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

Friday, 24 October 2014

BBC News

• Work starts to dismantle Victorian signal box in Deeping St JamesWork has started to dismantle a Victorian signal box, despite a campaign to turn it into a museum.
• Tube contract £80m payout criticisedTransport for London is criticised for paying a company £80m after it failed to deliver a contract.
• Tube employee helped scarf womanA Tube worker may have helped save a woman from being seriously hurt after she was dragged along a platform when her scarf was caught in a train door.

Financial Times

• Sharp rise in UK train passenger numbersDemand beats levels last seen during demobilisation after the first world war

The Guardian

• John Crace’s sketch: Transport complaints run to strict timetablePatrick McLoughlin is ever alert to blockages in the nation’s arteries. With many of its mainline services currently behind schedule, the government’s branch line minister came to the Commons to show everyone how a timetable should work. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin understands all too well that you can make a cancer patient wait weeks for an appointment, but if it’s standing room only on commuter services from St Albans, then there will be hell to pay.

Mail Online

• Woman's scarf got caught in London Underground train doors and dragged along the platform The driver was unaware that the woollen knitted scarf the passenger was wearing around her neck was trapped and started to move the Piccadilly line train at Holborn station in central London.

Network Rail

• Adlington bridge to reopen early as electrification upgrade work progressesTwo bridges in the Chorley area will reopen this week after being rebuilt by Network Rail as part of a £1bn+ investment in the railway in the north of England.
• Manchester Victoria station's Metrolink stop to be completed in early 2015The planned upgrade of the Metrolink stop at Manchester Victoria, which forms a key element of Network Rail’s redevelopment of the iconic city centre station, is now set to be completed in early 2015.

Journal Live

• Full steam ahead at Newcastle College's Rail Academy for next generation of engineersThe state-of-the-art £5m training facility is the first of its kind in the North East and opened its doors to more than 70 students in September

London Evening Standard

• Tunnel Vision: meet the team that are 'future-proofing' London's tubes Tucked behind the Euston Road, the London offices of design consultancy PriestmanGoode are buzzing. The firm responsible for the revamp of London’s Tube trains only moved in recently and the walls remain bare. The staff are too busy to decorate. Since their design was unveiled by Boris Johnson earlier this month, the phones haven’t stopped ringing. ‘The news was embargoed until 10am,’ says Anna Meyer, the agency’s perky communications manager. ‘The first call came in at 10.01.’

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

• Rail problems expected to continue due to derailed train in GatesheadHourly train services between Newcastle and Sunderland face disruption after train derails

Other Regional Press

• New light for signal boxesTwo railway signal boxes earmarked for demolition in the Deepings appear to have been saved after political intervention.

Railnews

• 'Crucial' HS2 supply chain summit in Manchester The construction industry is being advised to prepare for one of the world's largest projects -- the construction of HS2. The first phase between London and the West Midlands, and possibly onwards to Crewe or Stoke, will involve contracts worth £10 billion. 800 delegates from around 500 firms will converge on Manchester Central conference centre today to hear from HS2 Ltd about what will be needed from industry. The transport secretary is describing today's event as 'crucial'.