Action is planned for 3, 5 and 7 November; London Overground and tube staff will strike on 3 November
Network Rail workers are to stage fresh strikes in the bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions, threatening fresh disruption to services.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will strike on 3, 5 and 7 November.
Continue reading...Exclusive: former veterans minister Johnny Mercer and others had condemned plans to scrap free travel
The government has vowed to guarantee free rail travel for military personnel to attend remembrance services this year after facing criticism over moves to scrap the offer.
Proposed plans to stop the free train travel after the government decided the cost would be “too great” had sparked an outcry and calls for a U-turn from the former veterans minister Johnny Mercer and others.
Continue reading...Defendant punched as hearings get under way into Santiago de Compostela derailment that killed 80 people
The trial of two men charged with causing the deaths of 80 people in Spain’s deadliest train crash in decades has begun, with one of the defendants being punched as tensions boiled over outside the courtroom.
Francisco José Garzón, who was driving the high-speed train when it crashed near the north-west Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on 24 July 2013, faces four years in prison if convicted, as does Andrés Cortabitarte, a former safety director at Spain’s state-owned rail infrastructure company, Adif.
Continue reading...Iconic ticket on one-way trip to transport history as city opts for payment by travelcards and mobiles
It has inspired French film-makers and songwriters, proven useful to cannabis smokers and aestheticians and served as an emergency bookmark or jotter – but now the Paris Métro ticket has reached the end of the line.
The city’s public transport authority is phasing out the rectangular pieces of cardboard that have kept the capital’s travellers on the move for the past 120 years.
Continue reading...Additional requirements would be time-consuming and threaten capacity, Dover port boss says
Post-Brexit Channel border delays could multiply from next May, with a five-person vehicle being held for up to 10 minutes if the EU goes ahead with a planned biometric entry system, the Port of Dover has said.
The entry-exit system (EES), which is due to start in May 2023, will require all non-EU nationals to register their fingerprints and be photographed before entering the bloc.
Continue reading...RMT members at 14 train operating companies take action in dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions
Workers across the rail industry will join train drivers in strikes on 1 October, targeting the start of Conservative party conference.
The RMT union has announced fresh action after planned strikes were put on hold during the 10 days of mourning for the Queen.
Continue reading...Police aim to reunite stolen goods including 150 pieces of luggage with owners around the world
Police in Marseille are attempting to track down more than 100 first-class train passengers from around the world who had their luggage or wallets stolen by a gang whose leader would disguise himself in wigs.
When a woman leaving a high-speed train at Aix-en-Provence station earlier this year reported to police that her bag containing €50,000 of jewellery had disappeared during the journey, station CCTV footage led to a months-long investigation. Police discovered what they called an experienced operation by three thieves regularly targeting first-class carriages on high-speed trains.
Continue reading...Announcement in early hours comes a day before deadline for deal as freight strike threatened widespread disruption
A tentative agreement had been reached to avert a freight rail strike that could have disrupted commuter rail services across the US, Joe Biden has said.
A strike would also have dealt a major blow to Democrats two months before midterm elections in which they will try to keep control of the Senate and the House.
Continue reading...Abellio UK’s CEO Dominic Booth is understood to be leading buyout and will help fund deal using own money
The Dutch state railway is to pull out of the UK with a management buyout of its subsidiary Abellio, which runs four rail lines and a number of London bus routes.
Abellio, which for 20 years has run East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and West Midlands Railway and employs 15,000 staff, is to be sold by the Netherlands state-run Nederlandse Spoorwegen to its UK management. The business will be operated by a new firm, to be known as Transport UK Group Limited.
Continue reading...Rail services will be much-reduced, and buses in west and south-west London and Surrey also affected
Travellers are facing a further day of disruption on Saturday as thousands of transport workers go on strike in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Network Rail, several train companies, and bus services in London and parts of Surrey will be hit by industrial action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), TSSA and Unite unions which will also affect Sunday morning train services.
Continue reading...Denial comes as language toughens on both sides and head of RMT again warns of de facto general strike
Downing Street has denied that ministers are deliberately seeking a political fight with rail unions, as both sides toughened their language further and the head of the RMT warned the impasse could continue “indefinitely”.
Just 20% of rail services ran on Thursday, in a sixth day of strike action since June involving the RMT and TSSA unions, with further disruption taking place on Saturday, which is likely to affect trains throughout the weekend.
Continue reading...Network Rail, several train firms, London Underground and London buses to be hit by latest action
Commuters and other travellers are facing further disruption over three days from Thursday on rail, tube and bus services, as tens of thousands of workers begin the latest round of strike action.
Network Rail, several train companies, London Underground and buses in the capital will be hit by industrial action due to long-running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.
Continue reading...Transport secretary urged to press for restoration of full timetable or strip operator of contract after 12 cancellations on Monday
Labour has written to Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, urging him to take immediate action to ensure Avanti West Coast restores more frequent services on its busy intercity rail route, or else strip the train operator of its contract.
The rail firm, which runs trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, cancelled another 12 services on Monday morning, on the first full day of an already drastically reduced emergency timetable.
Continue reading...Lawyer Tungnath Chaturvedi took on the might of Indian Railways after being charged 20 rupees – or 21p – too much
An Indian lawyer has won a 22-year legal battle with Indian Railways for overcharging him by 20 rupees (21p or 25c).
When Tungnath Chaturvedi, 66, bought a ticket at Mathura station in Uttar Pradesh in 1999 to go to Moradabad, he was charged 90 rupees instead of 70. He complained there and then but did not receive a refund.
Continue reading...Head of Aslef says transport secretary ‘misrepresenting’ the truth after claim the union was ‘dragging its feet’ in pay talks
Mary Kelly Foy, the Labour MP for City of Durham, has expressed solidarity with Aslef union members as they strike.
LNER, which runs trains between London and Scotland, is warning customers of its “extremely limited services” today.
Continue reading...Some 40,000 workers from 14 train companies and Network Rail are striking in an ongoing dispute over pay, jobs and conditions
Here’s the latest TfL update:
Bakerloo — Part suspended. There is no service between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone.
I’m looking at banning strikes by different unions in the same workplace within a set period. We should also place an absolute limit of six pickets at points of Critical National Infrastructure, irrespective of the number of unions involved, and outlaw intimidatory language.
Shadow minister defying Labour leadership to stand on picket line says lives are at stake
Grant Shapps has escalated the government’s confrontation with the rail unions by ruling out meeting with them, as a shadow minister said “lives could be lost” if wages did not improve.
Labour’s Sam Tarry defied his party leadership to stand on the picket line at Euston on Wednesday morning while rail strikes disrupted travel for millions.
Continue reading...More than 40,000 staff involved in widespread action after union leaders rejected ‘paltry’ 4% pay rise
The railways will again grind to a halt on Wednesday as workers strike over pay, job security and working conditions.
The latest talks to avert the action failed last week, a month since three days of industrial action in June. The strikes involve more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail, 14 train companies, and members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT).
Continue reading...From 2025, commuters can expect two extra trains every hour between Manchester and York and journey times up to 40% shorter
Train services in the north of England are to be given triple the intended investment after the government announced the first part of its £96bn integrated rail plan.
The multibillion pound plan – announced last November – pledged to deliver faster train journeys more quickly than the original plans for the HS2 eastern leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Continue reading...Southwest Chief train crash left at least 40 injured in remote rural area, according to unconfirmed reports
Three people were killed and several others were injured when a passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck and derailed in a remote, rural area of Missouri on Monday, officials said.
Two of the people who died were on the train and one was in the truck, Missouri state highway patrol spokesman Corporal Justin Dunn said. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were hurt, the patrol said, but hospitals reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash and were expecting more.
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