Re: Rugby engineering overrun gets worse

On 31 Dec, 17:42, Mizter T <mizte...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
GazK wrote:
On 31 Dec, 16:45, Roland Perry <rol...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In message <ELKdnbFuFYyeheTanZ2dnUVZ8tign...@xxxxxx>, at 16:25:39 on
Mon, 31 Dec 2007, Jonathan Morton
<jonat...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> remarked:

Clearly this is a resignation issue for the head of NR and the ORR.

Who is the head of NR in these heady post-Greyrigg days?
--
Roland Perry

Iain Coucher. Bearing in mind that he only took over from John Armitt
a few months ago, do you really think he should resign?

In my book, if someone screws up on your watch, you take
responsibility and clean up the mess. These days we are in danger of
jumping from inexperienced man at the helm to inexperienced man at the
helm, because of the perpetual cry "something's gone wrong - off with
his head!"

I'm minded to agree with you. What he evidently needs to do is sort
out his planning department. If it doesn't already happen then a
programme of secondments between Network Rail, the TOCs and the
freight operators would be a good idea. Network Rail needs to consider
passengers and those companies that use railfreight to be their
customers too, as well as the TOCs and freight operators.

I agree that NR are impervious to their *real* customers, and this is
their achilles heel. A programme of secondments is a great idea, but
no-one in the private industry wants to commit to such a programme
because they are worried about losing good staff for good. It happens,
and no amount of "non-poaching" clauses will prevent it.



BTW, Iain Coucher is showing all the signs of being the first post-
privatisation head of infrastructure to show real BR-era political
nouse - and for that reason he is worth keeping. He is defending the
industry and talking up the railway, while pushing for long-term
investment and expansion of electrification.

An interesting analysis. His recent words about the electrification of
the railways are an example of this I suppose.

Absolutely. His predecessor saw his job as steadying the ship after
Hatfield, and getting performance back to sensible levels - and he
more or less succeeded. Iain is moving NR into a more robust role - ie
"we've got our house in order, now we can start delivering growth - if
you will commit to rail as a growth mode. Oh and by the way, oil is at
almost $100 a barrel, did no-one tell you? And no-one has perfected
the fuel cell yet, or is likely to for another 25 years, so can we get
some more wires up before we run out of cheap fuel?"

I'm paraphrasing, of course!
.