Tabla de contenidos para Issue 1027 en RAIL

IS an all-rail pass a possibility? Or a pipe dream? Our cover of just two issues ago led on train operating companies’ further moves into open access, and how it could offer them a new life after nationalisation. The cover image showed the Prime Minister and his new Transport Secretary at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe facility, where they talked up the government’s role in the latest rolling stock orders - for open access services. This growth in private service plans is against a backdrop of renationalisation - not necessarily a contradiction in itself, as you can have both. But Peter Plisner looks at how the government has been backing the growing plans for open access, and to what extent that could lead to a potential clash between public and private approaches…

THE Transport Secretary’s stance on open access “suggests the bar for new applications is being made harder to clear”. That’s the view of Rail Partners Chief Executive Andy Bagnall, after Heidi Alexander wrote to Office of Rail and Road (ORR) Chair Declan Collier expressing her concerns about the impact of open access operations on both taxpayers and the rail network. In her letter, Alexander said a balance needed to be struck between their benefits and against potential revenue abstraction and taxpayers paying for shortfalls in network costs. She told Collier: “While open access operators pay variable access charges to Network Rail to cover the direct costs incurred running their trains on the network, unlike government-contracted operators they do not fully cover the costs of fixed track access charges towards long-term…

Construction of a 14,500-tonne box structure, designed to carry the new HS2 line beneath the A46 Kenilworth Bypass, has reached a significant milestone. More than 120 concrete beams, ranging from 13 to 24 metres in length, have been lifted into place by three giant cranes to form the top of the structure. The operation was completed by engineers ahead of schedule in just 14 days. To minimise disruption to traffic, the box is being built off-site and will later be slid into position under the A46 using a unique jacking mechanism. Despite this, HS2 and its partners cannot avoid road closures, and have confirmed that the road will be closed for two weekends in February (February 7/14). HS2 Ltd Senior Project Manager Vicki Lee said: “We understand that road closures…

Siemens Mobility has been awarded four contracts worth £560 million with HS2 Ltd to deliver rail infrastructure projects as part of the Rail Systems Alliance. The company will be responsible for the implementation of trackside Automatic Train Operation over European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2. Once implemented, it will be the first time for a high-speed rail network, enabling semiautomatic train operations. It will also be responsible for: delivery and maintenance of an engineering management system that will enable real-time control and monitoring of railway equipment; operational telecoms and security systems for the entire HS2 route; and (in a joint venture with Costain Ltd) high-voltage power supply systems for the HS2 route. Rob Morris, Joint CEO at Siemens Mobility UKI, said: “HS2 is going to transform rail travel in…

A ballot for strike action will take place at Hull Trains, after an argument broke out between the operator and drivers’ union ASLEF over the treatment of one of its drivers. ASLEF is calling for the driver, fired by FirstGroup’s Hull Trains after raising a safety concern, to be reinstated. However, Hull Trains said that it has put safety first regarding the case. It added that plans would be put into place regarding the strike action, should it go ahead. The argument arose after a driver shared information about their own workload and a previous incident, during a company briefing about fatigue. After an investigation, Hull Trains management felt the information provided about the incident breached health and safety protocol, and dismissed the driver. RAIL understands that the driver had…

The estimated cost of replacing London’s Docklands Light Railway’s ‘B23’ train fleet has risen close to £1 billion. There is also still no date as to when they will enter service, despite large numbers of the air-conditioned fleet having been completed at CAF’s Spanish factory and awaiting delivery to the UK. News of a £35 million increase to £942m has been announced to a Transport for London programmes and investment committee meeting, with the explanation withheld as commercially sensitive. TfL declined to answer RAIL’s question of when they will enter service, saying it is “exploring options to introduce them as soon as possible, alongside implementing solutions to the legacy signalling issues”. While it is unclear whether the current challenges will be fully overcome during 2025, eight years after the procurement…

More than 50,000 passenger journeys have been made on the reopened Northumberland Line in its first month. The route between Newcastle and Ashington welcomed customers for the first time since 1964 on December 15, after a £298.5 million project to restore services. This includes more than 3,500 on its opening day and 16,000 in the first week. Paul Henry, Programme Manager for the route, said: “It has been fantastic to welcome thousands of passengers on board, after we spent years planning and preparing for the opening. “The line is already making an impact in the region and opening up new opportunities.” Glen Sanderson, leader of Northumberland County Council, described the number as a “great milestone”, adding: “It shows just how much need there was for this line.”…

IT will be 2027 at the earliest before Tyne & Wear Metro’s transformation is complete, with only 15% of its drivers so far trained on the new Stadler Class 555 units. The system is facing some major challenges in the coming months. Its reduced-frequency timetable is set to continue because it has had to lay aside almost a quarter of its 40-year rolling stock. Many units have suffered terminal failure, and others are being kept going by recovering spare parts. On-time performance on the Metro has improved recently to 75% (compared with 61% a year earlier), because fewer services are running. But the next set of figures is expected to dip sharply, owing to major disruption last month caused by the enforced closure of tunnels which effectively cut the system…

At-seat power sockets, LED lighting, and a new blue livery are all planned for Southeastern’s Class 376s. The operator has announced a ‘mid-life refresh’ for the 36 electric multiple units, which have been operating its Metro services since 2004. The refurbishment will be carried out in two stages, with LED lighting and the Southeastern blue livery applied at Ashford Maintenance Centre. The first unit is due to emerge from there in the spring. Meanwhile, the interior refresh, which includes refurbished seats, will start in the summer at Grove Park depot in south-east London. “The mid-life refresh will deliver better journeys for our customers and keep these trains in tip-top condition for years to come,” said Southeastern Engineering Director Mark Johnson. “This builds on the upgrades across our other fleets, and…

THE two diesel multiple units involved in the Talerddig head-on collision in October (158824/841) are still at Machynlleth depot, where they remain as part of the investigation into what happened. Given that the Class 158s are due to be retired in the next few months, there is little likelihood of both being repaired. But it is possible that the ‘good’ vehicles of each unit could be used either to form a hybrid unit or to strengthen other Class 158s to three-car sets. Transport for Wales has confirmed that apart from the six Class 153/5 ‘bike units’, which will be retained for working on the Central Wales line in pairs with other Class 153s, all Class 150s, ‘153/0s’, ‘153/9s’ and ‘158s’ will be returned to their owners once all the Class…

Two off-lease Class 68s that Direct Rail Services rehired for short-term cover for the Railhead Treatment Train season (68024/025) have been returned to Beacon Rail for a second time. Fellow off-lease locomotive 68019 has been undertaking main line tests as part of the hand-back procedure. Meanwhile, 68019-032 could find a new lease of life with Chiltern Railways if its proposal to take ex-TransPennine Express Mk 5 coaches comes to fruition. And after more than two years sidelined at Carlisle Kingmoor, 88008 Ariadne finally returned to traffic in late December. After undertaking initial light engine tests, it joined 68034 Rail Riders 2020 on a Coatbridge to Daventry intermodal train which was diverted via the East Coast Main Line.…

Contributions for by far the UK’s most published column by the same author - now in its 44th year - are most welcome from all sources. Personal observations, society magazines, website printouts and live links, transport group newsletters and media cuttings (with dates, please) are sought to maintain topicality. Please email your contributions direct to hj@howardjohnston.co.uk, or rail@bauermedia.co.uk WESTERN Acton: Part of the yard is being electrified to Acton Wells Junction, to allow Elizabeth line Class 345s to be reversed during the construction of Old Oak Common HS2 station. Norton Fitzwarren: The West Somerset Railway is seeking a £137,000 government grant to prepare the strategic business case for running main line services to Minehead. They cannot happen before the end of 2026 because improvements are needed on the route to…

2025 will be a make-or-break year for High Speed 2. The project needs a comprehensive reset, according to the Department for Transport, which could not tell MPs of the Public Accounts Committee on December 19 how much Phase 1 (London-Birmingham) would cost. DfT Permanent Secretary Dame Bernadette Kelly told the committee that she had no agreed cost estimate for HS2. The figure she had from HS2 Ltd of £54 billion-£66bn was not assured, she said, which means that it’s not a figure with which DfT agrees. Her frank admission puts into perspective comments from Rail Minister Lord Hendy at the earlier Transport Select Committee on December 11, when he replied to a question about Phase 2 by saying that Phase 1 must be fixed first. This strongly suggests that Phase…

WHENEVER a new timetable appears, it’s natural to check your train - whether that’s the one taking you to work or back from town after a weekly night out. When LNER dropped the long-awaited December 2025 timetable (RAIL 1026), I did just that. Let’s look at what happens to today’s weekday 0702 from York to London King’s Cross, which arrives in Cubitt’s trainshed at 0908. From December 2025, it becomes the 0700, which arrives at 0917. With the same calling pattern of just Peterborough, it will take 11 minutes longer. OK - I wasn’t expecting a longer journey time from a timetable that’s been widely trailed as an improvement. Then I turned to a train I never catch, but which is today’s fastest southbound service. It’s the flyer that leaves…

Some final thoughts from the team at RAIL @RAIL Send contributions to: mike.wright@bauermedia.co.uk We really are a careless bunch. Hot on the heels of Hull Trains announcing the most unusual personal items that have been left behind on its services over the past year (Stop & Examine, RAIL 1026), Northern has published its own quirky collection. The operator says it has recorded more than 32,690 cases of lost property since July 2022, with (again) phones and laptops the most common items to be left behind. As for the most unusual: a cupboard, crutches, an ironing board, a 10kg box of chicken breasts, a wig, a prosthetic leg… and a hamster - without a cage! Although not all left by the same person, of course. One customer left their bike on…

THE railway line linking London and the South West is “sorely in need of investment” to offset the cancellation of major road projects, according to a new study. Within weeks of winning the General Election in July 2024, the government halted a planned tunnel for the A303 past Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. It stated that the £2 billion scheme was “poor value for money”. It also stopped other road improvements, ending the long-planned upgrade of the A303 to a dual carriageway ‘expressway’ between the M3 at Basingstoke and the M5 at Taunton. The new Connecting South West England study recommends improving the parallel West of England railway line through Salisbury, “in the absence of a plan based on road widening”. It has been compiled by respected transport consultant Greengauge 21, on…

More details of FirstGroup’s proposed London Paddington-Paignton service have emerged. In forms submitted to Network Rail for industry consultation, the operator has outlined the calling patterns for the Lumo-branded operation which, if approved by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), will begin in May 2028. FirstGroup wants to run five return services each weekday, with four of those via Bath and one routed via Bristol Parkway. An additional Up morning peak service would run between Highbridge & Burnham and Paddington, via Bristol Parkway, and a Down evening peak service to Exeter St Davids via Bristol Temple Meads. A morning peak service from Paignton to Bristol Temple Meads is also proposed. A spokesman told RAIL the peak-time services were tailored to the availability of access along the Great Western Main…

THE majority of the assets and operations of Harry Needle Railroad Company (HNRC) have been sold to Swietelsky Babcock Rail (SBR). It comes a few months after HNRC had agreed to provide locomotives to the company, which is mainly involved in supporting and delivering infrastructure projects. The full disclosure of the deal has yet to be made public, but RAIL understands it includes some of the Class 08/09 spot hire shunter fleet, the majority of HNRC’s Class 20s, and Class 37s. It also includes the Worksop Yard and shed owned by HNRC. The Worksop Up yard which HNRC leased for DB Cargo will also transfer to a SBR operational site. HNRC’s Class 25s, ‘27s’, ‘33s’ and ‘47s’, plus a handful of Class 20s, have not been included in the deal…

MANAGERS at CrossCountry say they have achieved the aims of its three-month reduced timetable. Services were cut on certain routes between August 10 and November 9 2024, to help the operator tackle a backlog of driver training that had affected reliability. The move had been signed off by then-Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, although she added a footnote that CrossCountry’s performance was not acceptable and that the reduced timetable was not a satisfactory response. Haigh also said the operator must agree a Remedial Plan to improve services. Speaking in mid-December, senior managers at CrossCountry were optimistic that they were achieving the aims of both the timetable and the remedial plan. “We have delivered everything we said we would,” said XC Stakeholder Manager Richard Gibson. “We have exceeded driver training hours. We…

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has announced his retirement, saying it’s “time for change”. The 63-year-old has served as the union’s General Secretary since 2021, succeeding Mick Cash. A qualified electrician, Lynch worked in construction before helping to set up the Electrical and Plumbing Industries Union (EPIU) in 1988. He joined the RMT after he began working for Eurostar in 1993. “It has been a privilege to serve this union for over 30 years in all capacities, but now it is time for change,” he said. “This union has been through a lot of struggles in recent years, and I believe that it has only made it stronger despite all the odds.” Since the summer of 2022, the RMT has been involved in several national strikes as part of a…

The Class 395 Javelin unit that went through the end of a siding in late November is still awaiting removal. The electric multiple unit (395008) overshot the siding at the western end of Ramsgate maintenance depot on November 28. A planned recovery on December 28-29 was postponed due to resource constraints, and no new removal date has been arranged. A Southeastern spokesman told RAIL that to prevent further disruption, the priority is “to try to match the recovery to an existing line block in the area”. While the unit remains out of action, three Southeastern services each day run as a single six-carriage train, rather than two units making a 12-car formation.…

PAY-AS-YOU-GO ticketing on suburban rail lines in and around Manchester will come into force by early 2026, as part of the city’s plans to take control of eight lines and integrate them into the existing Bee Network of buses and trams. “There will be joined-up ticketing between buses and trams, with daily and weekly caps. Then we will roll in the integration of the eight lines in Manchester, which naturally align with the metro-style service for the region,” Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Transport Commissioner Vernon Everitt told RAIL. “The hardware will go in next year, so people will be able to tap in and go in early 2026. The customer experience element is of equal importance to the service enhancements that we are planning.” Everitt added: “The important thing is…

Work has begun to build a third platform at Salford Crescent station. The year-long closure of University Road West, which runs parallel to the station, began on January 13. Network Rail said the new platform will ease “traffic jams” through the station on the Manchester-Preston line. Salford Crescent will close for several weekends between March and September 2025 as part of the £21 million project. Ben Porter, Network Rail sponsor, said: “Passengers will have smoother, more reliable journeys”. The work will be completed in 2026.…

The University of Derby and Sperry Rail have launched a three-year project aimed at enhancing railway safety using artificial intelligence (AI). Funded by Innovate UK, the project is part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership and will focus on developing AI systems to automatically detect cracks in railway tracks. The project aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of railway inspections, eventually creating an automated system to identify false detections and provide better track analysis. Dr Alaa AlZoubi, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Derby, who is leading the project, said: “Sperry Rail are world leaders in rail health solutions. Our partnership to develop advanced AI for railway surface inspections highlights our commitment to innovation and strong academic-industry collaboration.”…

More of the 27 Angel Trains Class 175s destined for Great Western Railway have been moved, despite the contract to formally take the fleet of 16 three-car and 11 two-car units not yet being signed off by the Department for Transport. On January 7, Europhoenix 37218 and 37901 Mirrlees Pioneer took 175103 as the 1100 Landore-Ely for storage at the Potter Group site, arriving at just past 0300 the following morning. Having delivered the unit, the two Class 37s were joined by classmate 37884 Cepheus to move barrier vehicles 6346 and 9525 as the 1628 Ely Papworth-Derby RTC. As this issue of RAIL went to press, 175006 was due to follow from Swansea to Ely, thus becoming the last Class 175 to leave Landore.…

The penultimate GB Railfreight Class 66 to be added to its fleet (66315) entered traffic on December 16. That leaves 66316 as the last of the type to be put into traffic with a UK operator. It only arrived in early December, so is not expected to be ready for work for at least three months. On December 31, GBRf’s latest Class 69 (69014) undertook some more main line test runs from Longport to Bescot and back, with 66724 Drax Power Station as insurance. Still in undercoat, both it and 69013 should move to Eastleigh soon for repainting.…

Even though new Bombardier Class 730/2 Aventras have yet to enter passenger service with London Northwestern Railway, several of the operator’s Siemens Class 350/2s are being returned to Porterbrook. On December 28, 350240/251/253 ran empty from Northampton EMUD to Wembley Yard for store, where they will join 350231/236/244/245 which are already off lease. However, 350238/255 have re-entered service with LNWR, to cover for 350113, 350233/242/254 and 350377, which were all damaged by floodwater while at Northampton station on November 25. They are expected to remain with LNWR until the summer.…

THE government is grappling with the consequences of a moribund economy where growth has disappeared, despite it being a priority if future state funding commitments are to be met. At least rail passenger numbers and revenue are continuing a revival that has brought demand to within 97% of pre-COVID levels. And there is every prospect that long-term planning assumptions, as part of earlier Network Rail Route Utilisation Studies which forecast passenger numbers would grow by 21/2% annually, will continue to be valid. This will bring back capacity enhancement projects and improve the business case for new services. As always with statistics, varying outcomes can be demonstrated. But the headline figure published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) for the three months from July-September 2024 showed that 433 million…

QUESTIONS remain unanswered on how rail freight will ultimately feature on the new East Coast Main Line timetable, as planners continue to try and weave many of the paths needed onto the line. Last month, passenger operators agreed to a new timetable after months of negotiations. But Rail Freight Group Director General Maggie Simpson believes the new timetable shows that the government will prioritise its own needs over others, once Great British Railways has been established. “I think the biggest worry now is what could happen under GBR if the right safeguards are not put in place. It has always made us very nervous,” she said. “Because if you create a unified central body and tell it to love its own trains, then that’s what it is going to do.”…

Former HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser has announced the creation of his own consultancy firm, six months after retiring from his role with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). Prosser has founded Double O Safety Consulting Ltd, which will work with clients in Saudi Arabia, South Africa and South America as well as the UK. He has also been appointed as the new independent chair of the Porterbrook Safety Committee. Prosser told RAIL he would be working with companies, not just in the rail industry, on training and processes for investigating incidents, as well as assisting with investigations himself. Raising concerns about the amount of time it takes the rail industry to report on accidents, he said: “I want to try and encourage better incident investigation in…

Around 100 tonnes of spoil and debris fell onto the line during a landslip between Shrewsbury and Wrexham on January 4. The line was shut until January 8 while engineers cleared the landslip, which is thought to have been caused by excess groundwater. A Network Rail spokesman said: “The underlying geology can be considered an aquifer, and we had a particularly wet summer. The prolonged wet weather appears to have led to the slope degrading. “The slope was last inspected up to two years ago, when there was no movement or anything else that indicated concern. “As a temporary measure, we have put in barriers to prevent any further material from reaching the track. We’re going to install cameras to monitor the slope while we establish a controlled response to…

Work to improve Bradford’s Forster Square and Interchange stations has been completed, as the city becomes the UK’s City of Culture for 2025. A new seating area has replaced a taxi rank at the front of Interchange, while the ramp up to the station has been repaved. The station has also been repainted and deep-cleaned. At Forster Square, new panels, artwork and lighting now decorate the arches leading down to the main entrance. There are also aspirations to erect lighting in the stone arches that run alongside the station.…

A railway bridge was struck by lorries twice in a little over two hours, just four days after a third HGV had been left on its side at the same location. The bridge over Summer Lane at Erdington, which carries the Cross-City North line between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley, was hit at around 1000 on Tuesday January 7. The bridge had to be inspected by Network Rail before it could be reopened, after the driver failed to stop. But just two hours later, at 1210, a trailer’s roof was ripped off and left hanging over the road when a second lorry was driven into the bridge. The bridge was closed for a second time, reopening at 1345. The two incidents came soon after an HGV was left…

Transport for London is pushing ahead with its £1.9 billion plan to revitalise London Underground’s Bakerloo Line, despite the government having yet to give the scheme its official backing. TfL has revealed that the projected cost has already risen by £1.64bn over the past year, warning that it will cost much more if approval is not given soon to tag 34 new trains onto the current Siemens order for the Piccadilly Line. Design work is under way for a new Bakerloo depot and sidings, possibly at London Road alongside Lambeth North station, to service the replacements for the current 1972 stock, which is in such a poor state that the service timetable has been cut from 22 to 20 trains. Already 15 years past its design life, it may have…

A flurry of movements of electric multiple units, undertaken by Rail Operations Group Class 37s, have taken place. Stored Angel Trains units 465921 and 466005 were moved to Ely by 37884 Cepheus on December 23, while on the same day Varamis units 321338/342/428 were moved to Northampton under their own power, for store pending a possible return into traffic. On January 3, 37884 moved ex-Transport for Wales bi-mode unit 769421 as the 1047 Long Marston-Crewe TMD. On the same day, 37611 Denise undertook a Class 387/1 transfer move when it moved Great Western Railway’s 387169 as the 1035 Ilford EMUD-Reading Traincare Depot, returning as the 1353 Reading Traincare Depot-Ilford EMUD hauling Heathrow Express’s 387131. The same locomotive was in action on January 4, taking Transport for London’s 378225 as the…

A much-delayed rail improvement project has gone “disastrously wrong” and is causing serious damage to the local community, according to campaigners. Botley Road, adjacent to Oxford station, has been closed since April 2023 with no end to the work in sight. A £161 million Network Rail scheme to improve the station with a new entrance, and to make it ready for East West Rail services to start later this year, has severed one of the major roads into the city. Local businesses have repeatedly complained of lost trade. A large collection of personal impact statements, compiled by author and local resident Julian Le Vay, has been published under the title ‘Network Hell’. Le Vay described the community as “angry but powerless”. Network Rail acknowledged the delay was “frustrating” and said…

THE privatised train companies made a mistake by taking a hardline in relation to Labour’s plans to bring operations back into the government fold. Rail Partners, set up by a consortium of various private rail interests, took a particularly aggressive line towards the plan, with chief executive Andy Bagnall even attending the Labour Party conference to argue the case that the policy should be reversed. There was never any chance of that, and the organisation will be sent to that scrapyard in the sky to join the likes of Connex, Sea Containers, and numerous other such rail companies. FirstGroup, a bit cannier than some of the others, has seen the way the wind is blowing with the demise of franchising, and has put its eggs in the open access basket.…

Another year … and another annual Stop & Examine quiz for you to tackle. This year, we’re asking you to cast your minds back to 2024, to see if you were paying attention. But while our questions cover some of the news stories that featured in RAIL in the past 12 months, our fabulous prizes both celebrate 200 years of railway history, as the industry prepares to mark Railway 200… ■ Bradley’s Railway Guide: A Journey Through Two Centuries of British Railway History 1825-2025 (courtesy of Profile Books - profilebooks.com). In 1825, the Stockton & Darlington company strode into history with the opening of the world’s first public steam railway. What the S&DR had pioneered soon picked up speed, transforming lives and landscapes, connecting far-flung corners of the nation, and…

WELCOME to the RAIL Crossword. In this issue, our successful solver can follow the history of tramways in Britain and Ireland, courtesy of Pen & Sword Books (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk). There have been passenger tramways in Britain for 150 years, but it is a story of rise, decline, and a steady return. Trams have come and gone, been loved and hated, popular and derided, and considered both wildly futuristic and hopelessly outdated by politicians, planners and the public alike. A century ago, trams were at their peak, used by everyone all over the country and a mark of civic pride. But by the 1930s they were in decline and giving way to cheaper and more flexible buses and trolleybuses. And by the 1950s, all the major systems were being replaced. A gradual…