International & UK Railway News Sunday 16th February 2014

 Total Railway News

 

 


The latest news is still featuring the floods and HS2.
In one report, MPs are suggesting that the funds earmarked for HS2 should be used to rebuild the railway network in the south west. And , as we speak, Network Rail are hard at it, working 24/7 to fix the damage, and bring the network back up to its usual speed...


In India , a high speed rail project has been all but abandoned due to a doubling in the estimated cost of the project... the money being used to further the sub-urban rail corridor project, which the government found would be more suitable and viable for the state...
Apparently, much opposition was encountered while undertaking the survey..


Interestingly, The Bucks Herald continues its assessment of the damage to be caused by HS2..


But what interest is still shown in steam locomotive projects...see the P2 project fund raising report...


Read On......

Headlines

HS2 billions should be diverted to rebuild south-west railways, say MPs. (The Guardian) 


HS2- What to Expect: Despair of the Vale’s farmers.(The Bucks Herald)

Crossrail brings in top architect behind King's Cross revamp.(The Guardian)

'Station for HS2 could be created away from Toton' (Nottingham Post)

TransWilts rail service on track to exceed target.(This Is Wiltshire)


High speed rail project shelved by planning board.(Times of India)


Gresley train funding campaign nets £300,000. (Burton Mail)



(Image Courtesy The P2 Steam Locomotive Company)




Network Rail

Storm damage and flooding

Our engineers are working round the clock to keep the railway running.

Travel information

Get the latest information on services in the south at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Latest news

London Paddington / flooded signalling equipment at Maidenhead

16 February 2014: The majority of services into and out of London Paddington will be restored from Monday 17 February 2014.
Our engineering and maintenance teams have been working tirelessly to try and solve the problems caused by the flooding at Maidenhead that had crippled the normal signalling system reducing service to just 20% of normal.
Our signalling equipment is under several feet of floodwater but with some innovative thinking a temporary system has been put in place that should see us through the next few weeks until the water recedes. This means more than 75% of normal services will be running from the start of service on Monday.
We continue to work on further fixes that may further improve capacity.
First Great Western is planning to run a near normal service on high speed routes into and out of London on Monday with the exception of the route closures at Dawlish, and between Bridgwater and Taunton. Buses will run on those routes that are closed.
Local services will also be running between Reading and London on Monday, although because of the flooding affecting signalling equipment near Maidenhead, there will be a small number of trains that won't be able to run.
First Great Western is finalising an amended timetable, which will be published on their website at firstgreatwestern.co.uk later today. To help customers who postponed journeys last week, ticket restrictions remain lifted until Monday.

Dawlish

The line at Dawlish, linking Exeter with Newton Abbot and the West, will remain closed for at least six weeks following sea wall damage.
Full details at www.networkrail.co.uk/Dawlish.

Kent

16 February 2014: Several landslips are resulting in a very small number of speed restrictions in various parts of Kent with only the ongoing major landslips on the Tunbridge Wells to Hastings route blocking the line.

Somerset Levels

13 February 2014: The situation across the south west remains as it has with flood issues not worsening.
Two of the three routes to Exeter remain open with the route through Bridgwater through the Levels closed with 3/4 mile underwater.
Waves whipped up over the floodwater (YouTube).

Wales

The Cambrian Coast line between Dovey Junction and Pwllheli is closed whilst we carry out a phased programme to repair damage to sea defences and embankments. This includes removing thousands of tonnes of debris, replacing sea walls and other sea defences, and relaying new track and ballast. Continuing storms and high tides have caused further damage.
We're on schedule to re-open the line by mid May 2014.

Photo gallery (Courtesy: Network Rail)

 

Aerial view showing the breached sea defences and collapsed train line at Dawlish

 

The scrapped rails and the first spray of concrete to shore up the bank at Dawlish

 

Working to repair the Cambrian Coast line

 

Working to repair the Cambrian Coast line

 

Water covering the railway at Bridgwater

 

 

Flooding at Bridgwater - the railway is in the centre of the photo

 

Landslip at Stonegate

 

Water closes the railway at Datchet

 

Flooding at Datchet

 

Flooding in Maidenhead

 

 

Flooded signal equipment at Maidenhead

The Environment Agency


Find out whether there are any flood warnings in your area. 07:37 on 16 Feb 2014. This information is updated every 15 minutes. Please refresh the page to make sure you see the latest warnings                    




Russian Railways. Press Release.         






 Feb 11, 2014

In the first 10 years of railway reform, Russian Railways fulfilled all the tasks set by the state The rail transport structural reform programme has been underway for 13 years and has dramatically changed the rail industry in Russia. As a result, there has been a transition to a market for railway transport services which employs several thousand private companies representing forwarding companies, operators and logistics services, as well as all kinds of repair services. As rail reform was implemented, much attention was focused on preventing irreversible negative consequences for consumers and the economy. As a result, a series of measures that were originally planned underwent subsequent adjustment. However, all the changes were discussed by Russia's federal executive authorities and market participants and approved by government authorities within their respective action plans. In the first 10 years of its operation, Russian Railways fulfilled all the tasks it was set by the state. It provided, and continues to provide, stable and sustainable rail transport operations in the interests of the Russian economy, fulfilling all the necessary transportation of freight and passengers and maintaining proper rail transport security and safety. Since 2003, the holding company RZD has transported more than 12.5 billion tons of freight and 11.5 billion passengers, invested about 4.3 trillion roubles in developing infrastructure and modernising fixed assets, increased worker productivity more than two-fold and significantly increased industrial security, with the number of accidents falling by 24%. Structural changes at Russian Railways itself, as envisaged by the reform programme, were mainly completed by the end of 2011. As a result of creating 85 subsidiaries and affiliates and the intention to hive off non-core assets, potential competitors and competitive types of activities in various areas have been or will be separated out from Russian Railways: freight wagon operations; long-distance and suburban passenger transport services; carriage and wagon repair services; locomotive capital repairs; design and construction; industrial manufacturing; research and development; trade; catering etc. All this work enabled the creation of a genuinely competitive environment in those market segments where such mechanisms had not existed previously. As a result of the reforms, the proportion contributed by the RZD holding to Russia's GDP declined by nearly one-third, from 3.8% in 2004 to 2.2% in 2012, although the share of rail freight as a percentage of the total freight turnover in the Russian Federation increased by 5 percentage points, from 39% to 44%. Even taking into account the revenues of all operators, according to expert estimates the contribution of the rail industry to Russia's GDP declined. This can be viewed as a reduction of the transport cost component in the price of products, which was one of the goals of the reform. The fact that tariffs at Russian Railways have been held lower than the level required for commercial viability has been a significant factor in restricting the Company's ability to upgrade and develop infrastructure. Russia's railway infrastructure is one of the busiest in the world, second only to Chinese railways and substantially exceeding that in Europe. Every year, each kilometre of main line routes in Russia carry more than 26 million ton- kilometres. The changes in the structure of the Russian economy have also led to the fact that a significant part of freight traffic is concentrated on some of the most congested lines. This significantly restricts through capacity on numerous routes. The systemic mechanism of a "network/regulatory" contract as a system of agreements between the infrastructure owner and the state and underpinned by legislation, as envisaged by the "Target Market Model", has still not come into force. Also still not in effect is the mechanism for the formation of long-term tariffs on the basis of the methodology developed and approved by Russia's Federal Tariff Service, which calculates a normative rate of return when determining long-term indices of tariff changes at Russian Railways. With regard to the passenger segment, as part of the reform programme, passenger services have been hived off from Russian Railways and subsidies introduced for passenger transport. As a result, cross-subsidies between freight and passenger transport have been eliminated, as planned in the reforms. However, due to the lack of mechanisms governing state orders for passenger transport which are fully backed up by legislation, breakeven and financial sustainability of the passenger rail companies have not been achieved, so Russian Railways is continuing to support its subsidiaries. Thus, Russian Railways has spent an estimated 22 billion roubles supporting suburban commuter services in 2013: about 5 billion roubles - by setting low rents for motorised railcar rolling stock, Russian Railways incurred a loss of 8 billion roubles as a result of providing infrastructure services, under-compensated revenues from suburban rail companies due to tariffs set by the regions for passenger transport which are below the economically justified level amounted to about 9 billion roubles. In long-distance passenger services, 2013 saw a reduction of federal subsidies to compensate for falling revenues in the regulated segment. This led to fares in sitting and open sleeping carriages having to be indexed twice during the year by 10% (the need for subsidies amounted to 36.3 billion roubles, but only 23.2 billion roubles were actually received). As a result, rail transport in terms of sitting and open sleeping carriages suffered a significant loss of competitiveness compared to air and road transport. The lack of a systematic mechanism for financing socially significant passenger transport represents a barrier to attracting the private sector and private capital to this segment and, consequently, to the full development of competition.