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

Thursday, 13 April 2017

BBC News

• Tornado locomotive hits 100mph on mainline rail networkThe Peppercorn class A1 steam locomotive roared along the East Coast Main Line overnight.
• Sharp rise in Scottish railway trespass incidentsBritish Transport Police and Network Rail say Scotland saw a 16% rise in cases last year.
• Germany's new train firm on trackA look at Locomore, a new rival to German's state-owned railway group Deutsche Bahn

Financial Times

• Siemens and Bombardier in talks over trains mergerEarly-stage discussions of potential tie-up would face strong antitrust scrutiny

The Herald

• Rail disruption set for Easter weekend and beyond - all you need to knowAs Network Rail works to deliver more than £5m of enhancements for Scotland’s railway system, passengers are in for travel disruption over the Easter weekend and until the end of the month.

The Scotsman

• Rail trespassing at all time high in ScotlandThe number of incidents of people trespassing on Scotland’s railways has soared 16% in a year to an all-time high, new figures show.

The Mirror

• Shocking footage shows youngsters risking their lives on railway lines Alarming new figures show more people than ever are dicing with death with one person trespassing on train tracks every hour

London Evening Standard

• Tube lift closures quadruple in one year due to absence of trained staffA lack of trained staff on the Tube led to lifts on the network being out of action more than 300 times last year.
• Easter Tube travel: key lines closed over bank holiday weekendLarge parts of the Tube network is to close over the bank holiday.

Northern Echo

• Watch as Darlington loco Tornado clocks 100mph under cover of darknessA STEAM locomotive�has reached 100mph on�a mainline rail network�for the first time in half a century on tracks passing through the North-East town where it was built.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Great Western Railway to launch smartcard Great Western Railway (GWR) is to launch a smartcard for the Severn Beach Line, as part of a pilot which could see combined rail and bus travel in a single ticket offered across Bristol. Allowing people to add weekly, monthly and annual season rail tickets to an electronic card to begin with, the pilot project is being run in partnership with Bristol City Council and if successful could form part of a wider, integrated scheme, including MetroWest, and local bus services. Bristol City Council Councillor Mark Bradshaw said:

Rail Magazine

• New institute for high-speed rail engineering at LeedsThe establishment of a new Institute for High Speed Rail Engineering at the University of Leeds is set to bring added focus to HS2 research.

Rail Technology Magazine

• Advanced Technology for Railway Maintenance The Jiangsu production base of Beijing YHD Railway Equipment is a modern technology intensive machinery manufacturing and processing enterprise and located in the China Precision Machinery Manufacturing Machining Center, 'Golden Triangle' Changzhou a…
• Scottish rail minister intervenes to block CrossCountry service reductionProposals to reduce CrossCountry rail services from the north east of Scotland have been scrapped after transport minister Humza Yousaf stepped in to defend the line. CrossCountry has now withdrawn a proposed timetable that could have resulted in six services between Aberdeen and Edinburgh being...
• Tunnel boring starts to extend Northern Line to BatterseaTunnelling work to extend the Northern Line to Battersea started today as the first of two boring machines began its 3.2km tunnelling journey to lengthen the line between Kennington to Battersea. The two machines, called Helen and Amy, were lowered 20 metres below ground in Battersea back in...
• HSRIL: HS2 must be viewed as a global exportRail leaders have called on the government to view high-speed rail projects as lucrative potential exports, as they described HS2 as: “the most important public investment project in the UK for decades”. In their response to the government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper...

Railnews

• Merger talks boost Bombardier, Siemens Shares in train builders Bombardier and Siemens rose sharply last night as rumours spread of a possible merger of their train-building businesses. Such a merger would be likely to create the largest train builder in the world, with potential sales of �13 billion. Both companies are under increasing pressure from train builders in the Far East, particularly China, where CRRC was formed in 2015 by merging the country�s two largest rolling stock construction companies. More recently, there has been speculation that Chinese companies want to bid for contracts to build trains for HS2.

Railway Gazette

• Weedfree orders weed killing trainEUROPE: Weedfree On Track is investing �2m in a second weed killing train, backed by a �300 000...
• M�V-Start and Stadler sign double-deck EMU framework contractHUNGARY: A framework agreement for the supply of up to 40 Kiss double-deck electric multiple units...

Other News Sources

• Extend discount rail season tickets scheme around Cambridge, says MPCambridge MP Daniel Zeichner has called on Greater Cambridge City Deal and Cambridgeshire County Council to investigate the possibility of extending a discounted rail season ticket scheme for members of travel association Travel for Cambridgeshire (TfC) to more lines connecting Cambridge.