Category Archives: Rail transport

At least eight people killed in Bangkok rail crossing collision

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Thai authorities say 32 others injured near Makkasan station after freight train strikes bus and fire breaks out

At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said.

Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched as flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles close to the airport rail link’s Makkasan station, officials said, adding that the collision also involved cars and motorcycles.

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EU proposes end to ‘five tabs, three apps and a prayer’ for cross-border train bookings

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New rules would enable single-ticket bookings across multiple rail operators throughout Europe

Cross-border train journeys through several European countries are the stuff of many a holidaymaker’s dreams.

But the reality of trying to buy the tickets, navigating multiple websites without knowing who can help if a connection is missed, can prove less than relaxing. As one MEP puts it, it can often require “five tabs, three apps and a prayer”.

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Six people found dead inside train car at rail yard near Texas-Mexico border

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Discovery was made by Union Pacific employee inspecting stopped train at the yard in Laredo before it continued its journey north

Rail workers in Texas found six people dead inside a boxcar at a yard close to the Mexican border on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

The discovery was made by a Union Pacific employee inspecting the stopped train at the yard in Laredo before it continued its journey north, a spokesperson for the Laredo police department said, citing the railroad freight company.

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Trainline says Middle East tensions hitting European rail bookings

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Profits jump to £122m at ticketing retailer but it expects flat or declining revenues over the coming year

Trainline has said the US standoff with Iran is hitting its revenues, with rail ticket sales to foreign visitors to Europe affected.

The UK-based ticketing retailer said it expected revenues to stay flat or decline over the coming year, citing “the effects of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East on inbound air traffic into Europe”.

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Train collision in Indonesia kills 14 as rescuers work to reach survivors

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Efforts continue to free two trapped passengers in wreckage after long-distance train collides with commuter train outside Jakarta, injuring 81

The death toll from a train collision near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has risen to 14 with another 84 injured, the train operator said on Tuesday, as rescuers worked to extract survivors still trapped in the wreckage.

The collision between a commuter train and a long-distance train happened late on Monday in Bekasi, just outside Jakarta.

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Head-on train collision near Copenhagen leaves five critically injured

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At least 17 people hurt after incident involving two local services north of Denmark’s capital

Two trains have collided head-on in Denmark, injuring at least 17 people, five of whom are in a critical condition.

The crash happened on Thursday morning at a level crossing at Isterødvejen, north of Hillerød, a town about 19 miles (30km) north-west of Copenhagen. Emergency services received a report of the incident just before 6.30am.

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Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains – report

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‘Stone age’ system of booking cross-border rail tickets holding back climate action by consumers, says thinktank

Europe’s “stone age” system of booking train tickets makes it needlessly difficult for travellers to avoid polluting flights, a report has found.

Booking equivalent train tickets is “difficult or impossible” on almost half of the EU’s busiest international air routes, analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank shows.

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Biometric checks stalled again for cross-Channel travellers

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Fears of Easter chaos over scaling up of new EU border system are eased, with no facial IDs for Eurotunnel and Eurostar passengers

Passengers crossing the Channel from the UK to France will not face new biometric checks in the coming weeks, despite an imminent deadline for the complete implementation of the EU’s entry-exit system (EES), ports say.

Airlines and airports across Europe have feared chaos over the Easter holidays.

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Drivers told to look for cheapest fuel ahead of ‘busiest Easter on UK roads since 2022’

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Bank holiday traffic predicted to peak on Thursday, as petrol and diesel prices surge from fallout of Iran war

UK drivers are being urged to look for the cheapest petrol and “to fill up as usual” as travellers prepare to make 21.7m journeys on what is expected to be the busiest Easter on the roads in four years.

The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol rose by 20p in March, from 132.83p on the 1st to 152.83p on the 31st, raising concerns about the cost of filling up for Easter journeys. The higher fuel prices have been triggered by rising oil prices as a result of the US-Israel war against Iran.

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Ministers tell HS2 to consider slower train speeds to cut costs

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Company will assess whether drop to 186mph from 224mph will save money and help bring forward launch

Ministers have told High Speed Two to consider running its trains at lower speeds, in an attempt to rein in the spiralling budget and begin operations as soon as possible.

HS2 Ltd will assess whether limiting the speed to 186mph (300km/h) instead of 224mph could save money – potentially billions of pounds – and bring the railway into being earlier in the 2030s.

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HS2 firm says new steel tariffs will ‘exacerbate’ cost pressures for UK construction industry

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Doubling tariffs on imported steel will raise cost of the metal when Iran war is already inflating steel and concrete prices

One of HS2’s biggest contractors has warned the government that raising tariffs on foreign steel imports will “exacerbate” cost pressures for the UK construction industry, amid growing concern over the £100bn railway’s rising budget.

Ministers said last week they would double the tariffs on imported steel and slash the amount that can be bought from overseas, in an attempt to save Britain’s struggling steelmakers.

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Train delays: compensation claims to be easier under Great British Railways

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Refund systems for individual train operators to be merged into single service under nationalised rail body

Rail passengers will be able to claim compensation for delayed trains directly from the website where they bought their ticket, the government has said, as part of a shake-up to make rail travel simpler.

Passengers who use third-party retailers such as Trainline to buy tickets currently, have to submit applications for refunds to the relevant train operator for processing.

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High-speed rail link between Sydney and Newcastle could be ‘shovel-ready’ in two years, Albanese government says

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Transport minister Catherine King will pledge $230m for planning work for the first phase of a bullet train on Australia’s east coast

Long-mooted plans for high-speed rail could be “shovel-ready” within two years, according to the federal government, which will on Tuesday announce another $230m for further planning work for fast trains between Sydney and Newcastle, as part of the first phase of an eventual east coast bullet train.

Rail journeys on the new fast train could take as little as one hour between Sydney and Newcastle, and 30 minutes between Sydney and the Central Coast, the transport and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said. It currently takes more than 2.5 hours to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle, and almost 1.5 hours from Sydney to the Central Coast.

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Starmer says Reform’s pledge to restore two-child benefit cap in full is ‘shameful’ – UK politics live

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Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has announced party’s plans to cut welfare spending

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, is giving his speech now.

He has announced, or confirmed, three measures to cut welfare spending.

The number claiming disability benefits for an attention disorder has more than doubled since Covid. We all know a significant number of these claims are spurious …

We will stop those with mild anxiety, depression, and similar conditions from claiming disability benefits and instead encourage them into the dignity of work.

We will end the abuse of the Motability scheme, where expensive cars are handed out for conditions like tennis elbow, and paid for by working people who can’t afford them themselves.

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Manchester-London 7am ‘ghost train’ to carry passengers after outcry over regulator’s decision

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Avanti service was to have been axed from mid-December but would have still run because of needs out of Euston

The express Manchester-London 7am Avanti service will take passengers after all, after the rail regulator conceded defeat in the face of public outcry over a ruling that would have left it running as an empty “ghost train” each day.

The 7am train, the only service linking the cities in under two hours, was set to be axed from the passenger table from mid-December – but would, as the Guardian reported on Saturday, have kept running empty from Piccadilly each day so it could run morning trains back out of Euston.

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GWR train fitted with F1 tech for two-month superfast wifi trial

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Tryout of system, which switches between signals from 5G masts to low Earth-orbit satellites, could lead to wider rollout

Train wifi in the UK, long a source of frustration for passengers, is about to get radically faster – for a lucky few at least.

A two-month trial has begun on one Great Western Railway (GWR) train, fitted with technology from Formula One that switches between the signals from 5G masts to low Earth-orbit satellites to provide almost seamless, superfast wifi.

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Avanti accused of ‘virtue signalling without virtue’ over wheelchair user art

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Campaigners say train image of two wheelchair users does not reflect reality of single wheelchair space in standard class

Campaigners have accused one of the UK’s leading train companies of “virtue signalling without the virtue” after it used images of wheelchair users that they say do not reflect the reality of travelling with a disability.

Baraka Carberry, a digital artist, created a new livery for Avanti West Coast, which provides rail links between London and Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland, that shows “scenes of people, culture, colours and joy”. Titled Together We Roll, the images stretch across all seven carriages of the new Evero train, which the company says reduces carbon compared with the old fleet of trains.

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RMT accepts three-year pay deal for London Underground staff

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Agreement that will increase drivers’ pay to nearly £80,000 by 2027 comes after strike action in September

The RMT union has accepted a three-year inflation-plus pay deal for London Underground workers, ending the dispute that led to travel chaos in London in September and increasing drivers’ pay to nearly £80,000 by 2027.

The deal, with an initial 3.4% increase backdated to this April, means London Underground staff pay will rise in line with RPI inflation – higher than the CPI rate normally used for index-linked pay rises – with guaranteed minimum rates if inflation falls, making the total deal worth at least 9.2%.

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Virgin Trains on track to challenge Eurostar cross-Channel monopoly with access to key depot

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UK rail regulator approves Richard Branson firm’s application to use Temple Mills site in London

Richard Branson’s train company is a step closer to challenging Eurostar’s monopoly on transporting passengers across the Channel after the UK rail regulator approved Virgin Train’s application to use a key depot in east London.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) approved Virgin’s application to use the Temple Mills depot in Leyton – which is used for maintaining and storing trains. It said the move would unlock £700m of investment in new services and create 400 jobs.

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Eurostar to run doubledecker trains through Channel tunnel from 2031

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Operator signs €2bn deal with Alstom amid boom in international rail travel from UK

Eurostar is to start running doubledecker trains through the Channel tunnel to meet growing demand for international rail travel from the UK.

The rail operator announced it had signed a €2bn (£1.7bn) deal for at least 30 – and up to 50 – new trains from the manufacturer Alstom.

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