Virgin takes ‘first step’ towards reviving West Coast services
Virgin Group has confirmed reports that it has applied to the Office of Rail and Road for open access rights on the West Coast Main Line. The move comes only days after FirstGroup, which owns the majority of Avanti West Coast, said it was applying to run open access services between Rochdale and London. Virgin’s plans are the most ambitious ever proposed by a potential open access operator, because it wants to run between London, Birmingham and Manchester, and also to Liverpool and Glasgow, offering hourly services to most of those cities and two-hourly to Glasgow. It would also serve Rochdale.
FirstGroup has unveiled plans to provide open access services between Rochdale and London. First already runs open access services from Hull and Edinburgh, and says the trains for the new service will be built in Britain. An application has been submitted to the Office of Rail and Road to provide six daily return journeys between Rochdale and London, calling at Manchester Victoria ,Eccles, Newton-le-Willows and Warrington Bank Quay.
Southeastern has shortlisted five train builders as it begins planning a new or upgraded fleet for its Metro services. They are currently operated by Class 465 Networkers built between 1991 and 1994 for British Rail. The named suppliers are Alstom, CAF, Hitachi, Siemens and Stadler. Both Alstom at Derby and Hitachi in County Durham have been on the danger list in recent months, because of a shortage of new orders.
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Construction of tunnels for HS2 between London and Birmingham has reached the half-way mark, according to HS2 Ltd. A total of almost 47km has been bored, and the project is now reaching ‘peak construction’, with more than 31,000 people working on it at 350 worksites. When the line is finished trains will travel through 88km of single bore tunnels, which will form 44km of the route, and 53 per cent of the tunnels have now been dug.
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