Scottish timber is back on the rails
Timber traffic is returning to Scottish railways this week, after a gap of more than a decade during which all timber was carried by road. The Scottish Government has allocated £195,000 to Victa Railfreight for a six-week trial in the far North. There will be up to three trains a week between Caithness and Inverness, which will be able to carry up to 6,000 tonnes between them – the equivalent of 250 lorry-loads.
A business case for improving train services between Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich is to be developed by consultants on behalf of the East West Rail Consortium, as an addition to the plans for reopening between and Cambridge.
The number of road users failing to obey the rules at a level crossing in Kent has ‘astonished’ Network Rail, with 13 drivers ignoring red lights and closing barriers in June and July alone.
A five week statutory public consultation has started today on a scheme to build a new station called Cardiff Parkway, on the Newport side of the Welsh capital.
Construction of the interchange for HS2 at Old Oak Common has moved to its next stage. HS2 Ltd has revealed that the joint venture of Balfour Beatty/VINCI and SYSTRA/Mott MacDonald took over on 27 July.
The Department for Transport has been traditionally unhappy about the n-word – nationalisation, that is. But Sim Harris has been wondering whether perhaps it is time for a u-turn.
The Crossrail board has admitted that the Elizabeth Line cannot open as soon as next summer. The section across central London should have been launched in December 2018, but the project has been the victim of repeated delays. These have been attributed to various factors, including problems with software. The coronavirus pandemic has added to the problems, especially as work had to be paused until new ‘safe working’ could be introduced on the sites.