The Skanska Costain Strabag JV has awarded Premier Modular contracts to provide more than 500 building modules totalling 15 000 m2 to act as project offices and welfare facilities for 15 sites along the first 26 km of HS2 from London Euston. The buildings include open-plan offices, meeting rooms, break-out spaces, showers, drying room, toilets, first aid rooms and canteens. Each building is being installed complete with lighting, air conditioning, fire and security alarms, toilets, partitions, and doors. Expected to be in use for at least five years, the modular buildings are fitted with rainwater harvesting, low energy lighting, PIR lighting sensors, low water consumption showers, dual flush toilets and effluent tanks.
A passenger survey by Transport Focus has concluded that dot matrix station information boards should over time be replaced by higher resolution white-on-black displays. The research also looked at what passengers thought about Operation Information Systems and interactive totems.
Govia Thameslink Railway has launched a ‘Find a quieter train’ feature on the Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern websites. Data collected from on-train passenger counting equipment over the previous two weeks is used to show which services are quieter, with colour-coded icons indicating how many seats are usually available.
Bureau Veritas has certified St Pancras International, Stratford and Ebbsfleet stations as meeting cleaning and hygiene standards. The stations are managed by Network Rail High Speed, with cleaning services provided by Churchill. ‘We recognise that the public will want reassurance before they visit busy transport hubs that they are safe, and these certificates do exactly that’, said Jay Khan, head of passenger strategy at NRHS. The certificates are valid for six months.
Paul Plummer has been appointed Professor of Rail Strategy at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education. He was previously Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group, having spent 13 years at Network Rail where he was responsible for network planning, development projects, system operation, regulation and strategy.
Training provider Astutis has launched an enhanced IOSH Managing Safely online course for people in middle management positions within the rail industry. Tutor-led courses are three days long, while online learners have six months’ access to course materials and tutor support, which they can work through at their own pace.
CrossCountry has partnered with the Daniel Baird Foundation to install bleed control kits on all of its trains. Designed to prevent catastrophic bleeding, the kit contains equipment essential for trauma management and provides the user with the means to immediately control life-threatening external haemorrhaging.
Andrew Stephenson, Minister of State for Transport, has formally opened the University of Birmingham’s purpose-built Centre of Excellence for Digital Systems, developed through partnership with the UK Rail Research & Innovation Network with investment from Research England. Facilities include project labs and cab and signalling simulators.
With the removal of the legal requirement for passengers to wear face coverings on most trains in England from July 19, General Secretary of the TSSA union Manuel Cortes described as ‘too little too late’ the Department for Transport guidance that ‘the government is now expecting and recommending people wear face coverings in crowded settings which include public transport’.
Transport for London is using its Conditions of Carriage to continue to require people to wear a face covering on London Underground, bus, Trams, DLR, London Overground and TfL Rail services, unless exempt.
Face coverings continue to be mandatory on Heathrow Express. ‘Our approach is aligned with both Heathrow and Transport for London, who are also continuing to require face coverings’, said a spokesperson.
