East West Rail seeks partners to develop Cambridge link
The East West Rail Company is seeking delivery partners to help with the ‘Central Section’, which is the long-abandoned line between Bedford and Cambridge. The Cambridge link, previously seen as a longer-term goal, will need a new route because the old alignment has been blocked east of Bedford. However, it was given a boost in the Budget, which allocated £20 million to fund a Strategic Outline Business Case. Companies with appropriate skills, including project management, are being invited to register their interest.
The number of violent crimes reported on London Underground has risen by more than half in three years, according to new figures from British Transport Police. The RMT has responded with a call for a ‘reversal of job cuts’ on the system, saying that the statistics should be a ‘wake up call’. The rise in all crime was lower, at around 25 per cent between 2015 and 2018, while BTP said the chances of being a victim of crime on the Underground ‘remained incredibly low’.
Some of the first trains ordered for London Overground more than a decade ago could soon be running on the Gospel Oak to Barking line, as the timetable for introducing replacement Class 710 trains remains uncertain. Transport for London told Railnews: ‘The delivery date has continued to be put back by Bombardier. We are pushing them hard.’ Meanwhile, some of the Class 378s built for the original Overground network in 2008 and 2009 are set to be drafted in as a temporary measure, and clearance tests have been under way.
A new era of rail services for the wider Birmingham and Wolverhampton area has been set out by the West Midlands Rail Executive, as it publishes its strategy for the next 30 years. The plans have been divided into three categories – short, medium and long term. The short term plans involve a budget of £1 billion. Some of the more immediate schemes include the restoration of passenger services on the Camp Hill line between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street, and also between Wolverhampton and Walsall.
The first automatic control system for trams in Britain should be introduced in London this year. The system, which is similar to some elements of automatic train control, has been developed in the wake of the fatal derailment of a Croydon tram in 2016, in which seven people were killed and many others injured. The tram had been travelling at roughly three times the speed limit.
German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn may be set to sell Arriva, according to reports in Berlin. An urgent meeting has been called for tomorrow (Tuesday) between DB management and German transport minister Andreas Scheuer, said a source quoted by Reuters. It is also said that government-sponsored members on the DB board have clashed with fellow directors over the proposals to shed both Arriva and DB Schenker to plug an estimated funding gap of four billion Euros, but the present uncertainty over Brexit is said to be making the valuation of Arriva difficult.
Some three million compensation claims for late running trains were lodged between April and mid-October last year, according to new figures from the Office of Rail and Road. The number of complaints also rose by 16 per cent, with 33 complaints made for each 100,000 journeys in Quarter 2 of 2018-19, which is July to September. There had been 27 complaints made for each 100,000 journeys in the same quarter a year earlier. More passengers were unhappy about performance, facilities on board, overcrowding and the train’s state of repair. Fewer complained about ticketing and refunds.