UK passenger train operator news – Page 6
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Rail Business UK
EMR and Rock Rail enhance Derby depot ahead of Aurora arrival
UK: Work has begun to prepare East Midlands Railway’s Etches Park depot in Derby for the arrival of the operator’s electro-diesel Aurora trains. The £35m project, which rolling stock leasing company Rock Rail is part funding through a £30m contribution, will be delivered in two phases. ...
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Rail Business UK
App assists visually impaired passengers through the full rail journey
UK: London Overground operator Arriva Rail London has funded a trial of an audio navigation app from Waymap which is designed to help people with visual impairments travel more independently. The app has previously been tested at Birmingham International and stations in Los Angeles and Washington ...
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Rail Business UK
Govia gets £23·5m penalty for Southeastern contract breach
UK: The government has imposed a £23·5m penalty on Govia’s London & South Eastern Railway Ltd over a ‘serious breach’ of its former Southeastern passenger franchise agreement. In 2021 the Department for Transport found evidence that LSER had deliberately concealed over £25m of historic government funding ...
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Rail Business UK
GTR undertakes station accessibility improvements
UK: Govia Thameslink Railway has completed a £600 000 programme of small station improvements to make the Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern networks more accessible. The works included installing improved customer information points at Three Bridges and Caterham stations, with wide, automated doors, and counters set ...
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Rail Business UK
GTR to restore Gatwick Express from April
UK: After being suspended at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and briefly revived late last year just before the Omicron wave, Govia Thameslink Railway’s Gatwick Express will resume regular service on April 3 with twice hourly trains running non-stop between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria. ...
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Rail Business UK
Government allocates £84m to enhance reliability as Manchester Rail Blueprint emerges
UK: An £84m package of work to improve performance and capacity in Greater Manchester and neighbouring regions was announced by Rail Minister Wendy Morton during a visit to Manchester on March 11. The interventions include platform extensions, infrastructure enhancements and depot capacity improvements in what the ...
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Rail Business UK
Great Anglia launches virtual tour of Norwich station
UK: Greater Anglia and Virtual Tour Experts have created an online interactive virtual tour of Norwich station to help people with reduced mobility check how accessible their journey would be. The virtual tour consists of a series of 360° photographs linked by clickable markers, with a ...
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Rail Business UK
TransPennine Express explores further fleet and capacity expansion options
UK: First TransPennine Express is hopeful that it will be able to issue a call for expressions of interest in the provision of additional bi-mode trains before the end of March.
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Rail Business UK
Rail Accident Investigation Branch publishes Carmont derailment report
UK: Network Rail and its contractors come in for criticism in the Rail Accident Investigation Branch’s report into the fatal derailment at Carmont near Stonehaven. In its report published on March 10, RAIB focuses on the processes put in place to manage drainage at the site. ...
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Rail Business UK
West Midlands Trains appoints next Managing Director
UK: ScotRail Chief Operating Officer Ian McConnell is to become Managing Director of West Midlands Trains in April, once ScotRail has been transferred from Abellio to public body Scottish Rail Holdings. McConnell was previously Franchise & Programmes Director at Greater Anglia, and ...
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Rail Business UK
Levenmouth Rail Link reopening works get underway
UK: Network Rail has begun construction works for the Levenmouth Rail Link scheme to reopen the 6·5 km branch from Thornton Junction to Leven which has been out of use since 2001.
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Rail Business UK
Onboard track condition monitoring sensors on trial in Scotland
UK: Hitachi Rail’s Perpetuum subsidiary is working with Network Rail, Porterbrook and ScotRail to test the use of onboard digital sensors to automate the detection of track faults. The self-contained and self-powered sensors mounted in trains running in passenger service use a combination of gyroscopes and ...
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Rail Business UK
First Rail’s management fee operations meet expectations and open access is ahead
UK: Performance at First Rail’s four management fee-based train operating companies is in line with expectations for the second half of the financial year, while open access operators Hull Trains and Lumo are marginally ahead of expectations, FirstGroup said in a trading update on February 25. ...
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Rail Business UK
Belfast Transport Hub main works get underway
UK: A joint venture of Farrans and Sacyr is set to begin main works on the Belfast Transport Hub as enabling works by Graham near completion and railway works by Babcock are underway. The Transport Hub will replace the existing Great Victoria Street railway station and ...
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Rail Business UK
Technology replaces hand signals at Scottish request stops
UK: Eight lightly-used stations on the Far North line in Scotland are being provided with ‘request to stop’ kiosks, removing the need for waiting passengers to give hand signals to the driver of an approaching train. The kiosks supplied by Unipart Technologies Group’s Comms Design will ...
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Rail Business UK
Battery train and fast charger to be tested in London
UK: Great Western Railway has signed an agreement to test Vivarail’s Class 230 battery multiple-unit and fast charging technology under real-word conditions on the 4 km non-electrified branch between West Ealing and Greenford in west London. Part of Vivarail’s family of multiple-units produced from London Underground ...
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Rail Business UK
Barton-on-Humber line stations to be improved
UK: East Midlands Railway has announced a £400 000 programme of improvements covering the 12 small stations it manages on the route from Cleethorpes to Barton-on-Humber; Cleethorpes and Grimsby Town are managed by TransPennine Express. The works to improve the overall station ...
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Rail Business UK
Audio description devices installed in station toilets
UK: ‘Talking toilet’ devices which provide visually impaired users with bespoke audio descriptions of the facilities are being installed in the accessible toilets at 44 stations served by Northern.
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Rail Business UK
Bi-mode locomotives sought by TransPennine Express and GWR
UK: TransPennine Express is seeking expressions of interest in the provision of between 15 and 30 bi-mode locomotives, with an option for a further five for use on Great Western Railway’s Night Riviera sleeper service. In its detailed specification TPE states that the 160 km/h locomotives ...
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Rail Business UK
Local shops to sell local train tickets
UK: Tickets for local rail journeys wholly within in the South Wales Metro area will be made available for purchase from 90 convenience shops from January 24. Transport for Wales says it is the first train operating company to offer ticket sales through Payzone’s instore devices, ...