>From SRA site:

"As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways Act 2005 on 7
April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."

Joe Patrick (google@railwaysonline.co.uk) said:

> > From SRA site:
> "As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways
> Act 2005 on 7 April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with
> many of its functions passing to the Department for
> Transport's new Rail Group."


Hopefully the DfT brings on board the old site, the existing 
http://www.dft.gov.uk/railways/ is hard to use.

-- 
Andrew

Joe Patrick wrote:

> 
> >From SRA site:
> "As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways Act 2005 on 7
> April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
> passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."


Thanks, Joe.

I see that the site goes on to say that "From 22 August 2005 this site
will cease to be updated but will remain as a reference point". Just in
case things start to disappear, I will be downloading anything and
everything as soon as I get chance, particularly things like policy
statements, Route Utilisation Strategies, statistics, freight market
studies and so on. If any of you have a particular interest in such
things, you might want to do likewise.
-- 
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================
Do something amazing. Give blood.
<http://www.blood.co.uk/>

> the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
> passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."


Does that include the p**s up and brewery function.

Sorry about that, but is was never clear to me quite what the function
of the SRA was and it's even less clear what the Rail Group is for
either.

I doubt the Dept of Roads is any the wiser apart from a desire to spend
(note never invest) less on the railway.

Of course, I could be wrong and, even as I write, they could well be
marking out the route of the North - South TGV (or is it Maglev) in
biro on their AA atlas.

On 23 Aug 2005 11:41:27 -0700, "Joe Patrick"
 wrote:


>>From SRA site:
>"As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways Act 2005 on 7
>April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
>passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."


Most of them already have.

Well I can give you one concrete example of what SRA did; forced proper
project management onto West Coast, insisted on proper blockades and by
doing so got 125mph for Sep 2004.

"Joe Patrick"  wrote in message
news:1124822487.643188.9530@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> >From SRA site:
> "As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways Act 2005 on 7
> April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
> passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."
>

AIUI the SRA will remain in existence until the Integrated Kent franchise is
up and running - because the SRA is the owner of South Eastern Trains.

Peter

"GazK"  wrote in message 
news:1124830198.802594.41690@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

> Well I can give you one concrete example of what SRA did; forced proper
> project management onto West Coast, insisted on proper blockades and by
> doing so got 125mph for Sep 2004.
>


And, to be fair, got costs back under control on the project, although by 
then the whole WCRM had become too expensive.

So this would by why, even the the Coventry-Leamington line is
possessed every weekend for the current period, we see large gangs of
vegetation controllers descending on Kenilworth at 2100 on a Saturday
night to keep the neighbourhood awake with petrol strimmers ?

I wonder if a Saturday night is the next most expensive payment after
Christmas day or Boxing day.

An awful lot of pounds slipping out the kitty there ?

Hmmmm !!!

"Joe Patrick"  wrote:


>>From SRA site:
>"As a result of receiving Royal Assent for the Railways Act 2005 on 7
>April 2005, the SRA is being wound up with many of its functions
>passing to the Department for Transport's new Rail Group."



Good riddance.  

Was there ever a less strategic organisation that included the word
"Strategic" in its title?

And an organisation more interested in promoting buses (and guided
buses) that didn't have the word 'bus' in its title.

Jerry A.

wrote in message 
news:1124833265.081104.274460@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> So this would by why, even the the Coventry-Leamington line is
> possessed every weekend for the current period, we see large gangs of
> vegetation controllers descending on Kenilworth at 2100 on a Saturday
> night to keep the neighbourhood awake with petrol strimmers ?
>
> I wonder if a Saturday night is the next most expensive payment after
> Christmas day or Boxing day.
>
> An awful lot of pounds slipping out the kitty there ?
>
> Hmmmm !!!
>


Sounds a bit NIMBY'ish to me.

I doubt the intention is to descend on a neighbourhood to make noise, merely 
to undertake vegetation clearance at the most cost effective time.

If you live by a railway or road surely you must expect some disturbance at 
some time due to maintenance.

I do.

Andrew Bell wrote:

> Hopefully the DfT brings on board the old site, the existing
> http://www.dft.gov.uk/railways/ is hard to use.
> --
> Andrew


Don't hold your breath.  The freight site has not been updated since
the end of June when the DfT took over.

http://www.railfreightonline.com/

George

Peter Masson wrote:


> AIUI the SRA will remain in existence until the Integrated Kent franchise is
> up and running - because the SRA is the owner of South Eastern Trains.


I think the SRA will be wound up before IKF comes into place.  When the
SRA goes, South Eastern Trains will become a subsidiary of the
Department for Transport.

Richard

On 23 Aug 2005 14:41:05 -0700, wyrleybart@hotmail.com wrote:


>So this would by why, even the the Coventry-Leamington line is
>possessed every weekend for the current period, we see large gangs of
>vegetation controllers descending on Kenilworth at 2100 on a Saturday
>night to keep the neighbourhood awake with petrol strimmers ?
>
>I wonder if a Saturday night is the next most expensive payment after
>Christmas day or Boxing day.
>
>An awful lot of pounds slipping out the kitty there ?
>
>Hmmmm !!!


Just like the good old days of Railtrack then. 

I was speaking to a farmer last week who has land alongside the ECML
near Doncaster. In Railtrack days he was used to seeing a bus full of
trackworkers turn up at about 23.00 for so-called overnight working.
They used to spend more time on the bus than working.

He sees a different attitude now. Presumably because they are no
longer employed by a company that was being paid cost plus an agreed
profit margin.

David Harby

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:59:33 GMT, David Harby
 wrote:


>I was speaking to a farmer last week who has land alongside the ECML
>near Doncaster. In Railtrack days he was used to seeing a bus full of
>trackworkers turn up at about 23.00 for so-called overnight working.
>They used to spend more time on the bus than working.


I met a railway worker (can't remember what was on his van) at
Cheddington at 2300 or so one evening.  He was waiting on the station
for some hours while another guy walked the track looking for
something or other.  The reason for this was apparently that they'd
need to fill in reams of paperwork and would need a lookout etc to
send two out instead.

I was there some 45 minutes waiting for the all stations stopper, so
it didn't do any harm having someone to chat to, but it wasn't exactly
efficient.


>He sees a different attitude now. Presumably because they are no
>longer employed by a company that was being paid cost plus an agreed
>profit margin.


Having to contract something "cost plus" is a sure sign that you'd be
better off doing it yourself.

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

So the SRA is to shut down. I don't think so. What we arw witnessing is a
sleight of hand because all the staff will turn up wearing a different hat
in the new railway division of D of T ready to close down as much of the
railway system as possible without the necessity of a public enquiry. I
foresee that they will be very popular.

MJW

"M.J.Whitson"  wrote:


>So the SRA is to shut down. I don't think so. What we arw witnessing is a
>sleight of hand because all the staff will turn up wearing a different hat
>in the new railway division of D of T



One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson 
wrote:


>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.


And the other two thirds?

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

wensleydale@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil Williams) wrote:


>On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson 
>wrote:
>
>>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.
>
>And the other two thirds?



Transferring to DfT Rail.

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:19:30 +0100, Tony   Polson 
wrote:


>wensleydale@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil Williams) wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson 
>>wrote:
>>
>>>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.
>>
>>And the other two thirds?
>
>Transferring to DfT Rail.


Hmm.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

wensleydale@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil Williams) wrote:


>On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:19:30 +0100, Tony   Polson 
>wrote:
>
>>wensleydale@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil Williams) wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson 
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.
>>>
>>>And the other two thirds?
>>
>>Transferring to DfT Rail.
>
>Hmm.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.



Two thirds of the SRA's work still needs doing, and DfT Rail is the
place where it will be done.  So the transfer is essential.

The other third of the SRA's work was gratuitous micro-managing, and
that means that a third of the staff can now go.  The main culprit
responsible for the grievous waste of SRA resources on these
unnecessary tasks has already departed, thank God.

;-)

DERWENT Re: SRA Shuts down!
 Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson  


>"M.J.Whitson"  wrote:
>
>>So the SRA is to shut down. I don't think so. What we arw witnessing is a
>>sleight of hand because all the staff will turn up wearing a different hat
>>in the new railway division of D of T
>
>
>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.
>


Presumably the ones who did nothing for the S get the elbow and they
keep th ones from the RA.

PRAR
-- 
<http://www.i.am/prar/> and <http://prar.fotopic.net/>
As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it. --Dick Cavett
Please reply to the newsgroup. That is why it exists.
NB Anti-spam measures in force
 - If you must email me use the Reply to address and not prar@deadspam.com

PRAR  wrote:


>DERWENT Re: SRA Shuts down!
> Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:05:07 +0100, Tony   Polson  
>
>>"M.J.Whitson"  wrote:
>>
>>>So the SRA is to shut down. I don't think so. What we arw witnessing is a
>>>sleight of hand because all the staff will turn up wearing a different hat
>>>in the new railway division of D of T
>>
>>
>>One third of the SRA staff are being made redundant.
>>
>
>Presumably the ones who did nothing for the S get the elbow and they
>keep th ones from the RA.



The one who didn't even know what the S meant got a huge compensation
payment for his "efforts".  An amount not unadjacent to 300,000.00*.

Nice work if you can get it.

;-)


* See the current issue of "Private Eye".