Category Archives: Rail transport

UK rail passengers facing disruption after cracks found on high-speed trains

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Suspension of GWR and LNER services preventing many from reaching events such as funerals, holidays and family meetings

Rail passengers are facing significant disruption after cracks were found on high-speed trains, with services on Great Western Railway and London North Eastern Railway services suspended.

People who wrote to the Guardian via a callout shared how they had been affected by the train chaos, from struggling to travel to the funeral of a loved one to cancelling long-awaited birthday picnics with friends.

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‘Look at the children’: Egyptian man despairs at site of train crash – video

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‘We need an official to come see what has happened. They can’t remove the people from underneath the trains, it’s a shame, look at the children,’ an unidentified man yelled from a site where two trains collided in central Egypt on Friday. At least 32 people were killed and 91 injured, health ministry officials said. Unknown individuals triggered the emergency brakes on one of the trains causing it to stop, the rail authority said. The second train, which was travelling in the same direction, crashed into the first from behind, it added

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Dozens killed in train crash in southern Egypt, say authorities

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At least 32 people and 100 injured after collision between two trains in Sohag province

At least 32 people were killed and more than a hundred injured when two trains collided in southern Egypt. Authorities blamed a passenger activating the emergency brakes.

Two passenger cars flipped on their side from the force of the collision, the latest in a series of deadly accidents along Egypt’s troubled rail system, plagued by poor maintenance and management.

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Claude James obituary

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My friend and colleague Claude James, who has died aged 90, was the first black person to be elected to a railway trade union executive committee and the first black manager of Euston station. He fought for fairness and and against racism in the UK.

The eldest of six, Claude was born in Guyana to Gladys and Cyril, and lived in Kitty village. His grandmother was influential in his early life, taking him to meetings to discuss current affairs. He enjoyed his time at Britain high school in Queenstown before starting work for the City Engineer Council. He sailed for Britain alone in 1954.

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Cat on a fast train roof holds up London to Manchester service

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Feline was a whisker away from a 125mph ride when it was spotted at Euston station on Tuesday evening

You hear about delays from leaves on the line, maybe even the occasional swan, but on Tuesday evening a cat was discovered on a train roof at London Euston station – a whisker away from hitching a 125mph ride up north.

The tabby was spotted curled up on top of an Avanti West Coast train about half an hour before it was due to depart for Manchester at 9pm and refused to move.

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‘I couldn’t be prouder’: 16-year-old joins father in HS2 protest tunnel

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Rory Hooper, Swampy’s son, joins environmental activists to protest against environmental destruction

Veteran environmental activist Dan Hooper, known as Swampy, who is one of nine protesters in a tunnel in central London to raise the alarm about the environmental destruction they believe the high speed rail project HS2 will cause, is in the tunnel with his 16-year-old son, it has emerged.

The activists have been in the tunnel close to Euston station since Tuesday to raise awareness of the climate emergency and to try to halt work on the HS2 project which is under way in the Euston area. They argue that many ancient woodlands will be destroyed by the project. HS2 says it is planting 7m new trees.

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Eurostar warns of ‘risk to survival’ without government help

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The cross-Channel train service has seen a 95% fall in passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Eurostar has said it is facing an existential threat, as business leaders pleaded with the government to step in and save the “vital link” with Europe.

A 95% drop in passenger numbers has brought the cross-Channel train service to its knees, and the company reiterated on Sunday that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail had also been severely affected by the pandemic.

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UK rail services to be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels

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Timetable cuts to be announced Thursday are less than 50% reduction in services that was expected

Rail services in Britain will be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels over the next few weeks, and passengers are being asked to check before they travel that their service is running.

The cuts, which will be announced from Thursday, are less than the 50% reduction in services that had been expected. Train operators have focused on retaining services at morning and evening peak travel times so that key workers such as NHS staff can get to their workplace.

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All change: India’s railways bring back tea in clay cups in bid to banish plastics

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Stations switch to humble earthen kulhads in move to cut down on toxic waste and boost incomes of village potters

A small and humble relic from India’s past is about to stage a major comeback. At all 7,000 railway stations in the country, tea will be served in earthen cups known as kulhads.

The kulhads, redolent of a bygone pastoral era, are unpainted, unglazed and have no handles, but are perfectly biodegradable and environment-friendly, which is why the country’s railways minister, Piyush Goyal, has said they will replace plastic cups as part of the government’s goal of making India free of single-use plastic.

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Covid set back attitudes to public transport by two decades, says RAC

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Most Britons see their car as more important now and would not choose greener alternative

The pandemic has put back attitudes to driving versus public transport by two decades, with almost two-thirds of UK car owners now considering their vehicle essential, research has found.

A clear majority would now refuse to switch to a greener alternative even if better trains or buses were available, according to the RAC. The research for its annual Report on Motoring found reluctance to use public transport was now at its highest for 18 years.

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Lahore’s metro line opened to fanfare – but what is the real cost of China’s ‘gift’?

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The Pakistani city’s railway is a hit with passengers, but critics say worker deaths and huge debt are too high a price to pay

In a global pandemic, people across the world have avoided public transport systems where they can. But last week the Pakistani city of Lahore unveiled its “gift from China” – a $1.6bn (£1.23bn) light-rail transit system. The Orange Line metro is designed to carry nearly a quarter of a million people a day in Pakistan’s second-largest city.

As 50,000 masked commuters packed into gleaming, air-conditioned trains festooned with Chinese and Pakistani flags to celebrate the first day of operation. Tayyaba Urooj, a 45-year-old mother, was among them, and had brought nine of her relatives from Karachi along for the trip. “Alhamdulillah, the train just started. We want it to succeed and for Pakistan to succeed,” says Urooj in the packed carriage. “I am a little worried because it’s congested – but it’s Pakistan, so there’s always a rush.”

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HS2 may be guilty of ‘wildlife crime’ by felling trees illegally, say lawyers

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Reports of rare bat species in ancient woodland being cleared for high-speed rail line

Lawyers have warned HS2 it might be felling trees illegally, after an ecology report found evidence of one of the UK’s rarest bat species in an area of ancient woodland being cleared for the high-speed rail line.

Legal firm Leigh Day has written to HS2 Ltd urging the company to halt activity at Jones’ Hill wood, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, as it does not have a licence to carry out work that could disturb rare barbastelle bat roosts. They say to continue doing so could be a criminal offence.

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Stonehaven train crash report calls for tighter heavy rain restrictions

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Local route managers and signallers will be given more power to cut speeds or close lines

Heavy rain could lead to more trains being cancelled or told to travel at low speed in future, following the Stonehaven crash that killed three people in Aberdeenshire last month.

An interim report by Network Rail into the tragedy spelled out strengthened procedures that could hasten line closures in bad weather, pending safety inspections.

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Stonehaven tragedy highlights threat to rail from climate crisis

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Fatal derailment after heavy rains exposes growing danger posed by extreme weather

The derailment of a ScotRail train in rural Aberdeenshire with the loss of three lives adds Stonehaven to a grim roll call of names, instantly identifiable with tragedy to those associated with the UK railway: the likes of Potters Bar, Hatfield and Grayrigg. It will be no consolation at all to those grieving lost colleagues, spouses and parents to know just how far apart such tragic events have lately become.

The last time a passenger died in a train crash in the UK was the Grayrigg derailment in 2007, when a Virgin high-speed train went down an embankment in Cumbria, miraculously with just one casualty. Before Wednesday, the last time a driver had been killed in a crash was in 2004; and the last disaster with multiple fatalities, Potters Bar, was as far back as 2002.

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Stonehaven: serious injuries reported after train derails in Aberdeenshire

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Smoke seen billowing from track near flood-hit town amid reports of an engine fire

Emergency services have been called to a major train derailment near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, where smoke could be seen billowing from the track amid reports of an engine fire and serious injuries.

Four passenger carriages came off the track at Carmont, just west of Stonehaven, as a Scotrail high-speed train travelled from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street.

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Holocaust survivor launches legal claim against German railway

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Salo Muller secured €50m from Dutch railway for transporting people to Nazi camps

A Holocaust survivor who successfully campaigned for the Dutch railway to pay compensation for transporting people to the Nazi concentration camps has tabled a legal claim against the German state over the wartime role of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Salo Muller, 84, whose parents were taken by rail from Amsterdam to the Dutch transit camp Westerbork, and on to their deaths at Auschwitz, is demanding an apology and financial recompense for about 500 Dutch survivors and about 5,500 next of kin.

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Crossrail opening delayed again due to coronavirus

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First section of Elizabeth line will not open as planned in summer 2021, board says

The heavily delayed Crossrail will not open as planned in summer 2021 because of delays caused by coronavirus, its board has said.

The troubled railway, from Berkshire to Essex via central London, was originally expected to open in December 2018 but repeated delays have pushed it back.

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Anti-HS2 protesters begin 125-mile walk along proposed route

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Protest walk organised by Extinction Rebellion began in Birmingham and will stop off at protest sites on way to London

Eighty anti-HS2 protesters have started a 125-mile “Rebel Trail” along the route of the controversial HS2 high-speed rail link to highlight the damage they say it will do to wildlife and woodland.

The aim of the protest walk, organised by Extinction Rebellion, is to try to persuade the government to halt the high-speed link. The walkers will travel through countryside, villages and local communities along phase one of the HS2 route to show solidarity with those opposed to the rail link and say the peaceful demonstration will raise awareness about the environmental damage they say HS2 will cause.

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