 9/11, rail travel along the east coast corridor from Boston to Washington via New York has become more popular than ever.

But the government funded Amtrak Corporation is woefully short of money, and the Bush administration is viscerally hostile to it, and would like to cut its subsidy still further.

Earlier this year, 200 miles of the line south of New York came to a halt because of a power failure, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded in tunnels or between stations for five hours.

It was scarcely a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, but it was another example of the American paradox that John Kenneth Galbraith termed "private affluence, public squalour".

If you can tell a country's commitment to public services by how much it spends on its trains, then Britain scores much higher than the United States, but markedly lower than Japan or western Europe, where the sophistication and speed of their railways put ours to shame, as anyone knows who's taken the Eurostar from London to Pairs.

China's fast track

Yet the pre-eminent railway nation today is not France or Germany or Japan: it's China, which is expanding its network in ways - and for reasons - that have a very 19th-Century feel to them.

It's in the process of raising $250 billion, to add 13,000 miles to its domestic network by 2020, including a new line which will cut the journey time from Bejing to Shanhai from 13 hours to five.

A few months ago, a 1,200 mile railway was opened from Xining in Quinghai province to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It's an engineering marvel, with tracks laid so high on the roof of the world that oxygen is provided for passengers; but there are also fears that it will increase Chinese control and could spell the end of indigenous Tibetan culture.

And more recently still, China has invested $1.5 billion in railways in Nigeria and Angola: two former European colonies, both with large supplies of oil, which China allegedly covets.

The age of the railway is not yet over. And nor, it seems, is the age of empire. I wonder if Thomas the Tank Engine has yet been translated into Chinese.

Posted on 10:07 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 11 August 2006

An underground commuter train derailed in Liverpool, trapping 119 passengers, because of the poor condition of the track, an official report says. There were no major injuries among train passengers.

The Wirral line Merseyrail train came off the tracks in a tunnel 200m from Liverpool Central Station in 2005.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said the main cause was the widening of the track gauge because of its poor condition.

Network Rail said it would carefully considers its recommendations.

Maintenance issues

The accident happened in the one-way "loop" part of the network, about 200m from Liverpool Central station on 26 October 2005.

All passengers were led to safety within two hours and there were no major injuries after the train jumped the tracks.

The RAIB report, published on Friday, criticised the maintenance of the track and recommended changes to Network Rail's systems for looking after it.

A spokesman said the company would give careful consideration to the points raised.

"As owner and maintainer of the railway infrastructure in Liverpool, we have specialist knowledge of the unique engineering challenges we face there," he said.

"Operating this infrastructure requires us to have a bespoke maintenance regime in place, fully and competently resourced. This was and remains the case."

At the time of the incident, the company had embarked on a three-year project to renew the section of track where the accident happened, the spokesman added.

He said Network Rail was investing £72m to operate, maintain and renew the Merseyrail network, £24m of which was being spent on new track.

Train operator Merseytravel, which was singled out for one of the recommendations, has been critical of Network Rail in the past.

Chairman Mark Dowd said the report backed Merseytravel's previous calls for full local control over the network, including the track.

He said this would be in the best interests of its customers, commuters in Merseyside.

Posted on 11:19 PM | Permalink

Transport 2000:

The man who would turn railway lines into a coach network

Paul Withrington`s argument that we should shut down the railways and turn the lines into a bus-coach network has been laughed off-stage by the railway industry but who is he and why does he hate trains so much?

The latest self-appointed transport ‘expert’ on the scene is Paul Withrington, who runs a one-man organisation called Transport Watch UK from what looks like his home address in Northampton. Withrington sprang dramatically into the public domain in December with a series of paid-for adverts, reportedly eight in all, in the New Statesman, Private Eye and The Week, making the case for closing down the railways and turning the lines into dedicated runs for express coach services instead.

His argument is constructed around carefully selected figures which purport to show that taxpayers are being “railroaded”, as he puts it, by a railway industry demanding ever greater subsidies. According to rail commentator Christian Wolmar, Withrington has confused himself by feeding his calculator not with current rail costs but the prices attached to an extravagant ‘dream’ list of projects produced by someone in the SRA with no more expectation of them becoming reality than a young child hoping to be served with triple-layer chocolate fudge cake every meal time for as long as he wants it.

All the same, you can imagine the apoplexy in railway circles over Withrington’s withering critique of rail and indeed the Railway Forum has taken the time to rebut, blow by blow, the cleverly honed, but deeply flawed, vision to replace the train with the bus.

So who is Withrington and what is he up to? Why does he hate trains so much? Is he perhaps still furious from being stranded on a platform at Crewe all night in January 1982 due to points failure or the wrong kind of snow? Was he hospitalised in the 1970s by a British Rail pork pie? Perhaps he got locked in the toilet and missed his stop in Stevenage at some stage, ending up in north-east Scotland before help arrived.

He has collided with Transport 2000 campaigners directly twice, once when he turned up to a local activists’ conference in London with his trousers in shreds, explaining he had been attacked by a “wild dog” outside Euston Station, and more recently when he arrived for a media interview to debate against Transport 2000 and was accompanied by gentlemen in suits looking very much like bodyguards.

More important is the question of who is bankrolling Withrington. A look at his website material shows he is a retired transport planner and civil engineer, who also has a sideline drawing up wills for people. His source of funding is identified merely as a “private trust”, whatever that entails.

He does seem to be in awe of an American called Wendell Cox, an evangelical-style transport and development orator seemingly dedicated to arguing against ‘smart growth’, the idea that cities will sprawl and become automobile-blighted unless we produce higher residential densities served by good public transport. Cox insists that “smart growth is delusion not vision” and identifies his guiding philosophy as “People should have the freedom to live and work where and how they like.” One supporter of Cox’s doctrine describes him as: “The nation’s leading debunker of the nonsense that Americans are going to get out of their cars and ride trolleys instead. A powerful advocate for the ordinary American.”

Other links on the Transport Watch website include those to Transport 2000 (derided for “attracting funds particularly from the rail industry”), Friends of the Earth (“generally opposed to use of the private car”), Railfuture (“data produced by this organisation should be carefully checked”) and of course the Association of British Drivers, with which he shares a hatred of speed cameras, accusing them of “destroying the livelihoods of perhaps tens of thousands”.

But the links page saves the best till last: a mysterious connection to the website of Chris Hodge Trucks, a second hand lorry salesman and apparently “the UK’s largest dealer of used trucks, lorries, vans, trailers and prime movers”. It is the only link of its kind. Of course… it all starts to become clear. If Withrington’s masterplan was realised, and the railways were turned over to bus lanes, wouldn’t that put rail-freight out of business overnight and also clear the motorways of coaches, never the lorry driver’s best friend? Could the mystery funder of Transport Watch be a second hand lorry salesman with a vision of world domination? It could be time to send in Pierce Brosnan to investigate.

Posted on 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Guardian: August 11, 2006
Mark Milner

Businesses could face fewer health and safety inspections under plans by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to lose up to 350 jobs as part of government budget cuts, according to a trade union. Prospect, which represents almost half the HSE's 3,800 staff, warned that the cuts would damage efforts to improve safety in Britain's workplaces.

"It will result in a drop in the number of prosecutions and inspections undertaken and could see a further restriction in the accident selection criteria used to prompt an investigation," said the chairman of Prospect's HSE branch, Steven Kay. "Fewer investigations will mean workers that suffer horrendous injuries will not get justice.

"Evidence shows it is inspection backed by enforcement that is the most effective way of ensuring employers comply with their health and safety responsibilities," he said.

An HSE spokesman said the job losses were part of budget cuts at the Department for Work and Pensions designed to achieve savings of £8m over two years. He said the major hazards area, which includes nuclear installations, onshore and offshore fuel storage and oil rigs, would be exempt. "They are charged back to the employers, they are not part of the anticipated cuts."

He said 350 job losses was a "worst case scenario". Almost 90 temporary staff would not have their contracts renewed this year and the HSE was looking at ways of saving money that would not involve front-line staff. "Quite substantial savings have been identified and this will impact on the number of jobs which will be lost. We will know in the next financial year. We don't know exactly where the [job] cuts will come."

The HSE will soon start discussions with the department regarding its budget from April 2008. The spokesman dismissed any suggestion that these discussions would lead to a demand for further cuts as "speculation".

The Scottish Trades Union Congress also condemned the announcement, which it said " defies belief".

Posted on 08:10 AM | Permalink

FGW Pay & Conditions referendum result

Wednesday, 16 August 2006
13.00-15.00
RMT South West Regional Office

RMT SOUTH WEST REGIONAL OFFICE
TRANSPORT HOUSE, VICTORIA ST,
BRISTOL BS1 6AY
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=359286&y=172638&z=0&sv=BS1+6AY&st=2&pc=BS1+6AY&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
(5 MINUTES WALK FROM BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS)

RMT TRAIN DRIVERS EMPLOYED BY FGW VOTED 5:1 FOR STRIKE ACTION IN PURSUIT OF OUR CLAIMS FOR:
* 104 REST DAYS PER ANNUM;
* PAY AND CONDITIONS HARMONISATION;
* AN AGREEMENT FOR CROSS-COVER WORK.

NOW COME AND MEET FELLOW UNION MEMBERS TO DISCUSS THE RESULT OF RMT's REFERENDUM AND THE NEXT STEPS IN OUR CAMPAIGN FOR FAIR PAY & DRIVER ORGANISATION

SPEAKERS:
Pat SIKORSKI, ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY, RMT
Brian CURTIS, RMT LEAD ORGANISER FGW
Brendan KELLY, CHAIR, RMT COMPANY COUNCIL FGW
Alex GORDON, SECRETARY, RMT DRIVERS’ FORUM SW&W

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD - GET ORGANISED IN THE UNION

For further information: RMT SW&W Driver's Forum, Secretary, Alex Gordon 077 141 050 36 – Email: afgordon@dircon.co.uk

Posted on 06:19 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 10 August 2006

China's government plans to extend its new Tibetan rail link to reach the region's second-biggest city, Xigaze, according to China's state news agency.

The railway, which opened in July, is the world's highest

The existing track opened in July, and connects Tibet's capital Lhasa to Qinghai, and from there to Beijing.

It has already caused controversy. The government says it will help the region but critics fear increased control.

They also say the railway line threatens both the delicate Himalayan environment and Tibetan culture.

'Great opportunities'

The line to Xigaze will extend the railway by some 270km (170 miles) and should be completed within three years, the state news agency Xinhua reports.

"The railway will offer great opportunities for the social and economic development of Xigaze," local official Yu Yungui told Xinhua.

The announcement of an extension to the line comes just a month after the completion of the 1,140km (710 mile) line from Golmud, in Qinghai province, to Lhasa.

This line - the world's highest - boasts high-tech engineering to stabilise tracks over permafrost, and sealed cabins to protect passengers from the high altitude.

Xigaze lies near the Indian border, and is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key spiritual leader.

In July, China and India reopened a once-important trade route over the Himalayas at the Nathu La pass.

Officials said the improved infrastructure links would lift trade between the two countries, and develop Tibet's local economy.

Posted on 06:04 PM | Permalink

Daily Champion (Lagos): August 10, 2006
Daniel Idonor, Abuja

President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that the contract for the $8.3 billion first phase of the modernization and expansion programme of the Nigeria Railway from Lagos to Kano would be signed this month and work would commence immediately thereafter.

In his broadcast to the nation yesterday evening, he however, warned people who have encroached on railway land to leave immediately, just as he asked State Governments to readily make available land that would be needed in the expansion programme of the railway.

The President who noted that $2 billion out of the money to be used for the first phase would be obtained as soft loan from the Chinese Government. "Phase I is scheduled to be completed in four years at a cost of $8.3 billion of which $2 billion is being obtained as soft loan from the Chinese Government. Phase II, which will be the second spine of the backbone- Port Harcourt to Jos, with the same design criteria, will follow on the heels