A suggestion for applying online for a Zip Oyster photocard....
Fare rises in the offing?
What's happening with northern rail services? RMT seems to have an idea or two...
A trip on the Trans Siberian...and Christian Wolmar's Hay Festival presentation on the building of the line...
And SmartWorld Rail interviews Roger Wilson of Balfour Beatty....
Click on the links....
Headlines
UK
Apply online for a Zip Oyster photocard – it’s quick and easy (TfL on YouTube)
Zip offers free and discounted travel for children and young adults. This video highlights how to setup a web account and apply online you through the easy step by step online application process.
This video applies to the following Oyster cards:
- 11-15 Zip Oyster
- 16+ Zip Oyster
- 5-10 Zip Oyster
For more information and to apply visit our website:http://www.tfl.gov.uk/zip
Commuters facing £5,000 bill to get to work.(The Telegraph)
Fury as train passengers face a 5.6% rise in fares in 2015: Campaigners attack system used to increase ticket prices.(Mail Online)
Why fast new electric trains between South Wales and London could drive up your ticket prices.(Wales Online)
Inflation figures give hint on rail fare rises.(The Yorkshire Post)
Balfour Beatty awarded £8m enhancement works at Euston Station.(European Railway Review)
Ranskill residents come up with solution to railway crossing closure issue.(RetfordTimes)
RMT Press Release.
Service cuts and higher fares at heart of Northern rail plan.
15 August 2014
RMT Press Office
The Government have admitted in a leaflet, which transport union RMT believes has been withdrawn from public circulation, that the core of their plan for rail services in the North involves service cuts, increased fares, the closure of ticket offices and the axing of staff.
RMT has obtained one copy of what it believes was supposed originally to be a public information leaflet on the future of the Northern and Trans-Pennine Express as part of the consultation that closes on Monday.
The leaflet confirms that the Government, and their front-organisation Rail North, intend to:
• Reduce Northern services…..
• Increase fares…..
• Reduce the hours during which ticket offices are open and staffed…..
• Reducing the number of calls at “low-use” stations….
• “Adjusting” the time of the first/last train…
These are all direct quotes from the bullet points in the leaflet that has been sent to RMT. The latest bombshell information comes as the union steps its fight against the Northern and TP carve up. RMT will deliver nearly ten thousand post cards to the Department of Transport on Monday 18th August as the consultation on the future plans for the Northern and Trans-Pennine Express franchises comes to a close.
The post cards have been collected from angry members of the public at nearly fifty events organised by RMT across the region during the consultation period. The Government, and their front organisation Rail North, have organised a pitiful five “listening” events across the vast area affected without a single event in Cumbria which is hard-hit by the plans. RMT is demanding to know how many responses the shadowy and low-profile “official” consultation has managed to generate.
RMT has already exposed the fact that cheaper, off-peak fares are being axed before the consultation period has come to a close. Under the new arrangements, which have been confirmed to unions and staff this week, from the 8th September off-peak tickets can no longer be used during key times on weekday evenings.
RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“It is disgraceful that plans that will whack up fares, axe jobs and services and reduce both the Northern and Trans-Pennine franchises to an unsafe, money-making racket, are being bulldozed through under cover of a wholly bogus consultation. If RMT officials and activists hadn’t organised almost fifty events, and a major press campaign, the vast majority of people would have known nothing of this huge rail carve-up. It is extraordinary that we have only come across one copy of the supposed Government information leaflet confirming RMT’s view that the consultation, and the key issues behind it, has been deliberately suppressed by the DfT and Rail North.
“We have said all along that the core of the Government’s future plan for Northern and TPE is to axe jobs, throw the guards off the trains and jack up fares while capacity to meet surging rail demand in the area is left to stagnate. That attack on the fare-paying public has already begun and the delivery of nearly ten thousand cards protesting against the plans on Monday is only the start of the RMT-organised fightback.”
ENDS
The leaflet confirms that the Government, and their front-organisation Rail North, intend to:
• Reduce Northern services…..
• Increase fares…..
• Reduce the hours during which ticket offices are open and staffed…..
• Reducing the number of calls at “low-use” stations….
• “Adjusting” the time of the first/last train…
These are all direct quotes from the bullet points in the leaflet that has been sent to RMT. The latest bombshell information comes as the union steps its fight against the Northern and TP carve up. RMT will deliver nearly ten thousand post cards to the Department of Transport on Monday 18th August as the consultation on the future plans for the Northern and Trans-Pennine Express franchises comes to a close.
The post cards have been collected from angry members of the public at nearly fifty events organised by RMT across the region during the consultation period. The Government, and their front organisation Rail North, have organised a pitiful five “listening” events across the vast area affected without a single event in Cumbria which is hard-hit by the plans. RMT is demanding to know how many responses the shadowy and low-profile “official” consultation has managed to generate.
RMT has already exposed the fact that cheaper, off-peak fares are being axed before the consultation period has come to a close. Under the new arrangements, which have been confirmed to unions and staff this week, from the 8th September off-peak tickets can no longer be used during key times on weekday evenings.
RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“It is disgraceful that plans that will whack up fares, axe jobs and services and reduce both the Northern and Trans-Pennine franchises to an unsafe, money-making racket, are being bulldozed through under cover of a wholly bogus consultation. If RMT officials and activists hadn’t organised almost fifty events, and a major press campaign, the vast majority of people would have known nothing of this huge rail carve-up. It is extraordinary that we have only come across one copy of the supposed Government information leaflet confirming RMT’s view that the consultation, and the key issues behind it, has been deliberately suppressed by the DfT and Rail North.
“We have said all along that the core of the Government’s future plan for Northern and TPE is to axe jobs, throw the guards off the trains and jack up fares while capacity to meet surging rail demand in the area is left to stagnate. That attack on the fare-paying public has already begun and the delivery of nearly ten thousand cards protesting against the plans on Monday is only the start of the RMT-organised fightback.”
ENDS
Government ‘lacks coherent plan for rail services in the north’.(The Star)
International
Argentina
Buenos Aires Line B upgraded for ex-Madrid fleet - Railway Gazette
Brazil
Mitsubishi wins São Paulo metro turnkey contract - Railway Gazette
China
Tibet Railway extension inaugurated.(IRJ)
Germany
Veolia to retain Harz-Elbe-Express until 2018.(IRJ)
Russia
The Transsib journey (Russian Railways on YouTube)
From Moscow to the eastern borders of China, the world's longest railway line - the Trans-Siberian, stretches for more than 9,000 kilometres; a truly great railway journey - in this edition of Russian Life.
Christian Wolmar - To The Edge of The World at the Hay book Festival on the 27th May 2014 at 10pm in the morning .http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gR...
It is the world's longest railway line. But it is so much more than that, too. The Trans-Siberian stretches nearly 6,000 miles between Moscow and Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast and was the most ambitious railway project in the nineteenth century. A journey on the railway evokes a romantic roam through the Russian steppes, but also reminds travellers of the vastness of our world and hints at the hardships that were endured in its construction.Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception and construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev and its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post - and the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author's previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political and economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.
Turkey
Expansion of high-speed rail network boosts station construction.(Hurriyet Daily News)
USA
Editorial: High-speed Amtrak line through N.J. advances future of rail travel.(NJ.com)
www.progressiverailroading.com.
Other Railway Press Releases
www.railway-technology.com
Midland Metro to introduce new CAF Urbos 3 trams in September
West Midlands transport authority Centro will introduce the first of a £40m fleet of new Midland Metro trams on 5 September on the route between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, UK.
Two dead in Union Pacific freight train crash in Arkansas
Two crew members were killed when two Union Pacific (UP) freight trains carrying toxic chemicals collided head-on in Lawrence County, Arkansas, US.
Rejlers to support Jernbaneverket's rail expansion in Norway
Rejlers Norway has secured a contract to serve as the project support for the Norwegian National Rail Administration, Jernbaneverket, as part of the country's InterCity railway expansion.
Siemens to expand Pennsylvania manufacturing operations to support PTC projects
Siemens Rail Automation will combine and expand its manufacturing and engineering operations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, in order to meet the growing demand for its rail automation technologies.
SmartRail World
SmartRail Speaks: Roger Wilson, Vice President of Balfour Beatty Rail-Transit
“Building a $400 Million transit network is not a simple process. The actual construction – and in some cases, design – process is a coordinated effort among hundreds of sub-consultants, subcontractors, project management team members and field forces to bring a new transit solution to life for the benefit of an entire community.”
Today SmartRail World speaks to Roger Wilson,Vice President of Balfour Beatty Rail-Transit, originally from the UK, Roger has been with Balfour Beatty for the sum of his three-decade career in the rail industry. An expert speaker at SmartRail USA (Charlotte 29-30 October), he has served as project manager for multiple high-profile design-build projects including the MBTA Greenbush Old Colony Railroad Restoration, the Amtrak Northeast Corridor Electrification, the Eagle P3 Commuter Rail Project and the first-ever design-build highway project in England. A chartered engineer, today we talk to Roger about some recent major US projects, their work in Charlotte, future-proofing developments and just what company founders Messrs. Balfour and Beatty would think of the company if they could see it now…
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