The Hong Kong MTR’s ‘rail plus property’ model keep fares cheap and makes the company completely self-sustaining. Could loss-making metro systems in other cities learn lessons?
“Once we build the railway, the value of land rises and we capture the increase in value,” says Jacob Kam, managing director and soon-to-be chief executive, of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation.
Related: Hong Kong faces commuter chaos after rare train collision
Continue reading...Rail Delivery Group says lessons have been learned following last summer’s chaotic timetable overhaul
Passengers face “teething problems” on the rail network when new timetables are introduced in May, the organisation that represents the industry has warned. However, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said that the introduction of more than 1,000 extra services will help to tackle overcrowding.
Last May there was chaos when Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – the parent company of Southern Rail, Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Great Northern – and Northern overhauled their timetables with the aim of laying on hundreds of extra trains a day.
Continue reading...Buildup of freight at Channel tunnel might affect services into capital, operator warns
Rail passengers commuting into London could have services disrupted by freight trains if a no-deal Brexit causes logjams at the Channel tunnel, it has emerged.
Go-Ahead, the company behind the rail operator Southeastern, said it was working with the government to try to ensure commuters were not affected.
Continue reading...Chugging through townships, maize fields and scrubland as the sun rises, Zimbabwe’s only commuter train is cheap and reliable – two qualities its passengers cherish in a downwards-spiralling economy
Each morning sleepy travellers walk to the tracks and clamber aboard Zimbabwe’s only commuter train as it prepares to leave the Cowdray Park settlement at 6am and embark on its 12-mile (20km) journey into Bulawayo, the country’s second city.
Continue reading...Keith Williams criticises micromanaging by government as one of the failings driving passengers away
Britain’s rail industry will “drive passengers away” if it continues to operate as it does now, according to the man leading the government-commissioned review into the working of the railways.
Keith Williams, the former British Airways chief executive, also suggested that the government had compounded problems by “micromanaging the industry” through ever more specific rail franchises.
Continue reading...Seven passengers are reported to have been killed and several others injured when a Delhi-bound train derailed in India’s eastern state of Bihar, railways officials have said. Sixty people were killed last year when a commuter train travelling at high speed ran through a crowd of people on tracks in northern India. India’s state railways, largely built under British colonial rule, have a poor safety record after decades of underinvestment in infrastructure
Continue reading...Coaches of Delhi-bound train leave track 30 miles from Bihar state capital, Patna
Seven passengers are reported to have been killed and several others injured when a Delhi-bound train derailed in India’s eastern state of Bihar, railways officials have said.
Eleven coaches of the Seemanchal Express left the rails near Sahadai Buzurg railway station, about 50 km (30 miles) from the state capital, Patna, early in the morning, the railways ministry said.
Continue reading...Thousands of flights canceled, schools close, and post office halts deliveries as Chicago lows approach record
Frozen Arctic winds brought record-low temperatures across much of the US midwest on Wednesday, as a blast of Arctic air known as the polar vortex unnerved residents accustomed to brutal winters.
As of Wednesday evening, at least eight deaths were linked to the system, including an elderly Illinois man who was found several hours after he fell trying to get into his home and a University of Iowa student found behind an academic hall several hours before dawn. A man was struck by a snowplow in the Chicago area, a young couple’s SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man froze to death in a garage, authorities said.
Continue reading...Murder hunt underway after incident on service from Guildford to London Waterloo
A murder inquiry has been opened after a man was stabbed to death on a train in Surrey.
The man, who was believed to be 51, was with his 14-year-old son, and is not thought to have known his attacker, British Transport police said. He suffered multiple stab wounds and died at the scene.
Continue reading...Some major routes to be 208% over capacity by 2022, shows data compiled by Labour
Overcrowding on trains is at the highest level for years, according to official data compiled by Labour showing some major routes are to be 208% of capacity by 2022.
A study of government figures found the most overcrowded services were on average 187% of capacity in 2017, an increase of 25% since 2011.
Continue reading...Six people were killed when an express train braked suddenly after being hit by objects from a freight train in storm-force winds
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