The Mayor of Liverpool has unveiled plans to renationalise Merseyrail. Mayor Steve Rotheram is presenting a report to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority next week, which recommends that the present concession held by Transport UK Group and Serco Group should not be renewed.

East Midlands Railway is warning its passengers to travel only if they must for the rest of this week, as high temperatures are expected to affect the railway. The UK Health and Security Agency has issued an amber heat-health alert in six regions of England from today until Sunday.

Major disruption is expected on West Midlands Trains later this week, as the TSSA says it is going ahead with its strikes over rest day payments. The union said roster clerks will strike from 00.01 on Thursday until Friday at 00.01hrs, while duty train crew managers and control grades will not book on between 12.00 on Friday and 12.00 on Saturday. Services will be reduced on Friday and Saturday, and some sections of the network will have no trains at all. Where they are running, trains will start later than usual and last trains are likely to run before 19.00. Sunday morning services may also be disrupted because some trains will be out of position.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander says HS2 should be the match of Japan’s Shinkansen network, which started to be developed in the 1960s. The transport secretary has been visiting Japan, where she met her ministerial counterpart Yasushi Kaneko and toured Hitachi’s Tokyo headquarters.

HS2 Ltd has lost a case in the Court of Appeal, which has ruled that it extended Bromford tunnel in Birmingham without planning permission.

MPs have cast doubt on the plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, saying they echo the same failures seen in HS2. The Public Accounts Committee is also doubtful how the full programme can be completed within its price cap of 45 billion pounds.

The National Audit Office has warned that the cost of the ‘reset’ of the remaining section of HS2 will be about 153 million pounds. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced last month that the line between London and Birmingham will now cost up to 107 billion pounds, after chief executive Mark Wild had devised a new and detailed plan to complete the project.

Cambridge South station will be officially opened today, after trains began calling yesterday. The project is the university city’s third station, after Cambridge North was opened nine years ago.

Train operators in England and Wales are urging passengers to only travel if they must, as the heatwave continues. Red and amber warnings of extreme heat are still in force, particularly in south east England, and there is also a risk of thunderstorms.

The train from Corby which ran into the back of a stationary train south of Bedford, killing the driver and injuring more than 160 passengers, had passed a red signal a few moments before. The RAIB has issued its first report into the collision on 19 June, also revealing that the Corby train was travelling at almost 50mph.

Warnings of disruption to train services because of very high temperatures have spread to north west England. Journeys will take longer because an amber warning of extreme heat has been issued.

Rail passengers are being urged not to travel, particularly in southern England or the Midlands, as temperatures threaten to exceed 35 degrees over the next few days. Train operators are warning that speed restrictions will be necessary as rail temperatures climb, and the Met Office has issued a red ‘extreme heat’ warning for much of England.

There will be no trains between Luton and Bedford this week, as engineers work on removing the two trains which collided south of Bedford on Friday, killing a driver and injuring 100 passengers. Last night, nine of the injured passengers were still in critical condition in hospital, and inspectors from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch have been gathering evidence over the weekend.

It is now known that 100 people were injured in Friday’s train crash near Bedford, in which the driver of one of the trains was killed. Sim Harris asks what lessons might be learnt.

An extreme heat weather warning has been issued for this week, and train operators are warning that services could be disrupted. Great Western Railway said speed restrictions are being imposed between Reading and London through the Thames Valley, where temperatures could reach 37 degrees later this week.

Almost nine out of 10 railway passengers are satisfied with their journeys, according to the latest survey by Transport Focus. The new Rail Customer Experience Survey has replaced the former National Passenger Survey, and more than 100,000 passengers were invited to respond.

More train journeys are being made in Britain than ever before, but the Office of Rail and Road has conceded that the new total of 1.83 billion for the year to March has been inflated to some extent by split ticketing.

A test freight train has been run by GB Railfreight from DP World’s London Gateway to Maritime Transport’s Hams Hall freight terminal in the West Midlands, using a new Class 99 bi-mode locomotive. Yesterday’s intermodal service is being hailed by GB Railfreight as a ‘significant milestone’.

Two trials of drones which will keep an eye on the railway are set to start this year. The newly integrated Anglia management team, which consists of Network Rail, c2c and Greater Anglia, has been working to reduce vandalism, cable theft and trespassing on the railway, which are among the leading causes of train delays.

Two Network Rail staff members have been honoured by the King.