Lord Blunkett to unveil multi-billion pound plan for Yorkshire railways
Former Labour minister David Blunkett is set to unveil a 16 billion-pound plan for railways in Yorkshire today. It outlines investments in new and accessible stations as well as improving the system as a whole to connect cities more effectively over the next 15 years.
Double decker trains could run to London, according to rolling stock builder Alstom, which has supplied two-deck TGVs to countries like France for many years. The British structure gauge is smaller than on continental Europe and could not accommodate such trains, but HS1 and the international platforms at London St Pancras were built to a more generous profile.
Transport for London has revealed that it no longer uses social media as a way of communicating to passengers, after power cuts caused rail services to be cancelled and many central London stations closed. The power failures have been attributed to a National Grid fault, but TfL was criticised by passenger watchdog London TravelWatch for not making the situation clear to its passengers
Transport for London has attributed widespread disruption on its railways to a ‘voltage dip’ caused by a fault on National Grid’s network. Services on most lines are running normally again this morning, but a transport watchdog has criticised TfL for a lack of information during the power cuts.
The nationalisation date of the former Greater Anglia franchise has been announced. Its majority shareholder said it was ‘disappointed’ to be chosen so soon, because the government had ‘other valid options’.
A railway safety body has issued a reassurance about plans to cut the minimum age of train drivers from 21 to 18, in a bid to boost their numbers. Almost a third of the present workforce are due to retire in the next five years, and cancellations have been caused by a lack of staff.
Peak fares will be abolished on ScotRail in September, after a previous trial ended last year on the grounds that it had not attracted enough extra passengers to balance the books. The Scottish Greens had criticised the decision to end the pilot, and the party has welcomed the Scottish Government’s change of heart.