Informed Sources

With Roger Ford

South Eastern milked over 13-year period

■ DfT imposes £23.5 million penalty
■ Overpayments hidden in TOC accounts
■ DfT recovers £64 million

Limited scope for train operator cost cuts

■ Switch from net premium to subsidy signalled problems
■ Rolling stock and track access dominate rises
■ Costs stabilised after year-on-year increases

Anglia pioneers 21st Century Operations

■ Network Operations Strategy starting to deliver
■ Liverpool Street IECC pilots radical reorganisation
■ Key role for Luminate TMS

Island line ‘484s’ enter the fray

Comings and goings in New Train TIN-watch

Wigan – Bolton: NEEP goes in hard

■ Civils costs halved
■ Bridge reconstruction slashed
■ Overdue renewals distort cost
■ Overheads exposed

Electrification: Prove you can deliver, demands DfT

■ TRU and MML electrification test cases for cost reduction claims
■ TDNS rolling programme on hold
■ ‘Stop moaning’, electrification proponents told
■ Network Rail Board goes full duckweed

Runners and riders reviewed

New Train TIN-watch promotion criteria amended as Lumo ‘803s’ graduate within three periods

Network Rail slims ahead of GBR

■ Last decade’s headcount growth reversed
■ Redundancies to follow VSS
■ More savings from GBR efficiencies

Operators facing revenue-cost gap

■ Omicron reversed ridership revival
■ Treasury sustains revenue support
■ Costs continued to increase through 2020-21

Chasing Will o’the WISP

■ Consultation on 30-year plan
■ Public competition for GBR HQ
■ Legislation lagging privatisation timescale