UK railway news round-up

Trials of request-stop kiosk will begin at Scotscalder station on the Far North Line on August 15. The kiosk sends radio messages to the driver’s cab, alerting the train crew to waiting passengers. This should avoid the need for passengers to give a hand signal to stop the train as it approaches. Subject to the trial proving successful, kiosks supplied by Unipart Technologies Group’s Comms Design will also be installed at Altnabreac, Kinbrace, Kildonan, Dunrobin Castle, Rogart, Invershin and Culrain.

Starting at Derby station, SSP Group has begun converting some of its existing food outlets to Greggs branded shops under a franchising deal with the baked food company. Richard Lewis, CEO of SSP UK & Ireland, said regional travel clients were ‘looking forward to the opportunity to bring an instantly recognisable food offer to their platforms and concourses’. Greggs Commercial Director, Malcolm Copland, said the partnership ‘further expands our presence in busy travel hubs, giving us the opportunity to bring our range of products to more customers each day’.

Network Rail Scotland and QTS have completed a £1·8m programme of work to improve the resilience of Mallaig line at Lochailort. This followed previous work undertaken in summer 2020 when severe weather caused flash floods that washed away 80 m of railway. The latest work involved installing a concrete drainage culvert next to the existing Allt na Criche bridge, and building as new Terramesh bund 112 m long and up to 2·3 m high.

Hull Trains has begin consultation on proposed changes to its section of the Railway Pensions Scheme, which the open access operator says is ‘financially unsustainable’. Changes would include increasing the normal retirement age from 63 to 68, freezing the pay and state pension information used in calculations, removing the omnibus cap on contributions and changing the contribution rate, and closing the section to new joiners.

Northern is now offering through tickets including travel on Blackpool Transport bus and tram services.

HS2 civils contractor Skanska Costain Strabag has offered permanent jobs to people who undertook eight-month paid work placements as part of a partnership with the University of East London’s MSc Civil Engineering course. The success of the partnership in its first year means that SCS will continue to work with UEL and offer placement opportunities to students throughout 2022 and 2023.

ScottishPower and Hutchison Ports are exploring the opportunity to develop a 100 MW green hydrogen production facility at the Port of Felixstowe which would supply up to 40 tonnes of green hydrogen per day for rail, road and industrial users from 2025. ‘This strategically important project could potentially create a clean fuels hub’, said Barry Carruthers, Hydrogen Director at ScottishPower. ‘It’s perfectly located not far from our existing and future offshore windfarms in the East Anglia region, and demonstrates how renewable electricity and green hydrogen can now start to help to decarbonise road, rail, shipping and industry.’

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority is funding the installation of 36 defibrillators at Northern stations by the end of September, meaning every station run by the operator in South Yorkshire will be equipped with a defibrillator.

Development and delivery consultancy SLC Rail has appointed Andrew Helm as Head of Economic Appraisal, working with forecasting teams to create business cases. He had previously worked at Steer Davies Gleave on projects including Warwick Parkway and Oxford Parkway stations. ‘Covid has resulted in many changes to the way the rail industry can plan and forecast demand’, said SLC Rail Managing Director Ian Walters. ‘Combine this with a tough economic environment and it’s never been more challenging for non-industry railway scheme promoters to bring about change and make social, economic, and environmentally important rail investments a reality.’