Subway arrivals
The first new trains have started operating on the Glasgow Subway. Two units were slipped into service yesterday, without any ceremony. A total of 17 trains has been ordered from Stadler to replace the previous fleet as part of a £288 million Subway upgrade, and the new trains have been designed for potential driverless operation.

Catering probe
The Office of Rail and Road has launched an investigation into the station catering market, which it says is ‘not working as effectively as it should be’. The ORR said ‘a more competitive market would provide better options for passengers and allow station operators to increase investment in the railway’. The regulator has found that outlets can stay in the same hands for a long time because their leases are protected, and even when unprotected leases come up for renewal, the most common practice is to roll over or extend the lease without an open competition. The ORR believes this also suggests that station operators may have less income to invest in improving stations and services.

Digital demonstration
Rail minister Huw Merriman has travelled in the cab of the 10.07 Northern City Line train from Finsbury Park to Moorgate, to see the European Train Control System for himself. His visit yesterday to the Govia Thameslink Railway line followed the launch of digital train regulation on the route on 27 November. The minister went on to Hornsey depot, where he was shown the drivers’ simulator.

New station and services
The new National Rail timetables which came into force on Sunday included a new station at Brent Cross West on the Midland Main Line, which was opened to Thameslink services by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Meanwhile, a new service linking Castleford with York and Manchester was launched yesterday when the station’s new fully-accessible second platform was brought into use. Trains will now run four times a day between Castleford and York for the first time since the 1970s, as the result of part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade.

More Stadler Merseyrail trains
More of the new Stadler-built Class 777 trains for Merseyrail have started running on the Southport to Hunts Cross line. The first of the new fleet was introduced in January, and units have already entered service on the Wirral Line and the Kirkby and Ormskirk branches of the Northern Line. Seven of the 53 trains in the eventual fleet are equipped with batteries and some are running on the extension to Headbolt Lane, which was opened from Kirkby in October and has no conductor rail.

Planning consent for station upgrade
Network Rail’s plans to modernise Peckham Rye station in south London have been given formal planning consent. If the £40 million project can be funded, the Victorian station will gain a new concourse, lifts, accessible toilets and wider platforms. The next stage in the scheme will be the submission of an outline business case to the Department for Transport in the New Year and a request for funding so that a detailed design can be prepared. It is hoped that construction, which will take two years, can start in autumn 2025.