HS2 Bill for Crewe to Manchester expected soon
THE government intends to deposit the bill for Phase 2b of HS2 early next year or sooner if possible, according to HS2 Ltd CEO Mark Thurston. In a letter to the Independent Residents' Commissioner, Mr Thurston says the government 'intend to deposit the Bill in Parliament in early 2022 or sooner if possible, subject to their Integrated Rail Plan, which is due to be published this year.' The IRP has been delayed, and no firm date for its publication has been announced yet, although it will have important implications for the future of Northern Powerhouse Rail as well as the eastern leg of HS2 to the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
Planned timetable changes on the East Coast Main Line are fuelling growing protests, with councillors and MPs unhappy about the implications for Darlington, where fewer trains would call.
The operator of Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal near Rugby has been fined £6.5 million after being found guilty of negligence over the death of an 11 year-old boy in June 2017.
All ScotRail services between Glasgow and Ayr are running normally again this morning, after the line was closed by a destructive fire at Troon station just under two weeks ago.
The government is to be pressed by Buckinghamshire councillors over the suspension of a plan to include Aylesbury in East West Rail by running EWR trains from Claydon Junction, between Bicester and Bletchley, down to Aylesbury.
The Rail Delivery Group has welcomed a Department for Transport plan to make stations easier to use for less able passengers. The DfT says a 'major audit' of all stations, which was outlined in the Williams-Shapps rail review, has now started.
A new report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is calling for railway electrification to be speeded up, warning that 'changing from our current dependence on fossil fuels will be a significant undertaking'.