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Thursday, 19 July 2012

BBC News

• East Midlands Trains gets £46m bail-out from government East Midlands Trains has been given £46m of taxpayers' money to make the company profitable again.
• Two Scotrail trains hit landslipsA Scotrail train derails in Fife, while another service hits a landslip near Loch Awe.
• TfL denies driverless Tube trialsTransport for London has denied trialling driverless trains after a union accused it of a "secret agenda" to introduce the technology.

Financial Times

• CSX defies coal slump with earnings riseUS railroad withstands economic weakness and uses fuel efficiency to benefit from demand for commodities and automotive industry™s rebound

The Guardian

• Poorest pay the price of railway investment - Letter, Mark Farrar Chief executive, CITB-ConstructionSkills While Lynsey Hanley's welcome for the government's £9.4bn investment in Britain's railway infrastructure (The forgotten diesel spokes, 17 July) raises some excellent points, it overlooks what is arguably the most important of them all: the UK's construction industry's need for this boost, and many more like it, in order to emerge from the shadows of recession.

Daily Record

• ScotRail train with 30 passengers on board is derailed by landslideTWO trains hit landslides in Scotland today – one them was derailed with 30 passengers on board but no one was injured.

Network Rail

• NETWORK RAIL AND BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE MOBILISE TO TARGET LEVEL CROSSINGS MISUSE
• ORR BEGINS CONSULTATION ON PROPOSALS TO FORMALISE THE RAIL DELIVERY GROUP
• LLANELLI LEVEL CROSSING RENEWALS

Derby Telegraph

• Government moves to quash claims 'clock is ticking' on rail contractTHE Government has moved to quash speculation that the Thameslink rail contract could be taken away from Siemens if it cannot reach financial agreement with the German firm by the end of next month.

Journal Live

• Durham County seeks Leamside rail line reopeningA RAIL line mothballed for over 20 years will reopen if an ambitious plan to revive County Durham’s economy bears fruit.
• Rail minister rebuffs calls to reschedule rail works on Great North Run weekendRAIL minister Theresa Villiers has rebuffed calls for the Government to intervene over engineering works on the train network that could affect the Great North Run.

London Evening Standard

• Thousands held up by major delays on two Tube linesThousands of Tube commuters faced more disruption today with no Circle line services and the District part-suspended.
• Driverless Tube trains to be tested on Jubilee line from October Testing of driverless Tube trains is planned from October and begin on the Jubilee line, leaked confidential documents reveal today.
• Tube commuters told: You won't be given a refund if you are delayed during the OlympicsTube commuters whose journey is delayed by the Olympics will not be able to reclaim the cost of their travel, the Standard can reveal.

Sheffield Star

• Rail bottlenecks concern of MPSHEFFIELD Central MP Paul Blomfield has pressed Transport Secretary Justine Greening about tackling bottlenecks on the Midland Main Line railway so full benefits of electrification can be achieved.

Wolverhampton Express and Star

• Free parking scheme at Stafford Railway Station Free parking will be trialled at Stafford Railway Station after 3pm at weekends over the school holidays, bosses have revealed.
• Free parking scheme at Stafford Railway Station Free parking will be trialled at Stafford Railway Station after 3pm at weekends over the school holidays, bosses have revealed.

Other Regional Press

• Eric Pickles visits Hitchin rail curve following £9bn rail investment announcementA GOVERNMENT minister praised the multi-million pound Hitchin rail curve project when he visited the site this morning (Monday).
• Multi-million pound investment planned for Huddersfield Railway Station: Could it be better spent elsewhere in the town?HUDDERSFIELD Railway Station is in line for a major expansion – as villagers step up their campaign for a new stop in the Colne Valley.

Global Rail News

• HLOS reaction in the regionsTransport leaders give their thoughts on how the government’s £9 billion investment in the railways will impact on the regions. Midlands In the Midlands, the Chase Line between Walsall and Rugeley is to be electrified, a scheme costing in the region of £30 million and which Centro has calculated is worth £113 million to the [...]
• New Centennial fleet doubles haulage capacityCentennial Coal has almost doubled its haulage capacity with the introduction of a new fleet of C44ACi locomotives. On June 27, seven 4,400-horsepower CEY class units, which have been built by UGL, were presented to Centennial Coal and rail operator Shorthaul Railroad (SSR) at UGL’s production facility in Broadmeadow, Newcastle. In May 2012, Centennial Coal [...]
• A look into the futureThe third annual FOSD conference had a new venue for 2012, and a new title. Future of Station Design became Future of Sustainable Design, which allowed transport hubs and gateways to be included, and the event took place at London™s ExCeL on 25 May. Mike Goggin, formerly director of stations and customer service for Network [...]
• Prohibition theme for RailStaff Awards 2012Railways can be a serious business “ safety critical and always in the public domain. Staff have to watch their step ever mindful of the unblinking eye of passenger and political scrutiny. Happily that™s not the case at the RailStaff Awards. On the face of it, the RailStaff Awards is a ceremony recognising courage, bravery [...]
• Heathrow station improvements completed ready for GamesImprovements to one of Heathrow’s busiest Tube stations have been completed in time for the Olympics. Two new lifts, more ticket gates and a revamped ticket office and travel information centre are among the upgrades at Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 Tube station to help cope with the millions of extra Olympic and Paralympic visitors. Gareth Powell, [...]
• German magazine knocks London™s œancient� Underground network ahead of the Olympics“There is little tolerance in their ancient system for everything that can and will go wrong,” writes German magazine Der Spiegel, in a piece that predicts London 2012 will be an “arduous obstacle course for everyone”. In a piece entitled “Preview of an Olympic-sized fiasco”, the Hamburg-based publication says that a Victorian-era public transport system [...]

Other News Sources

• As Parliamentary session ends, Government kicks Thameslink fleet contract and future of UK train building deeper into long grassWITH THE current Parliamentary session ending yesterday, rail union RMT warned that the Government has kicked the Thameslink fleet contract into the long-grass for yet another summer leaving thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs in the Midlands hanging in the balance. There is also speculation that the secretive tender documentation could contain a clause meaning that Siemens may default if the deal isn't closed by the end of August.