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September 17, 2014

International & UK Railway News Wednesday 17th September 2014

..Total Railway News

PhotoPhotoPhoto


Improvements to Victoria Station, Douglas Station..and the possibility of an East Durham Station.
The Tube experienced a bad start to the day with over running engineering works following a roof issue.... It was easier to walk....well, run.. as an intrepid runner tested out (a month ago)  if he could sprint to Cannon Street from Mansion House as fast as the Tube.. he just made it!
You wouldn't want to run to Scotland, so the events of tomorrow, and the ensuing result, may well have some impact on England - Scotland services...... We shall see.....


Click on the links....




Headlines
UK
Commuters stuck as four Tube lines are hit by delays and cancellations during morning rush-hour.(London Evening Standard)






Victoria Tube station - your future journey - Tube improvements
(TfL on YouTube)
 Work to improve Victoria Tube station will result in fewer delays, less congestion, step-free access and quicker journeys in and out of the station. Journey through the future station complete in 2018.

To find out more about Tube improvements, visit
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube-improvements

Benefits of the Victoria Station Upgrade:
- A new passenger tunnel will improve capacity and reduce congestion
- Nine new escalators
- New lifts will provide step-free access between platform, ticket hall and street level

To find out more about Tube improvements visit our website and follow us on social media.

Like our pages on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/transportforl...
http://www.facebook.com/londonundergr...
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South West winter storm-hit beaches slow to recover.(BBC News)

 
HS2 committee visits Lichfield to hear evidence over high speed rail route.(Lichfield Mercury)

 
East Durham could have a railway station by 2016.(Hartlepool Mail)

 
Douglas railway station: £1.4m scheme outlined.(BBC News)

 



Douglas to Port Erin Isle of Man Steam Railway August 2014
XxBec3509 on Steam Tube

 


Cyclist turned away from train after 220 mile charity bike ride.(The Telegraph)








Plans to develop London Underground headquarters revealed.(BBC News)

 
Commuter races London Underground train - and wins.(The Telegraph)




 
Race The Tube - Sprint (Epic Challenges on YouTube)
Race the Circle Line from Mansion House to Cannon Street
#racethetube

 



 
As director of health and safety and HM chief inspector of railways, I lead a team of inspectors who spend most of their time out and about on the railways. We work with Network Rail, train operators and others from across the industry to help make Britain's railways safer whether you are travelling or working on them. Inspectors have been doing this for quite a while – 175 years next year.
 
 
As Lord Tony Berkeley commented recently in the House of Lords, we've come quite a long way:
…There were some horrendous accidents on the railways in Victorian times, starting off with a Member of Parliament who got crushed by one of the first trains because he was standing too close to it, or something. That led to the introduction of the Railway Inspectorate, whose job it was to ensure that the railways were safe, bringing in things such as brakes, which are quite useful. Things have moved on a bit since then. The Railway Inspectorate was originally staffed by retired Army officers, but more recently it has moved to the Office of Rail Regulation, which is the right place for it. I think that it does a very good job.
Britain has a good recent safety record, currently one of the best in Europe. We're a long way from the dangers you faced in Victorian times, or even 10 years ago, but that doesn't mean we take this for granted. We're here to ensure that improvements in health and safety continue right across the network, so we improve safety for passengers, the public using level crossings and for the thousands of staff who work on our railways every day.
More ..HERE
 
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Action taken to reduce the number of deaths on the railway tracks near Cambridge
(Cambridge News)

 
Can you save energy by using public transport? It’s not that simple.(The Guardian)




Eurostar runs Weibo promo for Chinese students in UK/France.(tnooz)

 
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(Articles first appeared in Rail magazine 10th August 2014)

 Rail 755: Scotland – what will independence mean for the railways?


Here’s an irony. Just as Scotland is voting to break off from England with the possibility of needing a a passport to travel between the two countries, the Scottish sleeper services between the two are about to be greatly upgraded.


The prospect for the old sleeper services is indeed an exciting one. I have used them numerous times over the years and while I enjoy them enormously, there is no doubt that have address a 20th century feel to them. The trains are old, there is a slight grubby atmosphere – despite the attentions of the mostly excellent staff – and more often than not I seem to be sleeping over a wheel flat.


Therefore although Serco has promised new trains for 2018, in the meantime the company has promised that in April when it takes over the franchise from FirstGroup (it was previously part of the Scotrail contract but will in future be separate) it will give the trains a ‘deep clean’ and the company will embark on a major marketing initiative. That is a slightly risky idea if one remembers what happened to Virgin when it took over West Coast, but Serco will also try to ensure there are immediate service improvements such as allowing people on the trains earlier and enabling them to book prior to the normal 12 week window, which currentlyrather discourages foreign tourists on trips planned well in advance from using the trains.


Then in 2018, when the new trains arrive, Serco promises a completely different type of service. In another piece of irony, the purchase of the trains, reckoned to cost around £100m, was largely funded by the UK government as the result of a promise made in the Budget two years ago by George Osborne (shame they can’t bring back the old luxurious trains that were earmarked for Cross Channel services using the tunnel which were never brought into service in the UK but instead sent off to Canada). There will be four different levels of service and the top one will include en suite toilet and shower. There are even discussions about stopping off at various other places, perhaps even in England, to offer a sleeper service to new destinations.


However, independence would put rather a spoke in the wheels of these plans. It could, for example, greatly damp down demand for travel between the two countries as traditional links are severed. Even if that is not the case, it will undoubtedly add great complexity to the arrangements as the whole SNP plan for creating an independent Scotland is fraught with difficult issues.


The Scottish Government issued a document earlier this year setting out the implications of independence which included a section on the railways. In fact, the Scottish government already has a great measure of control over the country’s railways and it is since devolution that line reopenings have proceeded much faster than before. This is put down by one Scottish source as ‘the fact that the Scottish government was able to devote time and resources to examining properly the case for reopenings, something that would not have happened if power had remained in Westminster’.
Transport Scotland, a government agency, is in charge of the Scotrail franchise and is in the process of letting a new 10 year contract starting in April, with a possible five year extension. Already five bidders, including the incumbent First (who are not favourites by any means) have been shortlisted and the Scottish government has said that a vote for independence will not stop the process.
So, initially there will be no change. However, the government’s statement does suggest some changes in the longer term. In particular it argues that ‘the current franchise model is unnecessarily constrained by the limits imposed by UK legislation. In the future, an independent Scotland will be free to pursue legislation that enabled alternative approaches, including public-supported and not-for-profit models. ‘ This is a rather strange statement since, in practice, there is nothing at the moment to stop the Scottish government looking at different ways of letting its franchise. However, this is politics, not common sense.


ASLEF, the trade union, has expressed concerns over the implications. In a statement, it questioned what would happen to cross border services, operated by Virgin, East Coast, CrossCountry and TransPennine. It is a good question. There is no doubt that operating in two separate legislative administrations would pose complexity and, indeed, cost on the industry. Moreover, political decisions come into play. Such services, particularly the more local ones, are highly subsidised, and the UK government may decided to cut back on them if they are mainly use by citizens from north of the border.


ASLEF raises a good example: ‘London to Preston is extremely profitable. This allows the line north of Preston which is not profitable to rely on profit from the rest of the line leading to a smaller state subsidy. If the profitable section of this line resides in England with the loss making line in Scotland, will the Scottish taxpayers be required to pay a high subsidy to the franchise owner?’ Gosh I can already imagine the headaches for the civil servants and politicians that such questions will pose. ASLEF points out that this could mean that Scottish people are paying out great subsidies for a service they have no necessarily specified. And so on.


The Scottish government has ambitious plans to improve its rail service. The SNP has been quite supportive of rail, though more recently it seems to be veering towards greater spending on roads. At the moment, however, uncertainty prevails. It would be great shame if the rail improvements of recent times north of the border and the the wonderful service being promised by Serco were jeopardised by a vote for independence.


And worse, what if passengers on the sleepers have their nights ruined by officious customs officers shaking them awake. Gestapo style, in the middle of the night to demand their passports? Not likely, agreed, as my bet is that the ‘Better Together’ campaign will prevail, but you never know. And I bet Serco did not factor that possibility into its bid.
 
Labour still in limbo over franchising
With various leaks and statements, it seemed that Labour’s plans for rail franchising, should the party win next year’s election, had been settled. The treasury team led by Ed balls was wary of any commitment to take the franchises back in house as they ran out, worrying that this would be seen as ‘anti-business’ which in this day and age is tantamount, apparently, to a death sentence for any political party.


However, the party activists were keen to push this through gradual renationalisation and baulked at the compromise of merely allowing a state owned in house organisation to bid for any franchises that came up. This, as I have argued too, was seen as the worst of all worlds, angering the private sector, causing the government extra expense in drawing up bids and probably resulting in the status quo since the private operators would be very keen to see off a state owned company.
The issue needed to be resolved at the party’s policy forum in Milton Keynes in July so that it could shape the contents of the manifesto. And to the outside world it seemed matters had indeed been settled with victory for Balls.


Not so. While, yes, the idea of having a state-owned bidder was agreed, the policy forum’s deliberations – or rather frantic talks in a van in the car park of the hall where the meeting was taking place between unions and senior Labour party officials – resulted in yet another compromise. Shadow ministers also had to agree that ‘we need to end the presumption against the public sector” in official documents and that there would be a ‘review of the failed franchising process’. There would also be ‘an end to the fare- setting powers of the operators’ but this rather belies the fact that the government sets the regulated fares and that there will be a high cost in taking away any power of the operators to set fares on their own trains – would every advanced fare, for example, have to be set by the government. As I said in the adjoining piece, this is politics not common sense!


There was also confusion over what was meant by the promise that Labour would set up a new rail authority to take control of rolling stock- I doubt very much if there is any plan to spend billions in buying it back off the rolling stock companies.


What this means if Labour is in power – or sharing it in a coalition – therefore remains unclear. It was a classic fudge and I suspect it is a recipe for yet more fraught discussions, possibly in Downing Street rather than a van in a Milton Keynes car park, after May 2015. It will doubtless give this column plenty to write about.



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International
Africa
Railways Africa.
Selected headlines...
LAND TRANSPORT ADVISORY BOARD (LTAB) FOR CT
NATIONAL SHORTFALL IN RAIL FUNDING
CT’S LTAB ON RAIL PLANNING
METRORAIL COACHES OUT OF SERVICE
UMGENI STEAM RAILWAY
FUNDING  NEW RVR LOCOS
NAMIBIAN DIESELS NEARLY 50 YEARS OLD
TUNISIA SEEKS INVESTORS

 
Australia
Ringwood Station Upgrade - Start of Works
DTPLI on YouTube

 

 




Premier Denis Napthine and Minister for Public Transport and Roads, Terry Mulder, celebrate the start of works on the Ringwood Station Upgrade project.

 
Adelaide Signalling and Traction Power
Siemens on YouTube.

 

 


Signalling and Electrification solutions from Siemens have helped Adelaide modernise their rail network. Other examples are available at www.siemens.com/mobility

 

Canada
Wait To Invest In Canadian National Railway.(Seeking Alpha)

 
China
China's rail diplomacy has huge potential for the nation and allies.(South China Morning Post)




Germany
First Siemens Avenio tram enters passenger service - Railway Gazette

 
USA
www.progressiverailroading.com.
 
AAR raises concerns about STB reauthorization bill
  
KCS updates 2014 guidance
  
Greenbrier announces orders for 15,000 rail cars
  
WMATA chooses developer for transit-oriented development at Grosvenor station
  
DCTA appoints Brevard to new VP post; Atlanta Beltline hires Limmer as transportation director
  
Watco promotes Billings to marketing VP, names Laurent to oversee WSOR marketing and sales
  
Maryland transit authorities to host open houses on Red Line light-rail project
 
Rail supplier news from Alstom, Thales, CTC, Contech, OPW and HUBER+SUHNER (Sept. 17)




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