All articles by Rail Business UK – Page 125
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
Contractor Walker Construction is to begin work shortly on a £5m, year-long project funded by the Department for Transport to improve facilities and ease passenger congestion at St Albans City station. It includes construction of a two-storey extension to the main station building for a 'premier brand' convenience store, widening ...
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Rail Business UKCardiff – London open access plan
UK: Grand Union Trains has applied to the Office of Rail & Road for a track access agreement which would enable it to launch a Cardiff Central – London Paddington open access passenger service from late 2020. The proposed hourly service would call at Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol ...
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Rail Business UKGB Railfreight to reopen March sidings
UK: GB Railfreight has secured a lease for the disused March Up Yard rail sidings in Cambridgeshire in eastern England. The operator plans to use the site for the stabling and maintenance of rolling stock which is used on freight trains between Middleton Towers and Yorkshire, to carry aggregates between ...
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Rail Business UKSoutheastern franchise extension confirmed
UK: The Department for Transport and the Govia joint venture of Go-Ahead (65%) and Keolis (35%) have agreed a short-term extension to the current South Eastern passenger franchise until November 10, the operator confirmed on June 13, with an option for a further extension to April 1 2020. The franchise ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
42 Technology has equipped Porterbrook’s Class 319 technology demonstrator EMU with its Adaptable Carriage seating system, which enables seats to be moved out of the way to create space for freight, bicycles or luggage. 42 Technology is finalising a second demonstration installation which will automatically reconfigure off-the-shelf rail-certified seats. Network ...
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Rail Business UKSign language app for deaf passengers
UK: ScotRail and InterpreterNow have introduced an app designed to make it easier for railway staff to communicate with deaf people using British Sign Language. The app can be installed on staff or customer smartphones, and provides immediate access to online British Sign Language interpreting via a video call. Customers ...
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Rail Business UKVirgin Trains open access service to ‘show the rest of the industry how it can be done’
UK: A partnership of Virgin Group, Stagecoach, SNCF and Alstom has applied to the Office of Rail & Road for permission to operate open access trains between London and Liverpool from May 2021, which it says would be ‘the UK’s most advanced and customer-focused’ rail service. The announcement on June ...
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Rail Business UKGWR prepares for December timetable recast
UK: More than three-quarters of all services operated by Great Western Railway are set to change with the introduction of a completely recast timetable on December 15, as the FirstGroup franchise operator moves to capitalise on the fruits of the Great Western Route Modernisation programme and increase capacity on some ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
Dutch company Sqills is to supply its S3 Passenger software as a service platform to manage all seat reservation functions for the Rail Delivery Group from next year. This will cover 21 train operators in Great Britain, who would also be able to connect their inventories with other S3 Passenger ...
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Rail Business UKHigh Speed 2 rolling stock bids submitted
UK: The deadline to submit bids for the estimated £2·75bn contract to design, manufacture and maintain the High Speed 2 train fleet passed at midday on June 5. Project promoter HS2 Ltd will now evaluate the five bids received and expects to announce the winner in early 2020, with entry ...
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Rail Business UKVirgin Trains announces plans for cheapest fare app
UK: Virgin Trains is developing a booking app which it says will guarantee that passengers obtain the cheapest walk-up fares by retrospectively looking at the trains used and recalculating the fare if a different ticket would have been cheaper than the one purchased. The system would automatically ...
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Rail Business UKFirstGroup concerned about UK franchise risk and reward
FIRSTGROUP: ‘We have concerns with the current balance of risk and reward being offered’ by UK passenger rail franchises, warned FirstGroup Chief Executive Matthew Gregory when presenting the train and bus operator’s annual results on May 30. Gregory said FirstGroup would await the government’s Williams review of the structure of ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
The Railway Industry Association published its submission to the Transport Select Committee's Trains Fit for the Future inquiry on May 28. 'The rail industry needs the right policy environment to replace diesel passenger trains with those that use electricity, hydrogen or batteries', said RIA Technical Director David Clarke. 'To do ...
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Rail Business UKOpportunities amid uncertainty in the UK rail market
UK: Railway Industry Association Chief Executive Darren Caplan sees good opportunities for UK firms in both the home and export markets, despite a period of uncertainty. Speaking to Railway Gazette at the Railtex exhibition in Birmingham on May 15, Caplan stressed that the record £48bn settlement for Network ...
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Rail Business UKVivarail units take over Marston Vale services
VIVARAIL: Class 150 and 153 diesel multiple-units have been withdrawn from West Midlands Trains services on the UK's Marston Vale Line, with all services now operated using Class 230 DMUs supplied by Vivarail. The first Class 230 unit entered service between Bletchley and Bedford last month. Vivarail has ...
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Rail Business UKStadler presses ahead with UK projects
UK: Stadler is moving forward with its four UK projects, the company told Railway Gazette at Railtex. The company expects to complete deliveries of the Greater Anglia fleet by the end of the year, having recently delivered the first of 10 EMUs for use on Stansted ...
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Rail Business UKLegal action over ‘inappropriate’ risks in new West Coast franchise
UK: The West Coast Trains Partnership joint venture of Stagecoach Group (50%), SNCF Holding (30%) and Virgin (20%) confirmed on May 24 that it had begun legal action against the Department for Transport. This follows DfT’s decision to disqualify it from bidding for the West Coast Partnership contract covering the ...
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Rail Business UKDoncaster hub prepares to maintain Azuma fleet
UK: Hitachi Rail Ltd is ramping up maintenance activity at Agility Trains East’s new Doncaster depot as the roll-out of Class 800/801 Azuma trainsets begins on the East Coast Main Line. The first Azuma entered service on May 15, and four more were being used for driver training in late ...
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Rail Business UKNetwork Rail awards haulage and seasonal services contracts
UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail has awarded contracts worth £800m for the haulage and operation of its engineering trains and the provision of seasonal rail treatment services in Control Period 6 which runs from 2019 to 2024. ‘These contracts demonstrate the commercially creative approach Network Rail’s supply chain now ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
Greater Anglia launched its 'Norwich in 90’ service between the Norfolk city and London on May 20. Services with 90 min timings depart southbound at 09.00 and 17.00 and northbound at 11.00 and 19.00 from Monday to Saturday. The first regular services to use the Halton Curve between Runcorn ...