Story Scotland is to construct an underbridge on the West Coast Main Line as part an upgrade of the road between Motherwell and Ravenscraig for North Lanarkshire Council. The bridge will be positioned using self-propelled modular transporters during a nine-day blockade in April 2023.
Contactless payment was introduced on GWR’s Windsor & Eton Central and Henley-on-Thames branches on March 28, and is expected to be extended to the Marlow branch in the coming weeks. Contactless payment has been offered on TfL Rail and GWR services between London Paddington and Reading since early 2020, and has since been used for more than 1·6 million journeys. GWR said TfL Rail was working on making railcard discounts and child fares available using contactless payment in the future.
Transport authority Nexus has appointed Taziker to replace the Tanners Bank bridge between Tynemouth and North Shields on the Tyne & Wear Metro during July. The project is being funded through a £2·7m grant from the Department for Transport’s Highways Challenge Fund, £300 000 from the Metro Asset Renewal Programme and £103 000 from North Tyneside Council. It will see clearance beneath the bridge raised by 1·5 m to allow large lorries and double decker buses to get to and from the Fish Quay.
Translink is offering Ukrainian refugees free rail and bus travel from their port of entry to their final destination from March 30.
Network Rail has appointed Mark Tarry as Supply Chain Operations Director from March 28, succeeding Rob Morton who recently became Managing Director for Route Services. Tarry was most recently responsible for Business & Technical Services.
The latest Department for Transport statistics have confirmed that national rail passenger ridership reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels on March 18, the highest seen since March 15 2020.
Rope & Sling Specialists Ltd has won a five-year contract to provide Strathclyde Passenger Transport with services related to the Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, crane maintenance and personal protective equipment.
Sustrans Deputy CEO John Lauder is to work with Network Rail Scotland and ScotRail on an 18-month secondment from April; he will lead a project to encourage walking, cycling and public transport to access stations as an alternative to car journeys.
HS2 main works contractor EKFB, a joint venture of Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall, says it is the first construction joint venture to achieve a sustainability status awarded by the Supply Chain Sustainability School to recognise actions taken to lower emissions on construction sites. EKFB has started at the bronze level and plans to progress towards gold in the next 18 months. Actions taken include using retrofit technology on non-road mobile machinery to cut emissions, HVO trials, using electric machinery and hydrogen powered generators, and providing environmental awareness programmes for staff.