Rail News

£36m Vauxhall Tube upgrade work goes to Bechtel

17.05.13: TfL has awarded the construction contract for Vauxhall Tube station to Bechtel Ltd. The £36m modernisation plan will increase the capacity of the station and make it step-free. The work supports the wider transformation of the Batters...

c2c contract extended until September 2014

17.05.13: The DfT has extended the Essex Thameside franchise, run by operator c2c, for an additional 16 months. The contract will now run until September 2014, with the potential for a further extension of up to eight months. It is the first contract...

Lewes-Uckfield

17.05.13: Lewes-Uckfield reopening has been studied to death; why waste more resources on another study that will have the same result as before? [Network Rail] should be concentrating on finding ways to increase capacity into central London. We need...

More HS2 tunnels as DfT publishes design refinements

17.05.13: The draft Environmental Statement (ES) and design refinements consultations for HS2 have been published by the DfT. The documents will be open to public consultation until July 11. It helps to prepare the formal ES, which is essential for t...

NAO criticisms of HS2 are ‘out of date’ - DfT

17.05.13: The Government has rejected the NAO report published yesterday which criticised the business case for HS2, as it publishes a draft Environmental Statement confirming major new stretches of tunnelling for the high-speed line. The NAO identif...

Untangling the truth

17.05.13: The HS2 row continues today, as the Government hits back against the ‘out of date’ NAO report. The rhetoric around this project gets more and more tangled, as the DfT tries to clarify the purpose behind the route. It’s not...

Eurostar appoints Clare Hollingsworth as new chairman

16.05.13: Clare Hollingsworth has been appointed chairman of Eurostar International, succeeding Richard Brown from 1 July. Brown is now chairman of the Department for Transport’s Franchise Advisory Panel after over a decade with Eurostar. ...

£3.3bn funding gap for HS2 – NAO

16.05.13: The NAO has identified an estimated £3.3bn funding gap in the costs for HS2 over four years from 2017/18 – 2020/21. The Government has yet to decide how to fill this gap, a new review warns. The DfT said the report was overly si...

Four new stations to benefit from DfT fund

16.05.13: Waltham Forest, Derbyshire, Devon and Newport have won funding from the DfT’s New Station Fund, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced. A new £6.5m station will be built in Lea Bridge, Waltham Forest with £1m...

Under the assumptions

16.05.13: The NAO report published today highlights several key criticisms of the DfT’s planning and presentation of the business case for HS2. Confusion remains around the strategic push for the new line, and errors in the business case calcul...

£1m competition for customer experience boost

15.05.13: The Enabling Innovation Team (EIT) is running a £1m competition searching for innovative ideas to transform rail customers’ experience. Solutions are invited from the existing rail supply chain as well as from non-rail sectors a...

£8.8m for new Wakefield Westgate station

15.05.13: Construction has begun for the new Wakefield Westgate station building. The £8.8m project is the first new-build station on the East Coast Main Line in decades. The project includes more and better retail facilities, a new footbridge...

ACoRP welcomes popularity of community rail

15.05.13: It’s not just the main network that is seeing huge increases in passenger demand – Britain’s rural railway is also increasing in popularity. The number of journeys taken on community rail lines rose by 4.1 million over the...

Innovation boost

15.05.13: With unprecedented passenger numbers in rail, competitions such as those run by the EIT will be essential to provide quality customer service. Operators must ensure they take care of their passengers, encouraging them to keep travelling by...

The benefits of biomass

14.05.13: GBRf has warned of the damage biomass access charges could inflict on the industry, as well as the UK’s carbon reduction efforts. Implementing charges before the market is mature will cost freight and potentially jeopardise biomass co...