Temporary chief appointed for ORR
An interim chief executive has been appointed at the Office of Rail and Road to replace John Larkinson, who was at the centre of a controversy during the autumn of last year when the ORR proposed to withdraw the popular 07.00 Avanti West Coast service from Manchester to London from January, replacing it with an empty stock working which would still have departed from Piccadilly each morning with a full crew.
The exhibition train which has been touring Britain in celebration of Railway 200 is nearing the end of the line, as its last few calling points are announced. The ‘Inspiration’ train started its tour last summer at the Severn Valley Railway, and has since welcomed thousands of visitors. It is currently at Minehead on the West Somerset Railway and will then visit Cornwall for the only time by going to Newquay between 6 and 11 April.
Frustrated residents in the Buckinghamshire town of Winslow are setting up an Action Group, as there appears to be no end in sight to the deadlock which is preventing scheduled passenger trains running between Oxford, Bletchley and Milton Keynes. The restored section of line between Bicester and Bletchley was completed in 2024 and approved by ORR inspectors in October of that year, but so far the only trains have been freight workings and test runs, apart from one or two passenger charters.
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