Today's news is all about the weather, or was that whether?
Down along the Dawlish sea wall parts of the track have been left hanging in mid-air...and repairs will, at this early stage at any rate, take upwards of 6 weeks...And the Cambrian line, similarly storm damaged, will be out of commission for a while. A certain case of "the weather" affecting matters.
As to hanging in mid-air, HM Government Opposition is not sure about HS2 this side of the 2015 election... they won't play Ball(s). There is even some suggestion that the very name "HS2" has worked against the project's acceptance generally. But the Government continues to talk up the benefits of the project highlighting the benefits to commuters and endeavouring to speed up the whole process to win over the uncertain and skeptics. Whether or not HS2 continues.......
Crossrail moves forward (we take a look back at the launch of TBM Sophia one year ago)..whilst the London Underground hasn't been moving at all today due to a strike.
Good news for South Tynedale Railway, for prospective railway apprentices in Durham , and for those employed by one of the selected companies who have been awarded contracts for Network Rail's electrification schemes....
Read on.......
Headlines
London Underground strike disrupting millions (BBC News)
Government Seeks To Save Money And Persuade Skeptics By Accelerating HS2 Timetable. (The Independent)
HS2 Relaunch To Focus On Commuters. (FT)
Labour Could Delay Law To Kill Off HS2..(Telegraph)
HS2 Sounds "too whizzy"..... (Daily Mail)
HS2 Relaunch To Focus On Commuters. (FT)
Labour Could Delay Law To Kill Off HS2..(Telegraph)
HS2 Sounds "too whizzy"..... (Daily Mail)
Delta Rail Boss Backs British Jobs ... (This Is Money)
South West Durham Training Aims to Increase Provision For Apprenticeships.. (The Northern Echo)
South West Durham Training Aims to Increase Provision For Apprenticeships.. (The Northern Echo)
Free Train Travel In South Yorkshire For Elderly Under Threat. (Doncaster Free Press)
New Station for Bromsgrove. (Global Rail News)
Crossrail's first tunnel beneath Thames completed
Crossrail's first tunnel beneath the Thames in London has been completed, as part of a series of tunnelling milestones achieved under the programme.
Grindrod and Northwest Rail to develop new 590km cape gauge railway
Grindrod Mauritius, the wholly owned subsidiary of freight service provider Grindrod, and Zambian firm Northwest Rail Company (NWR) have signed an agreement to build, operate and maintain a new 590km cape gauge railway from Chingola to the Angola border.
NSW Transport shortlists bidders for early work on light rail project
New South Wales Transport has short-listed three bidders from eight responses for the early works of the new CBD and South East Light Rail (CSELR) project.
Etihad Rail and ZonesCorp sign MoU to develop multimodal rail terminal
UAE's railway network operator Etihad Rail has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with industrial cities operator ZonesCorp to develop a new multimodal rail terminal in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) IV.
PANYNJ proposes $27.6 billion capital plan for next 10 years
Canadian government takes steps to improve grain transportation via rail
Freight-rail constituents form coalition to bolster Great Northern Corridor
Progressive Railroading seeks nominations for Rising Stars 2014
District of Columbia's DOT issues RFQ for integrated premium transit system
Reading and Northern, Coos Bay Rail Link cranked up carloads in 2013
Rail supplier news for CIT Group, Bombardier, Axion, Aon and Parsons Brinckerhoff (Feb. 5)
Railway supply industry news in brief - Railway Gazette
High Speed Rail Court Battle Heats Up. (Hanford Sentinel, US)
Steam Weekends | The East Lancashire Railway
Hoek van Holland light rail vehicle order placed - Railway Gazette
GOV.UK
Caledonian Conversations dinner
Patrick McLoughlin argues that a "no" vote in September’s referendum will secure transport benefits for Scotland.
Thank you Malcolm.
It’s a pleasure to be here and a welcome opportunity to talk about cross-border transport in the UK with so many expert and distinguished guests.
So thanks to Ross and everyone from SCDI for inviting me and I look forward to our discussion later.
It’s a discussion which takes on added significance now we are just 8 months away from the Scottish referendum.
Indeed, transport is an important part of the independence debate. I think people on both sides of that debate agree that if Scotland is to flourish in the future it needs to be an outward facing nation.
A country that welcomes people and investment from abroad that builds strong connections with international partners and that’s wired into the global economy.
But where we differ from the pro-independence lobby is that we believe Scotland has a better chance of achieving those goals if it’s part of the United Kingdom
Part of a bigger, more powerful block in which people and goods can all move freely, unconstrained by international borders, where devolved administrations work alongside the Westminster government on a shared vision to improve transport throughout the UK.
The challenge of the future is how to grow in a balanced way.
How to build a joined up economy.
How to make the whole of the UK more competitive and resilient.
And one of the most effective ways to do that is to invest in transport.
We’ve spent decades neglecting our transport system adopting a ‘patch and mend’ mentality.
In 2009, the World Economic Forum ranked us 33rd in the world for the quality of its infrastructure. For much of the previous decade, the UK had been the lowest infrastructure investor of all the OECD countries. So even in good times, when money was plentiful, we failed to close the infrastructure gap with our competitors.
Somewhere along the way, we forgot the lessons of the Victorian era.
How good infrastructure becomes part of the fabric of the country.
How it keeps paying back, generation after generation.
But finally things are changing.
Today, we have a national infrastructure programme.
We’re tackling the slow, unpredictable and costly planning system, we’re raising the profile of transport in government, we’re getting different departments, different sources of funding, and different regions to work together.
And working with the devolved administrations, we’re reversing decades of underinvestment to benefit the whole of the UK.
Take rail.
We’ve embarked on the biggest rail modernisation programme since the Victorian era.
Network Rail will invest £38 billion between 2014 and 2019.
And many of the improvements will be felt north of the border.
The Intercity Express programme, for example, includes £2.8 billion for a new fleet of bi-mode trains on the East Coast line.
That will improve reliability, journey times, capacity, and comfort on services from London to Scotland.
We’re upgrading the West Coast and East Coast infrastructure.
We’re co-funding the Caledonian Sleeper with the Scottish government.
And we’re investing in better rail freight links.
Together, these measures will make a massive difference to services.
But they won’t be enough to absorb rising demand on our main north-south routes in the longer term.
Those lines between England and Scotland are not just the most important rail routes in the UK. They’re also the busiest.
Hardly surprising if you haven’t built a new north-south line in 120 years and we’re going to keep on travelling more and more.
That’s why we need HS2.
A genuinely national network, the backbone of the UK, that will connect Scotland, north England, the Midlands, and London.
Phases One and Two are crucial steps towards that goal.
Boosting capacity by nearly 20,000 passengers an hour.
From the day these lines open, Scotland will benefit.
With seamless movement of high speed trains onto the West and East Coast Main lines cutting the journey times from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London by up to an hour.
This will boost the Scottish economy by around £3 billion.
But the benefits of high speed rail will accrue as the network grows.
Our objective is a national network that will bring the constituent parts of the UK closer together in a way we haven’t seen since the coming of the motorways.
So we warmly welcome the support and enthusiasm for high speed rail in Scotland.
We’ve instructed HS2 Ltd to identify options to make further capacity and journey time improvements between northern England and Scotland - including how to reduce the trip from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London to 3 hours or less.
We have a good relationship with the Scottish government. Which sits on the high speed rail steering group and we’ll continue to work closely together as Scotland develops its own high speed plans.
Like rail, we plan aviation with the whole of the UK in mind, as it’s so crucial to our national prosperity and to the growth of every region.
Scotland’s geography means it’s particularly reliant on its air connections. Not just from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen but also from places like Inverness, Wick, and the islands.
It’s important to address the connectivity gap wherever it exists and not just on international flights.
There’s strong demand for routes to the UK’s main hub airport, Heathrow, too.
So we recognise that Scotland has a significant interest in the outcome of the Airports Commission as it examines options for maintaining the UK’s status as a global air hub.
The commission’s interim report was delivered before Christmas.
At this stage we do not intend to comment on any of the shortlisted options which include - but are not restricted to - adding capacity at Heathrow.
But what I can say is that our strategy going forward will be one that best meets the needs of the entire country.
That’s also an objective of our aviation policy framework.
And it’s why we have a mechanism for protecting key routes.
Normally in this country, airlines decide which routes they serve based on market conditions. Government does not intervene.
But we can step in if devolved administrations like Scotland apply to protect particular existing air links to London through public service obligations (PSOs).
As part of the Spending Round, we announced £20 million to maintain regional services to London where there is a risk that connectivity may be lost.
And we published guidance clarifying the process.
But it is for the Scottish administration to determine the business and legal case on a PSO, and to apply for support.
Our roads programme also affects Scotland.
We are investing in the biggest upgrade to the network for half a century, including a tripling of the national roads budget.
We’re adding 400 more lane miles of motorway and we’re improving the A1 in north Yorkshire.
We’ll publish the results of a feasibility study into dualling the A1 north of Newcastle to Scotland later this year.
Lots of other transport services we provide are UK-wide in scope like driving tests, vehicle inspections, coastguards, aviation security and accident investigations.
My message tonight is simple.
We’re better together.
Together, we’ve become one of the fastest growing economies in the Western world.
Together, we are modernising the UK’s transport infrastructure, reversing decades of underinvestment, linking up the country to secure long-term growth and rebalance our economy.
I don’t believe that creating an unnecessary international border where movement by road, rail, sea and air has to be controlled is the best way forward.
For Scotland or for the UK.
We have a fantastic opportunity here to put the difficulties of the past behind us and build a better future.
So let’s grasp it together.
Thank you.
International Railway Journal
THE London – Penzance main line has been badly damaged by a severe storm which washed away the track along the coastal section of railway at Dawlish west of Exeter.
BNSF has announced a record $US 5bn capital expenditure programme for 2014, an increase of around $US 700m from its 2013 spend of approximately $US 4.3bn..
RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) may have to double funding for proposed improvements to the Trans-Siberian and Baikal – Amur railways to better serve the growing volumes of coal being transported from the Kuznetsk Basin, the biggest production site in Western Siberia, according to the Russian Institute of Economy and Transport Development.
Crossrail.
Taking a look from a year ago, of the launch of TBM Sophia....
Published on 7 Feb 2013
Sophia, Crossrail's fifth tunnelling machine, has begun her journey from Plumstead to North Woolwich as part of the construction of a tunnel under the River Thames for London's new rail link.
This time lapse video shows Sophia's launch as she begins burrowing underground towards Woolwich.
The 110 metre long machine is scheduled to drill at an average rate of around 100 metres a week, installing precast concrete segments as rings to form the tunnel lining as it advances forwards.
Across the whole Crossrail project, eight tunnelling machines will construct 21 kilometres (13 miles) of twin tunnels under London. The Crossrail route will pass through 37 stations and run 118 km (73 miles) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
This time lapse video shows Sophia's launch as she begins burrowing underground towards Woolwich.
The 110 metre long machine is scheduled to drill at an average rate of around 100 metres a week, installing precast concrete segments as rings to form the tunnel lining as it advances forwards.
Across the whole Crossrail project, eight tunnelling machines will construct 21 kilometres (13 miles) of twin tunnels under London. The Crossrail route will pass through 37 stations and run 118 km (73 miles) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
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