RMT union wins 87% backing from members for improved package for train managers at Avanti West Coast
Train managers on Britain’s biggest intercity service, Avanti West Coast, have settled a dispute over rest-day working, ending a series of weekend strikes.
The RMT union said 87% of its members had voted to accept a deal including additional pay for working weekends and an agreement on the allocation of staffing for extra shifts.
Continue reading...Lord Hendy says important changes are happening but they follow ‘six years of torpor’
Passengers may lose patience with the government before it can make the changes needed to fix the railway, the rail minister, Lord Hendy, admitted, as he promised that action was coming after “years of torpor”.
The government is midway through a consultation on plans for a reformed, integrated Great British Railways (GBR), with legislation to enact it coming later in 2025, Hendy said.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis says protests over train disaster emphasise the need for ‘safe and modern’ transport system
The Greek prime minister has vowed to upgrade the country’s railways as his embattled government braces for a vote of no confidence after huge protests over a 2023 train crash that killed 57 people.
Two days after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in fury over the response to the disaster on its second anniversary, Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged that not enough had been done to build a “safe and modern” transport system, saying the largest protests in recent history had emphasised the demand for action.
Continue reading...Scathing committee report lambasts DfT and HS2 for failing to work together effectively
HS2 has become “a casebook example of how not to run a major project”, according to the latest scathing report on the high-speed rail line from MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC).
The PAC lambasted the Department for Transport (DfT) and HS2 Ltd for failing to work together effectively, and told them not to waste the opportunity to get a grip on costs during the project’s latest “reset”.
Continue reading...Partnership comes as London station looks at ways to almost triple passenger numbers
St Pancras railway station in London and the Channel tunnel operator have agreed to work together to open up more trains from Britain to France, and routes to Germany and Switzerland.
The agreement is the latest sign of growing momentum for new passenger rail links from England across the Channel, after Great Britain’s only international station announced plans to triple the number of people who can travel through every hour.
Continue reading...New scheme, aimed at reducing platform dashes, will see schedules deleted from boards three minutes before departure
Rail bosses have been accused of patronising passengers by hiding trains’ departure information minutes before they are due to leave in a bid to tackle last-moment platform dashes.
Under the scheme, which is being trialled at King’s Cross, the final call for long-distance trains will be made four minutes before departure. Train details will be deleted from departure boards three minutes before they leave.
Continue reading...Steve Reed says plans for 1km curved structure to protect bats from high-speed railway are ‘batshit crazy’
A bat shelter costing more than £100m near HS2 has been described by the environment secretary as “batshit crazy”.
HS2 Ltd is spending the sum on the protection structure in Buckinghamshire, it emerged last year. All bats are legally protected in the UK.
The curved structure, which has been described by the HS2 Ltd chair, Sir Jon Thompson, as a “shed”, will run for about 1km alongside Sheephouse Wood to create a barrier allowing the creatures to cross above the high-speed railway without being affected by passing trains.
But Steve Reed has criticised the plans and told the Fabian Society’s new year conference: “I mean, (to spend) that vast amount of money on a tunnel for bats when there were so many other public services crying out for funding – it’s batshit crazy.
“And it happened because the previous government didn’t have a grip on the public finances, didn’t have a grip on infrastructure projects, and didn’t really have a grip on what was happening to nature either.”
Asked about the potential for tension between prioritising wildlife and the environment and pushing through planning projects, as the government has promised to do to boost economic growth, Reed said both could be achieved.
“It’s not either or, it’s not growth or nature or the environment. We can do the two together,” he said.
Reed also suggested any plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport would be subject to a “proper consultation” to ensure “mitigations” were in place to make it work.
Asked about the prospect of expanding the airport, which reports suggest the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will back, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North in London said: “Of course, it’s speculation that you’re talking about … but if there were any proposal like that, then there would be a proper consultation, hopefully not lasting decades as it has done previously, because you don’t have to take that amount of time to get to good decisions.
“But it would take into account all of those factors, mitigations, what we will need to do to make sure that it could work.
“Since you mentioned my voting record on that one, I voted against expanding Heathrow last time because I was in favour of expanding Gatwick because it would provide economic growth that would benefit south London, where my constituency is. So I see the link.”
Government plans to renationalise railways will establish new public body to improve the network
Sunday train services will be as reliable as those on weekdays under plans to renationalise the railways, the new transport secretary will claim in a keynote speech on Monday.
Issuing a series of pledges on which the government will be judged by millions of passengers – as well as its political opponents – Heidi Alexander will cite the creation of a network “where Sunday services are as reliable as Monday’s” as one of her key priorities.
Continue reading...Man jumped on to bracket between carriages after doors closed and hung on as train sped along at 170mph
A man survived unscathed after clinging to the outside of a German high-speed train as it barrelled along at up to 170mph (280km/h), police said on Friday.
The 40-year-old Hungarian man was having a cigarette on a platform in Bavaria when the train doors shut, prompting him to jump on to the bracket between two carriages.
Continue reading...First charge by AFP’s Special Operation Avalite established in December. Follow today’s news headlines live
Richard Marles will become the first minister to visit Kiribati in almost two years, AAP reports.
The deputy prime minister and defence minister is travelling to Kiribati for high-level talks with the nation’s re-elected government, which closed its country’s borders in 2024 while national elections were held.
Continue reading...Train managers on west coast mainline to take action from 12 January to 25 May in dispute over rest-day working
Passengers on Great Britain’s west coast mainline have been warned of disruption to Avanti services on every Sunday from this weekend to the end of May.
Train managers represented by the the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) have said they will strike on every Sunday from 12 January to 25 May 2025, in a dispute over their pay for working on rest days.
Continue reading...Disruption expected as rain turns to snow, after major flooding incident declared in Greater Manchester
An ice warning is in force for much of the UK as temperatures have dropped, after a major incident was declared due to flooding.
The yellow Met Office warning indicates there could be some difficult travel conditions across Scotland, Northern Ireland and north Wales, and stretching down to the Midlands, until 10am on Thursday.
Continue reading...Heidi Alexander refuses to confirm cost of setting up Great British Railways but insists it is lower than fees paid to train operators
The renationalising of train companies will not necessarily bring cheaper rail fares but should reduce cancellations and late trains, the UK transport secretary has suggested.
South Western Railway is to become the first train operator nationalised under the Labour government, ministers announced on Wednesday. Greater Anglia and C2C will also be brought into public ownership next year.
Continue reading...As part of a comprehensive programme of renationalisation, the service will come under public ownership in May
South Western Railway will be the first train operator nationalised under the Labour government, ministers have announced.
One of the UK’s biggest commuter services, which operates out of London Waterloo, it will be taken into public hands in May.
Continue reading...Louise Haigh plans to focus on poorer areas, healthy methods and ability to ‘tap in and tap out seamlessly’
Transport across towns and cities could become integrated using dedicated apps, with investment focused on poorer areas and healthier methods, as part of what ministers are calling a “people-first” revolution in local travel.
Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, described the plans in a speech in Leeds as “a revolution to wrestle back power over transport”. She said powers would be heavily devolved to mayors and councils across England, who would be encouraged to devise their own priorities.
Continue reading...Cordons lifted after passengers were evacuated when a suspicious package was reported
Police have carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious package at Euston railway station, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.
Cordons were in place around the main line station in north London at lunchtime on Saturday and passengers due to travel were evacuated from the station.
Continue reading...Severe weather alerts in northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, central and southern Wales and eastern English counties
Large parts of the UK were blanketed with snow as the country got its “first taste of winter”, which brought school closures, train delays, difficult driving conditions and an appeal to check in on vulnerable people.
Met Office yellow severe weather alerts for snow and ice were in place across northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, central and southern Wales, and eastern counties from the Scottish Borders to Norfolk, with forecasters warning of potential hazards through this week.
Continue reading...Regulator approves bid by open-access operator Go-op to run trains in south-west England from late next year
The UK’s first co-operatively owned railway service could begin running trains in the south-west of England late next year.
The Office of Road and Rail (ORR) has approved a bid from open-access operator Go-op to run several new services between Swindon, Taunton and Weston-super-Mare, and compete with Great Western Railway on the line.
Continue reading...A man in his 60s died and 15 others were injured after a head-on collision between Talerddig and Llanbrynmair
Rail investigators are working to establish the cause of the first head-on train crash in the UK this century, which killed a passenger in his 60s on Monday evening.
A further 15 people were treated in hospital after the collision between the Welsh villages of Talerddig and Llanbrynmair on the largely single-track Cambrian line.
Continue reading...Carriages for controversial high-speed line focus on passenger comfort, innovations and headroom, mock-ups reveal
For now, it remains unclear quite how far any passenger will travel on future HS2 services – whether reaching Euston or on high-speed tracks all the way to Crewe. But however short the journey, an exclusive peek at HS2’s embryonic carriages reveals travellers will be enthroned in “the best seats of any UK trains” – even, arguably, in the toilets.
Conscious of discontent with the “ironing board” seats in some of the newest trains introduced to Britain’s railways, HS2 are putting passengers’ backs and bottoms centre stage.
Continue reading...