Here comes summer -- again
East Midlands Railway is warning its passengers to travel only if they must for the rest of this week, as high temperatures are expected to affect the railway. The UK Health and Security Agency has issued an amber heat-health alert in six regions of England from today until Sunday.
Major disruption is expected on West Midlands Trains later this week, as the TSSA says it is going ahead with its strikes over rest day payments. The union said roster clerks will strike from 00.01 on Thursday until Friday at 00.01hrs, while duty train crew managers and control grades will not book on between 12.00 on Friday and 12.00 on Saturday. Services will be reduced on Friday and Saturday, and some sections of the network will have no trains at all. Where they are running, trains will start later than usual and last trains are likely to run before 19.00. Sunday morning services may also be disrupted because some trains will be out of position.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander says HS2 should be the match of Japan’s Shinkansen network, which started to be developed in the 1960s. The transport secretary has been visiting Japan, where she met her ministerial counterpart Yasushi Kaneko and toured Hitachi’s Tokyo headquarters.
HS2 Ltd has lost a case in the Court of Appeal, which has ruled that it extended Bromford tunnel in Birmingham without planning permission.
MPs have cast doubt on the plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, saying they echo the same failures seen in HS2. The Public Accounts Committee is also doubtful how the full programme can be completed within its price cap of 45 billion pounds.
The National Audit Office has warned that the cost of the ‘reset’ of the remaining section of HS2 will be about 153 million pounds. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced last month that the line between London and Birmingham will now cost up to 107 billion pounds, after chief executive Mark Wild had devised a new and detailed plan to complete the project.
Cambridge South station will be officially opened today, after trains began calling yesterday. The project is the university city’s third station, after Cambridge North was opened nine years ago.