Transportinfo.org.uk - today's transport news in the uk, hand picked for you each morning

Thursday, 01 March 2012

BBC News

• Extra carriages for city trainsThousands of extra seats will be introduced on First TransPennine Express and London Midland rail services into nine UK cities next year.
• Rail firm to 'admit' crash guiltNetwork Rail indicates it is to plead guilty to health and safety breaches over the 2007 Grayrigg crash in Cumbria in which a woman died.

Department for Transport

• Extra trains and faster journey times will boost capacityPassengers are on track to benefit from faster, longer trains and over 12,000 extra seats each day on journeys into London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Rail Minister Theresa Villiers announced today.

The Herald

• Plans for faster and longer trainsRAIL passengers will benefit from faster, longer trains due to be introduced between Manchester and Scotland at the end of 2013, the Department for Transport said.

Metro

• Network Rail says it will plead guilty to Grayrigg train crash chargesNetwork Rail has indicated it will plead guilty to health and safety breaches that led to the fatal Grayrigg crash five years ago this month.

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• ScotRail says sorry to passengers up in arms over nightmare trip ScotRail apologised yesterday after a commuters suffered a nightmare journey between Inverness and Aberdeen because of overcrowding.

Other Regional Press

• Harlow passengers invited to express their views on train service upgradesNEW train operator Greater Anglia has pledged to take on board passengers’ suggestions as it starts work on improving the service.

Global Rail News

• Network Rail looks at ˜alternative rail solutions™Network Rail has said it is looking at alternative rail solutions as ‘part of its continued efforts to deliver a better value-for-money railway’. Tram and train, community rail initiatives and more innovative ways of replacing diesel traction with electrically-powered trains will all be studied in more detail as part of the company™s alternative solutions route [...]
• Talking about TrainsWith its world famous collection, York™s National Railway Museum (NRM) is truly a Mecca for railways enthusiasts. Impressive though its locomotives are, the museum™s small exhibits can be equally worthy of the visitor™s interest. This is certainly true of the eight cases forming the NRM™s œTalking about Trains� exhibition celebrating the birth of the Institution [...]
• Blue Train wins againThe Blue Train in South Africa has been named the best luxury train in the world. The train runs 1,000 miles between Cape Town and Pretoria. The train which started operations in 1923 boasts butler service and en-suite compartments with full sized baths. The Blue Train won the Luxury Train award for the third consecutive [...]
• Infrarail comes togetherThe number of companies planning to take part in this year™s Infrarail exhibition of rail infrastructure products and services stood at more than 160 by mid-February, with plenty of new products expected to be on display and innovation promising to be a key feature of the event. The NEC in Birmingham is again the venue [...]
• ˜Collaboration is key™ to meeting rail challenges says ORROffice of Rail Regulation (ORR) Chief Executive Richard Price has said that the UK’s rail industry ’must work together to meet the big challenges ahead’. Speaking at the Waterfront Rail Industry Reform Conference in London yesterday, Richard Price praised recent moves to bring the railways closer to local communities through Network Rail™s devolution, as well as [...]
• Rail improvements underway at ElyThe cross-country Felixstowe to Nuneaton rail route is set for further improvements as Network Rail begins work on building two 775m loops parallel to existing track east of Ely station. The work will enable better regulation of trains through the junctions at Ely and should be complete by summer 2013. The Ely loops form an [...]
• London Midland & FTPE order new trains from SiemensLondon Midland and First TransPennine Express have placed orders with Siemens for new Desiro electrical multiple units. The new trains will delivered between the end of 2013 and the middle of 2014. Ten class 350/3 electrical multiple units will be used by London Midland to strengthen existing commuter services into London and along the West [...]

Other News Sources

• Eurostar/ St Pancras International cleaners strike action suspended to allow for further talksRAIL UNION RMT confirmed today that in order to allow for further negotiations to try and resolve the pay dispute with Initial on the Eurostar contract tomorrows strike action has been suspended.