Local Rail: do we need a new business model? When: 14.00-15.30 Friday 17 July The discussion will look at how local rail services can best be secured and developed in the light of the Covid-19 impacts and the legacy position from the pandemic and lockdown. Panellists: Malcolm Holmes, executive director, West Midlands Rail Executive Nicola Forsdike, rail consultant Nigel Harris, the Railway Consultancy Paul Salveson, rail commentator To attend, visit:

Britain’s railways are going through a tumultuous period, with fundamental questions being asked about the way they are owned and managed. Further uncertainty is added by the political chaos of Brexit and the appointment of a new Prime Minister, who may have different priorities than his predecessor. And could a General Election be that far away?  The Rail Reform Group is a small network of rail professionals. We are non-party political and not linked to any corporate group. We&rsquo

Oxfordshire County Council has published cost estimates for 12 priority transport projects to support the huge housing and employment growth proposed for the county.  The total estimated cost of the projects is £1.610bn with the  most expensive being the  £570m Didcot to Oxford rail capacity improvement. Major works to increase the capacity of Oxford rail station and replace the Botley Road bridge immediately south of the station have a price tag of £291m. The

The DfT is consulting on changes to the design of the HS2 phase 2b route in Cheshire that would facilitate the operation of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) services to/from Liverpool. The consultation proposes allowing for the passive provision of two junctions on the HS2 line at High Leigh in Cheshire. If built, one would allow future Liverpool-Manchester NPR trains to use the HS2 line to access Manchester. The other would allow future London-Liverpool HS2 trains to access a new NPR rou

The winners of the 2019 everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been revealed. Over the past 12 years the everywoman awards have championed women in the transport and logistics industries, showcasing and celebrating the sectors’ most exceptional role models. The winners were announced at Grosvenor House in London on 13 June. While many of the winners were drawn from the passenger transport, infrastructure and freight sectors, the world of walking was also recognised at this y

Will it be built or won’t it? City AM newspaper has assessed the likelihood of HS2 going ahead under each of the candidates to lead the Conservative Party. In order of the likelihood (according to the bookies) of them being our next great leader, this is the paper’s best guess: Boris Johnson: would prefer a trans-Pennine link; Michael Gove: sceptical; Jeremy Hunt: a strong supporter; Andrea Leadsom: would scrap it; Dominic Raab: recently said ‘I’m not sure yet’, wh

Transport for the North’s proposed Northern Powerhouse Rail project may have to be axed if phase one of HS2 goes over budget, the House of Lords economic affairs committee has warned.  The committee, chaired by Conservative peer Lord Forsyth, has just published a highly critical report into the HS2 project.  It does not believe that the full Y-network from London to Manchester and Leeds can be built with the £55.7bn budget.  “The costs do not appear to be unde

Projects submitted by local authorities were among the winning entries in a competition to identify transport schemes that should be funded if HS2 were scrapped. The ‘Great British Transport Competition’ was organised by pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) in conjunction with prominent critics of HS2, including the Labour peer Lord Berkeley and quantity surveyor Michael Byng. Former rail industry manager Chris Stokes, who is also a vehement critic of the Government&rs

The Government has refused planning permission for a  rail-served freight terminal on green belt land in south-east London. Roxhill Developments Ltd wanted to build the facility adjacent to the Southeastern train depot at Slade Green in Erith, on the boundary of the London Borough of Bexley and Dartford Borough Council in Kent. In 2007 the Government approved an application for a strategic rail freight interchange (SRFI) on the land, in recognition that there was an absence of such facili

Transport for Wales has confirmed that new tram-trains for the Core Valley Lines will not have on-board toilets, despite First Minister Mark Drakeford telling the Senedd this week that toilets will be provided on Wales’ new rolling stock. Rhondda AM Leanne Wood asked when “frustrated” passengers could expect to see new rolling stock on the Cardiff-Treherbert line and whether a member of TfW staff had been correct to tell her that the new carriages would not feature toilets. D

Residents campaigning for the reinstatement of a railway foot crossing told a public inquiry last week that rail safety does not exist in isolation from other considerations. The crossing on the Llandudno branch in North Wales provided a pedestrian route from houses and shops in Deganwy to the Conwy Estuary foreshore, a cycle route and the Wales Coast Path. Network Rail closed it in 2011 after a train narrowly missed striking a teenager. In 2015 Conwy County Borough Council made an Order for t

The first of a new fleet of driverless electric trains for the Glasgow Subway sits alongside one of the 1970s trainsets following delivery by Swiss manufacturer Stadler. The new vehicles will undergo testing before being handed over to system operator Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. Transport Scotland is contributing £246m to the £288m subway modernisation programme. The vehicle’s delivery comes as Glasgow’s Connectivity Commission calls for a massive rail investme

The rail industry is calling for Transport for London-style rail concessions to replace franchising in the biggest urban areas of England.  The proposal features in the Rail Delivery Group’s submission to the Government’s Williams Review, which is considering the future structure of the rail industry. All passenger and freight rail companies are members of the RDG, as well as Network Rail and HS2. The RDG says the current system of franchising should be replaced by different t

Banning diesel freight trains could worsen inter-urban road congestion and lead to thousands of extra lorry kilometres in London, according to a study for the National Infrastructure Commission. The NIC has recommended completely decarbonising the road and rail freight sectors by 2050 to support the Government’s Climate Change Act targets (LTT 26 Apr). It is confident that batteries or hydrogen fuel cell technology will enable  road freight to decarbonise by this date but sees less p

The gruesome saga of Crossrail and its 40 brand-new trains sitting in sidings at Old Oak Common in West London quietly rusting until 2021 at least, not to mention their nearly 500 drivers with little to do, tells us much about rail project completion dates and budgets (‘Crossrail opening: 2020 or 2021’ LTT 26 Apr). It is not good enough to say it’ll be great when it’s done and everyone will forget; this scale of incompetence must not be forgotten. It is naïve to thi

A new car park has been opened at Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire to meet an increased demand for spaces by local commuters. The 112-space surface facility is located close to the main entrance of the station, which is managed by London Northwestern Railway. Car Park 2 has been created by parking company Saba in partnership with GHW Developments Users can purchase daily, weekly and weekend tickets. Customers can pay for parking either at pay & display machines, using the Saba Parking UK

Plans for the redevelopment of Taunton station have moved a step further as Great Western Railway (GWR) and construction company John Sisk & Son finalised contracts for the multi-million pound regeneration scheme. GWR is working with Somerset West and Taunton Council and the Heart of South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to deliver the scheme. Improvements include a new multi-storey car park, ticket office and entrance as well as additional bike spaces and improved bus and taxi int

London’s transport  commissioner Mike Brown this week rejected calls from the London Assembly’s transport committee to resign for his part in the Crossrail saga. The committee’s new report into the project’s delayed completion and escalating cost concludes that Brown downplayed the problems in briefings given to the mayor, Sadiq Khan, last year.  Crossrail Ltd, a company wholly-owned by TfL, announced last summer that the tunnel between Paddington and Abbey Wo

The first of a fleet of rebuilt London Underground trains has entered service on the national rail network. A two-car VivaRail’s Class 230 ‘D Train’ began operating this week for London North Western Railways (part of West Midlands Trains) on the Bedford to Bletchley line. The former District Line stock has been refurbished and fitted with a diesel engine

On 13 April right-wing political magazine The Spectator published an interview with chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, in which she made a passing reference to the HS2 high-speed rail project that generated a significant amount of ‘follow on’ media interest in other publications. “Might she be tempted to save money by abolishing HS2?” her Spectator interviewee asked, adding that: “Truss had previously hinted that the troubled £56bn high-speed rail pro

Reimagining Waverley: preliminary proposals for a major redevelopment of Edinburgh Waverley station have been published for consultation by Network Rail and the City of Edinburgh Council. An upper mezzanine floor could be built featuring retailing and a new concourse, and there could be better street level access from all sides. Consultation closes on 26 April. Visit: http://tinyurl.com/y4o2558y

Transport for London has  made a new pitch for the ‘metroisation’ of commuter services in south and south-east London, with turn up and go frequencies and higher capacity trains. TfL already manages much of the capital’s rail services through the London Overground concession held by Arriva, and the Crossrail concession held by MTR. But most rail services in south London remain part of rail franchises managed by the DfT.  TfL’s strategic case for metroisation s

Councils in Cambridgeshire are at odds over the best route for the Bedford to Cambridge section of the East West Rail (EWR) project.  The Government’s East West Rail company has just ended a consultation on five route options across Cambridgeshire, two taking a northerly route via Cambourne and three taking a southerly route via Bassingbourn (LTT 01 Feb).  All route options would enter Cambridge from the south, serving a proposed new Cambridge South railway station on the West

West Yorkshire Combined Authority has voiced concern about the DfT’s emerging plans for the Transpennine rail upgrade, saying they may not meet the journey time and capacity aspirations of Transport for the North and local authorities.  Alan Reiss, director of policy, strategy and communication, reminded WYCA’s transport committee that transport secretary Chris Grayling had been expected to announce details of the first stage of the upgrade programme last April, with delivery e

A new car park has been opened at a steam railway’s station just in time for the start of its 2019 season. The Broadway Railway Station car park officially opened on 5 March in the presence of civic dignitaries and volunteers from the Wychavon area and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR). The GWSR reopened Broadway station over Easter 2018 after almost 60 years of closure. Since then it has carried more than 144,000 passengers, an increase of over 42% compared with the p

Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram is setting up a commission to explore the idea of a new rail station in Liverpool city centre to accommodate HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) services. The mayor said Liverpool Lime Street would not be able to cope with the extra services that the two proposed major rail projects would bring to the city.  The commission will be chaired by Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale MBE, the chief executive of Everton Football Club. Sub-national tra

Malcolm Holmes (pictured) has been appointed executive director of the West Midlands Rail Executive, the trading name for local authority company West Midlands Rail Ltd, which was set up with the purpose of specifying and managing rail franchising for the West Midlands. Holmes has been performing the role in an interim capacity for several years. The council members of the rail executive are: Birmingham; Coventry; Dudley; Herefordshire; Northamptonshire; Sandwell; Solihull; Shropshire; Staffords

Contemporary and 1960s car parks, school streets schemes, charity fundraisers, cycle hubs and digital payment systems make up the eclectic list winners at the British Parking Awards 2019. The British Parking Awards have been presented annually by Parking Review magazine since 2002, and the awards ceremony organised by Landor LINKS is the social highlight of the parking calendar.The ceremony was compered by the comedian Shappi Khorsandi, who revealed that in being evicted first on I’m a Cel

Network Rail is re-examining a rail capacity scheme in South Wales that was started in 2015 but “paused” because of cost increases. The Welsh Government earmarked £38m for the Ebbw Vale frequency enhancement scheme in 2015 to enable Cardiff-Ebbw Vale frequencies to be increased from hourly to half-hourly. The project required the installation of seven miles of additional track along the Ebbw Vale branch line, which reopened in 2008.  Network Rail rapidly spent £28

A proposed tram-train service between Glasgow Airport and Glasgow city centre has been dropped because it would cause unacceptable disruption to existing rail services.  The plan would have seen a new rail spur built between the airport and Paisley where the tram-train vehicles would join the existing Network Rail tracks to Glasgow Central. The project was earmarked £138m from the £1.13bn Glasgow city region deal struck between councils, the UK and Scottish governments in 2014.

Proposed Sweeping reforms to Britain’s complex system of rail fares will allow local politicians to maximise the benefits of devolved rail powers, says the Rail Delivery Group. The RDG has just published its proposals to reform rail ticketing following a consultation held last year.   A two-stage approach to reform is proposed. First, the Government, industry and other stakeholders would work together to replace the outdated Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) with a new set of

The Slough to Windsor & Eton Central rail branch could be converted to become part of a mass rapid transit (MRT) system under plans being developed by Slough Borough Council.  The 2.8-mile single track branch is part of the Great Western Railway franchise, with trains operating to a 20-minute frequency.  But a new report for Slough Borough Council by consultant SNC Lavalin Atkins proposes that the branch should form part of a mass transit network for the borough.  The consu

On 22 February former transport secretary Andrew Adonis painted a dire picture of the post-Brexit landscape for transport vehicle manufacturing in the UK in The New European magazine. “Honda this week gave its 3,500 staff the same notice of closure – two years – as the UK gave of its intention to leave the EU,” he began. “Two years seems to be the going rate for deliberately planning an economic and social catastrophe. It takes much longer to build afresh. Witness t

Last year, MTR Corporation signalled its clear intention to develop opportunities under its Rail + Property model with the appointment of John Robinson, a speaker at the Rail Stations and Property Summit on February 27, as Head of Property for the European business. MTR Europe already runs rail services in Sweden through MTR Nordic, and has set the tone of its ambition by launching MYHeadsapp this week, a new travel app that sends personalised public transport updates to travellers in Stockholm

A six-week consultation to discuss possible developments around Crewe railway station has been launched by Cheshire East Council.  An action plan is being drawn up to manage development and support the regeneration of the site around the station ahead of HS2’s arrival, scheduled for 2027. This will help identify the most immediate opportunities around the railway station, and ensure that related growth and development is ‘plan-led’, says the council.  The action pl

Phase two of plans to transform Newcastle Central Station and the surrounding land will be considered by the city council next week. The programme would free up more space in concourses within the station, provide additional pedestrian entrances into the station, improve short and long stay parking and move the taxi rank into the existing short stay car park at the front of the station. The works would also pave the way for a new station multi-storey car park, commercial and residential housing

Hostility towards the HS2 project within the Cabinet is growing, according to media reports this week. Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, ‘HS2: The Great Train Robbery’, reported a Government source claiming ministers were “increasingly minded to kill-off” the project. One option being considered was only to build the London-West Midlands leg, it said.  Meanwhile, The Spectator quoted an unnamed minister saying: “In the next Tory leadership contest the w

A rail chord could be built in Medway, Kent, as part of a plan for a passenger service to a new town. The track could also enable some freight traffic to bypass lines in south London.  The chord would connect the freight-only branch serving the Isle of Grain on the Hoo Peninsula with the Gravesend-Strood line at Higham, enabling trains to access the branch from the east. Currently, the branch can only be accessed from the west via Hoo Junction. Medway Council wants to introduce a passenge

The Cardiff Capital Region Transport Authority (CCRTA) says that comparing the value of spending on rail versus other modes of transport is impossible because the available rail statistics are too general. Giving evidence to a National Assembly for Wales committee this week, CCRTA said: “It has been publicly stated that the value of the 15-year new Wales and Borders rail franchise will be in the region of £5bn.  “It is not known how this money will be distributed and use

A look at viability, funding and investment in railway stations and station-led development. By Michael Bray, Senior Associate in the real estate team, Burges Salmon There is an increasing trend to refurbish and redevelop our railway stations, ranging from the restoration of historical stations such as Wakefield Kirkgate, to landmark regional hubs and international gateways such as Birmingham New Street and King’s Cross St Pancras. Railway stations can be destinations in their o

Bolton station is to receive a £1m overhaul which will see the under-used Victorian building on platforms four and five refurbished in a bid to attract retail, enterprise and community use. The project will include new seating and signage, improved waiting rooms and toilets and pigeon netting to keep the space clean. The work is due to be completed by spring. Key to the transformation is the Bolton Station Community Development Partnership which embraced the project with some great ambiti

The waiting rooms at Leicester station have been refurbished, with new seating, departure screens, and free to use water filling stations for customers. East Midlands Trains has invested over £150,000 to improve facilities for customers using Leicester station including more than 50 seats in each waiting room and 32in departure board screens to make it easier for passengers to check train departures.  Rachel Rundell, Area Manager, Leicestershire for East Midlands Trains, said: &ldqu

Plans for a ‘super hub’ are being drawn up on the site of the Old Oak Common railway depot in north-west London. The high-speed rail station, due to open in 2026, would offer services to the Midlands, Scotland and the North and access to central London and Heathrow via Crossrail. The long-term planning and development of the wider site is being led by the Mayor of London’s Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, which is planning a mixed-use development, with commercia

Advances in technology may provide new opportunities in metropolitan railway finance, says Joseph Potvin, Executive Director, Xalgorithms Foundation It is common knowledge that commercial and residential properties within an easy walk of metropolitan train stations are in relatively greater demand, which tends to be reflected in their significantly higher lease and sale values. This mobility premium has long been the basis for so-called Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) initiatives.&nbs

Campaign for Better Transport has called on the Government to invest £4.8 billion in expanding the railway network to reach the most disconnected and disadvantaged communities. In a new report, The case for expanding the rail network, it outlines how a national reopening programme would initially create 33 new rail lines with 72 new stations, allowing an additional 20 million rail passenger journeys a year by bringing over 500,000 people within walking distance of a train station. It

Between 31 May 2018 and 31 July 2018, the Department for Transport held a 'Call for ideas' in respect of rail market-led proposals (MLPs); essentially a call for proposals that were 'financially credible without government support'. There was a strong response to this call for ideas, with the department receiving 30 submissions, although DfT has not yet commented on the relative merits of these. An MLP is defined as 'a project promoted by the private sector which addresses an opportunity not ne

NCP is working with Greater Anglia to roll out automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology across 20 rail station car parks. The car park operator says its aim is to give customers greater control over how and when they pay for their parking by removing the need for cash and by offering choice when it comes to electronic payment methods. The ticketless ANPR technology will allow customers to pay for their parking online anytime up until midnight the day after their visit on the Great A

A £4m revamp of the toilets at Victoria station are underway, with the shiny new conveniences due to open in April. The overhauled toilets will be furnished with high-quality materials and state-of-the-art plumbing systems “to help manage the demands of the 80m passengers who use the station every year”, says Network Rail. It adds that step-free access and facilities for passengers with reduced mobility will be improved and a new changing places facility added. Baby changing f

A project is underway to explore the possibility of re-opening a rail station at Soham in East Cambridgeshire. The new station would help to reconnect the town with the Ipswich to Peterborough line, as well as help improve prospects for economic growth, jobs and investment in the area. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has commissioned Network Rail to assess the viability of re-opening the station.  The early design work factors in the potential for a second platform

The Welsh Government is investing in a scheme to build a new parkway railway station on the main line east of Cardiff. It says construction could start next year, even though Network Rail says the station is only in the “early stages of development”. The station was initially proposed by local businessmen Nigel and Andrew Roberts to support development of land in the St Mellons area. They said the station would have four platforms, with two tracks slewed to accommodate the new facil

Passenger numbers at East Midlands Parkway station are less than half those forecast in the business case that justified its construction, data from the Office of Rail and Road reveal. The number of passengers using the station fell 2.5 per cent in 2017/18. There were 338,456 passenger exits and entries, compared with 347,252 in the previous year. The ORR also records 26,045 interchanges at the station in 2017/18. The £25m station opened in 2009. The business case forecast approximately

Five route options for the Bedford to Cambridge section of the East West Rail project have been published for consultation by the Government’s East West Railway Company. Three take a broadly southern route through South Cambridgeshire via Bassingbourn and two take a northern route via Cambourne. All enter Cambridge from the south, with the potential to serve the proposed Cambridge South station. The consultation also features options for new stations in Cambourne, St Neots, Sandy, Tempsf

The NHS will save £319m if cycling doubles in seven UK cities every eight years by 2040, according a new report from Sustrans. The charity calculates that 34,000 life-threatening illnesses - including Type 2 diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and depression - would be prevented, along with 628 early deaths. Transforming Cities: The potential of everyday cycling uses data from Sustrans’ 2017 Bike Life studies of B

A few years ago, Future Systems Catapult and Grimshaw Architects ran a competition to ask ‘What new civic function might a rail transportation hub play in the next 10-25 years?’ Participants were asked how station operators could dynamically re-direct travellers around disruption, how neighbouring businesses could be increasingly integrated with station environments, and what the service function around urban, suburban and community rail stations would be. Such is the time lag betwe

Transport for London (TfL) generated more than £150m in advertising revenue in 2017/18, which was invested in transport network improvements. TfL’s second Annual Advertising Report (2017/18) highlights the shift to more digital screens on escalators and platforms. In 2017/2018 TfL says that more than 16,000 advertisements ran on its network, generating about £152m, compared with £142m in 2016/2017. TfL sees advertising at the heart of its new growth strategy, which seek

Plans have been unveiled for two schemes in Crawley, West Sussex, designed to create better links between the town’s rail and bus stations and improve pedestrian, cycling and bus access and facilities.  The £5.3m Station Gateway project aims to provide a better public space and transport connectivity and improved town centre facilities while the £8.3m Eastern Gateway scheme is designed to deliver better public space and connectivity to support development opportunities at

Construction work has started on a new transport hub in Derry which will serve as a “gateway” to Northern Ireland’s north-west. The plans involve the restoration and refurbishment of the listed station at Waterside.  Funding of around £27m has been secured from the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme with support from the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland.  Northern Ireland’s public transport body Tr

Dundee’s new look railway station will help to attract investment in the regenerated Central Waterfront area, says the city council. The £38m station features a new passenger concourse and ticketing facilities as well as a café/restaurant and retail space. The station, designed by Jacobs and local architects Nicoll Russell Studios and built by Balfour Beatty, was the first large-scale building completed in the area. Outside the station building a number of standard hoop styl

A new national planning framework is urgently needed to place public transport, rather than car-based “low density sprawl”, at the heart of policy for new developments, says a new report by the Urban Transport Group. This would enable the “agglomeration” of economies – where firms benefit from close proximity to each other – and meet housing demand without making congestion and air quality worse, according to The Place To

Sheffield City Region has today announced plans to appoint its first Active Travel Commissioner. The post will cover all aspects of active travel schemes to be delivered across the region, as part of Sheffield City Region’s bid for a share of the government's Transforming Cities Fund. Earlier this month, Sheffield City Region submitted six active travel and public transport schemes to the government for co

Major improvements to Greater Manchester’s transport networks will play a vital role in supporting the conurbation’s spatial development over the next 20 years, according to the area’s new draft spatial plan. The revised draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework includes two major ‘development corridors’ to improve the north of the conurbation’s socio-economic fortunes. These will require hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in roads and public trans

Rail stations are changing, as any traveller who uses Birmingham, Sheffield, London St Pancras or London Bridge stations, will clearly see. They don't feel like stations. They feel like upmarket retail malls and grand food courts with trains (and buses, bikes and taxis) added, imposing city gateways, art exhibits, pianos and, increasingly, the centrepieces of new communities and developments. Stations' evolving role as new 'city centres' is driving development activity, growth and revenue. Gl

Services on Scotland’s railway are becoming more punctual as more drivers and conductors receive training for using new routes and the new class 385 electric trains, says ScotRail. The train operator reports that punctuality is at its best since September, and the performance for period 10 (9 December – 5 January) is better than the same period the previous year. Scotrail says that 84.2% of its services met the rail industry standard public performance measure, arriving at their de

A five-year deal between JCDecaux and Network Rail will see the rolling out of digital advertising screens at railway stations across the UK. Network Rail says the contract will result in 100% digital advertising at its stations. The contract was awarded to the outdoor advertising company following a competitive tender and covers advertising at transport hubs UK-wide across the UK including Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central, London Liverpool Street, London Victoria, London Waterloo and Man

Plans to re-open Goldsborough railway station in North Yorkshire are being spearheaded by the developers of a new village community. Flaxby Park Ltd has acquired Goldsborough’s former station house, and plans to reopen it as a new park & ride station, called Flaxby Parkway Station. Train operator Northern is backing the proposals while Network Rail has stated there are “no significant technical obstacles to the delivery of a new station” at Flaxby. The developer plans to t

A new transport interchange has opened at Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, featuring a new subway, stairs, lifts, ticket office and improve passenger waiting facilities.  The £18.95m scheme, funded by the Local Growth Fund and Merseytravel, also provides step free access to and between the platforms via the new subway and lifts, a bus interchange adjacent to the new ticket office, and a dedicated drop-off and pick-up area. Parking capacity has increased from 80 to 400 spaces with th

The action plan to turn Crewe railway station into an ‘HS2 hub’ is being refined by Cheshire East Council following a consultation with local residents, landowners and businesses. The hub station will support regeneration for the town and wider region, says the council. The consultation, which ended last month, was carried out to help develop the key planning document for the hub.   As part of the government’s high-speed rail line (HS2) plans, Crewe would link with Greate

There is strong private sector interest in delivering new rail links to Heathrow Airport from the west and the south, consultants have told the Government.  The DfT appointed consultants Agilia and Nichols to hold market sounding exercises on both projects last summer. The western rail link is the more advanced of the two. The project involves building a four-mile line to connect Heathrow to Slough and Reading and beyond. From the west, the line would leave the Great Western Main Line bet

Greater Manchester’s Metrolink light rail system could be routed beneath the proposed  HS2 terminal station at Manchester Piccadilly, under plans being explored by HS2 Ltd, Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester.  Manchester City Council’s strategic director for development, Eddie Smith, told councillors last month that the DfT had instructed HS2 Ltd “to consider the integration of a realigned and expanded Metrolink at Piccadilly station beneath

On 17 December the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama devoted half an hour to a highly critical analysis of the proposed HS2 high-speed rail network between London, Birmingham and then further north to Leeds and Manchester. After initially focusing on the allegation that the Government’s budget for the first phase of HS2, between London and Birmingham, is wildly unrealistic and will actually cost many billions of pounds more than the current official estimate, Panorama

Plans have been unveiled for a new entrance at Birmingham’s Snow Hill Station, which will make it easier for passengers to switch between local rail and tram services. An image of the new eastern entrance (left) has been released by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Independent infrastructure specialist Barhale has been appointed by TfWM to build the £1.5m project. Barhale will construct the entrance beneath the existing brick

London’s business community will have to pay up to £1.3bn more towards the cost of Crossrail as the Government raised the project’s budget to £17.6bn this week. The financial package agreed with mayor Sadiq Khan could also delay the Crossrail 2 project. Transport minister Andrew Jones told MPs the project’s funding envelope had risen by £2.8bn, from £14.8bn to £17.6bn. He also revealed that the plan to open the central tunnel section next autumn &

A top DfT civil servant has refuted claims that many strategic cases for transport schemes are poorly prepared by project promoters.    The Transport Planning Society was one organisation to criticise strategic cases in its submission to the DfT’s appraisal and modelling strategy consultation (LTT 22 Jun). It said they were too often written as an “afterthought tailored to support the scheme being assessed” (LTT 09 Nov).   At the Local Transport Summit, Patrici

A £15.4m plan to improve the public realm in front of York’s railway station has moved forward, with councillors approving the submission of a full planning application. The project includes removing the Queen Street Road Bridge that carries the city’s inner ring road and rebuilding the road at grade. The Victorian bridge was built when trains used the lines through to the old railway station, and so has been redundant since the 1960s. Bus stops and taxis pick-up/drop-off wil

A £15.4m plan to improve the public realm in front of York’s railway station has moved forward, with councillors approving the submission of a full planning application. The project includes removing the Queen Street Road Bridge that carries the city’s inner ring road and rebuilding the road at grade. The Victorian bridge was built when trains used the lines through to the old railway station, and so has been redundant since the 1960s. Bus stops and taxis pick-up/drop-off wil

HS2 lines to central London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds should all be axed, with the project’s purpose reduced to a capacity relief scheme between Old Oak Common and Crewe, a peer has told MPs. Labour peer Lord Berkeley wrote to every MP this week saying the Government will find it impossible to deliver the whole project, from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, within the official funding envelope of £55.7bn (2015 prices). He says ministers face three choices for the

Transport spending in Bristol and the surrounding area would have to more than double over the next 17 years to deliver a new transport plan prepared by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and the area’s four unitary authorities. The most expensive part of the £10bn estimated cost of the plan is a rail-based mass transit system, requiring underground running in places and with a price tag of £3bn-£5bn. David Carter, the West of England Combined Authority&rsquo

Rail passenger demand growth over the last 20 years has been heavily influenced by factors that are omitted from forecasting models, such as changes to the structure of the UK economy and population distribution, a new report concludes.   The Independent Transport Commission report explores factors underpinning the more than doubling of rail passenger journeys since privatisation in 1995/96, a period when population grew by only 15 per cent.  The report’s authors are Ian Willia

“Why build HS2 for £403m per mile when a road costs £10m per mile?” motoring journalist Mike Rutherford asked rhetorically in Auto Express magazine on 18 November. “With HS2 – the proposed alternative to normal trains, cars, buses, coaches and planes – normality goes out the window. “The crackpot project has barely begun, yet we’re already seeing financial anomalies, lack of logic and annihilation of the homes/communities in its path,”

New rail minister Andrew Jones has challenged train operators to step up their support for community rail projects across the UK as he launches the 2018 Community Rail Strategy. Last week Jones returned as the transport minister responsible for rail after the departure of ‘remainer’ Jo Johnson, who resigned over the proposed Brexit deal. Jones was previously parliamentary under secretary at the DFT between May 2015 and June 2017. Train operators should support community rail organ

Covered cycle parking has been created at Dundee Railway Station. The 120-space cycle park, which is owned by Network Rail and maintained by ScotRail, is located to the north west of the railway station next to the car park. Access to the free facility, which is covered by CCTV, is via automatic doors. It was designed by Jacobs and Nicoll Russell Studios and was built by Tayside Contracts.  The £400,000 project was financed by Dundee City Council, TACTRAN and Abellio ScotRail. 

Combined authorities with strategic planning powers will be given the power to implement a strategic infrastructure tariff (SIT) to help fund transport and other infrastructure, the Government has announced. A SIT would be similar to the mayoral CIL in London, which has been used to part-fund Crossrail, will be additional to the community infrastructure levies (CIL) that individual councils operate to fund infrastructure.   The SIT idea featured in a consultation held earlier this yea

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority is drawing up plans to reorganise transport delivery arrangements in the area. A reorganisation is seen as necessary to support Conservative mayor James Palmer’s ambitions for a number of big transport investments, including the bus-based CAM system (see opposite) and road and rail improvements. Combined authority transport director Chris Twigg said a review of the area’s client-side transport capabilities by consultant Arup ha

Transport Scotland has published its first Scotland-specific forecasts of road, bus and rail demand. The forecasts present a ‘primary forecast’, which represents “what is considered to be the most probable future based on what we currently know”. Assumptions on future population, economic growth and fuel prices were also combined to create ‘high’ and ‘low’ alternative growth scenarios for road traffic.  The primary road traffic forecasts for

The Government has loaned the mayor of London £350m to help meet additional costs of the Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) project.  The project’s funding envelope of £14.8bn was breached this summer when the Government confirmed £590m of extra funding: £300m for Crossrail Ltd works and £290m for Network Rail works (LTT 03 Aug). The £300m of Crossrail Ltd works is being funded 50/50 by the DfT and Transport for London.  The new £350m loan will

Network Rail will cut back its level crossing closure programme in favour of making more use of technologies to improve crossing safety, according to the DfT.  The news has come as a surprise because a Transport and Works Act Order inquiry is currently taking place into Network Rail’s plan to close 60 level crossings in Essex. In all, more than 1,000 crossings have closed since 2010, aided by a £109m ring-fenced fund from the DfT. But transport minister Jo Johnson has told the

Italian high-speed rail network Italo has renewed its contract with parking reservation specialist ParkCloud. Over the past 12 months Italo has seen growth in bookings across the 25 rail stations Italo covered by ParkCloud. Italo customers can browse and compare features online through the Italotreno Parking white label portal before reserving their parking alongside their travel. Francesco Fiore, chief of quality and industrial product development at Italo, said: “Italo’s service

Bus operators are claiming that their revenues have been undermined by Merseytravel’s youth ticket, which is not conditional on showing proof of age. Merseytravel denies there is a significant problem with misuse and says it wants its MyTicket product to be easily available, without forms to complete. MyTicket was introduced in 2014 for young people aged five to 15. In 2015, the upper age limit was increased to 18. My-Ticket currently costs £2.20 for a day’s unlimited bus trav

National Government, Network Rail and rail operators came under fire last week as Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region and Andy Burnham, Mayor for Greater Manchester, spoke out about “lack of accountability”. Speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE! Steve Rotheram referred to the Office of Road and Rail’s report into a summer of rail chaos which found “systematic failures from government, Network Rail and the rail operators” leading to collapsed services and missed chances to avoid disruption

The 6th Annual Smarter Travel LIVE! Conference, hosted by Merseytravel & Liverpool City Region (LCR) on October 16 and 17, attracted more than 600 delegates from across the UK and beyond. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region, and Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Mayor, both gave keynotes, stressing their commitment to ongoing devolution and the delivery of a fully integrated, accessible and clean transport network linking key towns and cities across the North (see news pages)

Rail passenger numbers in South East England have bounced back after the recent declines on several franchises. New statistics from the Office of Rail and Road also reveal strong growth at TransPennine Express in Quarter 1 (April to June), despite the operator’s difficulties after the summer timetable was introduced in May. Across Great Britain, 429 million rail passenger journeys were recorded in the quarter, a 3.1% increase on Q1 of 2017/18. The ORR says this was driven by a 3.5% increa

Transport for West Midlands has introduced new video surveillance technology across stations and car parks to keep passengers and their cars safe. The video surveillance system is used to monitor activity at over 50 railway stations, 11 bus stations, three Midland Metro park & ride sites and the main No.11 bus route around Birmingham. The project has seen around 850 Wisenet cameras installed by Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) on behalf of Transport for West Midlands, which was set up by th

Corethree bills itself as the “world’s leading mobile ticket provider”. It issued its 50 millionth m-ticket in February this year – sold through apps developed for transport operators large and small across the UK. Corethree’s customers include a wide range of operators and authorities including First Bus, Arriva, Santander Cycles, Translink, Lothian Buses, My Get Me There (Transport for Greater Manchester), McGills Buses and Go Ahead. But, on 3 September, everythi

The England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) alliance of local authorities is calling on the Government to set an indicative funding envelope for the area,  to help prioritise infrastructure investment.  The funding envelope is one of five ‘asks’ the EEH is making of the Government ahead of the Budget, to accelerate delivery of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge growth region, which lies at the heart of the EEH’s geography. The asks are: • committing to develop

For years, the public transport world has been divided by a bitter dispute: namely, is it ever correct to describe a super-duper bus as a tram? The discussion took an unexpected turn with the launch of Belfast’s Glider bus rapid transit network earlier this month. The Belfast Telegraph and the BBC have both run stories in which the vehicles are described – by persons un-named – as “trams on wheels”. LTT wonders how those persons, and the journalists who quote them,

Reports published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) rarely attract significant amounts of media attention but there was an important exception to this on 20 September when no fewer than three national daily papers (The Daily Mail, The Times and The Guardian) featured details of the latest ORR report on their front pages. “Passengers are routinely being failed by a chaotic rail industry, a damning official report concludes today,” The Mail said. “Bosses, ministers and regula

The potential for batteries to cut emissions from diesel trains will be tested by two franchises using retrofitted hybrid units next year. Hundreds of new diesel multiple units (DMUs) have been ordered in recent years and many earlier ones have been modified for continued operation after the January 2020 deadline for compliance with accessibility regulations.  With trains having a lifespan of at least 30 years, DMUs may eventually be conspicuous in urban areas where diesel road transport

The 2019 edition of the British Parking Awards is up and running. Now in its 18th year, the competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The awards encompass both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover the design and upkeep of buildings, as well as ground-break

The timetable chaos that caused severe disruption on Britain's railways in May resulted from a combination of mistakes made by Network Rail, two train operators and the Department for Transport, the rail industry regulator has decided. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published its interim inquiry report into what caused the May 2018 timetable disruption, which led to passengers enduring delays and cancellations as they could not predict how long a journey may take, or even if it was possi

Compensating train operators for disruption during engineering is a routine activity for Network Rail. Every operator is eligible, even those that will directly benefit from the work being done. Meanwhile, when unplanned line closures occur, passengers can receive compensation for the consequential delays. Highways authorities, on the other hand, are not obliged to make any compensation payments to road users, regardless of the scale of delays caused by roadworks.  Could these polar opposi

Network Rail has agreed terms with Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners for the sale of its commercial estate portfolio. Proceeds from the £1.46bn transaction will be used to fund the railway upgrade plan. Telereal and Blackstone will hold equal ownership stakes and intend to be long-term owners of the estate. Telereal will oversee the day-to-day property management of the portfolio. Both parties say they will adopt ‘tenants first’ approach, cemented in a tenant

Transport for the North wants a five-year funding envelope for strategic road and rail projects, which it would choose how to allocate. It is also exploring how it can increase overall funding levels, with one idea being to devolve Vehicle Excise Duty.   A discussion paper setting out the case for TfN taking control of the North’s strategic road and rail budgets was presented to the sub-national transport body’s board meeting in Sheffield this week.    The paper warn

The official in charge of phase two of HS2 is leaving to take up a job in Canada. The news came as it also emerged that the publication of the hybrid Bill for phase 2b of the project, from West Midlands to Leeds and Crewe to Manchester, is being delayed a year. Paul Griffiths, managing director of phase two of the project, will leave Government company HS2 Ltd in December to become programme director for the $40bn Metrolinx public transport investment programme in Toronto. Griffiths joined HS2

Sheffield city region mayor Dan Jarvis has rejected criticism by the Greens of his support for a major new railway station at Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Sheffield Greens said there were more pressing local transport needs than building a line off the East Coast Main Line to serve the airport located south-east of Doncaster town.  The idea of a station features in the draft airport masterplan published for consultation earlier this year by airport owner Peel. It proposes safeguarding lan

With many commentators calling for the alleged ‘white elephant’ project HS2 to be cancelled, economics commentator Will Hutton was something of an exception in The Guardian on 2 September in calling for far more government spending on transport infrastructure, not less. “The longstanding reproach is that Britain can’t do grand projects,” he began. “Crossrail, now christened the Elizabeth line, is proof that we can. “Suddenly, a success story is being tr

Thirteen people were arrested during the first two weeks of an operation to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on Greater Manchester’s Metrolink tram system. Operation Infinity was launched 13 August in response to a spate of incidents on the Rochdale and Oldham line. Officers and staff from the TravelSafe Partnership (TSP) arrested 13 people for a range of incidents including public order, theft, fraud, possession of cannabis, breach of parole and wanted on warrant.  TP officers

Crossrail has announced a delay of almost a year in the completion of London’s new Elizabeth Line, which means it will not open until the autumn of 2019. The new East-West route across London had originally been scheduled for opening in December 2018. Crossrail is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that is jointly sponsored by TfL and the Department for Transport. Once the railway is complete, it will be run by TfL. The delay was revealed on 31 August. The company s

On 22 August Guardian columnist George Monbiot focused his attention on a nationally significant transport infrastructure project that has hitherto received scant attention in the mainstream media – the ‘Oxford-Cambridge expressway’ – a major road scheme between the two university cities. “Where democracy counts most, it is nowhere to be seen,” Monbiot began, bemoaning an alleged lack of democratic consultation on the Government’s plans. “The numb

Official statistics for rail passenger journeys do not take account of the growing use of “split ticketing”, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has confirmed to LTT. Buying tickets for successive legs of a single train journey can save significant amounts of money. The practice has become more common in recent years following media publicity and the creation of websites dedicated to reducing travel costs by calculating the cheapest combinations of tickets for the customer’s jou

Whether it’s planning inquiries into new housing developments or new pieces of transport infrastructure, or calculating bus operators’ entitlement to concessionary fares reimbursement, the job of many transport planning consultants is to represent clients in a debate about numbers. The work usually goes unnoticed to the public at large but, in an illuminating account, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has documented the technical debate that arose over an open access train operator&r

HS2 is, in its minor way, an illustration of the corruption that besets the West (‘Politicians didn’t see adviser’s damning assessment of HS2’ LTT 03 Aug). No brown envelopes perhaps. Instead vast salaries for supporting politically sensitive decisions however stupid those decisions may be. The Times reports that 25 per cent of HS2 staff earn over £100,000 per annum for heaven’s sake. The most fundamental fraud associated with this, and most rail projects, is

A damning assessment of the HS2 project was prepared by a Government-appointed adviser just two months before MPs passed the hybrid Bill for the phase one London-West Midlands line, a leaked report reveals.  The confidential report from January 2017 rated the project as between ‘amber-red’ and ‘red’, and said HS2 was likely to go  over budget, which could have negative consequences for spending by other departments. The project was also likely to be judged a fa

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has decided against splitting up the Great Western Railway franchise. The present franchise combines InterCity, regional and Thames Valley commuter services previously operated by three franchises. In a consultation on the next franchise published earlier this year, the DfT said one possible option was a separate franchise for all GWR services south-west of Bristol.  Local government in that region raised several concerns about this idea, including loss

As stories predicting HS2 will blow its budget pile up, the campaign to stop the project struggles on with only pennies in its tin. Joe Rukin, campaign manager of Stop HS2, told LTT­this week that he has now taken his redundancy from the organisation but continues to do bits and bobs. Rukin is bitter about the way environmental campaign groups failed to back the campaign against the project, and reserves his fiercest criticisms for the Campaign to Protect Rural England. “CPRE’s a

CitiPark is to install a ticketless and barrier-less parking solution at a car park serving commuters from Rickmansworth railway station in Hertfordshire. The car park has a capacity of 140 spaces and is located adjacent to the station, which with both underground and overground line access makes it popular with commuters travelling in and out of London.  CitiPark has managed parking the site since 2016 and completed the purchase of the freehold in June last year.  APT Skidata will

Most of the trackbed on the TransPennine railway between Manchester and York is to be relaid, some of it on straighter alignments to raise line speeds, transport secretary Chris Grayling has told the rail industry.  Writing to Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan, Grayling says the TransPennine upgrade will account for “one-third of our anticipated expenditure for rail enhancements nationwide for the next [rail] spending period (2019/20-2023/24), the biggest sin

With the House of Commons breaking up for the summer recess next week, opponents of HS2 will be hoping MPs find time to browse two critical reports into the project while in their holiday villas. The Government says phase one of HS2, the London-West Midlands section, will open at the end of 2026 at a cost of £27.2bn. Lord Berkeley, the former chair of the Rail Freight Group, and quantity surveyor Michael Byng disagree. This week they sent every MP two papers, one setting out why the Govern

The government must start to lay the foundations now for the altered streetscape of 2050 when all cars and vans will be electric as well as mostly autonomous, argues the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in a new report. The first National Infrastructure Assessment, published this week, sets out a long-term strategy for the UK’s economic infrastructure from 2020 to 2050. Electric vehicles will soon have the same range and be cheaper to buy and maintain than fossil fuel vehicles, t

The monetised value of travel time savings often forms the most important component in the economic justification of transport projects. The DfT published the findings of a major research project into the value of time savings in 2015, conducted by the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds and consultant Arup. The values have since been adopted in appraisal.  Last year the DfT asked the same contractors to advise on a maintenance and development programme to keep the v

The costs of cancelled rail electrification schemes in England and Wales are now far below the estimates on which the UK Government based its decisions to cancel them, claims a new campaign group. At typical mainland Europe prices, electrifying the Windermere branch would cost about a quarter of the DfT’s estimate, according to the Campaign to Electrify Britain’s Railways (CEBR). This could alter the benefit:cost ratio from the DfT’s 0.6:1 (poor value for money) to high value

If you’re James Brown, of course, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (at least, that’s the title of his 1966 hit). And, while I wouldn’t want to build a philosophical position on that song’s lyrics, many of its words are pertinent to my theme. Firstly, as many of you will know, Mr Brown did also point out that this ‘man’s world’ would be ‘nothing without a woman’. Secondly, as hardly anyone knows, the song was jointly wri

Our little branch line between Oxenholme and Windermere has been in the national news lately as a result of a vintage train being hired to operate on the route whilst franchise operator Northern suspended all of its trains and replaced them with buses. Resulting claims of “showing the Lake District is still open for business” and the area “even resorting to hiring a preserved train to protect this important visitor season” fall considerably wide of the mark. Let’s b

A fleet of 54 new air-conditioned trains has been ordered for London Overground. The trains are being built at Bombardier Transport's UK site in Derby. The new train fleet, which forms part of the Mayor's Transport Strategy, will initially come into service on the Gospel Oak to Barking route, operated by Arriva Rail London on behalf of Transport for London (TfL).  The Class 710 trains feature walk-through carriages for greater capacity, carrying around 700 people per train. They

The National Infrastructure Commission is asking consultants to assess the benefits of shifting freight from road to rail, and from rail to road.   The study forms part of the Commission’s Future of Freight project ordered by Chancellor Philip Hammond last autumn (LTT 24 Nov 17). An interim report will be published this autumn and a final report next spring. The managing congestion study, with a budget of £80,000, will examine issues including: • how freight can reduce i

A fleet of refurbished former London Underground trains will be delivered to the Isle of Wight if the Government accepts franchise operator South Western Railway’s costed plan to revitalise the island’s railway.  The Island Line between Ryde and Shanklin currently uses former Tube stock dating from the 1930s. The track and the third rail power supply is also life-expired.  South Western Railway, which is run by FirstGroup and MTR, consulted on the line’s future last

Opponents of HS2 have seized on reports that tender prices for the phase one construction have come in over budget and that HS2 Ltd has underestimated the cost of purchasing land for the line.  New Civil Engineer reported that the target cost for contracts on the phase one route between London to West Midlands line were £1.2bn over the £6.6bn announced by the Government last summer. The Government awarded seven two-part design and build contracts last July for the phase one rou

A 300-space car park opened to the public at Market Harborough station in Leicestershire on the Midland Main Line on 18 June. The opening of the new car park has enabled the existing one to close to allow for a new track alignment. Straightening the track will increase line speed enabling quicker journeys and platform extensions to cater for longer trains with more seats. The new car park will increase in size to 500 spaces once the track work has been completed. Motorists were asked not

Two fleets of new trains will be introduced to the Core Valley Lines in South Wales under the 15-year Wales and Borders contract awarded this week to KeolisAmey. Discontinuous electrification  will be implemented on the lines, with one branch being operated by heavy rail trains and the other three by light rail. All vehicles will be fitted with batteries to eliminate the need for diesel operations and the heavy rail fleet will be tri-mode (diesel, battery and overhead electric), enabling t

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has asked Office of Rail and Road chairman Stephen Glaister to lead an inquiry into why last month’s new timetables for the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Northern franchises were implemented with such disastrous results. Both operators’ timetables were meant to deliver major service improvements on the back of infrastructure investments – the £7bn Thameslink capacity programme and the Manchester-Preston-Blackpool electrification. I

The Welsh Government is sending a senior civil servant to Liverpool next week to discuss the possibility of extending the Wrexham-Bidston rail service into the Mersey tunnels. The extension has been an aspiration of Merseytravel and the Welsh Government for many years, but extension of Merseyside’s third-rail electrification to Wrexham was killed off by the high cost of installing palisade fencing along the entire route. Diesel trains are prohibited from entering the tunnels beneath the M

Transport for Greater Manchester is working on new plans to enhance the conurbation’s rail stations following transport secretary Chris Grayling’s decision to refuse the full transfer of stations to Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s control (LTT--05 Jan).  TfGM submitted plans to the Government last March that would have seen the full devolution of stations to GMCA over a period of 150 years. TfGM said this would deliver improvements such as greater investment in st

A long-term plan for Britain’s railways, involving expenditure of hundreds of billions of pounds on new lines and upgrades, has been published by Greengauge 21, the think tank-cum-lobby group that helped put high-speed rail, in the form of HS2, on the political map. Timing is important in politics and Greengauge may be rueing its decision to release the report when some operators cannot run today’s timetable. It will be hoping the National Infrastructure Commission, which is currentl

On 26 May The Times’ economics editor, Philip Aldrick, called for the HS2 high-speed rail project to be scrapped to provide funds for the National Health Service, which could be in need of as much as £56bn extra a year by 2033. After briefly outlining how the NHS is likely to suffer in the future unless additional money is found from somewhere, Aldrick noted that: “Wouldn’t it be handy, then, if the Government was already spending £56bn on a white elephant project t

Demand for housing is far outstripping supply, leading to a severe shortage of suitable accommodation for key workers, young professionals and first-time buyers in towns and cities across the UK. Could the solution be to build homes on existing city centre car parks and hard-standing areas? This is an idea advocated by architect Bill Dunster, who has come up with a housing concept called the ZEDpod.  Dunster wants to provide homes for younger key workers that are close to their workplace a

Network Rail has rethought the way it will allocate fixed costs to train operators in the next control period (CP6 2019/20-2023/24) after draft proposals generated a backlash from funders of regional rail services and the rail freight sector.   Draft proposals, published for consultation last September, would have seen the costs apportioned to Northern Rail jump 50 per cent, from £263m to £393m a year, and the costs of Merseyrail jump 64 per cent, from £32m to £52m.

“Pity the baffled passenger from Edinburgh, Newcastle or Leeds as the train painters get to work on yet another rebrand on the East Coast main line,” Simon Calder, The Independent’s travel correspondent, began an article entitled “Is rail doomed to fail?” on 16 May. “The average passenger will not care [what colour the trains are], so long as the train is on time, affordable and staffed by the same excellent men and women who are losing count of the number of

Network Rail has announced that Andrew Haines will be its new chief executive. He will take up his role in the early autumn following a period of handover with current chief executive Mark Carne. Haines will join Network Rail following completion of his current role as chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).  He was appointed as a board member and chief executive of the CAA in August 2009 and for a further five years in August 2012. Prior to this he had a wide-ranging caree

The 36 finalists in the 2018 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been announced. Now in its eleventh year, the awards programme celebrates the achievements of women in the UK’s transport and logistics industry.  This year’s finalists include women working for transport organisations including Heathrow Express, Merseytravel, Network Rail, Transport for London and West Midlands Trains. The UK transport and logistics industry employs around 2.4 million people.

A new, purpose-built train depot for London's new Elizabeth line has opened at Old Oak Common, in north-west London. The depot will house and maintain up to 42 of the Elizabeth line's 70 new trains at a time. The maintenance infrastructure at Old Oak Common will be pivotal to the day-to-day operation of the Elizabeth line when it launches in December 2018. The Old Oak Common depot has come into service as TfL prepares for the introduction of its rail services (TfL Rail) in west. TfL Rail will

Consultants have identified 21 possible options for improving transport links between South-East Scotland and the Scottish Borders. They will be explored by Transport Scotland’s second strategic transport projects review (STPR). Transport Scotland commissioned Jacobs to conduct the Borders transport corridors – pre-appraisal study in the context of a vocal lobby for the recently reopened Edinburgh-Tweedbank Borders Railway to be extended south along its original route, potentially a

The Welsh Government is to reduce Network Rail’s role in the troubled upgrade of the Ebbw Vale line in South Wales. The upgrade will now be delivered with the help of the winning bidder for the 15-year Wales and Borders franchise operator and development partner (ODP), who is due to be announced this month. The Government has already taken the unprecedented step of negotiating the removal of the Core Valley Lines (the rail branches north of Cardiff) from Network Rail’s hands because

New park & ride spaces are being created as part of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s £32m programme of station car park extensions. The Station Car Park Extensions programme seeks to increase car parking capacity at selected stations. Two parking projects have already been completed at Fitzwilliam station and South Elmsall stations and more are in the pipeline. A surface level car park extension costing £700,000 at Fitzwilliam rail station has supplemented the exis

A new rail station has opened at Kenilworth, Warwickshire on the site of the previous station, which closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts. The station, between Coventry and Leamington Spa, is part of the region’s new, locally managed rail franchise. Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Warwickshire County Council helped fund the project along with £4.9m of funding from the DfT through the Transport’s New Stations Fund. The reopening of the s

The North East Combined Authority has voiced concern about the lack of any firm commitments to increase rail capacity on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between York and Newcastle.  The line features four tracks between York and Northallerton in North Yorkshire but then becomes two-track.  The route is already busy and there are plans for further services – TransPennine Express wants to increase frequencies to Newcastle and FirstGroup is planning an open access service between

The DfT has declined to offer any explanation for specifying the use of the Retail Prices Index for fare increases in several future rail franchises. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says RPI is a “very poor measure of general inflation” and any continued use of RPI should be “closely scrutinised”. The RPI ceased to be a National Statistic five years ago and is only published by the ONS for legacy reasons. However, it has now emerged that the next Wales and Bord

Allowing parents in England to choose schools for their children has increased morning peak traffic and congestion, and in Wales it seems that centralisation of schools is having a similar effect. In the Senedd this week, AMs queued up to take pot shots at education secretary Kirsty Williams over school closures, which are initiated by local authorities but signed off by the Welsh Government. Williams, the Assembly’s sole surviving Liberal Democrat, urged parents to ensure children “

Sally Cairns and Carey Newson deserve support for their argument that there should be no third runway at Heathrow until the airlines have shown that they really can deliver on the cleaner and quieter planes that they claim to be possible, and until access to the airport does much less environmental damage than at present (Viewpoint LTT 30 Mar). However, there is one important environmental aspect of long-distance travel that the two authors do not mention. Even if the travel itself could be ren

Rail passengers issued with a penalty fare now have recourse to an independent appeals service not connected to the rail companies. Once an appeal is received the clock will stop on the 21-day deadline for the payment of a penalty fare until the outcome is resolved.  The Department for Transport said the new appeals process will give greater consideration to circumstances of how and why the penalty was issued. Rail minister Jo Johnson said: “Rail users should make every effort to g

The DfT is reviewing funding arrangements for surface access improvements to airports, and asking who should own the roads and railways that serve airports – the  airports themselves, or local or national government.  The investigations are explained in a discussion document on aviation, which will be followed by an aviation Green Paper in the autumn and a new aviation strategy early in 2019. On funding surface access improvements, the DfT says:  “The aviation indust

Transport for the North should change the way it presents the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) project so it is not perceived as a solution searching for a problem, Lancashire County Council has said.  The NPR concept envisages the creation of fast intercity connections between the north’s major cities. The project was originally championed by the then chancellor George Osborne and is now being led by Transport for the North, which became England’s first statutory sub-national tr

The DfT’s cartographers may be ace at roads and railways but ask them to plot the UK’s airports and they’re flummoxed. This map from the DfT’s stakeholder briefing document for the West Coast rail partnership franchise shows Glasgow and Edinburgh airport in completely wrong locations. Things are no better south of the border, with Manchester Airport placed east of Manchester Piccadilly, and Liverpool John Lennon Airport west of Lime Street.  Political leaders in

The student of ‘how not to do public transport planning’ continues to have a sure-fire test case in Bristol’s Temple Meads station, the city’s intercity and local rail focus that is bursting at the seams. While taxis jam the forecourt and taxi queues lengthen, it’s rather hard to spot any city bus, though they do exist (a handful of routes terminate way down the station approach road).  The problem is a lack of any masterplan for this essential transport hub.

The Government has responded to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority about the masterplan to redevelop Leeds railway station to accommodate HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail services, and more local services. The HS2 station will adjoin the existing station to form a T-shape. A masterplan, drawn up by parties including the city council and the WYCA, was launched last autumn (LTT10 Nov 17).  It includes plans to create a single concourse for the existing station and HS2 services, three million

Transport for Wales is hoping to electrify more than 100 miles of railway track for light rail operation for less than £500m, LTT understands. The Welsh Government has repeatedly stated that £734m is available for modernising the Core Valley Lines, but TfW is planning to retain £300m of this as contingency, in case unexpected cost increases occur. If the conversion of existing lines to light rail can be achieved for £434m or a similar amount, the contingency would be ava

The DfT and Transport Scotland have outlined their new pipeline approaches to funding rail enhancements.  The Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline (RNEP) for England and Wales will replace the current system of agreeing five-year enhancement programmes as part of Network Rail’s regulatory control periods. The current enhancement programme has been dogged by cost escalations and project delays.  The DfT describes the pipeline as a “rolling programme of investment”. It w

Prices for the UK’s first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) subscription packages have been announced, ahead of their launch in the West Midlands conurbation next week.  Finnish firm MaaS Global is offering two subscription packages for its Whim-branded MaaS, which the company says is the world’s only monthly mobility product. The products aim to persuade the public to give up car ownership.   Chris Perry, the UK lead for MaaS Global, this week outlined the packages – Wh

A £400,000 fund to help make Scotland’s rail stations more cyclist-friendly is being offered to councils and community organisations. The Scotrail Alliance – a partnership between Abellio ScotRail and Network Rail – is offering £100,000 a year to cycle-rail projects, which must provide at least 50% match funding. The Deadline for applications to the fund is 20 April 2018. The Scotrail Alliance says the fund will contribute to its vision of providing a ‘doorst

Secure cycle parking areas are being rolled out across the Dutch rail system. The Netherlands has a long-standing culture of commuters using cycling as the initial part of their journey, with 400,000 passengers using their bikes to travel to the station every day, according to NS Stations figures. The rail station operator has appointed Siemens to improve cycle parking at 47 railway stations by installing self-service cycle parking solution. These will provide cyclists with a s

The emerging vision for the Northern Powerhouse Rail network published in the recent Transport for the North (TfN) strategic plan shows a welcome enhancement to the rail network in the North of England. An important part of this plan is a carefully considered proposal for linking HS2 to the rest of the northern rail network. On top of that there are plans for a new high-speed railway linking Manchester with Leeds and Bradford. This plan will target rail infrastructure investment within a region

I am fascinated to learn that Paul Withrington thinks I may have the power to hold the economy back (Letters LTT 15 Mar). I wonder what other esoteric gifts he thinks I am endowed with but of which I am unaware. If only it were true! Regarding his flawed arguments, permit me to make the following observations: 1. Foreign railways: It’s not just the Class 1 railroads in the US that are profitable, the Class 2 and Class 3s regional/short haul lines also contribute. In the States, and in ma

Transport for London is cutting its operating costs at a faster rate than the decline in its operating income, and on course to make a larger operating surplus than budgeted for in 2017/18. Performance in 2017/18 up to 3 February was reported to this week’s meeting of TfL’s board. Passenger income is £87m (2 per cent) below budget, at £3.956bn versus £4.043bn. Other operating income is £55m (8 per cent) below budget, at £616m versus £671m. Total

The possibility of Crewe becoming a major hub for HS2 and conventional rail has moved a step closer with the Government approving an alteration to the station plans. The change will also permit a direct HS2 service to Stoke-on-Trent. The DfTannounced last week that phase 2a (West Midlands to Crewe) of HS2 would be modified to include 400-metre platforms at Crewe, to allow for the splitting and joining of 200-metre long HS2 trains. This follows last summer’s consultation on the proposals f

Passenger numbers on the Borders Railway grew 9.5 per cent in the second year of operations. But the railway has caused an upheaval to bus services, with some communities now suffering poorer public transport accessibility as a result, according to a review for Transport Scotland. The 30-mile railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank re-opened in September 2015 with new stations at Shawfair, Eskbank, Newtongrange and Gorebridge in Midlothian, and Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank in the Scottish Bor

Cumbersome industry processes are preventing railway investment that would support local housing and economic growth and improve modal integration, local authorities in the south-west of England have said. One example quoted is a £5,000 cycle parking scheme at a station that was abandoned because securing rail industry permissions would have cost £20,000. In their responses to the DfT’s consultation on the next Great Western franchise (LTT 08 Dec 17), local authorities stress

The Welsh Government will whittle away at the new Wales and Borders franchise so that Transport for Wales increasingly delivers ancillary activities itself over the 15-year term. Before embarking on procuring a new operator to replace Arriva Trains Wales, Welsh ministers asked the UK Government to amend the Railways Act 1993 to allow the trains to be operated by a company owned by the Welsh Government. The UK Government declined, and Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates said in 2016 that his Go

Building homes above railway tracks is a cost effective way of tackling London’s housing shortage, according to John Parker, a director at consultant WSP. Speaking at Rail Stations and Property, Parker said that building on reinforced concrete boxes that straddle rail tracks could provide a quarter of a million homes in the capital. This is based on WSP’s calculation that towers could be built on 10% of the capital’s 11,000km of railway, which, on average, has a 20m-wide corri

The first generation of station travel plans (STPs) were implemented in a bid to better manage, and proactively influence, the modes of travel people use to get to and from UK rail stations. They generally sought to actively promote sustainable travel options; reduce single occupant car trips; and tackle imbalances between parking demand, the quality of facilities for different station users, and differential impacts on neighbouring land uses.  Following an initial wave of pilots, the UK b

Trains between London Paddington and Swansea should be operated by a new franchise procured and managed by the Welsh Government, Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates has suggested. The DfT has proposed re-mapping services currently operated by Great Western Railway to form two future franchises (LTT 08 Dec 17). One would cover intercity markets between London, Bristol, South Wales and the Cotswolds, outer suburban and branch line services in the Thames Valley, and potentially future services us

Network Rail expects to hear from the DfT this month about which of many rail enhancements deferred from the existing five-year control period  (CP5) will be delivered in CP6. NR’s strategic business plan documents released last month (LTT16 Feb) show many CP5 (2014/15-2018/19) schemes still await authorisation or funding.  The strategic business plan sets out Network Rail’s spending plans for control period 6, covering 2019/20-2023/24. It is based on the DfT’s stat

Property developers and landowners should be required to pay more towards public infrastructure projects at rail stations, according to Chelsea Dosad, associate director at professional service company KPMG. Speaking at Rail Stations and Property last week, Dosad said that Land Value Capture (LVC) would help make rail station developments possible in the face of limited government support. LVC would involve projects taking a share of the windfall gains received by private interests, said Dosad.

The Campaign for Better Transport has announced it is looking to appoint a new chief executive office to replace Stephen Joseph, who will be stepping down at the end of Autumn. Joseph was appointed executive director of Transport 2000 in 1988, the same year Michael Palin was appointed President, and received an OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment. Transport 2000 changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. During his 30-year tenure with the charity, Joseph

The British Parking Awards 2018 attracted around 100 entries from across the country, from which a short list of finalists has been selected. The entries have been assessed by a panel of experts made up of parking managers, transport and parking consultants, representatives from the major parking associations and bodies representing the motoring and freight sectors. The winners will be revealed at a gala lunch to be held in London on 9 March. To see the list of finalists click here The diverse

Cambridgeshire County Council is pressing for a major transport investment in Ely to permit the closure of level crossings and facilitate more train services. Ely is a busy railway town with three lines converging at Ely North Junction from Peterborough, King’s Lynn and Norwich.  With demands growing for more rail services, Network Rail has been exploring ways of increasing the junction’s capacity. One of the constraints is that, just north of the junction, the lines cross the

There will be few opportunities for delivering entirely new rail enhancement schemes in England and Wales in the next few years, as Network Rail concentrates on delivering late-running schemes in the existing programme. The message is contained in Network Rail’s strategic business plan for the next five-year control period, CP6, covering 2019/20-2023/24. Following the well-publicised problems delivering the CP5 enhancement programme, the DfT and Transport Scotland are introducing a new a

The Welsh Government has shed light on the proposed arrangements for the transfer of the Core Valley Lines to its ownership, including a transition period when liability for “latent defects” will remain with the UK Government. Updating Assembly Members this week, Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates said: “Welsh Government, HM Treasury and Department for Transport officials are developing the process for the transfer of owners, which is purely an administrative process between

Active travel and rail campaigners are embroiled in a dispute about the future of the Bristol-Bath railway path, amid speculation that the alignment could be needed for light rail. The 13-mile Bristol-Bath path was built between 1979 and 1986 and was the first major project undertaken by Sustrans. The active travel charity says the path is now the “busiest traffic-free route in the country”. The latest data shows 3,800 people used the path in east Bristol between 7am and 7pm on one

The rail sector dominates a ‘rich list’ of the best paid employees in public sector bodies published by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.  Drawing on two Government reports, the Alliance has identified 238 officials working in 305 quangos – arms-length government bodies – earning more than £164,000 a year. Of these, 52 work for Network Rail and 37 for HS2 Ltd.  The data highlights a big difference between the road and rail sectors. Just seven of the 238 sta

The premier annual forum for senior professionals across the rail and property sectors is being held 15 Hatfields in London on 21 February.  This year’s Rail Stations and Property Summit organised by Landor LINKS and sponsored by law firm Burges Salmon, will discuss how railway property can be unlocked for residential development as well as new funding mechanisms and models of collaborative delivery.  The leading players in the sectors will be in attendance including

A software package that forecasts the effects of infrastructure investment, development proposals and regulatory change has been developed by Prospective, a company founded by researchers from UCL, Cambridge and the Alan Turing Institute. The software outputs a wide range of forecast impact indicators, from land and property values to social and physical utilities demands and multimodal travel behaviour. The most dramatic aspect of the software, however, is that proposals can be designed and te

Plans are being drawn up for five new stations across England and Wales, which will receive a total of £16m funding from the Department for Transport towards the projects. All the stations – in County Durham, Warrington, Reading, Ceredigion and Bristol - are due to be completed by March 2020:  Horden Peterlee in County Durham will receive £4.4m of DfT funding towards a scheme worth £10.55m. The area has low levels of car ownership, and it is hoped the station will

Regeneration projects at and around rail stations can be hindered by investors’ concerns over their viability as well as lack of local support. But taking a creative, practical and flexible approach can increase the chances of success, believes Philip Beer, a partner at law firm Burges Salmon who specialises in advising both public and private sector clients on major regeneration and redevelopment projects. “It’s a question of working up a strong business plan that is realis

A team of leading architects, designers and engineers have been selected by HS2 Ltd to modernise Euston station and develop plans for new stations in Birmingham, Solihull and Old Oak Common, north-west London. The firms will be contracted to create detailed designs for the four stations, due to open in 2026: The contracts are as follows: Birmingham Curzon Street – WSP UK Limited (working with Grimshaw Architects LLP) Birmingham Interchange – Ove Arup & Partners International

Following her recent appointment as a junior transport minister, Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani used a column in The Times to introduce herself. After announcing, with understandable pride, that she was the first female Muslim MP to be made a government minister, Ghani then extolled the virtues of the HS2 high-speed rail network, the supervision of which is part of her ministerial brief. “Growing up in Birmingham, London seemed out of reach, as did Leeds and Manchester,” she began. &ld

Merseytravel is commissioning consultants to help prepare an outline business case for rail station devolution.  The possibility of station devolution features in the Liverpool City Region devolution agreement and Merseytravel’s initial focus is on the stations served by the devolved Merseyrail Electrics franchise. Consultant KPMGwas appointed in 2016 to explore six options, with each involving progressively more devolution (LTT29 Apr 16). The options were:  • MELalliance

West Midlands Combined Authority’s investment board this week endorsed a contribution of £39.4m of devolution deal funding to the £82.4m Coventry rail station masterplan project (LTT3 Feb & 8 Dec 17).  The WMCA’s board will make a final decision on the contribution on 9 March.  The project features a second station building, a 644-space multi-storey car park, a new footbridge connecting all platforms, a new bay platform, a six-bay bus interchange, and high

A £150m scheme to build a new rail station at Guildford and to turn the adjacent surface car park into a ‘Station Quarter’, with homes and shops, has been approved by the Planning Inspectorate. The appeal decision overturns Guildford Borough Council’s refusal to give the scheme planning permission. The development will feature a new public square, reconfigured access for vehicles with a new taxi drop-off area, a nine deck multi-storey car park and secure cycle parking.

It was almost a year ago that I stood on the podium at Rail Stations and Property Summit describing the concept of ‘Station Place’, which we had developed for the Rail Delivery Group to demonstrate how their Nine Principles of Future Station Design might look.  After my talk, I was introduced to Jonathan Martin, the director of investment and delivery at the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Jonathan had spoken at the Summit on his vision for developing some key areas of under-

The new Maghull North station rail station is set to open in May as part of a £340m package of rail improvements across the Liverpool city area over the next three years.  Work on the £13m scheme, which is being delivered by Network Rail on behalf of Merseytravel, started in September 2017. Funding came from the government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF), Merseytravel and the Homes and Communities Agency, which previously owned the land on which the station will be built. 

Greater Anglia has won a national heritage award for restoring 32 decorative roundels at Cambridge rail station. The rail operator took the MTR Crossrail Award for Urban Heritage at the National Railway Heritage Awards for its £250,000 facelift of the Grade II listed station.  As well as repairing and repainting the roundels, the project repaired damaged brickwork and tidied up unsightly cabling and surface pipes. The work, funded by a Railway Heritage Trust grant, was carried out b

The major revamp of King’s Cross station and its environs has been recognised at the London Planning Awards. Network Rail scooped the ‘Best Project Five Years On’ and the ‘Mayors Planning Award for Excellence’ trophies at this year’s event, held at Whitehall Palace last week. The London Planning Awards is organised in partnership with the Mayor of London, London First, RTPI, Planning Officers Society and London Councils. Since the Grade 1 listed transport hu

The achievements of women working in the transport and logistics centre will be recognised by the FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards. Currently in its eleventh year, the awards are designed to showcase the role women play in the future of transport and logistics. Maxine Benson

Although he remained in post after the Prime Minister’s cabinet reshuffle on 8 January, transport secretary Chris Grayling has become the target of a veritable barrage of personal criticism from the media in the early weeks of 2018. On 5 January, for example, Times columnist Edward Lucas suggested that: “Chris Grayling’s gimmicks have failed rail users. The transport secretary’s decision to bail out Virgin and Stagecoach shows his inability to see what the network needs.

The planned East Midlands Hub station should open well in advance of the arrival of HS2 in 2033 to help stimulate the local economy. This is among a list of priorities agreed last week by the DfT and Midlands Connect and East Midlands Councils. They have stated a commitment to open the station at Toton in the 2020s, at least for Network Rail services, to support the planned Innovation Campus nearby, which has the potential to create 10,000 new jobs. In a meeting between transport secretary Chr

As government and local authorities grapple with the housing shortage, this year’s Rail Stations and Property Summit offers a timely look at how best to deliver new homes around rail stations.  The event, to be held at 15 Hatfields in London on 21 February, will explore how local authorities, the property sector and the railways can work together to enable the development and improvement of rail stations, attract funding and make new housing around rail stations work.  Rail S

The economic benefits of modernising Preston railway station are to be explored in a study commissioned by Lancashire Enterprise Partnerships (LEP). Last week the LEP approved proposals by its Transport for Lancashire committee to assess the case for transforming the station. “Specialist consultants will need to be engaged to undertake this work, which will also need to include forecasts of future passenger demand, particularly for when HS2 services begin operating in 2026.” 

Wandsworth Council has approved the design for the new London Underground station at Battersea Power Station, which is due to open in 2020. This new tube link, which is being funded entirely by the area’s private sector developers, will serve existing local communities as well as those working and living at new developments in Nine Elms.   The council said that about 25,000 new jobs are being created at Nine Elms plus thousands of new homes including around 2,400 new affordable home

Proposals to improve the transport interchange in Bradford city centre have been approved by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Investment Committee.  Phase 1 of the project – to carry out short to medium terms works – would include a new pedestrianised station frontage, improved station concourses, better inter-modal links and re-location of taxi and drop-off facilities.  The £5.65m scheme would be funded by the West Yorkshire plus Transport Fund, although the a

Passengers using Govia Thameslink services suffered the worst levels of disruption on the rail network, reveals a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) published today.  This is the largest franchise in the UK – made up of Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern - including four major London train services. The DfT awarded the contract in 2014, worth £8bn over seven years, after Govia Thameslink scored the highest of five bidders for its proposals on service quality and put

Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) wants to recover up to £5.8m a year from Transport for London and Heathrow Express for running trains over the airport’s rail link. The Office of Rail and Road is consulting on the proposed charge for trains using HAL’s  8.6km rail link between the airport and the Great Western Main Line at Airport Junction.  HAL’s application envisages a charge for ten years commencing on 1 January 2019. It would apply to both TfL’s new Elizab

A vision for new walking and cycle-friendly settlements on the East West Rail line has won top prize in a competition run by the National Infrastructure Commission.  The NIC’s Cambridge-Oxford Connection: ideas competition invited the infrastructure sector to submit ideas for how new communities  should look.  The VeloCity concept was drawn up by a team led by Jennifer Ross of consultant Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, and including Featherstone Young; Khaa; Marko and

A £300m plan to improve transport interchange facilities at Birmingham International railway station has been unveiled by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.  The proposed “integrated transport hub” would provide interchange between rail, high-speed rail, bus, Metro, air, cars, taxis, walking and cycling, with connections to the proposed nearby HS2 Interchange station, the National Exhibition Centre, and Birmingham Airport. The plans have been drawn up by Mott MacDona

The Scottish Government has started talks with ScotRail over the provision of carriages with space for outdoor equipment, including bicycles, on some of the nation’s scenic railways. The Government’s programme for 2017-18 committed to taking forward work on “introducing dedicated carriages for cycles and other outdoor sports equipment on rural routes in the north and west”.  ScotRail and Transport Scotland were unable to comment on suggestions that single-carriage

Rail patronage on London and South East services was 1.3% lower in the second quarter of 2017/18 compared with the same period of 2016/17, according to the Office of Rail and Road. This is the fifth successive quarter of decline.  GB-wide rail passenger journeys in the second quarter fell 0.4% to 424 million. Long distance passenger numbers grew 1.1% and patronage on regional operators (i.e. outside London and the South East) rose 2.0%.  In London and the South East, the South Wester

Network Rail’s new method for allocating fixed costs between train operators could prompt a renewed debate about the future of secondary routes and branch lines, the Urban Transport Group has warned. The method, developed by Brockley Consulting (LTT10 Nov 17), loads more of the industry’s fixed costs onto regional operators and freight, with a reduction in costs borne by intercity operators (see table). Network Rail has been consulting on whether to use the method to allocate fixed

Open Parking has appointed Justin Ben-Nathan as business development manager. Open Parking is the operational arm of Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions. Its portfolio includes to hospitals, universities, retail parks, shopping malls, leisure centres, transport hubs, residential and office developments. Ben-Nathan was formerly national sales executive at APCOA Parking, where he previously held a number of business development and commercial management roles working with clients such as Networ

The new East West Railway Company, which will operate a direct rail link between the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, was launched by transport secretary Chris Grayling at Bletchley. The new company will oversee the restoration of the link between the Oxford and Cambridge nearly 50 years to the day since the closure of the old Varsity Line at the historic Second World War code-breaking site of Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. The transport secretary also visited nearby Bletchley Stat

Transport operators and councils must implement a range of measures to help people with mental impairments to travel, says a new report for the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). As well as improving wellbeing and encouraging independence, the measures would benefit the economy, argues the report. People with mental impairments make fewer journeys than the rest of the population due to anxiety and lack of confidence. Reasons include: not being eligible to travel concessi

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed at a gala ceremony held in London during March by the comedian Lucy Porter. The competition is free to enter and, as is now traditional, the deadline for submissions has been extended to Monday 8 January. According to Time Out, Lucy Porter “is one of the most talented comics on the circuit”. Having had 11 Edinburgh Fringe shows and international tours, Lucy is a well-established and loved comedian. On TV, she has

The Northern, Arriva Trains Wales, ScotRail and Merseyrail franchises all make operating losses exceeding £5 per train mile before the fixed costs of running the rail network are taken into account, according to analysis for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).  Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) and SYSTRA  compared passenger revenues  and operating costs per train mile for every franchise using data from 2015/16. Operating costs considered were staff, fuel, rolling

The DfT is understood to have asked Network Rail to find further cost savings in the next phase of the East West Railway between Bicester and Bedford, including removing capacity for new freight traffic.  The East West Rail (EWR) project will eventually re-establish a railway line between Oxford and Cambridge via Bletchley and Bedford.  There are different views about what the line’s primary purpose should be. The Greater Cambridge Partnership (including Cambridgeshire, Cambridg

Freight traffic should be switched from rail onto lorry platoons, a move that would free up capacity on the rail network for more passenger trains, the Government’s infrastructure adviser, Lord Adonis,  has said. The proposal has caused uproar in the rail freight sector, with operators said to be “hopping mad” at Adonis, the former Labour transport secretary who now chairs the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). Operators are concerned that Adonis

More space for hire bikes is urgently needed at mainline railway stations in London to meet commuter demand, according to David Eddington, head of cycle hire at Transport for London (TfL).  Secure, overnight lock-up facilities for the Santander cycles should be provided near stations, he said. Staff could wheel the bikes between docking stations and nearby storage facilities or do shuttle runs in vans, which would be “much better than transporting the bikes through the congestion of

Train operator Southeastern bagged two trophies at the National Cycle-Rail awards presented at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster yesterday. Southeastern took the coveted Operator of the Year award as well as Best Station of the Year for its work in improving bike parking facilities at Gravesend Station. The awards, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), celebrate the work done by the rail industry and associated organisations to encourage integrated cycle-rail travel. Station of the Year G

People with mental health conditions are being let down by transport operators failing to cater for their needs, according to Roger Mackett, Emeritus Professor of Transport at University College London. Speaking at the TRL Academy Symposium last week, he said that those with mental health impairments are being deterred from using bus and rail services due to lack of support from operators. This includes not giving staff the right training to help those with mental health issues, the shift to dri

The future of a rail link to Glasgow Airport is once again in doubt, with councils studying a critical report into the project.  The original plan for a Glasgow Airport Rail Link was scrapped by the SNP minority government in 2009. But the Glasgow City Region city deal revived the plan, allocating £144m for a tram-train service from Glasgow Central, sharing the existing rail lines to Paisley and then branching off on a new spur to the airport.  The Herald reported last week tha

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council is opposing a Swansea Bay Metro investment programme, which it fears would demote Neath to “branch line status”. The programme was floated recently by Mark Barry, professor of practice in connectivity at Cardiff University. The Welsh Government has already committed to his earlier proposals for a South East Wales Metro investment programme, based on the regional transport plan of the erstwhile regional transport consortium Sewta. Barry envis

Network Rail has announced the sale of its commercial property business in England and Wales. The majority of properties will be sold on a leasehold basis, reflecting that access to these properties will be required for the future operation of the railway. Private bidders are being sought to purchase Network Rail’s commercial estate portfolio, which is expected to create a significant injection of cash to the taxpayer-owned railway infrastructure company as it focuses investment on p

Parking at Kemble Station in Gloucestershire has been doubled following the completion of work on a new car park officially opened by Princess Anne. The £1.4m works have provided 333 additional spaces at a new car park that was opened by the Princess Royal driving through a ribbon at a special event to mark the occasion. A plaque was also unveiled at the station. Kemble Station previously had 335 long-stay spaces plus four short-stay bays.  Ben Caswell, finance director at Great We

Improving local transport connections between Oxford and Cambridge could lead to the creation of both new jobs and housing, says Lord Adonis. The chair of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) is urging ministers, and council leaders across the arc covering Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton and Cambridge, to “seize the opportunity” and harness the area’s economic potential. Lord Adonis has launched Partnering for prosperity: a new deal for the Cambridge-Milton

The Year of Engineering will see government and industry offer young people across the UK direct experiences of engineering in a push to tackle skills gap during 2018. Industry partners include companies in technology, healthcare, food production, energy, culture and transport. Partners such as Siemens, the Science Museum Group, Ocado, Usborne, BAE Systems and Crossrail have already pledged their support. Activities will include large-sale outreach program

Legislation that will make Transport for the North (TfN) the first statutory sub-national transport body with its own legal powers and duties were laid in Parliament. The move to put TfN on a statutory footing means that its recommendations must be formally considered by the government. The Department for Transport (DfT) also confirmed the award of £18.5m from a £150m government fund for TfN’s smart ticketing programme. TfN will use this to introduce paper

The winners of the British Parking Awards 2018 will be revealed on Friday 8 March by the comedian Lucy Porter. Parking Review launched the British Parking Awards in 2002. Now in their 17th year, the annual competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The competition is 

The House of Commons Transport Committee has launched an inquiry looking into whether or not the current system of planning and delivering investment in rail infrastructure. Currently, most rail infrastructure funding in Britain is channeled through Network Rail. The Government funds Network Rail in five-year cyc

London Overground has celebrated its first decade of successful operations. The operation, which is the third largest rail operator in the UK, commemorated its first 10 years of service on Saturday 11 November 2017.

A scheme that enables local communities to adopt under-used stations and rail lines is set to receive a multi-million pound boost from the Department for Transport. Around 60 Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) have been set up around the country since 1993. They have helped to revive and reshape more than 80 routes and stations, thanks to the efforts of volunteers and community engagement. The most successful projects have seen passenger numbers boosted, while others have recreated railway sta

Local trains in the north of England and rail freight operators cause a higher proportion of Network Rail’s fixed costs than the current method of cost allocation assumes, according to new analysis for the Government company.   Network Rail is consulting the industry on applying the new cost allocation method, developed by Brockley Consulting, in Control Period 6 (2019/20-2023/24). The method will make the cost of different operations more transparent to public funders of the industr

The Welsh Government is budgeting for a large reduction in rail subsidy as soon as the new Wales and Borders franchise begins next year. The news came as incumbent operator Arriva announced its withdrawal from the competition for the new franchise.  The subsidy reduction appears to equate to about a third of the current franchise’s support, although the Government says this depends on the outcome of the on-going procurement process and negotiations with the UK Government. Welsh tran

The DFT should continue monitoring developments in Hyperloop technology but an operational system is still probably at least two decades away, according to the Department’s Science Advisory Council (SAC).     The SAC’s Hyperloop position statement draws on two recent meetings held to consider the technology’s potential both as a method of transport for the UK and as a commercial opportunity for UK businesses.  Hyperloop was first promoted by US entrepreneur Elo

A proposed Midland Metro line in the West Midlands will include passive provision for freight trains to share the tracks.  The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro route will serve Dudley town centre and the Waterfront/Merry Hill shopping centre (see map).  About 4.2 miles of the  6.7-mile route will be along a disused railway. The original proposals envisaged a double track Metro alignment running alongside a single track for heavy rail. At ‘pinch points’, the alignmen

Most people regard rail electrification as an unquestionably good thing but ask those living with Great Western electrification and you’ll get a different answer. Indeed, so ugly is the overhead line equipment, train operator Great Western Railway is trying to pretend that the line hasn’t been electrified. Take this Famous Five-themed ad depicting a new IEP train passing over what is presumably the River Thames. Not a ghastly mast or wire in sight! Schoolteachers have to be vigila

Consultation has been launched on a draft masterplan to redevelop Leeds railway station to accommodate HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail services, and more local services.   HS2 will approach the city from the south and the HS2 station will adjoin the existing east-west-aligned station to form a T-shape.   The stations will share a single concourse and an over-bridge will be built within the existing station shed to link with HS2.  The stations will have multiple pedestrian entranc

The regulatory environment for road transport needs to be overhauled to make it fit for emerging forms of mobility products and services, Michael Hurwitz, Transport for London’s director of transport innovation, has told the London Assembly’s transport committee inquiry into future transport.    Said Hurwitz: “The regulations were set in the 1970s and the 1990s, and the world of transport in those days was crudely speaking as follows: you had a car or you took a priv

A property services company says it has identified around 10,500 car parks in the UK’s towns and cities that could be developed to accommodate over 350,000 homes, enough to house around one million people. “Over the past 15 years several crucial demographic changes have begun to take hold which are having a dramatic impact on the adequate provision of housing in the UK,” said Nick Whitten, JLL’s director of UK research. “A trend towards urban living has disproport

Proposals for two new London Overground stations connecting to the Elizabeth line and High Speed 2 (HS2) have been published by Transport for London (TfL).  New stations at Old Oak and Park Royal in west London would form part of a major regeneration project, which would aim to deliver 25,500 new homes and 65,000 jobs in then area.  Improved local transport infrastructure, including connections to the London Overground network, would bring up to 250,000 more people and 150,000 additi

The UK has much to learn from other countries when it comes to maximising the economic, social and environmental benefits of railway stations, according to a report published by the Campaign for Better Transport. Development around stations: Exploring international experience and lessons for the UK examines the international experience of creating development hubs around railway stations and the benefits that they can bring. The report has been published by the campaign’s Tracks think-ta

Network Rail has surprised Oxford City Council by objecting to development plans for the city’s railway station. It has expressed concerns over several aspects, including financial viability and flexibility for future track alterations to meet passenger growth. The council recently consulted on its Oxford Station Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which brings together proposals for comprehensive redevelopment of the station area to create an integrated transport hub and to counterbal

The UK has much to learn from other countries when it comes to maximising the economic, social and environmental benefits of railway stations, according to a report published by the Campaign for Better Transport. Development around stations: Exploring international experience and lessons for the UK examines the international experience of creating development hubs around railway stations and the benefits that they can bring. The report has been published by the campaign's

A new set of road use rules devised specifically for London is among the ideas proposed by an independent commission studying ways of making the capital’s highways work more efficiently. A ‘Movement Code’ is one of a series of policies proposed by the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets, convened by the Centre for London think-tank with the aim of developing new thinking on what can be done to manage the conflicting pressures on the capital's surface t

Smarter Travel LIVE! 2017 offers an expertly-crafted overview of need-to know people, initiatives, products and services – all in one place Resources are squeezed, time is precious and expectations upon local authorities and transport professionals increase.  The travelling public assumes that everything about their travel experience can, and should be, improved through the smart (and positive) implementation of technological innovation.  But is it really that easy? The t

Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf has told Transport Scotland to look into re-opening a six-mile disused rail line between Leven in Fife and a junction with the Edinburgh to Dundee line. Officials will undertake a GRIP 4 study, the ‘single option development’ stage in Network Rail’s standard process for developing schemes. Levenmouth Rail campaigners envisage a half-hourly passenger service calling at new stations at Leven and Cameron Bridge. During a debate on the sch

Investigating a diverse mix of regional rail services would not only represent high value for money but would also act as an “effective conduit” for regeneration, economic growth and improving the envirorment, says a new study from the Urban Transport Group. The group builds on its previous research to highlight the benefits on investing in four different types of regional rail services. “Obviously, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ formula so we have develop

The first draft Assessment Report from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) warns that the current state of the UK’s infrastructure risks hindering the economy if action is not taken quickly. The report contains local transport content, including concerns about air quality and the needs of cycling and public transport within cities, as well as the more obvious comments on airport capacity and national road and rail corridors. Set up two years ago,  the commission was

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has presented a British Transport Police (BTP) officer who single-handedly tackled three knife-wielding terrorists on London Bridge with a special honour. PC Wayne Marques PC Marques suffered major stab wounds and nearly lost an eye after confronting the terrorists in Borough Market on 3 June. He is still recovering from his injuries. He received a special Gold NRA trophy award at the National Rail Awards 2017. Grayling paid tribute to th

Rival plans are taking shape for a southern rail link to Heathrow Airport.  New company Heathrow Southern Railway Ltd (HSRL) is proposing building eight miles of new railway parallelling the M25 (see map).  A connection to the Windsor to Staines line would allow direct trains between Heathrow and London Waterloo.  A connection to the Virginia Water to Weybridge line at Chertsey would provide for direct services to Woking and further afield, potentially allowing  through tr

A draft plan for connecting the proposed East Midlands HS2 hub station into the area’s local road, rail and light rail networks has been published.  Nottinghamshire County Council leader Kay Cutts told councillors that the East Midlands Hub station, due to open as part of the West Midlands-Leeds HS2 route in 2033, would “be the best connected on the high-speed network outside London”.  The draft strategy has been prepared by a team led by East Midlands Councils, wit

The TransPennine route will be the first digitally controlled intercity rail line in the country, transport secretary Chris Grayling has announced. Network Rail will develop options to make the TransPennine route the first digitally controlled intercity rail line in the country. Network Rail will receive up to £5m to develop proposals for embedding digital technology between Manchester and York, to help us deliver a more reliable and safer railway. This includes looking at a system o

Retail sales at stations managed by Network Rail increased 5.29% between April and June 2017, according to new quarterly results released today. This compares favourably to British Retail Consortium figures, which show average total sales growth of 2.8% in the wider retail sector over the same period, says Network Rail. Network Rail says the latest figures represent the 21st consecutive quarter of sales growth across its stations, with the strongest increases in those that have seen significan

I have a few quick thoughts on some recent articles in LTT.  Iain Reeve’s Viewpoint piece about driverless cars struck a chord with me (‘Will self-driving cars really be a cure-all for transport problems? Don’t be silly’ LTT 18 Aug). I’ve felt for some time that the balance is swinging too far back towards techno-fixes and away from behaviour change. As he says, this usually results in behaviour compensation, so we end up no better off.  I also entirely

London Luton Airport is pressing the DfT to rethink its plans for the next East Midlands rail franchise and authorise four trains an hour to serve the airport station. Luton Airport Parkway is served by frequent Thameslink services and by one East Midlands Trains service an hour. Passengers then interchange onto a bus for the short journey to the airport terminal.  The airport has the lowest mode share of any of London’s major airports. Research for the airport by North Star Consult

The London Assembly has appointed Arthur Leathley as the new chairman of London TravelWatch, the statutory watchdog for the capital’s transport users.  Leathley has senior level experience as a communications director in the private sector and Whitehall. In particular, he spent nine years at Virgin Trains, followed by stints as communications director at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and as director of cross-government communications for bo

Parking Review magazine has launched the 2018 edition of the British Parking Awards. Now in their 17th year, the competition encourages both public and private sector organisations to nominate people and projects that represent the best in parking management, design and innovation. The awards encompass both the on-street and off-street sides of the parking sector. The diverse nature of the parking sector means that the competition has categories that cover buildings, technology and people. Bri

Transport experts are to join leaders from the further and higher education fields in new advisory group, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced. The Education Advisory Group will discuss best practice in promoting transport through education. Skills minister John Hayes, who is leading the government’s work to develop infrastructure skills, said he believes that more needs to be done to work effectively with the higher and further education sectors. “I have been a ch

When it comes to infrastructure spending on the railways, it’s the enhancement projects – new lines, stations, and capacity increases – that grab the limelight. But how much money is available for such  schemes in Network Rail’s next five-year control period (CP6: 2019/20-2023/24) could depend on NR’s ability to bring down the costs of operations, maintenance and renewals. Having failed spectacularly to achieve the ORR’s efficiency targets for renewals in

The rail industry is exploring how to improve passenger demand forecasting amid signs  that the rate of growth is slowing.  The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is leading an initiative to develop more sophisticated forecasting tools, taking account of a wider range of demand influences, and segmenting the population into different markets.  The RSSB says there are “early signs” that the patronage and fare revenue growth trend seen in the last 20 years is &ldqu

Far from diminishing in importance with the passage of time, the repercussions of transport secretary Chris Grayling’s decision to cancel several significant rail electrification projects (Media Monitor 04 Aug) has continued to generate significant coverage in recent weeks, especially in the north of England. “Transport secretary Chris Grayling risked turning himself into a hate figure for train passengers in the north of England… when he ditched long-promised rail electrific

Network Rail has sold the Quadrant:MK multi-storey to parking operator Indigo. The car park is located close to the Milton Keynes Central railway station and one of the main lines from London to Manchester. The six-floor car park, which has 294 spaces, is open around the clock seven days a week. The car park’s security measures include a CCTV monitored entrance that requires an entry code. The car park is monitored remotely, with customers able to contact Indigo’s customer support

A body representing political, business and other leaders should be set up to speak with one voice for the North, a transport summit held in Leeds has agreed. The Northern Transport Summit of business and political leaders was called after transport secretary Chris Grayling cast doubt over long promised improvements to Northern railways. The case for a new representative forum was included in a statement signed by: Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council; Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Man

The future of the North of England’s transport networks lies in the hands of its local authority leaders and not Whitehall departments, Chris Grayling has said on the eve of a summit on the need for better transport connections across the region. Writing in The Yorkshire Post, the transport secretary stated: “The success of northern transport depends on the North itself – on Transport for the North (TfN), businesses, mayors and devolved authorities, and on local communities. T

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has called on the government to build a high-speed rail line across the Pennines between Liverpool and Hull. He swapped being an MP for being editor of London’s Evening Standard, but he made his plea in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times. The trans-Pennine route would be an extension of the HS2 scheme, a new high-speed line that is intended to link London and Birmingham and which will have branches to Manchest

The 2017 National Cycle-Rail awards is now open to nominations. The event, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and sponsored by Cyclepods, recognise progress made by the rail industry and associated organisations towards encouraging the integrated use of bikes and train travel. The categories are: Station of the year Operator of the year Best Customer Service Cycling Champion Cycle Security Innovation Door-to-Door Journey, inclu

The Welsh Government’s plan to take control of the Valley Lines in South East Wales from Network Rail could unravel, Welsh cabinet secretary for economy and infrastructure Ken Skates has acknowledged.  The difficulties facing the asset transfer plan are revealed in correspondence between Skates and transport secretary Chris Grayling released by the Welsh Government this week. The letters also reveal that big hurdles remain with the proposed devolution of the next Wales and Borders fr

The Department for Transport has announced that the West Midlands rail franchise will be operated by West Midlands Trains, a joint venture between Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co. The West Midlands Trains franchise will cover services across the West Midlands, as well as trains from London Euston to Crewe and from Liverpool to Birmingham. The new contract will start in December and last until March 2026. The government says the deal with West Midlands Trains will s

The developers of High-Speed 2 are about to start work on creating wildlife habitats in the West Midlands that it says will offset the line’s impact on nature.  The first project is creating new woodland at the Finham Brook in Kenilworth, in Warwickshire. The habitat feature woodland areas featuring more than 6,000 trees and shrubs as well as six ponds. The habitat is expected to be complete by the end of the year. HS2 says the habitat will support local species ranging from birds to

Cost estimates and funding envelopes for some of Network Rail’s biggest rail enhancement projects are reported in letters released by the DfT.  The letters were sent in January  to the senior DfT official responsible for each of the projects. Each was written by the then DfT permanent secretary, Philip Rutnam, and the chief executive of the Treasury’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Tony Meggs.  Brian Etheridge is the senior responsible owner (SRO) for five ma

Network Rail this week announced reforms to rail project delivery, which it  hopes will help put a stop to the stories of cost escalations that have blighted projects both big and small – such as rail re-openings, electrification, and new stations – in recent years.  The reforms will give NR’s route managing directors a wider range of choices about who delivers projects. Announcing the changes, chief executive Mark Carne said: “Network Rail is ultimately accoun

Nottingham City Council is to lead a study of public transport and road improvements to improve access to the proposed HS2 station at Toton, between Derby and Nottingham.  Nottingham says the HS2 Growth Strategy for Toton, currently under preparation, will recommend “mass transit options” for connecting  the existing NET (Nottingham Express Transit) light rail line at Toton Lane to the HS2 station and to a park-and-ride site at junction 25 of the M1; Long Eaton; Derby; and

The number of trips made by people in England continued to fall last year and is now 13% lower than 2002, according to the National Travel Survey.  People made on average 774 trips in 2016, excluding short walks (defined as being less than a mile in length). In 2002 the average was 886.   Average distance travelled, excluding short walks, was 6,396 miles in 2016 – 10% below the 7,104 miles recorded in 2002. The 2016 figure was 3% lower than 2015.   The average annual mile

The Welsh Government is demanding that the UK Government ringfences funding that would have been spent electrifying Cardiff to Swansea for other rail investment in Wales.  Transport secretary Chris Grayling announced the cancellation of the electrification last month (LTT21 Jul).  In a letter to Grayling, Welsh economy secretary Ken Skates says: “Funding and delivery of electrification to Swansea was announced in 2012, and restated in 2014 by the Prime Minister David Cameron.&n

Questions have been asked over whether the transport secretary's demand to improve the affordability of Crossrail 2 will mean stations being axed - as the Greater Manchester Mayor asked whether taxpayers outside London were paying for it, given rail electrification schemes were axed. The announcement that Chris Grayling was "a supporter of Crossrail 2," but one who wants revised plans "so the public gets an affordable scheme that is fair to the UK taxpayer," came days after he dropped plans to

Reported sexual offences on trains have more than doubled in the past five years, according to British Transport Police (BTP) figures obtained by the BBC. The police statistics show 1,448 offences were reported in 2016-17, up from 650 in 2012-2013. The majority of the incidents were sexual assaults on f

Gatwick Airport is calling on the Government to commit funding to a major increase in rail capacity on the London to Brighton railway.   The rail upgrade is the top priority for the Gatwick Growth Board, set up last year by the airport to identify transport schemes that would benefit the airport and the wider region up to 2025, assuming a single runway airport.  The upgrade to the Brighton Main Line would include re-designing East Croydon station and using flyovers to ease capacity p

The DfT is consulting on whether to make a major investment in Crewe’s railway station so that it becomes an important interchange between HS2 and other rail services.  Under the existing plans,  the phase 2a HS2 route from the West Midlands will join the West Coast Main Line just south of Crewe.  The assumption in the HS2 business case since 2011 has been for two HS2 services stopping at Crewe each hour, in each direction, providing services to London, Preston and Liverpo

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has confirmed a  rollback of the Government’s rail electrification programme, dropping plans to wire the Midland Main Line north of Kettering,  the Great Western Main Line between Cardiff and Swansea, and the Oxenholme-Windermere branch in the Lake District.  The cancellations follow the Great Western electrification debacle, which is years delayed  and massively over budget.  For the Midland Main Line (MML) the DfT plans a flee

Transport secretary Chris Grayling confirmed Britain’s high-speed rail lines to the North West, East Midlands and Yorkshire. The decision will see new connections created between Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and the East Midlands, with all of them being linked to London by the line. The transport secretary announced the companies who would receive £6.6bn worth of contracts relating to the first phase of HS2 earlier today. An upcoming bill for the section from

The Department for Transport has revealed the winners of £6.6bn worth of contracts to build the first phase of HS2 between London and Birmingham. Transport secretary Chris Grayling announced the decision to award contracts today, which the DFT said would mean the new high-speed link reaching Birmingham by 2026. Carillion, Costain and Balfour Beatty are among the consortia that will build tunnels, bridges and embankments on the first stretch of the new high-speed rail line.  “

The Uckfield branch line in East Sussex should be electrified as a pilot project for a new way of funding and delivering rail enhancements, rail manager Chris Gibb has told the Government. The 25-mile Uckfield branch is one of the few remaining unelectrified parts of the rail network south of the Thames. Gibb recommends electrifying the branch from Hurst Green Junction with 25kV AC overhead equipment rather than the 750V DCthird rail equipment, which is standard throughout British Rail’s

Transport for London should take over the management of two rail services that are currently part of the Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern franchise, Chris Gibb has told ministers.    Gibb says the TfL should be given control of some Great Northern local services and the East Croydon-Milton Keynes service. But he rules out TfL taking control of Southern’s South London ‘metro’ services in the short-term. “I believe there is an option to transfer the Gre

Technological and sociological trends will transform the design and operation of parking services. The car park of the future will be a place where, besides parking, you re-charge your electric car and/or pick up online purchases. Within the next few years, car parks will become places where semi-autonomous cars drop-off their driver and passengers, park themselves and then pick them up again after their shopping trip or leisure experience. The fact that the car of the future will most probably

The Queen's Speech confirmed that the Government will bring forward further legislation on HS2, but was silent on Crossrail 2, sparking alarm in the transport sector. The Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport welcomed the inclusion in the legislative programme for the next two years of HS2, but the lack of any commitment on Crossrail 2 prior to 2019 led to its head of policy, Daniel Parker-Klein, said that the scheme was "essential for the whole of the UK". He said: "There is little

Planning guidance has been published for the redevelopment of Oxford’s railway station, a project that will provide more capacity for trains and remodelled interchange facilities.  Oxford station is already a bottleneck with only two through platforms to serve the Great Western services to/from London Paddington and the Cross Country services between the North/Midlands and Reading/South Coast. Since December, Chiltern services from London Marylebone have  operated into the north

The government has announced the names of the companies in the running for the new West Coast Partnership (WCP) rail franchise and the next South Eastern franchise. The winner of the WCP franchise will be expected to work with HS2 Ltd to launch the first services on HS2 high-speed line, taking advantage of the extra space it will provide for commuters on the West Coast Main Line. The winner of the South Eastern franchise will need to work as one team wit

Urban and rural rail services are more costly to provide than previously thought, and the taxpayer pays almost £200m a year to keep the rail network capable of carrying freight, according to a new method for allocating rail industry fixed costs commissioned by Network Rail.   Brockley Consulting, a specialist in regulatory and competition matters, has developed a method for allocating fixed costs of the rail network between operators. Says Brockley: “There does not [currently]

Transport received far less media coverage than many other issues in the run up to the General Election, with the possible exception of Labour’s proposals to renationalise the railways (see Media Monitor 26 May). An exception to this was a lengthy article in The New Statesman that went through the major transport policies of each of the major parties in some detail. “Education gets around five pages of the Tory manifesto,” NS writer John Elledge noted on 31 May. “The NHS

Some of Network Rail’s plans to close level crossings in Essex will put walkers in danger by diverting them onto unsafe roads, according to Essex County Council.  In March Network Rail made three Transport and Works Act Order applications to close, or downgrade to use by non-motorised users only, more than 100 crossings in the Anglia area (excluding Norfolk). Most are closures. The applications follow a public consultation and affect 24 crossings in Suffolk; 30 in Cambridgeshire; an

The Welsh Government is coming under fire for not consulting stakeholders on the next 15-year Wales and Borders franchise specification, which could include radical changes such as the conversion of some lines to light rail operation. The specification is being developed through “competitive dialogue” with the four bidders. The procurement timetable does not include a period for consultation on the specification. Simon Jones, the Government’s director of transport, told a Nati

UKIP would scrap the HS2 “vanity project” and plans for the “environmentally destructive” third runway at Heathrow. “Rail travel is essential but HS2 is not. This project is unaffordable, requires massive borrowing, will blight people’s homes, and destroy valuable habitats. Spending £75bn just to save a few minutes between London and Leeds is ludicrous and, we think, unethical. UKIP will put HS2 out of its misery. We will invest in upgrading existing ma

As the General Election began to loom on the horizon most media discussion on transport issues, which was as usual not particularly extensive, focused on the future of Britain’s railways to the virtual exclusion of all other transport modes. On 11 May, for example, the BBC’s ‘Reality Check’ segment discussed how Labour proposals to renationalise the railways might work. “Labour’s pledge appears to resonate with the public,” the BBC said, whilst also not

A Green Transport Act would be one of five environmental Acts tabled by the Liberal Democrats if they win power. The party says the acts are needed “to incorporate existing EU environmental protections, maintain product standards such as for energy efficiency, and establish a framework for continual improvement”.  There would also be a Zero-Carbon Britain Act, which would set new legally binding targets to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050.&

The Conservative manifesto for next month’s General Election makes no mention of Crossrail 2, the plan to link up rail lines in south-west and north-east London, adding to fears that the project could be shelved by a Tory victory.  The party’s manifesto pledges to continue a programme of “strategic national investments, including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow Airport”. Before the prime minister called the election, Transport f

The Rail Delivery Group is mounting its second PlusBike campaign to inform occasional rail users of cycle parking facilities at rail stations.  This follows last year’s PlusBike marketing campaign, which resulted in an increase of awareness levels by 9% and more than doubled usage of cycle-rail facilities. The campaign also generated over 50,000 clicks through to the PlusBike webpage. The three-week online campaign runs from 22 May to 11 June. This will include canvas advertising o