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

Thursday, 26 February 2015

Cogitamus

• HS2 High speed rail – what’s taking so long?In January 2009, the Department for Transport released a document entitled ‘Britain’s Transport Infrastructure – High Speed Two’ which proposed an entirely new high-speed railway line from London to the West Midlands and the North. Now, more than six years later, with not an inch of track laid and only sporadic coverage of the project in the media, it would be easy to conclude that HS2 had long-since been consigned to the policy dustbin. In this, the first of a series of articles about HS2, we seek to provide an overview of the lengthy legal and political process intended to… More → The ...

BBC News

• Lincoln to Nottingham: Worst service to get more trainsRail passengers travelling between Nottingham and Lincoln are to get extra trains and quicker journeys following funding of £2m, it has been announced.
• Plan to upgrade Inverness Railway StationAbellio has committed to an upgrade of Inverness Railway Station which will cost between £2m and £3m.
• RMT members back First Hull Trains strike over sackingRail workers have voted to take strike action in protest at the "unwarranted" redundancy of a colleague.
• VIDEO: PM wishes Ed Balls a Happy BirthdayIn response to a question about faster rail links in East Anglia, the PM attempts a gentle dig at Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.

Network Rail

• Network Rail announces significant investment in its contingent labour workforceNetwork Rail will be awarding a series of contracts with contingent labour suppliers to provide workers across the network with a total minimum spend of £450m over five years.

London Evening Standard

• Take the Baker-Lewisham line: the new homes along London's next big Tube line extension from Elephant & Castle to Hayes Homebuyers can get in early on the capital's next big Tube project and find good-value homes in south-east London postcodes along the proposed Bakerloo line extension from Elephant & Castle to Hayes.
• Man 'rode horse into train station, launched into racist tirade and threatened to whip staff' A man on horseback charged into a station booking hall before racially abusing staff and threatening them with a riding crop, the British Transport Police has said.

Doncaster Free Press

• Train chaos after vehicle hits Mexborough railway bridgeTrains travelling in and out of Doncaster are currently being disrupted, following a vehicle hitting a railway bridge in Mexborough.

Other Regional Press

• Candidate raises possibility of second trackDiscussions are taking place for a second track to be added to Frome's railway line that could see the town linked to London.

Rail Magazine

• Improved accessibility for passengers on Great Northern trainsBetter wheelchair facilities to be provided on services to Peterborough, London and Cambridge.
• Freightliner Group sold for £490 millionGenesee & Wyoming to buy Freightliner Group. Deal to close in first quarter of 2015.
• Virgin Trains invests in local dairy farmersVirgin Trains agrees to only supply locally-sourced milk on its train services.

Other News Sources

• Labour turns up the heat on private sectorShadow transport secretary says Labour will ‘bin’ rail franchising system and calls Stagecoach executives ‘boneheads’ for stance on bus regulation     The Labour Party has indicated that it would begin the process of reforming bus and rail industry legislation to provide options for greater public sector control immediately “on Day 1â€� if elected to power in May’s general election. The comments came in the wake of an interview with shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher which contained Labour’s hardest rhetoric yet on the perceived failings of the current system. “I’m adamant about...
• Crossrail worker was crushed to death in 'exclusion zone'A Crossrail engineer killed while working on the £15bn project had entered an “exclusion zoneâ€� where concrete was still setting shortly before he was crushed to death.