UK passenger train operator news – Page 8
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Rail Business UKUK: Momentum builds behind East Coast Digital Programme
ETCS testing and driver training are in full swing as the crossindustry East Coast Digital Programme moves into the delivery phase. Chris Jackson reports from York.
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Rail Business UKFive-point plan to improve the passenger experience at London Euston station
UK: Network Rail and the Department for Transport have announced a five-point plan which aims to improve the passenger experience at London Euston station pending longer-term changes. Network Rail said a ‘major reconstruction’ of the ‘outdated’ station is required to meet current demands, and avoid ’very ...
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Rail Business UKAudio guide to help blind passengers use Thameslink trains
UK: Thameslink has released an audio guide describing its 115 Siemens Mobility Class 700 trains which was written with the help of blind passenger Dave Smith who sits on the operator’s accessibility Advisory Panel. The guide is available on the Assisted Travel pages of the company’s ...
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Rail Business UKEuston still has a problem
UK: ‘Even on good days, the passenger experience at London Euston fails to match its importance as the capital’s main rail gateway to four of the UK’s largest cities. But it is when train services are disrupted that the station really struggles to cope, with high ...
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Rail Business UKAshley Down station opens as part of Bristol’s ‘quiet rail revolution’
UK: Trains returned to Ashley Down for the first time in 60 years on September 28 when Great Western Railway began serving the newly rebuilt station north of Bristol. Ashley Down is located in north Bristol between Stapleton Hill and Filton Abbey Wood, on the site ...
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Rail Business UKEast Yorkshire rail fare cut aims to boost ridership
UK: Northern and TransPennine Express are to reduce all fares between stations on the lines from Hull to Scarborough and Selby from September 29 to December 21 in an effort to attract more passengers. All return tickets are being reduced by 20%, and single tickets will not ...
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Rail Business UKLiverpool Baltic station funding approved
UK: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has approved £96m from the £710m City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement to fund construction of Liverpool Baltic station, which will be between Brunswick and Liverpool Central stations on Merseyrail’s Northern Line. This will serve the growing Baltic Triangle district. A ...
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Rail Business UKRegulator tells Northern to improve help for disabled passengers
UK: The Office of Rail & Road has told Northern to submit a plan to improve the way it provides assistance to disabled passengers. The operator rated poorly in the regulator’s latest survey of passengers who pre-booked additional assistance, with 18% saying the help requested was ...
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Rail Business UKTarget the worst-performing train operators first, says Transport UK
UK: The government should target the worst performing passenger train operators rather than simply use contract expiry dates for taking operations into public ownership, according to Dominic Booth, CEO of Transport UK. Transport UK — a management buy-out of Dutch state operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen’s former rail ...
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Rail Business UKGreater Anglia offers staff data apprenticeships
UK: Greater Anglia is working with Multiverse to offer staff data training apprenticeships. The programme aims to equip employees with increased technical skills and broader knowledge to use data better within their jobs. The intention is that this will help improve the handling of disruption, enhance ...
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Rail Business UKHitachi to develop multimodal journey planning and booking system for Wales
UK: Transport for Wales has awarded Hitachi a contract to provide a bespoke Mobility-as-a-Service digital planning and booking system covering public transport in Wales. The app and back-office will cover rail, local bus, TrawsCymru regional bus and Fflecsi demand-responsive bus services, as well as micromobility bikes ...
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Metro Report InternationalContactless payment expansion on hold following TfL cybersecurity incident
UK: The expansion of pay-as-you-go contactless payment to 47 more c2c, London Northwestern Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway stations has been put on hold because of the ongoing cybersecurity incident at Transport for London. TfL is working with the Department for Transport and the Rail ...
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Rail Business UKGemini completes £10m GWR Turbo fleet refresh
UK: Gemini Rail Services in Wolverton has completed a £10m three-year internal refresh of Great Western Railway’s fleet of Class 165/166 Turbo regional and suburban diesel multiple-units. The 57 two and three-car DMUs leased from Angel Trains have had a comprehensive interior makeover, including new floors ...
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Rail Business UKTransPennine Express makes progress with driver training and staff recruitment
UK: TransPennine Express Managing Director Chris Jackson says good progress is being with tackling the operator’s backlog of driver training, which was a key issue behind the service reductions brought in with the December 2023 timetable. However, it will not be completed until next year. ‘This ...
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Rail Business UKSpencer Group to build Greater Anglia wheel lathe facility
UK: Spencer Group has designed and will now build a wheel lathe facility at Greater Anglia’s Clacton depot. This will be first time Greater Anglia has had its own permanent wheel lathe, reducing the time trains are out of service. Enabling works for the 5 000 ...
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Rail Business UKTransPennine Express aims to get more out of its fleet
UK: TransPennine Express is seeking to achieve higher levels of performance from its fleet, its Fleet, Safety & Service Delivery Director Paul Staples explained when Rail Business UK recently visited Arwick depot. The operator says it is also ‘anticipating great things’ from the trial conversion of a Hitachi trainset to battery hybrid power.
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Rail Business UKScotRail to replace inter-city HST fleet
UK: ScotRail is to procure trains to replace the ageing High Speed Train fleet used on routes between Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, the Scottish government announced on September 3. ScotRail’s procurement and fleet teams are working with its parent body Scottish Rail Holdings, Transport Scotland ...
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Rail Business UKFive in the running to supply new TransPennine Express fleet
UK: Invitations to negotiate have been issued to five potential manufacturers of new trains which will enable TransPennine Express to move away from largely diesel operation as its core Leeds – Manchester route is electrified. ‘We will be assessing the bids later this year’, reports Fleet, ...
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Rail Business UKStation safety campaign draws on behavioural science
UK: Avanti West Coast is using posters and signage to make station facilities such as lifts, stairs and handrails ‘speak directly to customers’ as part of a ‘Take care. Get there’ safety campaign. The approach has been developed with Richard Shotton who applies findings from psychology ...
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NewsGrand Central plans to acquire bi-mode trains
UK: Grand Central has announced plans to acquire ‘new, state-of-the-art’ bi-mode trainsets as it seeks to extend its track access rights until 2038. The Arriva subsidiary which operates Open access passenger services from London to Bradford and Sunderland envisages that the trains would have approximately 20% more ...