The Office of Rail and Road has launched a consultation on a draft Retail Code of Practice that is intended to create a level playing field for sellers of tickets. At the moment, 14 separate operators run their own websites and apps, and these will be replaced by Great British Railways. However, independent retailers will continue, including open access and devolved operators in Scotland and Wales.

The rail regulator has turned down two more open access applications, on the grounds that there is not enough capacity on the West Coast Main Line. The ORR had been considering proposals for four return services between London and Wrexham from the Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway Company. It has also refused Lumo’s plans for up to four daily trains between London and Rochdale and an application from Avanti West Coast for more paths between London and Blackpool.

Another open access application has reached the end of the line, with the news that Grand Central has abandoned its proposal to run services from Cleethorpes, saying that the plan is ‘no longer commercially viable’. Sim Harris asks if the era of domestic open access is coming to a close.

Over 400 thousand journeys have been made at Cambridge South station since it opened 100 days ago, dramatically improving the way people travel to and from Europe’s largest biomedical campus. The new station is heading towards annual patronage figures of 1.6 million journeys, well on the way towards the 1.8 million expected in the medium term.

Chiltern Railways is confident that it will be able to run a ‘near normal’ service when the RMT stages two strikes this month. The union has declared an industrial dispute over plans to operate trains on East West Rail with only a driver. It says driver-only operation would represent a ‘significant risk' to safety, as well as the job security of existing train managers.

An interim report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has revealed that the red signal which was passed a few seconds before the rear-end collision south of Bedford on 19 June this year was not equipped with a SPAD alarm. The driver of the second train was killed, and more than 160 people were injured.

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