Posted 30th August 2019 | 2 Comments

30 August: news in brief

Four days of strikes begin on South Western Railway

MEMBERS of the RMT have begun four days of strikes on South Western Railway as the long-running dispute about the future role of guards continues. SWR said reduced services are running on its main lines from London to Portsmouth, Weymouth and Exeter, but trains are being replaced by buses on some other routes, usually where there is no alternative train service provided by another operator. There are no SWR services to Bristol, Dorking or Reading. The dispute began in November 2017, soon after the franchise had been launched.

Date announced for Azumas to Lincoln

LNER says it will start running Hitachi-built Azuma trains between London and Lincoln on 21 October. The Intercity Express trains are already running on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh. There will be six services a day between London and Lincoln instead of the single daily return journey, which is currently provided by an HST. This service will continue with HSTs at first, but the five new services will all be worked by Azumas. The last HST service will be converted to Intercity Expresses later in the year.

Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

  • Andrew Gwilt, Benfleet Essex

    LNER should introduce more services with the Class 800 Azumas not just to Lincoln. But also to other destinations such as Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Bradford Interchange, Huddersfield, Sunderland and in Scotland including Aberdeen, Inverness, Stirling and Perth.

  • david c smith, Bletchley

    Pleased to see a through service King's Cross - Lincoln proposed. This could be a 5 car unit dividing from another unit ( Hull Trains?) at Grantham or Newark , so as not to require any additional pathing on the ECML.

    Similarly , places such as Huddersfield and Middlesbrough can have through service to London with no extra main line pathing needed , courtesy of Grand Central.

    Similar operations on other main lines might give extra through service, such as Euston - Barrow and Cumbrian Coast and Euston - Southport.

    Of course, such arrangement could only apply to services using shortish (5 or 6 car ) units already. One example already running is Virgin's Euston - Chester / N Wales.