Transportinfo.org.uk - today's transport news in the uk, hand picked for you each morning

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

The Herald

• Glasgow to Edinburgh rail services to return to normal a day early after �60 million repairsCommuters have faced longer journeys for five months due to the �60 million upgrade at Glasgow's Queen Street Station.

Times Online

• Bosses cash in on passenger pain with £20m pay bonanza [Subscription]The chief executives of Britain’s three publicly listed trains companies have collectively taken home more than £20 million in pay and bonuses over the past five years.
• Rail companies hiding fares that slash your journey costs [Subscription]Rail companies are hiding cheaper “split ticket” fares that could save passengers tens of millions of pounds.
• Create cheap deal alerts, companies told [Subscription]Train companies have been told to provide warnings showing how many fares are available at the lowest prices amid concerns that it is almost impossible to buy the very cheapest tickets.
• Expensive express services promoted [Subscription]Travellers are being pushed into using express rail services from airports that often cost double the price of other trains despite being only a few minutes quicker. Transport Focus, the passenger watchdog, criticised rail companies and airports for promoting expensive express trains while failing to point out far cheaper alternatives.
• Off the Rails [Subscription]Train fares are misleading, bewildering and often nonsensical. Ticketing must be made simpler and more transparent
• Crackdown on rail firms for hiding cheap fares [Subscription]Paul Maynard, the rail minister, said yesterday that train operators must come up with an urgent action plan to make the system more transparent.

Reuters News

• EU orders Spain to recover rail test centre fundingThe European Commission ordered Spain on Monday to recover illegal state aid given to state-owned railway operator ADIF for the construction of a high-speed train test centre.

Mail Online

• The Great Train Robbery: Rail operators are overcharging millions of passengers by hiding the cheapest fares and flouting rules on self-service ticket machine Rail firms are using a range of techniques to hide the cheapest fares - forcing millions of passengers to pay over the odds, an investigation has revealed.

Belfast Telegraph

• Strike warning as Network Rail engineers vote on action in pay rowThe Transport Salaried Staffs Association said around 250 of its members will vote in the next few weeks, warning that backing for industrial action could cause disruption at the end of August.

Yorkshire Post

• Andrew Vine: Welcome aboard the 16.18 train - and a journey of disappointmentTHE 16.18 train from Sheffield to Leeds probably isn’t any more of an ordeal than any other busy service in Yorkshire. But it’s an ordeal just the same.
• Why high speed trains must stop in Bradford and York - reportA CLEAR case has been made for a proposed high speed trans-Pennine train service to include stops in West Yorkshire and York, according to transport officials.

Other Regional Press

• Lewes MP welcomes new rail ministerLewes MP Maria Caulfield has welcomed Paul Maynard’s appointment as the Government’s new rail minister following a meeting with MPs last week.
• MP highlights commuter rail misery to Commons LeaderSouth West Beds MP Andrew Selous has raised the problems Leighton Buzzard commuters are facing following the cancellation of Southern rail services with the Leader of the House of Commons.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Engineers preparing for Severn Tunnel electrification projectNetwork Rail engineers are being trained to efficiently complete the rail electrification of the Severn Tunnel at an advanced training facility in Wales. The 130-year old tunnel, which links South Gloucestershire to Monmouthshire in south Wales, will be closed for six weeks from 12th September while around 200 engineers install over eight miles of conductor rail, even though the actual tunnel is only four miles long. The training facility in Cardiff boasts a life size mock-up of the overhead line equipment that will be used to power the new electric trains through the tunnel. It will enable en...

Railnews

• Converted Underground train could be running soon An unusual project to convert retired London Underground District line cars into diesel-powered units may be about to pay off, after London Midland announced that a 'D-Train' could enter service on its local route between Coventry and Nuneaton this year. The line has been in the news after attempts to cater for sports crowds at the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry with hired rolling stock failed to pay their way, with fans being advised to use road transport instead because the usual single-car unit on the line would not be able to cope. The three-car 'D-Train' may help to solve the problem, and als...

Other News Sources

• Train Dispute "No End In Sight" Says West Sussex MPOne West Sussex MP has said there's no "end in sight" to a dispute between the RMT and Southern Railway.
• Singapore to begin work on metro stations and East Coast integrated depotSingapore is set to begin work on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) East Coast stretch, Downtown Line 3 Extension (DTL3e), and the East Coast Integrated Depot.
• FirstGroup receives first North American rail contract for DCTA’s A-train lineBritish company FirstGroup's North American division First Transit has secured a rail contract from the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) to provide operation, dispatch, and maintenance services to its A-train commuter rail line.
• Old tires find new life as material for train tracksResearchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), the rail company AZVI and the University of Seville, all in Spain, have developed a material for use in the sub-ballast layer of train tracks that incorporates shredded rubber from used tires. Combined with crushed limestone, this type of mixture has already been used to good effect in asphalt mixtures and roadside embankments, but its use in the rail sector is relatively unexplored.
• Mayor takes step forward in plan to power Tube with clean electricityThe Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today announced that City Hall has taken an important step closer to securing a license which could be used to provide ‘clean electricity’ to power TfL’s underground stations and other facilities.
• Rail 803: Transport policy, what transport policy?Having written about transport policy for more than twenty years, it has become obvious to me that there isn’t one. Instead, policymakers keep on repeating the same mistakes, believing that transport is a secondary issue dependent on other aspects of the economy and government, and therefore unworthy of expending any great intellectual or political effort. This lack of any coherent strategy is the reason why railways have, over the years, been treated so poorly by successive governments.