In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

I see, for example, that the new Cambridge Science Park station is
already six months late (work started, on schedule, constructing the
access road last month, and the station was supposed to be finished
in time for the timetable change in December 2015. However it's
already slipped to the next timetable change in May 2016.)

It's a lot later than that. When we discussing it at the County Rail
Strategy Group we were planning on opening by 2010.

Someone sent me this link

http://issuu.com/abelliogroup/docs/o...july___for_int

That's got one of the worst user-interfaces I've ever seen (not your
fault, obviously).

You get used to it. :-)

It would be nice if they explained what the acronym "STA" used several times
actually means. It's obviously something to do with the direct franchise
award.

- take a look at page 5 to get a tiny glimpse of what is being planned
by Abellio Greater Anglia for SEFT / ITSO.

I expect I'm more likely to be using a TSGN ITSO card (for my travel
to London); it'll be interesting to see if those interoperate well
with ITSO gates at places like Cambridge which are operated by GA.

Since they don't recognise their own tickets at the gates sometimes I
wouldn't be in the least surprised.

Will they ever issue Super Off-Peak Day Travelcards that are recognised by
SWT gates for that matter?

[1] Whatever branding it gets, currently it's Southern "the Key" of
course. Have they decided to brand themselves GTR long term, or is
that just a working title?

They are branding the line from King's Lynn to London as "Great Northern",
surely? Will GTR be any more prominent that LER was?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 04:56:23
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

I see, for example, that the new Cambridge Science Park station is
already six months late (work started, on schedule, constructing the
access road last month, and the station was supposed to be finished
in time for the timetable change in December 2015. However it's
already slipped to the next timetable change in May 2016.)

It's a lot later than that. When we discussing it at the County Rail
Strategy Group we were planning on opening by 2010.

But did that strategy group go public with an "Expected opening date"?

The current station project is the first one to have enough legs to be
able to promise something, I think.

Someone sent me this link

http://issuu.com/abelliogroup/docs/o...july___for_int

That's got one of the worst user-interfaces I've ever seen (not your
fault, obviously).

You get used to it. :-)

And clearly the web designers with monitors the size of 40-inch TVs are
very used to what they see. Someone should insist they do at least some
of their testing on a laptop (the 'two pages side by side' view is
illegible on mine, and the 'full screen page at a time' view took me
half a dozen attempts to find the correct, and yet obscure, icons to
click on.

It would be nice if they explained what the acronym "STA" used several times
actually means. It's obviously something to do with the direct franchise
award.

I'd love to be able to search the publication for "STA", but their awful
display format has rendered my browser's built-in search facility
useless, so there's yet another learning curve to engage their own
search. Which only takes me to the page, not the actual text.

From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/p.../view/greater-
anglia-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

- take a look at page 5 to get a tiny glimpse of what is being planned
by Abellio Greater Anglia for SEFT / ITSO.

I expect I'm more likely to be using a TSGN ITSO card (for my travel
to London); it'll be interesting to see if those interoperate well
with ITSO gates at places like Cambridge which are operated by GA.

Since they don't recognise their own tickets at the gates sometimes I
wouldn't be in the least surprised.

Will they ever issue Super Off-Peak Day Travelcards that are recognised by
SWT gates for that matter?

[1] Whatever branding it gets, currently it's Southern "the Key" of
course. Have they decided to brand themselves GTR long term, or is
that just a working title?

They are branding the line from King's Lynn to London as "Great Northern",
surely? Will GTR be any more prominent that LER was?

LER was to NXEA, what East Coast Main Line Company Limited is to East
Coast. (A more different name, but still different. Back in the day the
company known "Access", was actually "The joint credit card company
Ltd").

Although Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd appears to be dormant:

http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/07934306

If the Kings Lynn line is to be officially "GN", does this mean that in
a few years when a GTR train pulls into Farringdon on its way north that
it'll be announced as a GN train if heading for Peterborough/Cambridge,
and something else... perhaps Thameslink if heading for Bedford.
Doesn't that rather balkanise the new integrated TSGN franchise?
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 04:56:23
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

I see, for example, that the new Cambridge Science Park station is
already six months late (work started, on schedule, constructing the
access road last month, and the station was supposed to be finished
in time for the timetable change in December 2015. However it's
already slipped to the next timetable change in May 2016.)

It's a lot later than that. When we discussing it at the County Rail
Strategy Group we were planning on opening by 2010.

But did that strategy group go public with an "Expected opening date"?

Not as firm as that.

The current station project is the first one to have enough legs to be
able to promise something, I think.

Indeed.

Someone sent me this link


http://issuu.com/abelliogroup/docs/o...july___for_int

That's got one of the worst user-interfaces I've ever seen (not your
fault, obviously).

You get used to it. :-)

And clearly the web designers with monitors the size of 40-inch TVs are
very used to what they see. Someone should insist they do at least some
of their testing on a laptop (the 'two pages side by side' view is
illegible on mine, and the 'full screen page at a time' view took me
half a dozen attempts to find the correct, and yet obscure, icons to
click on.

The main problem is getting sued to the scrolling methodology which makes it
perfectly legible on my 12" laptop.

It would be nice if they explained what the acronym "STA" used several
times actually means. It's obviously something to do with the direct
franchise award.

I'd love to be able to search the publication for "STA", but their awful
display format has rendered my browser's built-in search facility
useless, so there's yet another learning curve to engage their own
search. Which only takes me to the page, not the actual text.

It's in most of the articles in the second half of the document. I agree
with you about the bad presentation.

From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/p...greater-anglia
-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

Which does nothing to answer the question.

- take a look at page 5 to get a tiny glimpse of what is being planned
by Abellio Greater Anglia for SEFT / ITSO.

I expect I'm more likely to be using a TSGN ITSO card (for my travel
to London); it'll be interesting to see if those interoperate well
with ITSO gates at places like Cambridge which are operated by GA.

Since they don't recognise their own tickets at the gates sometimes I
wouldn't be in the least surprised.

Will they ever issue Super Off-Peak Day Travelcards that are recognised
by SWT gates for that matter?

[1] Whatever branding it gets, currently it's Southern "the Key" of
course. Have they decided to brand themselves GTR long term, or is
that just a working title?

They are branding the line from King's Lynn to London as "Great
Northern", surely? Will GTR be any more prominent that LER was?

LER was to NXEA, what East Coast Main Line Company Limited is to East
Coast. (A more different name, but still different. Back in the day the
company known "Access", was actually "The joint credit card company Ltd").

Although Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd appears to be dormant:

http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/07934306

I'd check again in September if I were you.

If the Kings Lynn line is to be officially "GN", does this mean that in
a few years when a GTR train pulls into Farringdon on its way north that
it'll be announced as a GN train if heading for Peterborough/Cambridge,
and something else... perhaps Thameslink if heading for Bedford.
Doesn't that rather balkanise the new integrated TSGN franchise?

They seem to do exactly that from the stakeholder presentation I've seen. It
shows "Gatwick Express", "Southern", "Great Northern" and "Thameslink"
brands as well as "Govia".

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 06:39:25
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/passenger/single-view/view/greater-anglia-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

Which does nothing to answer the question.

"The short-term agreement features a £20m package of improvements which
includes..."
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
06:39:25 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:


http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/p.../greater-angli
a-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

Which does nothing to answer the question.

"The short-term agreement features a £20m package of improvements
which includes..."

Your surmise then. No use of or decoding of the acronym.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 09:01:32
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/p.../greater-angli
a-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

Which does nothing to answer the question.

"The short-term agreement features a £20m package of improvements
which includes..."

Your surmise then. No use of or decoding of the acronym.

It's the only meaning that makes any sense. Especially as Abellio are
crowing (in their stunningly inaccessible e-magazine) about how they
have several unprecedented things happening in the STA period which map
closely to those mentioned in the article.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
09:01:32 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
From the context, and the fact they've been awarded a temporary
extension while the DfT gets its act together for new tendering, I
suggest it means "Short Term Agreement".

See also:


http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/p...w/greater-angl
ia-direct-award-franchise-agreed.html

Which does nothing to answer the question.

"The short-term agreement features a £20m package of improvements
which includes..."

Your surmise then. No use of or decoding of the acronym.

It's the only meaning that makes any sense. Especially as Abellio are
crowing (in their stunningly inaccessible e-magazine) about how they
have several unprecedented things happening in the STA period which
map closely to those mentioned in the article.

I suppose there is that. Hardly transparent though. The inward-facing nature
of the publication is also suggested by giving their intranet username and
password. I wonder why?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 06:39:25
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
If the Kings Lynn line is to be officially "GN", does this mean that in
a few years when a GTR train pulls into Farringdon on its way north that
it'll be announced as a GN train if heading for Peterborough/Cambridge,
and something else... perhaps Thameslink if heading for Bedford.
Doesn't that rather balkanise the new integrated TSGN franchise?

They seem to do exactly that from the stakeholder presentation I've seen. It
shows "Gatwick Express", "Southern", "Great Northern" and "Thameslink"
brands as well as "Govia".

I've found this in the trade press:

"The Thameslink brand is to be re-introduced, and Southern and Gatwick
Express brands retained."

No mention of GN, and could encompass using GTR on all the 'Thameslink'
services.

Another possibility is they might use GN temporarily until
through-running starts, but that leaves the Kings Lynn-Kings Cross
services out on a limb.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
06:39:25 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
If the Kings Lynn line is to be officially "GN", does this mean that in
a few years when a GTR train pulls into Farringdon on its way north
that it'll be announced as a GN train if heading for Peterborough/
Cambridge, and something else... perhaps Thameslink if heading for
Bedford. Doesn't that rather balkanise the new integrated TSGN
franchise?

They seem to do exactly that from the stakeholder presentation I've seen.
It shows "Gatwick Express", "Southern", "Great Northern" and "Thameslink"
brands as well as "Govia".

I've found this in the trade press:

"The Thameslink brand is to be re-introduced, and Southern and
Gatwick Express brands retained."

No mention of GN, and could encompass using GTR on all the
'Thameslink' services.

Another possibility is they might use GN temporarily until
through-running starts, but that leaves the Kings Lynn-Kings Cross
services out on a limb.

Look at the GTR material which makes the planned use of the "Great Northern"
brand very clear, even to argumentative Usenet users.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 09:01:32
on Mon, 11 Aug 2014, remarked:
Another possibility is they might use GN temporarily until
through-running starts, but that leaves the Kings Lynn-Kings Cross
services out on a limb.

Look at the GTR material which makes the planned use of the "Great
Northern" brand very clear,

For the duration, or just until Thameslink 2018 is finished?

Remember, I'm interested in what the PIS will say.

Comments like this one (Wikipedia) don't count, because FCC don't call
the trains GN (or even Thameslink) currently:

"From September 2014 Govia will take over Great Northern and Thameslink
routes from First Capital Connect, serving 122 stations and operating a
fleet of 226 trains."

It's just the name of the line, not the brand name of the service.

even to argumentative Usenet users.

Moi?
--
Roland Perry