Man dies in ‘weather-related incident’ in Co Donegal, while Met Office issues yellow wind warning for whole of UK
A man has died and a fresh weather warning covers the whole of the UK as Storm Amy continues to bring widespread disruption.
Irish police said the man died in a “weather-related” incident in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal, Ireland, shortly after 4.15pm on Friday.
Continue reading...Some Nightjet services suspended from mid-December after French withdrawal amid public budget crisis
Night train services linking Paris, Berlin and Vienna are to end from mid-December because of the French government’s withdrawal of funding, the Austrian national rail operator has said, in a blow to sleeper travel on important European routes.
ÖBB, the largest provider of such trains in Europe, has led a drive to revive a once popular form of low-emission transport as an alternative to flying.
Continue reading...Ashford and Ebbsfleet have been shut to cross-Channel services since 2020, with Eurostar calling them unviable
Hopes that international rail services could return to UK stations abandoned by Eurostar have grown, with the government backing new competitors who plan to serve stops in Kent.
Ministers have been leaning on the rail regulator to give crucial space on the railway to prospective entrants who pledge to bring cross-Channel services back to Ashford and Ebbsfleet stations – and possibly London’s Stratford International.
Continue reading...Nationwide survey in London, Manchester and Glasgow shows pandemic trends may be reversing as more people return to office
People buying homes in London 500 metres from a tube or railway station pay £42,700 more than buyers of similar properties 1,500 metres away from transport hubs, according to new data.
The figures indicate that despite the reshaping of the housing market sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and dramatic changes to working patterns, the traditional estate agent mantra of “good transport links” continues to wield its power over buyers.
Continue reading...Network Rail says train named after public vote will join fleet of ‘unsung hero’ leaf-busters this autumn
If Boaty McBoatface taught us one thing, it’s that the public do not take a naming ceremony particularly seriously.
Cue the newly named leaf-removal train: Ctrl Alt Deleaf.
Continue reading...Data breach at third-party supplier involves contact details and some information about previous journeys
The train operator LNER has urged customers to be wary of unsolicited communications after revealing some passengers’ contact details and journey records have been accessed in a cyber-attack.
The data breach took place at a third-party supplier, and LNER said no bank or payment details or password information had been accessed.
Continue reading...Downing Street says ‘Londoners rightly fed up’ as commuters forced to find other routes to work on first of four days of RMT action
Downing Street said Londoners would be “rightly fed up” as commuters turned to the other trains, buses and bikes – or just stayed at home – as strikes by the RMT union closed the underground on Monday.
The numbers attempting to use any public transport were down by about a fifth, according to Transport for London (TfL) data, but that still left many crowding on to bus and overground services or congested roads at the start of four days of commuter misery.
Continue reading...Push for NSW locomotive workshop to be returned to government hands and used to retrofit diesel trains and help meet 50% Australian-made quotas
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One of New South Wales’ few remaining large railway yards has been put up for sale, with locals pushing for state and federal government intervention to reinvigorate the rail industry.
Lithgow’s locomotive workshop, owned by Pacific National and reported to have an asking price of $35m, includes maintenance pit bays and outbuildings. It was ceded to the freight operator in 2003 when the state privatised its freight services and has been little-used since.
Continue reading...East Midlands passengers to test digital tickets that will automatically charge best fares at end of day
Train passengers in the East Midlands are to test technology that will let them tap in and out for journeys and be charged the best fare for their trip at the end of the day.
Trials of digital rail tickets based on GPS tracking will begin on Monday as part of the government’s plan to improve the rail network’s complex fare system.
Continue reading...For all the fanfare over new routes, fast and efficient rail services between major cities remain a rarity
At 9.55am every day since December, a German ICE high-speed train has left the Gare de l’Est in Paris headed, via Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, for Berlin Hauptbahnhof, where – all being well – it pulls in just over eight hours later.
Remarkably, the service is the first direct, high-speed, centre-to-centre rail link between the capitals of the EU’s two biggest countries. Run by Deutsche Bahn (DB) and France’s SNCF, it has been hailed as a milestone in European train travel.
Continue reading...Scotland says there have been 119 incidents on the rail network caused by Storm Floris, including 75 tree-related ones
The Scottish government has held emergency meetings in response to the “significant disruption” caused by Storm Floris across the country, with warnings of further travel chaos on Tuesday as poor weather continues.
On Monday night, the Scottish government’s Resilience Room held a meeting to help decide an appropriate response to the storm, which has included power outages and almost 120 rail incidents. Representatives from the Met Office, Police Scotland, Transport Scotland and transport and utilities companies were in attendance.
Continue reading...Regional passenger train carrying about 100 people derails near Riedlingen, leaving more people seriously injured
Three people were killed and several others injured when a regional passenger train derailed in a wooded area in southwestern Germany on Sunday, police said.
About 100 passengers were onboard the train when the accident occurred at about 6.10 pm local time near the town of Riedlingen in Baden-Wüerttemberg state.
Continue reading...Operator says if rivals are allowed to squeeze into existing facilities it could jeopardise its investment
Eurostar has urged the UK government to choose a “credible long-term strategy” for international rail or risk “falling behind” the rest of Europe, before a crucial decision by the regulator that could end its cross-Channel monopoly.
The high-speed train operator warned that a “premature” ruling from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to allow competitors to squeeze trains into existing facilities could jeopardise its planned investment and expansion.
Continue reading...About 110 million people suffer stress and sleep disturbance that lead to tens of thousands of early deaths
More than 110 million people across Europe suffer high levels of health-damaging noise pollution, according to a report. The resulting physiological stress and sleep disturbance leads to 66,000 early deaths a year and many cases of heart disease, diabetes and depression.
The report, from the European Environment Agency (EEA), focuses on noise from cars, trains and aeroplanes and found that 20% of the population of the European Economic Area (EEA) were affected. Separate research, using a slightly lower threshold for dangerous noise pollution, found that 40% of the UK population were exposed to harmful transport noise.
Continue reading...People report waiting hours in hot carriages after fault near Loughborough Junction brings some services to halt
Scores of UK passengers were forced to evacuate trains and walk along the tracks on Saturday after some services were halted due to a fault on the hottest day of the year so far.
Videos posted on social media showed people walking on the tracks beside Thameslink trains near Loughborough Junction station in south London.
Continue reading...Cross-Channel rail operator, which is trying to fend off rivals for its London depot space, regards early 2030s as feasible
Eurostar has vowed to run direct trains from the UK to Germany and Switzerland, as it attempts to fend off potential competitors eyeing its London depot space.
The cross-Channel rail operator’s chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, said she had no doubt the direct services would run in the early 2030s despite the failure of previous ventures to connect London and Frankfurt.
Continue reading...Motoring organisations warn of heavy traffic, and delays and cancellations will hit two rail routes out of London
The bank holiday getaway is likely to be a tricky one, with transport analysts predicting congested roads and the year’s busiest day so far for departing airports, while long-distance rail passengers dodge the start of more engineering work.
Motoring organisations forecast traffic to be at its worst on Friday, with many drivers surveyed apparently taking an extra day off before the long weekend and half-term break for most schools in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Rail union wants network temporarily shut down and an investigation into ‘one of the worst safety incidents we’ve seen’
Passengers held on to handrails after a door stayed open on a driverless Metro racing underneath Sydney, with a transport union later calling for the system to be shut down until safety measures were put in place.
A “door fault” was identified on a train travelling between Chatswood and Crows Nest stations at about 8.01am on Wednesday, the Metro Trains Sydney chief executive, Daniel Williams, said in a statement.
Continue reading...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.
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