As expected, there is continued fallout following the overrunning engineering works which affected holiday travellers from London Kings Cross, and London Paddington. Will foregoing the bonus make life any easier for Mark Carne?
Amtrak Vermonter begins its new career as a high speed train..at 80 mph..
Meanwhile, in China, a new line from Urumqi to Lanzhou now in use...it is 1,776km long, with speeds up to 250kmph serving 21 towns/cities and completing the journey in 12 hours (previously 16hours).. Cost?..1st class 658 yuan(£68)..2nd class 548 yuan..(£57)...........
Its all a matter of perspective......
And in India...fog and cold plays havoc with services...
Click on the links...
Headlines
UK
Latest:
The boss of Network Rail tells Sky News he won't take his bonus because of 'unacceptable' delays over Christmas.
Network Rail boss Mark Carne will not take bonus(BBC News)
BBC presenter confronts Network Rail boss over £135,000 bonus..(Mail Online)
Network Rail boss fends off bonus issue after travel chaos prompts investigation.(Independent)
MPs to investigate bonuses at Network Rail.(Telegraph)
Welcome to Britain...all services have been cancelled: RICHARD LITTLEJOHN on why the railways are another example of how the customers always come last.(Mail Online)
Could you make it up?
'Fatal' Penzance level crossing is permanently closed.(BBC News)
Dundee railway station demolition goes ‘according to plan’(thetele.co.uk)
Metro plan to take passengers from Wolverhampton to New Cross back on track.(Express & Star)
Compensation for passengers caught up in weekend’s railway gridlock.(Ely Standard)
National Rail Enquiries- Passenger Rights to Refunds & Compensation
Refunds
If your train is cancelled or delayed and you choose not to travel, you are entitled to a full refund.If you decide not to travel for another reason, you can usually get a refund less the cost of an admin fee (maximum £10).
Some tickets, such as Advance fares, are not refundable.
To get your refund you should return your ticket to the retailer it was bought from (including online third-party retailers such as The Trainline or RedSpottedHanky), stating the date and time you intended to travel.
Compensation
If your train is delayed and you decide to still travel, you may be entitled to compensation.The amount of compensation you can claim will depend on which operator(s) you are travelling with. Special arrangements exist for Season ticket holders (see below).
Each train company sets its own level of compensation, as set down by the company's Passenger's Charter. Links to all operators’ Charters are available here.
The National Rail Conditions of Carriage outlines the minimum offered through Passenger’s Charters but in practise the vast majority of operators pay more than that.
As a minimum, if you are one hour late at your destination, you are entitled to:
- 20% of the price paid for a single ticket
- 10% of the price paid for a return ticket if the delay is only on one leg of the journey
- 20% of the price paid for a return ticket if both legs are delayed
Train companies may not pay out if the delay was caused by something outside the control of the rail industry. The National Rail Conditions of Carriage sets out these circumstances which include, vandalism, exceptionally severe weather and when the police or emergency services close the line. For more information see the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and the company's Passenger’s Charter.
In other circumstances where you consider you have received poor service you should contact the train company concerned.
How to claim:
- Claims need to be made within 28 days of completing the journey
- Claims need to be accompanied by the ticket for the specific journey for which you would like compensation. Without the ticket, train companies have no way of knowing whether the claim is genuine
- Compensation is usually paid in rail vouchers, which are valid for a year and on any operator’s routes. If you prefer another method, then some operators will pay in cash if requested
- Claims can always be submitted by post, but increasing numbers of operators are offering an online claim process
Season Tickets
Different train companies have different policies so you should check the relevant Passenger's Charter.As a minimum, if you are one hour late at your destination, you are entitled to 20% of the price of a Weekly Season Ticket, but some companies offer compensation for delays of less than one hour.
There are two main types in which compensation is paid to Season Ticket holders.
Renewal discounts
A discount on Monthly and longer Season tickets when you renew, depending on whether the performance targets for the train company you use have been met. These targets will vary according to the route you travel on, so check with your operator. If performance misses the targets, Monthly and longer Season ticket holders will receive an automatic discount on their ticket when they renew it, regardless of whether they have been affected by delays or not.
Just under half of train companies operate this scheme: Arriva Trains Wales, First Great Western, ScotRail, First TransPennine Express, Northern Rail, South West Trains, and Chiltern Railways.
Delay Repay
Delay repay applies to all tickets including Season tickets.
Passengers are entitled to compensation each time for any delay of 30 minutes or more. Season ticket holders need to submit claims for compensation for delays on specific trains, rather than receive an automatic discount at renewal. Details on how to claim will be on the train company's website.
Under Delay Repay, passengers are able to claim for compensation even if the company was not responsible for the delay, for example because of bad weather.
The following train companies operate Delay Repay, and the government has stated that all new franchises will adopt the policy: Southeastern, Southern, East Coast, London Midland, CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink and Virgin Trains.
Network Rail on YouTube
London Bridge Christmas works timelapse 20-27 December 2014
Watch our timelapse footage of London Bridge Christmas works (20-27 December 2014). More than 1,000 engineers have been working round the clock at London Bridge railway station every day since December 20, including Christmas Day, on a massive project to rebuild the station to improve facilities and services for passengers. For more information visit ThameslinkProgramme.co.uk
Network Rail
Media statement from Network Rail
A number of vital rail projects in Network Rail’s £200m investment programme to improve and maintain Britain's railway have been completed this morning as millions of people return to work by train.
Mark Carne. (Network Rail Picture)
Mark Carne, chief executive, has made the following statement:"While we have completed a huge amount of work across the country which will improve millions of journeys, the last few days for many passengers have been miserable and again I apologise for the disruption this caused. The track work outside King's Cross has now been completed and we now move our focus to completing the other important projects over the New Year without any further unplanned disruption to passengers.
“Following the problems experienced at King’s Cross and Paddington over Christmas, I have instructed Dr Francis Paonessa, who is the Network Rail infrastructure projects director, to provide a report into the sequence of events and associated decision making that led to the problems experienced and to advise any immediate steps that we need to take to increase the robustness of our works delivery capability. I expect the report by the end of next week and I intend to publish the findings.
“The events over the Christmas period highlighted the unacceptable impact on the travelling public when plans go wrong. I therefore propose that there should also be a broader, industry-wide review, into the timing of our major works programmes and the passenger contingency arrangements for such works. Our railway now carries more passengers than ever before in history. Passengers rely on the railway. We have an obligation to manage the essential safety maintenance and renewal activity that is required and we need to do this in a manner that minimises the overall impact on society at large. I will discuss this review with industry parties in the coming days before formalising the terms of reference for this review.”
Over the holiday period, an army of over 11,000 engineers are working across 2,000 worksites on 300 projects in the biggest Christmas and New Year investment programme ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.
Engineering work completed includes:
• West Coast Main Line: The latest phase of upgrade work at Watford, Norton Bridge and Stafford has completed. After the last trains on Christmas Eve, work took place at Watford until early this morning to replace and install new sections of railway and bring into use a new modern signalling system.
At Norton Bridge and Stafford engineers worked until the early hours of Sunday 28 December as part of a £250m package of improvements to improve the line and build a new flyover to remove the last remaining bottleneck on the West Coast main line.
• East Coast Main Line: Between London King’s Cross and Peterborough more than 1000 people worked to complete 13 different projects. Further north, projects included bridge improvements in Dewsbury and Newcastle and track improvements near York and on the Doncaster to Leeds line. The line out of King's Cross is now running to the planned timetable.
• Midland Main Line: On the route serving St Pancras hundreds of people completed projects including signalling alterations for the Thameslink project; the demolition and partial reconstruction of two bridges for the Midland Main Line electrification project and track improvements between Kettering and Corby and at Toton.
• Thameslink: New signalling has successfully been installed on the New Cross Gate to Sydenham corridor and also in South London near Bermondsey allowing resumption of planned Southern and London Overground passenger services.
Work to replace tracks at the entrance to the Hornsey Depot in North London has also been completed. This means that GoVia Thameslink can resume operation of their planned service on the Great Northern route.
• Scotland: The Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Project team demolished the roof of Carmuirs Tunnel, near Falkirk. They will install a new tunnel over the New Year break.
Signalling was renewed between Haymarket and Inverkeithing and track work was undertaken in Queen Street Tunnel, Glasgow.
• Anglia: Track renewals have been carried out between Stratford and Shenfield and upgrades to the overhead line equipment on the Great Eastern Main Line has been completed. Two bridges on the Gospel Oak to Barking line have been replaced. At Chadwell Heath work is underway on the eastern section of Crossrail.
• Wales: A bridge was replaced a bridge over the River Teme on the line between Hereford and Shrewsbury. Bridge demolition work was also successfully completed on the South Wales Main Line between Newport and Cardiff as part of electrification works.
Latest information on rail travel over the New Year period can be found at: www.nationalrail.co.uk
“Following the problems experienced at King’s Cross and Paddington over Christmas, I have instructed Dr Francis Paonessa, who is the Network Rail infrastructure projects director, to provide a report into the sequence of events and associated decision making that led to the problems experienced and to advise any immediate steps that we need to take to increase the robustness of our works delivery capability. I expect the report by the end of next week and I intend to publish the findings.
“The events over the Christmas period highlighted the unacceptable impact on the travelling public when plans go wrong. I therefore propose that there should also be a broader, industry-wide review, into the timing of our major works programmes and the passenger contingency arrangements for such works. Our railway now carries more passengers than ever before in history. Passengers rely on the railway. We have an obligation to manage the essential safety maintenance and renewal activity that is required and we need to do this in a manner that minimises the overall impact on society at large. I will discuss this review with industry parties in the coming days before formalising the terms of reference for this review.”
Over the holiday period, an army of over 11,000 engineers are working across 2,000 worksites on 300 projects in the biggest Christmas and New Year investment programme ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.
Engineering work completed includes:
• West Coast Main Line: The latest phase of upgrade work at Watford, Norton Bridge and Stafford has completed. After the last trains on Christmas Eve, work took place at Watford until early this morning to replace and install new sections of railway and bring into use a new modern signalling system.
At Norton Bridge and Stafford engineers worked until the early hours of Sunday 28 December as part of a £250m package of improvements to improve the line and build a new flyover to remove the last remaining bottleneck on the West Coast main line.
• East Coast Main Line: Between London King’s Cross and Peterborough more than 1000 people worked to complete 13 different projects. Further north, projects included bridge improvements in Dewsbury and Newcastle and track improvements near York and on the Doncaster to Leeds line. The line out of King's Cross is now running to the planned timetable.
• Midland Main Line: On the route serving St Pancras hundreds of people completed projects including signalling alterations for the Thameslink project; the demolition and partial reconstruction of two bridges for the Midland Main Line electrification project and track improvements between Kettering and Corby and at Toton.
• Thameslink: New signalling has successfully been installed on the New Cross Gate to Sydenham corridor and also in South London near Bermondsey allowing resumption of planned Southern and London Overground passenger services.
Work to replace tracks at the entrance to the Hornsey Depot in North London has also been completed. This means that GoVia Thameslink can resume operation of their planned service on the Great Northern route.
• Scotland: The Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Project team demolished the roof of Carmuirs Tunnel, near Falkirk. They will install a new tunnel over the New Year break.
Signalling was renewed between Haymarket and Inverkeithing and track work was undertaken in Queen Street Tunnel, Glasgow.
• Anglia: Track renewals have been carried out between Stratford and Shenfield and upgrades to the overhead line equipment on the Great Eastern Main Line has been completed. Two bridges on the Gospel Oak to Barking line have been replaced. At Chadwell Heath work is underway on the eastern section of Crossrail.
• Wales: A bridge was replaced a bridge over the River Teme on the line between Hereford and Shrewsbury. Bridge demolition work was also successfully completed on the South Wales Main Line between Newport and Cardiff as part of electrification works.
Latest information on rail travel over the New Year period can be found at: www.nationalrail.co.uk
International
China
Urumqi – Lanzhou PDL completed as five lines open.(Railway Gazette International)
1,776km...up to 250kmph..21 towns/cities...12 hours (previously 16hours).. Cost..1st class 658 yuan(£68)..2nd class 548 yuan..(£57).......
India
India cold and fog cause Delhi travel chaos.(BBC News)
India fog continues to cause chaos travel chaos.(BBC News)
Rajasthan Shivers, Fog Delays Trains.(NDTV)
IR financial review completed - Railway Gazette
Ireland
And let there be no worries about getting home after the celebrations on Wednesday 31st December as the following late night DART and Commuter trains will be operating:
- 01.30 & 02.30 from Pearse serving all stations to Howth
- 01.30 & 02.30 from Connolly serving all stations to Greystones
- 01.40 & 02.40 from Pearse serving Tara St, Connolly, and all stations from Howth Junction to Dundalk
- 01.20 & 02.50 from Pearse serving all stations to Maynooth
Taiwan
Committee to meet again to determine THSRC’s fate.(Taipei Times)
USA
First day of high-speed passenger rail service in WMass.(WWLP)
..up to 80 mph.........
VIDEO: High speed train passes through Deerfield.(WWLP)
www.progressiverailroading.com
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