ScotRail has made a new move to end the dispute with the RMT over driver only operation, which has already resulted in three 24-hour strikes and fears of more disruption to come over Easter. Talks over train crew arrangements on the new Airdrie-Bathgate line broke down last month.

The Department for Transport has signalled a major development for Midland Metro, the tram line which currently links Wolverhampton and Snow Hill station in Birmingham. ‘Initial funding approval’ has been announced for an extension of the line through Birmingham city centre to New Street station.

The rebranding of East Coast last November cost £634,842 of which taxpayers had to find £339,189, according to official figures. The deletion of the title ‘National Express’ from trains, stations and software was carried out over a couple of weeks. New publicity was also printed.

The Government has announced that a new National Skills Academy for Rail Engineering is to be created, and that a second industry training centre specialising in sub surface lines and tunnelling is to be set up by Crossrail. The academies will receive funding worth almost £8 million. The transport secretary has welcomed the news.

New government policy on noise levels in large urban areas could land Network Rail with major bills for sound barriers alongside busy lines. Some line speeds may also have to be reduced at night.

Network Rail has unveiled the first section of the new Birmingham New Street Gateway station rather earlier than had been expected.

Just one day after the third ScotRail strike by RMT members in a train crew dispute, ScotRail has warned that at least one further strike seems likely over the Easter holidays in three weeks' time. But the operator predicted that it would be ‘business as usual’.

The transport secretary Lord Adonis has published plans for a 540km High Speed network, linking London with the West and East Midlands, Manchester and Leeds, with High Speed trains continuing 'from the outset to Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

I first visited Birmingham over thirty years ago, and at the time it shared the facets of many great Industrial cities with industry in decline, the financial services revolution still a glimmer in Maggie Thatcher's eye, and the oft-heralded 'White Heat of technology' had become a dull grey.

LAST month I published the National Transport Plan for Wales, which will guide the development of a genuinely integrated transport system for Wales and I see rail as a crucial element in this plan.

AS a minister who has used the train over 600 times since coming into Government, I have a real passion and enthusiasm for rail. Commuting to and from work on the train each day has given me a chance to experience the rail network at first-hand and those experiences have given me a clear vision about what I, and this Government, want to achieve in Scotland.

IN delivering a Sustainable Transport System, Geoff Hoon suggests we should tackle climate change by "preserving freedom of choice, facing people with the true carbon cost of those choices... helping people reduce their need to travel or switch to lower-carbon modes".

Government argues that the start of two years of gauge enhancement work from Southampton to the West Midlands to allow 9ft 6ins containers to be carried on standard flat wagons (W10 gauge) is a major milestone in the creation of a network capable of carrying these containers, not only from major ports to inland destinations, but also within the UK.