DavidB-AU

Two for the price of one!

The Department for Transport announced the shortlisted bidders for the next South Eastern passenger franchise on June 22. They are: South Eastern Holdings Ltd (NS’s Abellio Transport Group, East Japan Railway and Mitsui & Co); London & South East Passenger Rail Services Ltd (Govia 65:35 joint venture of Go-Ahead and Keolis UK); Stagecoach South Eastern Trains Ltd (Stagecoach Group); Trenitalia UK Ltd (Italian national passenger operator Trenitalia). http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/south-eastern-franchise-bidders-announced.html

The shortlisted bidders for the West Coast Partnership franchise were announced by the Department for Transport on June 22. They are: First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Ltd, a joint venture between FirstGroup’s First Rail Holdings Ltd (70%) and Italian state operator Trenitalia SpA (30%); MTR West Coast Partnership Ltd, a joint venture of the MTR Corp (UK) Ltd subsidiary of Hong Kong’s MTR Corp and Guangshen Railway Co which operates the 481 km Shenzhen – Guangzhou – Pingshi Railway in China, with key sub-contractors including consultancy Deloitte MCS Ltd, Panasonic Systems Europe, Swedish travel software company Snowfall, ticket retailer Trainline.com Ltd and engineering consultancy; West Coast Partnership Ltd, a joint venture between Stagecoach Group plc (50%), Virgin Holdings Ltd (30%) and the SNCF C3 (20%) subsidiary of the French national railway group. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/three-shortlisted-for-west-coast-partnership-franchise.html

First MTR are only going to use 18 of them. Cheers David

TESTING of Saudi Arabia’s 453km Haramain high-speed line reached a milestone on June 15 when a Talgo 350 train reached 310km/h on the section between King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and Medina, exceeding the maximum commercial operating speed of 300km/h for the first time. http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/high-speed/talgo-train-reaches-310km-h-on-saudi-high-speed-line.html

Open access passenger service promoter Alliance Rail Holdings has dropped plans to procure Alstom Pendolino trainsets for its proposed London Euston – Blackpool North service. The Arriva subsidiary reports that it is now discussing with leasing company Eversholt the use of Class 91 locomotives and MkIV coaches which are currently operated by Virgin Trains East Coast. Meanwhile, Network Rail has identified seven weekday return train paths which Alliance’s Grand Southern Railway could use to launch a proposed Southampton – London Waterloo open access service during the 2018 timetable. The operator would initially use Class 442 EMUs. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/alliance-drops-pendolino-plan-as-southampton-paths-identified.html

Rail freight operator Lineas ran a pilot service carrying Jupiler beer from AB InBev’s brewery at Jupille near Liège to Delhaize’s warehouse in Ninove on June 13. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/freight/single-view/view/beer-train-launched.html

ISRAEL Railways (IR) presented details of its Shekels 123.6bn ($US 34.9bn) 2040 Strategic Plan at a conference at the Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv on June 8, revealing ambitious proposals to double the size of the network over the next two decades with high-speed trains connecting key centres. Under the plan the network is projected to grow from 1232km to 2572km between 2020 and 2040, with the number of stations increasing from 68 to 120. IR’s passenger train fleet will almost triple from 139 in 2020 to 511 in 2040. http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/middle-east/israel-to-double-rail-network-by-2040.html

Just when you thought the joke couldn't go any further... https://thewest.com.au/sport/horse-racing/horsey-mchorseface-delights-punters-and-commentator-with-first-ever-win-ng-b88499690z

You have to remember that with the exception of a handful of specialist exhibitions, the majority of people through the door are not modellers. Public exhibition layouts need continuous movement to keep the general public entertained. As much as roundy roundy tail chasing doesn't particularly interest me, that's what gets the punters through the door. You also have to remember that many of the modular systems like Free-mo and FREMO don't do public exhibitions because the style of operation doesn't appeal to the general public. They do private meets for the module owners to operate in a prototypical manner and the layout configuration generally doesn't allow the public to wander around and observe. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for modular layouts at public shows. You just have to pick the right ones. T-TRAK and NTRAK are particularly good for this. Cheers David

NEVER MIND THE GRAPHICS...

A firm order for a further 15 Talgo Avril high speed trainsets was approved by the RENFE board on May 31. They will have gauge-changing equipment to enable them to operate on 1 668 mm routes as well as 1 435 mm gauge lines, and will be equipped for use under three electrification systems. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/renfe-orders-gauge-changing-high-speed-trainsets.html

More here. http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/high-speed/sncf-rebrands-tgv-as-inoui.html

Until about 1990, Radio National in Australia used to broadcast the Goon Show at 2pm every weekday, unless Parliament was sitting when it would broadcast Question Time. It was often joked that nobody could tell the difference. Cheers David

Swedish TV Accidentally Puts Subtitles From A Kid’s Show Over A Political Debate, And It’s Brilliant http://www.boredpanda.com/tv-put-subtitles-kids-channel-political-debate-sweden/

On May 26 SNCF confirmed local media reports that its TGV network of high speed passenger services is to be rebranded as ‘inOui’. SNCF will progressively introduce the inOui brand across its legacy TGV services by 2020, starting with those on the Paris – Bordeaux route from July 2, when the LGV Sud-Europe-Atlantique high speed line opens between Tours and Bordeaux. According to local reports, the rebranding is being driven partly by a desire to rationalise the service levels offered by SNCF. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/sncf-to-rebrand-tgv-services-as-inoui.html

Actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has died aged 89. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40018422

We seriously need a "groan" button!

New French high speed train. http://bit.ly/2pRve27

Invoking Flintwordle's Rule where Greens and Parks score double tokens, I score quadruple with Green Park.

Apparently it is only 16 cars. Don't know what happened to the other 4. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/passenger/single-view/view/belmond-andean-explorer-launched.html

Sammy the Snail was always made fun of by the other animals for being so slow. One day he was sick of this, so he decided to go to a car dealership. The dealer showed Sammy a brand new sports car, top of the line. He was assured that this was the fastest car that they had. Sammy bought the sports car, but wanted to customise it before driving it around. He brought it to the paint shop and had it painted bright red with a big yellow "S" on each door. Sammy figured that with the "S" on the car, everyone would now know that it was his car and he was the fastest animal around. When Sammy's car was out of the paint shop, he hopped into it and started to race up and down the streets where his friends lived. Sammy's friends all looked at each other in awe of this new car and said... "Wow! Did you see that S car go?"